Search title image

TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

Bookmark and Share

Fall 2010

David Tannehill Special Employee Award:
Alec Melkonians, Unsung Hero of the Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program

Alec Melkonians was a “brilliant engineer” who made his mark with several challenging bridge and highway projects. (Photo: Bill Hall, Caltrans)

During his 19-year career with Caltrans, engineer Alec Melkonians not only left his mark on several major Bay Area bridge/road retrofit and rebuilding projects, he also left a lasting impression on hundreds of colleagues and community members. After his unexpected death in February 2010 at the age of 44, so many people attended his memorial service that they filled the chapel, the overflow room and the lobby, and spilled onto the sidewalk.

Melkonians was the obvious choice for the David Tannehill Special Employee Award, named after a dedicated and talented MTC planner who passed away in 2001. “Alec was a brilliant engineer and a dedicated public servant with this amazing energy level. And he was incredibly optimistic,” said Denis Mulligan, general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District and a former top Caltrans bridge engineer.

Early in his career, Melkonians was a design engineer on the project to replace the Cypress Structure along I-880 in Oakland, which had collapsed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Then he worked on seismic retrofit projects for the Carquinez and Richmond-San Rafael bridges before going on to quarterback the rebuilding of the West Approach to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to meet current seismic standards. Melkonians worked to personally engage neighborhood residents and businesses.

“The West Approach was one of the most complex public works projects in California history, and Alec touched all aspects of it,” said Caltrans Project Manager Ken Terpstra.

Melkonians then moved on to another monumental project, the new East Span of the Bay Bridge. “He had an ability to make it seem easy when he worked real hard to help the team deliver these complex projects,” Mulligan said.
— Karin Betts

Video Profile: Alec Melkonians

Transactions Fall 2010 Issue: Contents