Concrete Industry Management Students Spend Summer on Alcatraz Island

The Concrete Industry Management (CIM) program of the College of Engineering at California State University, Chico (CSU, Chico) has partnered with Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) to create the first ever Chico State CIM Summer Field School on Alcatraz Island this summer. Five select students from the CIM program began work on the project June 7th and are living in restored officer’s barracks in the Marin Headlands. They are working as full time as National Park volunteers on Alcatraz Island throughout the 10-week internship, preserving and repairing deteriorated concrete structures, some of which date to the 1850s.

The National Historic Landmark Alcatraz Island, the Presidio, and many historic batteries and sites are within the GGNRA, the largest urban national park in the world. The GGNRA encompasses more than 75,000 acres and 28 miles of coastline, an area nearly 2-1/2 times the size of San Francisco.

Andrew Billingsley, Stig Strombeck, Jonathan Hall, Bryan James and Trevor Prater have been selected to represent the CIM program and the College of Engineering throughout this summer’s pilot program. They will be working with college faculty, invited industry experts, and National Parks Service personnel to perform historic concrete evaluation, repairs and structural analysis as well as analyzing and preparing project scopes of work for both future CIM Field School students and the National Parks Service personnel to perform.

This tremendous opportunity has been funded by a cultural resources stewardship grant through the GGNRA and generous contributions by CIM patron supporters, including BASF as a major sponsor, allowing students with both room and board at National Park Service apartments in the Marin Headlands and a generous living stipend. CSU, Chico and GGNRA plan to extend this pilot program into a yearly CIM Summer Field School, allowing a continuing program through which university students can work side-by-side with experts that represent both the cultural and structural facets of the concrete repair and preservation industries. This opportunity extends the sustainability focus of the Chico State CIM program through first-hand experience with construction practices, applications, methods, and materials that lead to environmentally friendly, culturally responsible, and durable new structures and rehabilitation of existing structures.

Graduating students in the Concrete Industry Management program receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Concrete Industry Management with a minor in Business Administration. This multidisciplinary program prepares men and women for a wide variety of professional careers in the concrete industry and addresses the growing need for technical managers in the field. While on Alcatraz Island the five students will be completing a mandatory internship requirement that is designed to immerse learned students in a real and practical work-place, better preparing them for technical and managerial work upon completion of the bachelor’s degree.

For more information, pictures or a tour of our project please contact:


Trevor Prater

CIM Student & On-Site Student Public Relations Coordinator

530.864.0536

Tprater21@gmail.com

Or

Tanya Wattenburg Komas

Director/Program Coordinator

Concrete Industry Management Program, College of Engineering

California State University, Chico

530.898.4487

tkomas@csuchico.edu