Elie H. Homsi will never forget the first day that his brainchild, a pile-driving, girder-launching gantry system, went to work on a $192-million contract to build the Washington Bypass, a six-mile alternative route to Highway 17 in North Carolina.

Contractors do not usually ask regulators to impose more restrictions, but a trend in fatal crane accidents last year prompted one industry insider to act swiftly to clean up safety lapses.

STONE Donald E. Stone Jr. has joined Dewberry, a Fairfax, Va., engineer-architect, as chief operating officer. In this role, he replaces Ronald L. Ewing, who became CEO of the firm in 2005. Stone had been COO at engineering firm O’Brien & Gere Ltd. and president of its Total Water Solutions division. In that position, he spearheaded creation of a special-purpose entity to finance the firm’s design-build-own-operate water and wastewater projects. PSA-Dewberry, the firm’s building services affiliate, also named Mike Tatalovich practice segment leader for federal architecture. He had been director of business pursuits for the government and infrastructure division of

Many people serve to improve the construction industry every day. And each year, for 45 years, the editors of ENR have reviewed the stories they have written during the year and selected people featured in them for special recognition.

John Hernan, a construction advertising sales executive whose West Coast-based career at Engineering News-Record and its parent firm McGraw-Hill Corp. spanned more than 44 years, died on Dec. 19 in California of melanoma-induced cancer. He was 85. HERNAN Hernan began his ENR career in 1960 and soon became one of its most prolific and successful sales executives. At his retirement in 2004, McGraw-Hill Construction Group Publisher Jay McGraw said he was “one of the most dedicated and knowledgeable members of our advertising sales team.” John Bodrozic, president of Meridian Systems, a Folsom, Calif., project management software firm, recalls Hernan’s guidance

The process of construction is a work of art in itself, often covered up by the utility or beauty of the project’s final form. Construction often starts out under conditions that are difficult, challenging and sometimes dangerous, as the following pages of ENR photo-contest winners demonstrate. Still, the skills, will and financial ability to succeed usually persevere and the built environment and society are almost always better for the improvement. Slide Show Photo: Photographer Chris Lamon, project engineer, McCarthy Building Companies Inc. submitted by Heather Riekena, McCarthy creative services coordinator Lamon had the ENR photo contest in mind when he

Howard Hill, director of technical operations and a principal of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc., examined the collapsed Interstate-35W Bridge in Minneapolis. He traded emails recently with ENR Chicago Bureau chief Tudor Van Hampton on how he heard of the disaster, what he found when he reached the scene and how WJE decided the design error was made. Photo: Courtesy Howard Hill Related Links: NTSB Cites Gussets and Loads in Collapse Safety Board Finds Bridge Plates Too Thin NTSB Finds Fractured Gussets in I-35 Span WJE's Final Report NTSB's Final Report As the first person to point to gusset plates

John Hernan, a construction advertising sales executive whose West Coast-based career at Engineering News-Record and its parent firm McGraw-Hill Corp. spanned more than 44 years, died Dec. 19 in California of melanoma-induced cancer. He was 85. Hernan began his ENR career in 1960 and soon became one of its most prolific and successful ad sales executives. "He was an extraordinary professional," says Howard Mager, a retired McGraw-Hill senior vice president and ENR publisher. Hernan retired in 2004. John Bodrozic, president of Meridian Systems, a Folsom, Calif.-based project management software firm, recalls Hernan's guidance when the firm started operation in the

Frank R. Finch, president of engineering consultant Greenhorne & O’Mara Inc., Greenbelt, Md., has been promoted to the added position of CEO. In that role he replaces John Healey, who remains board chairman. Finch, president since 2007, had been director of U.S. Army Environmental Programs and the Army Corps of Engineers district engineer in Baltimore and Chicago. He also is former executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. Geospatial Holdings Inc., the Pittsburgh-based holding company for underground pipeline GIS technology firm Geospatial Mapping Systems Inc., has named David Vosbein executive vice president for worldwide strategic initiatives. He was

Raymond J. Milchovich will continue as chairman and CEO of Foster Wheeler Ltd., deferring his previously announced 2009 retirement under a new three-year agreement, the Clinton, N.J., power and industrial contractor announced on Nov. 4. Milchovich, 59, has been in his current roles since 2001. NANNA Charles L. “Chuck” Harrington, CEO of Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif., has been elected to the added post of chairman, replacing James F. McNulty, who is retiring but will remain on Parsons’ board. Harrington joined Parsons in 1982 and became CEO in May. Michele T. Nanna joins the contractor as vice president of business development