Construction safety, including safety of crane operations, is a priority for David Michaels, the chief of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Michaels, who became assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health last December, signed a voluntary agreement on May 17 with the National Center for Construction Education and Research, for crane-operator certification--the fourth such program to receive formal OSHA recognition since 1999. Before moving to the top OSHA post, Michaels was professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University�s School of Public Health and Health Services. Earlier, he was the Dept. of Energy's assistant

THOMAS David B. Thomas has joined engineer-architect Gannett Fleming, Harrisburg, Pa., as a senior vice president and national director of transit and rail. Now based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., he was executive vice president and director of infrastructure operations and client development for ARCADIS. Granite Construction Inc., Watsonville, Calif., announced on May 17 a planned leadership transition, as of Sept. 1. James H. Roberts, executive vice president and chief operating officer since last September, has been named as president and CEO. He replaces William G. Dorey, who retires Aug. 31 after four years in the positions and 42 with the

VIESSMAN LABIB Maher Z. Labib, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the buildings and facilities division of engineering and construction management firm STV Inc., New York City, died on May 12 at age 67. STV declines to disclose how or where he died. Labib, who earned civil engineering degrees in Cairo, Egypt, joined the firm in 1996 from a previous role as vice president for facilities and buildings at Raytheon Infrastructure Services Inc. Labib “re-engineered … the division into one of the most profitable arms of STV,” says CEO Dominick Servedio. Warren “Bud” Viessman, professor emeritus of environmental

Stephen T. Ayers, acting chief of the office of the Architect of the Capitol for the past three years, has been confirmed for a full, 10-year term as the Capitol Architect. Related Links: Bio of Stephen T. Ayers Ayers' Senate confirmation came on May 12 by unanimous consent. President Obama had sent his nomination to the Senate on Feb. 24. The "AOC" is in charge of maintaining and operating the Capitol building, Library of Congress, Supreme Court and other federal facilities on Capitol Hill. Ayers, a licensed architect, joined the AOC's office in 1997 and has been its acting head

MARTIN James W. “Jay” Martin has been elected president of ASFE/The Geoprofessional Business Association, a national group of geo-professional firms which provide geotechnical, geologic, environmental, construction-materials engineering and testing as well as related services. He is also a Nashville-based vice president and principal of AMEC’s earth and environmental division and leads the firm’s rail-services and levee groups. John L. Heffron has joined the construction solutions group of financial adviser FTI Consulting Inc., Baltimore, as senior managing director in New York and Philadelphia of capital program advisory services. He was national director of construction advisory services at Ernst & Young. ENRIQUE

SIMONELLI Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp., Oak Brook, Ill., has named David E. Simonelli to the new position of president of dredging operations. He had been senior vice president of operations. The promotion comes as part of a restructuring at the company. As a result, Great Lakes has eliminated the position of chief operating officer, held by Richard M. Lowry since 1991. Lowry has left the company, which says it is the largest U.S. dredging contractor. Simonelli joined Great Lakes in 1978. John G. Voeller , senior vice president of the federal division at Black & Veatch, Overland Park,

There was no middle ground about Floyd Dominy, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s longest-serving commissioner. He died April 20 in Boyce, Va., four months into his second century of life. Photo: courtesy of State of Utah Dominy oversaw completion of Glen Canyon Dam in the 1960s. DOMINY Dominy was either the conquering hero of the west, pushing completion of huge dam projects on the Colorado River and elsewhere that brought water and power to growth-obsessed western states and work and wealth to their construction industry builders. Or he was the reviled enemy of environmentalists, a power-grabber whose projects were simply

HAGERTY Oates Associates, an engineer-architect in Collinsville, Ill., has named new officers. Joe Hagerty, formerly vice president, is now CEO. Bruce Schopp, previously chief structural engineer, has been promoted to president and chief operating officer. Founder David Oates was appointed chairman. Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment, a global alliance of the construction equipment businesses of Doosan Infracore Co. Ltd. and its affiliates, has appointed Anthony C. Helsham as CEO. Helsham joins the Seoul-based manufacturer after 30 years with the Volvo Group, where he was CEO of its construction equipment unit from 2000 to 2008 and head of its Korean operations from

HANSON Walter E. Hanson, a foundations expert and founder of the firm that became Hanson Professional Services Inc., a Springfield, Ill., engineer that ranks 174th on ENR’s list of The Top 500 Design Firms, died on April 4 in that city. He was 93. Hanson, who was the firm’s president for more than 30 years since its founding in 1954, specialized in foundation engineering and soil mechanics. A former engineering faculty member of the University of Illnois, Urbana-Champaign, he co-authored with noted experts Ralph Peck and Tom Thornburn “Foundation Engineering,” a textbook in those fields still widely used by students

Christine McEntee, executive vice president and CEO since 2006 of the American Institute of Architects, will leave her post July 23, the professional and lobbying group for 83,000 international architects, said April 19. No successor was named for McEntee, who is set to become executive director of the American Geophysical Union, a non-profit organization of 50,000 international geophysicists. MCENTEE AIA said that McEntee and the group’s “staff of seasoned professionals” will continue to run the group during the transition, and that a national search for a successor is under way. McEntee, the 153-year-old group’s first woman CEO, formerly served in