Eric Thorkildsen, P.E., a Bridge Inspection and Seismic Engineering Specialist joins GPI

PRESS RELEASE

                                                                                                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                                                                        CONTACT:     Anita R.Garrahan

                                                                                                631-587-5060

ERIC THORKILDSEN, P.E., A BRIDGE INSPECTION AND SEISMIC ENGINEERING SPECIALIST, JOINS GREENMAN-PEDERSEN, INC.

                Babylon, NY – Eric Thorkildsen, P.E., recently joined Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. (GPI), an engineering, planning and construction engineering/management firm, as Vice President. A specialist in structural inspections and seismic design, Mr. Thorkildsen will be working with GPI’s branch offices throughout the eastern United States to further develop these services.

A professional engineer in eight states, Mr. Thorkildsen has 25 years of experience in transportation structures. He spent the first half of his career working for the transportation departments in New Jersey and California, and the second half of his career developing specialty inspection and design services for private consultants. In his last position, Mr. Thorkildsen was the national director of bridge inspection for a consulting firm based in Chicago. He opened a New York regional office in the Albany area for the firm, which ultimately led to two other branch offices in Rochester, NY and Rocky Hill, CT. For this firm, he concurrently managed structural inspection projects in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and California.

Structural inspections related to seismic engineering have been a major part of Mr. Thorkildsen’s expertise, which he developed during his tenure with the California Dept. of Transportation (Caltrans). During his career there, two major earthquakes occurred, the Loma Preita in San Francisco in 1989 and the Northridge in Los Angeles in 1993. He became involved in post earthquake inspection, repair and changes in codes to strengthen new and existing bridges. For two years, Mr. Thorkildsen managed contracts with California Universities to develop new retrofit and design techniques. He developed a field research project involving seismic isolation bearings for a 700-ft-long bridge that was physically displaced six inches and allowed to ‘snap back’ to simulate an actual earthquake. He was the Caltrans prestressed concrete technical committee chairman for three years and updated numerous design memorandum.

Mr. Thorkildsen obtained his BS degree in civil engineering from Rutgers University. He has authored manuals for the National Center for Earthquake Engineering on seismic movements, the Transportation Research Board on splicing precast concrete girders and the National Highway Institute on ancillary structure inspection.  He has presented numerous papers, both nationally and internationally, and is currently a National Highway Institute instructor.

Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. is a multi-discipline engineering firm that provides comprehensive services in the areas of civil design, structural/bridge design, transportation planning and design, traffic engineering, construction management and inspection, bridge coatings and design, municipal engineering, site planning, landscape architecture, environmental sciences, coastal and marine engineering, and geographic information system (GIS) and asset management services.

            GPI maintains offices in Babylon, Albany, Montebello, and Buffalo, NY; Stoneham and Mansfield, MA; Bennington, VT; Nashua, NH; Lebanon, Freehold, Sparta and Morris Plains, NJ; Scranton and Camp Hill, PA; Urbana, Westerville and Akron, OH; Kentwood, MI; Annapolis Junction, and Rockville, MD; Fredericksburg, VA; Olympia, WA; and Tallahassee, Marianna, Ocala, Orlando, Temple Terrace, and Port St. Lucie,  FL.