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Pare Vice President David Loring states, “The Pioneer Valley is very community-focused and I appreciate the warm welcome the leaders of the Holyoke community have given us. Because Holyoke is a hub point to the region, it is a perfect location for our new office. We look forward to meeting additional members of the community now that the office is open.”

Pare CEO John Shevlin, who grew up in Holyoke and maintains strong ties to the region, states, “We are excited to expand on Pare’s 52-year history of engineering and planning by opening this new office to better serve our clients and the communities in Western Massachusetts.”

Pare’s newest office is located at 14 Bobala Road, Suite 2B, Holyoke, MA, 01040. Office Manager Loring and his staff can be reached at 413-507-3448.

Pictured in photo: (From left to right) Pare President Larry Riggs, Holyoke City Councilor Linda Vacon, Pare CEO John Shevlin, Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia, Office of MA State Senator John Velis Aide Marissa Otero, Pare Vice President David Loring, and MA State Representative Patricia Duffy

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Project and client schedules remain our first priority, so Pare staff will be available (just as they are throughout the year) to address your project needs. Field and construction services will not be affected by this new schedule. Project managers and appropriate staff will ensure that you have their contact information to stay in touch throughout your project.

Be assured that Pare will continue to be responsive and diligent to your needs so that we can all enjoy a wonderful summer!

https://www.parecorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-June-3-Summer-Hours.pdf

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We will be providing a full range of engineering and consulting services from the Holyoke Office. Our engineers are currently working on a variety of public- and private-sector projects in the area, including the Belchertown State School Carriage Grove Redevelopment, the Singing Bridge Redevelopment Project in Chicopee, traffic light signalization and roadway improvements for Brightwood/Lincoln School in Springfield, and traffic engineering design for the Fort River Elementary School in Amherst. The office will also allow us to expand several growing practice areas including our water and wastewater engineering, highway and bridge engineering, bike paths and recreational ball fields, and geotechnical and dam services.

Vice President David Loring, who has managed and designed engineering projects in the region for over 30 years, will serve as the Office Manager. David currently serves as the Treasurer for the Massachusetts Tri-County Highway Superintendents’ Association and is on the Western New England University’s College of Engineering Industry Advisory Council. “I have strong ties to the Pioneer Valley, so I look forward to introducing my colleagues to this picturesque region and getting them involved in the surrounding communities. We are also excited to help our local clients with their planning, engineering, permitting, and construction administration needs from our Whitney Place office.”

CEO John Shevlin, who grew up in Holyoke and maintains strong ties to the region, states, “This is one of several strategic initiatives for the firm to build internal leadership opportunities, add new services, and expand our geographic footprint. As with our Lincoln and Foxboro offices, we will provide interdisciplinary project management from this location.”

Pare’s newest office is located at 14 Bobala Road, Suite 2B, Holyoke, MA, 01040 and can be reached at 413-507-3448.

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Rotaries were designed to accommodate relatively high speeds of travel to provide a transition between major intersecting roadways without the construction of an interchange. The size of a rotary’s central island ranges from 300 to 600 or more feet in diameter, providing room between each junction for the necessary weaving area. In addition to the central island that traffic flows around, the rotary has splitter islands on each leg to extend the separation between the opposing directions of travel, as seen in the image below. The traffic control for a rotary can vary.  Approaching vehicles may have to yield to traffic already in the rotary, or the opposite may be in effect.  Sometimes rotaries can even incorporate the use of a traffic signal at one or more junctions. Rotaries were intended to accommodate vehicular traffic and rarely incorporated pedestrian movements.

Roundabouts, though they may look similar due to the presence of splitter and central islands, are much smaller than rotaries, use approach angles to reduce vehicle speeds, and accommodate the movements of pedestrian and bicycle activity in addition to vehicular travel.  Roundabout outer diameters range in size from 90 feet for single-lane operation to 220 feet for double-lane operation. Mini-roundabouts and multi-lane operation roundabouts are less common but do exist. Roundabouts have minimal if any lane changing and always require entering vehicles to yield to those already in the circulating roadway.

