MEMBER PROFILE Frank Arland: 35 Years at MRCE but Who’s Counting? Francis (Frank) Arland, P.E., joined Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers (MRCE) in 1984 after serving four years of active duty as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, and receiving a master’s degree in civil engineering from Drexel University. He has been a registered engineer in New York since 1988 and became a partner at MRCE in 2007. So begins a wide-angled view into this issue’s featured DFI member. The operative word here is “begins,” as Arland’s long and impressive career spans 35 years of working on a varied montage of MRCE’s undertakings, which, to date, include a broad array of the 109-year-old firm’s 13,500+ projects. A Day in the Life Arland’s areas of specialty include foundations, heavy construction and waterfront projects. He has directed the firm’s work, including foundations for transportation structures and facilities, buildings and bridges, underpinning, support of excavations, embankments, dams, tunnels, bulkhead and wharf structures and outfalls. MRCE reports that, “As partner in charge, or technical director, Arland works with MRCE engineers to establish project goals, field investigation needs and outline analysis methods. He directs staff for report content and preparation, and reviews the results of laboratory testing, design analysis and contract document preparation.” While not busy with these tasks, he has found time to author or co-author papers for ASCE, DFI, and PDCA. Add to this technical presentations and lectures delivered to the ASCE Metropolitan Section, DFI, ADSC and to engineering classes at Columbia University. He is an active member of DFI, American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), The AUTHOR S. Scot Litke, Hon. D.GE DEEP FOUNDATIONS • NOV/DEC 2019 • 79 Moles, Post Tensioning Institute (PTI), Society of Military Engineers, and the Underground Construction Association of Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME). Just a day in the life of one Frank Arland. Why Geotechnical Engineering When asked why he became interested in geotechnical engineering, Arland offers, “As a child, I was always interested in how things were built and what made them work, and I enjoyed being around the water.” This naturally led to his deciding to attend the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and later serving in the Coast Guard where he worked on a number of offshore foundation projects for navigation structures. He became so intrigued by the field that, after completing his duty and graduating from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1979, he enrolled in a master’s program in geotechnical engineering at Drexel Univer- sity. At Drexel, he worked as a research assistant to Dr. Robert Koerner. Arland states, “Dr. Koerner was an outstanding mentor under whom I worked on a number of interesting projects. As I approached graduation in 1984, he suggested that I consider pursuing my career with MRCE.” Arland followed Dr. Koerner’s advice and, in part due to Dr. Koerner’s strong recom- mendation, he was able to secure a position at MRCE. Arland tells us that, “At MRCE, I was mentored by former partners Dr. James Gould, Elmer Richards and Hugh Lacy.” He adds, “Their leadership and collaborative approach provided the foundation for the future leaders at MRCE and this is evident at MRCE today.” Projects, Projects, Projects The extent and expanse of Arland’s involvement with challenging and high- profile projects are literally too many to mention. For example, in 1997, Arland, along with Malcom-Pirnie’s Harry Minter, was listed as one of ENR’s Top 25 Newsmakers for his work on the Ponce Ocean Outfall, a literal “breath-taking” deep water project in Puerto Rico (ENR/January 5, 1998). Among the hundreds of projects in which he played an important role, he singles out the historic Russia Wharf in Boston using ground freezing for a new application in the U.S. to create a mat foundation of frozen soil to support the existing building foundations to permit the MBTA’s Silver Line Tunnel to be mined below. He adds the Long Island Railroad’s East-Side Access Tunnel that extends service from Queens to Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, and the Empire State Development’s Jacob Javits Center Expansion constructed over two tubes of the Lincoln Tunnel linking New York and New Jersey. Another high-profile project was NYC Department of Environmental Protection’s Gilboa Dam in upstate New York, where protecting a critical structure from deep scour was addressed.
