Attend Oct 22, 2015 FCC-OSPE Luncheon
OSPE-FCC October Luncheon Program
Date: Thursday October 22, 2015
This is the 4th Thursday in October
Place: La Scala Restaurant
4199 W. Dublin Granville Rd., Dublin, OH
Time: Registration: 11:30 am, Lunch: 11:50 am, Speaker: 12:00 pm, Closing Remarks: 1:00 pm
Cost: Members: $20.00 & Non-Members: $30.00.
Registration: Visit fccospe.com.
Topic: I-70 Bridge over I-270
Speaker: ODOT District Six Deputy Director Ferzan Ahmed
Abstract: They said it couldn’t be done, but ODOT beat both deadlines on the west side of Franklin County and opened the Interstate 70 east and westbound “crossover” to traffic in 41 hours and completely reconstructed a bridge span in 18 days, which was 12 days ahead of schedule.
6:09 AM on July 1 is a day that ODOT will never forget, and neither will many Columbus drivers.
That is the morning a tanker carrying thousands of gallons of fuel burst into flames under a bridge that carried Interstate 70 EB traffic into the capital city. Not only was part of the bridge damaged beyond repair, but the largest fireworks display in the Midwest was just 48 hours away.
ODOT wasn’t in a position to steal the show but did have a responsibility to not only fix the bridge but open it to traffic.
No one knows better how it happened than ODOT District 6 Deputy Director Ferzan Ahmed.
Mr. Ahmed will present the procedure that ODOT implemented to accomplish this feat.
Biography: Ferzan Ahmed
Ferzan Ahmed is a native of Pakistan who came to the United States in 1985 to attend college. After graduating from Kansas State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering he worked in New York for a couple of years and moved to Ohio in 1992, joining ODOT the same year as Engineer in Training. Since then Ferzan has worked in the Construction as well as Design departments, and in 2011 was appointed by ODOT Director Jerry Wray to serve as Deputy Director of District Six. Ferzan considers himself a hands on engineer and an self-proclaimed infrastructure junkie! But the part of his job that he enjoys most is interacting with the public.
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A certificate for 1 hour of Professional Development for attending the program will be presented at the luncheon.