In addition to the differences between roundabouts and rotaries, noted above, roundabouts serve to reduce the extent of traffic incidents compared to both unsignalized and signalized intersections. Reports from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) indicate significant reductions in the volume and severity of incidents. Specifically, overall collisions are reduced 37%, while injury and fatality collisions are reduced 75% and 90% respectively. This reduction is the result of the circular flow of traffic which eliminates opposing movement conflicts, thus avoiding head-on and angular collisions. Almost all incidents occurring at roundabouts are sideswipe and rear-end incidents which are less severe in nature. The diagrams below illustrate the reduction in conflict points compared to a standard intersection.

Roundabouts are ideal for intersections with moderate vehicle volumes but cannot handle the same capacity as multi-lane signalized intersections. Roundabouts are also highly recommended for traffic calming and for intersection that have multiple approaching roadways.

Though there are great benefits to the installation of roundabouts, navigating one requires a different maneuver than we are used to. With better understanding of how to approach a roundabout, its benefits can be realized more quickly. The image below shows the intended operation of a roundabout.

With the ability to handle a considerable volume of traffic, accommodate all users, and increase safety, roundabouts will likely continue to spread throughout the country and become more common locally.  A good local example of roundabouts is the entrance to Twin River Casino in Lincoln, RI (pictured below). 

The third week of September is designated as “National Roundabouts Week” by the Federal Highway Association (FHWA) to raise awareness of the benefits of this traffic-calming design measure.  The FHWA estimates that there are over 4,000 roundabouts in the United States (including the 125 in Carmel, Indiana!).

In Honor of National Roundabout Week, the Federal Highway Administration has compiled a series of resources from communities across the country. Learn more here.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Roundabouts move everyone safely, including trucks and large vehicles, as the Pennsylvania DOT explains
• Scott County, Minnesota, proved that good things come in small sizes. Learn more about the mini roundabout next to the Community Center and Middle School campus in Shakopee
• The Minnesota Local Road Research Board shows drivers how to navigate a multi-lane roundabout and what to do when large vehicles and emergency vehicles are traveling through the roundabout

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In that spirit, the Sustainability Committee at Pare is pleased to share our 8th Annual Earth Day Photo Contest. Please enjoy the photos submitted by Pare’s staff below, and vote using the poll located at the top of this post. The winner of the 2019 Earth Day Photo Contest will receive a Gift Card to B-Good. Voting will close on Wednesday, May 8th and the winner will be announced in the next blog post.

PHOTO 1 – Lunch Buddy

PHOTO 2 – Wild Turkey

PHOTO 3 – Grizzly Bear

PHOTO 4 – Sandy Can’t Read

PHOTO 5 – Flowering Cherry Tree

PHOTO 6 – Condor over the Grand Canyon

PHOTO 7 – Honeybee

PHOTO 8 – Backyard Lake View

PHOTO 9 – Butterfly Walk

PHOTO 10 – Bridge of Flowers

PHOTO 11 – Spotted Turtle

PHOTO 12 – Sunset

PHOTO 13 –Hardy Blackstonian turtles

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Two Pare engineers recently participated in the New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA) Young Professionals Committee’s first annual Community Service Project.  The Committee’s goal was to build green infrastructure that would have an impact on a community and promote environmental sustainability.  It was decided to construct a rain garden at the Common Fence Point Community Center  in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Funding for the project was generously provided by the Van Beuren Charitable Foundation through the Rhode Island Green Infrastructure Coalition; and was supported by the Eastern RI Conservation District.

Once the project and location were determined, the members of the Young Professionals worked tirelessly to design and organize the details of the raingarden.  All of this work paid off the day of the event!  More than 45 volunteers gathered at the Common Fence Point Community Center, with most of the help coming from residents in the community. Six residents stood out for their dedication to the project by donating their professional expertise and use of heavy equipment for the project.  Without the media outreach, excavation equipment, and horticulture expertise, we would not have been able to construct the raingarden.  Many residents helped move loam and mulch, build a rip-rap spillway, and plant various shrubs and flowers.  It was an incredible display of community camaraderie.  The rain garden project was completed in about seven hours, which was much faster than expected and solely attributed to the amazing community support.

