About
Degree: Civil Engineering with minors in Business and Math - 2006
Current Work: Project Engineer / Superintendent with Turner Construction in Seattle
Previous Work: Project Engineer for Turner Construction in New York City
Brief description of responsibilities: Andrew (AJ) Porrini is a Project Engineer / Superintendent with Turner Construction in Seattle. AJ is currently the Engineer of the Exterior Envelope at a new high-rise residential tower in South Lake Union.
Prior to Seattle, Andrew was also the Lead Engineer of the Structure/Exterior Envelope group on a $600M residential development in New York City. Previous project experience with Turner includes the role of Project Engineer of an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) team on a large healthcare facility in the greater New York City area, and the role of Superintendent at several projects including the new Whitney Museum of American Art and several cancer research laboratory spaces (including aquatics and genomics facilities) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Briefly describe one of your more interesting projects or assignments to date: I recently worked on a feasibility study and preliminary design for a setback levee in Sumner, Washington. With several major flooding events in western Washington over the past 5 years, there is a giant undertaking for better protection and prevention of flooding. One type of project that satisfies the goal of flood protection and also provides better habitat to restore salmon populations is setback levees. Setback levees provide a larger cross-sectional area for the river, while helping restore the natural riverine floodplain and channel migration process for the purpose of restoring salmon habitat. Currently, we are evaluating three alternatives for the project area. We are reviewing river-modeling results, analyzing potential habitat and developing costs for each alternative. Once the client (City of Sumner, WA) selects a preferred alternative, we will move into preliminary design and seek funding for final design and construction.
Briefly describe a notable memory from your days at Carroll: I remember going to Butte with Dr. Kevin Nielsen (former engineering professor at Carroll) and bunch of the engineering students to get a tour of the mining operations and Superfund cleanup at the Berkley Pit. We got a special tour from Russ Forba, formerly of the EPA, including a walkthrough of all the mining operations and construction of treatment facilities for treating the pit water. Mr. Forba also told us about the other project site, the Milltown Dam. The whole project was huge in terms of scope, area, and costs. I have driven past the Milltown Dam on a number of occasions, seeing what Mr. Forba told us about, including the dam and contaminated sediment removal.
I also played football for the Fighting Saints and was a team captain of the 2005 national champion team.
A piece of advice for prospective Carroll engineering students: Being able to convey the technical information of what we do as engineers in a way that is understandable to the general public is the most important part of my job. Make the most of the writing and speaking aspects of all your classes. Communication skills are what set Carroll graduates apart.