MEMBER PROFILE John Niedzielski: Passionate about His Projects John Niedzielski, P.E., is a senior geotech- nical engineer in the Phoenix, Ariz., office of Gannett Fleming (Gannett), a 2,000- person firm headquartered in Camp Hill, Pa. He took a somewhat circuitous route to get to his current job, which he says is always challenging and interesting. Niedzielski also considers himself very lucky because he likes what he does. The words “challenging and “interesting” appear a lot in his conversations about Gannett, and tell a lot about the man. Niedzielski grew up in Ohio, one of four boys. He recalls that his father, a chemistry professor at the University of Toledo, took his sons to a local quarry on weekends to “look for rocks.” So it’s not surprising that geology was a possible career choice, but he thinks his mother steered him toward civil engineering. At the University of Toledo, he says, he was influenced by an “excellent soil several months working on large power plant projects in Texas. Then in 2007, he joined Gannett Fleming. Current Work and Colleagues Gannett was founded in 1915 and is a multidiscipline engineering consulting firm. The firm is ISO 9001:2008 Certified and has 65 offices, mostly in the U.S., including two offices in Canada, and others in Doha, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Niedzielski says Gannett’s clientele are a mix of public and private sector entities, which offer employees a broad spectrum of work. Its geotechnical staff work as subconsultants to contractors and also perform geotechnical reports, designs and analyses for internal projects, other engi- neering firms and government clients. Gannett employs roughly 100 geologists and geotechnical engineers. “He is passionate about projects and personally takes ownership on the foundation designs he works on, from initial planning through oversight of the construction.” mechanics” course with Professor Gerald Frederick, which confirmed his choice of geotechnical engineering. During his junior and senior years of college, Niedzielski had “hands on” experience as an intern with the City of Toledo, Division of Streets, Bridges & Harbor, performing inspections with the bridge and street department. After grad- uation, he started his career in Michigan working for two Detroit-area geotechnical engineering consulting firms, Soil & Materials Engineers until 1995 and then Somat Engineering. In 2003, he made a cross-country move to Arizona where he worked as a geotechnical engineer for Ninyo & Moore and then Fugro Consul- tants. During his time with the Phoenix office of Fugro Consultants, he spent AUTHOR Virginia Fairweather DEEP FOUNDATIONS • NOV/DEC 2016 • 71 Niedzielski has been doing more post- design work in recent years, and likes the fact that he can collaborate — get help or give it — with others in different engineer- ing disciplines. Dean Durkee, Gannett’s regional director, earth science & hydraulics, says “John Niedzielski is one of the hardest working, intuitive and skilled geotechnical engineers I have worked with. He is never deterred by a challenging problem.” Ron Schreier, a vice president, agrees, saying “when we have geotechnical questions, we go to John, he is very deliberate, we can see the wheels turning until he is satisfied, and we trust him to give well thought-out answers. As an author, his reports are thorough and detailed. He is also personable, a good mentor for younger staff, easy going and easy to talk to.” Mark Pilwallis, vice president, says Niedzielski “is one of the best geotechnical engineers I have ever worked with. He is passionate about projects and personally takes ownership on the foundation designs he works on, from initial planning through oversight of the construction. He is generally a quiet person except when talking about geotechnical issues, then it is hard to stop him going on about soil conditions.” Phoenix Sky Train Project Niedzielski calls the 2009 to 2013 Sky Train project at Phoenix Sky Harbor Inter- national Airport the most challenging he has worked on. The Phoenix Sky Train project has won many awards, including neering Companies’ (ACEC Arizona) 33 Annual Engineering Excellence Awards competition, and the Outstanding Transit Innovation in 2013 in the Arizona Transit Association/Arizona Department of Trans- portation joint Excellence Awards. Gannett was the fixed facilities designer of record for this automated people mover project and worked with several valued subconsul- tants. The job was constructed using an alternative delivery method, Construction Manager at Risk, and closely monitored by the owner. Stage 1 and 1A are complete and include approximately 2.6 mi (4.1 km) of guideway and four elevated stations. Stage two in the American Council of Engi- rd