A rain garden is a depressed area in the landscape that collects and allows rain to slowly infiltrate into the ground, minimizing runoff and filtering the water. The 760-SF rain garden was designed to capture 50% of the runoff from the community center roof that would otherwise infiltrate into the ground and eventually discharge into the Mt. Hope Bay without any kind of treatment.  Two roof leaders were tied together with new PVC drain pipe and discharged into to the rain garden.  The rain garden was constructed using four inches of 50/50 loam/compost mix and 3-inches of pine bark mulch.  Native plants are preferred in the rain garden because they have already adapted to local environmental conditions and require far less water.  With this in mind, over 400 plants native to Rhode Island, including bearberry, milkweed, and azaleas, were planted within the garden bed.  A small rip-rap spillway was also constructed to allow for the release of water that may build up in the garden during heavier rain events.

Since the day of the event, the community has taken a special interest in the rain garden and have added approximately $4,500 of additional plants and material! In addition to adding new flowers along the perimeter, large stones have been installed to help stabilize the slopes.  The rain garden has really become a reflection of the camaraderie of the Common Fence Point community.

The project was a great experience to help a community that was engaged and willing to help …and we had fun doing it!  Several residents shared how the community center used to be the focal point of the neighborhood.  Movie nights, dances, and impromptu neighborhood parties used to be a staple at the community center, but for one reason or another, those activities have become few-and-far-between in recent years.  This event helped revitalize that sense of community, and we are optimistic that this construction will help inspire the return of those community events.

From an engineering point of view, we enjoyed putting the design skills cultivated on other projects at Pare into use on this community project. It was a great experience to actually get our hands dirty planting this raingarden side-by-side with our neighbors.

Learn more about raingardens on the Environmental Protection Agency Rain Garden Information Website and how you can install one in your own community.

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Pare’s Sustainability Committee is a group of committed professionals enthusiastic about incorporating innovative sustainability into our business operations, local community, and design practices. Over the past year, we have attended conferences, been involved in organizations, and studied the nuances of the newest sustainability rating systems.  Those activities have influenced our goals for the future.  We are excited to help guide planning and engineering within the Pare community into a future where we can create a better built environment. We are excited to share our efforts and goals.

First, we have revisited an analysis of our own company’s impact on the environment.  Our analysis includes Pare’s waste generation, transportation impact, and buying practices.  To advance this initiative, we will continuously review our options to reduce our impact on the environment. As part of this, we encourage Pare employees to expand our sustainability efforts beyond the walls of our office.  For World Environment Day last June, we led our coworkers on a lunchtime nature walk on the outdoor trails nearby and shared recommendations of nearby hiking trails for employees to explore with their families.

Pare’s lunchtime nature walk for World Environment Day

And, of course, we encouraged everyone to appreciate biodiversity this year with our 7^th Annual Earth Day Photo Contest. You can review the photo entries here.

Congratulations to Brian Dutra, an engineer in Pare’s waterfront group, who won the contest this year with his photo “Green Sea Turtle”!

Looking outward in addition to inward, we’ve spent time this past year giving back to our local communities through education, service, and activism. We have made presentations this year at local schools to show how new development can be kind to our water resources and nature. For example, we led an activity at Lincoln High School to demonstrate how mindful site selection can reduce the impact of a new building on the surrounding environment. We also shared with the 11^th and 12 grade students at Blackstone Valley Prep High School how the rain that falls on their new school reconnects into local drinking water supplies. We tried to help them see the role that engineers have in design for the environment. In 2018, we are building on the momentum we have created to encourage students, the community, and ourselves to think sustainably. We have a distinct interest in helping create a future world of bright minds and friendly spaces.

Finally, to further our dedication to provide quality services, we have compiled what we’ve learned at building industry and infrastructure events and are adapting them in ways to share with our peers at Pare.  For example, at the ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure  in October we learned from leading cities in the world about how they are using the Envision rating system and other sustainability tools to guide development.  At the Greenbuild International Expo, in Boston in November, we joined in on the enthusiasm of the motto, “all in for green buildings.” We attended presentations on natural alternatives for resilient infrastructure, soils restoration, and water neutrality, among many others. We are committed to staying current with the most innovative case studies and design practices.   Our goal is to help guide our communities and clients to make decisions and pursue development that consider wholistic impacts on environment, society, and economic factors.

Greenbuild International Conference and ABX2017 Expo

Our efforts over the past year have outlined a three-pronged approach in our current goals. We will endeavor to apply innovative sustainable design concepts in our projects, to inspire and enrich our community through outreach, and to improve internal operations to make the work place more sustainable. While we will be working hard to achieve our goals, we will be having fun and enjoying nature on the way.  We look forward to sharing some of the details with you!

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