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| Privacy | Legal | Back | Cover | Next | Issue 1 | 2010 |
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Kathy Van Hecke is a structural engineer in the transportation structures group at Portland, OR, serving as the Pacific Northwest Region's bridge design and development engineer. Currently, she is also the acting regional bridge engineer serving Oregon and Washington and working collaboratively with the Alaska Region.
Kathy began her engineering career as a seasonal surveyor with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) in 1985.
After graduating from the University of Portland in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, she continued working with ODOT on project scoping and bridge planning and design.
In 1989 Kathy began her Forest Service career at the Pacific Northwest Regional Office. She has provided national assistance in development, testing, documentation, and training related to I-Web modules for transportation structures.
Kathy relishes challenges, including ERFO (Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads) work following record-breaking floods. In bridge operations and maintenance, she conducted special regional studies for seismic retrofits, scour analyses, specialized inspections, and evaluations. Kathy worked to implement processes to improve inspection quality and consistency in upward reporting, and overall program effectiveness, resulting in increased safety and better use of personnel and financial resources.
Kathy is a licensed professional engineer in Oregon. She has been a member of ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) since 1983, serving in leadership roles and being recognized for participation. Kathy is the mother of two and is active in her church, especially the church choir. Kathy shares her love of “all things bridges” with the public at schools and civic groups through her “BATS in the Bridges” presentations, which emphasize bridge materials and types of bridges (beam, arch, truss, suspension).
 E-mail: wo_mtdc_webmaster@fs.fed.us |
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