Building Grand Coulee Dam September 22, 2016
Paul Giroux, Dist.M.ASCE
Senior Estimating Manager, Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., Civil Engineering historian and writer

During the early twentieth century harnessing the water potential of the mighty Columbia River was essential to the growth of the Northwest United States.   With river flows in excess of 300,000 cubic feet per second, building the biggest concrete dam in the world in a remote area of eastern Washington was seemingly impossible.  With construction beginning during the Great Depression, the success of the project was not only essential to America’s long term interests, but also instrumental in providing jobs for thousands of people and restoring hope to an entire region of the country. In the decades preceding Grand Coulee Dam’s construction, tremendous advancements were realized in every discipline of engineering.  This presentation highlights how the right men, the right, machines, and the right methods all came together in 1934 to build a project of unprecedented scope and challenges. 

Raymond “Paul” Giroux received his BS in Construction Engineering from Iowa State University in 1979.  For the past 37 years, he has been with Kiewit Corporation, working on a wide variety of heavy civil engineering mega projects throughout the United States. Paul played a key role in notable projects such as the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore, several projects on the Big Dig in Boston --- including the new Zakim/Bunker Hill Bridge --- and most recently, the new San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge East Span.   Paul serves on the Iowa State University Civil Engineering Advisory Board, the Transportation Research Board, and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Annual Convention Technical Program Subcommittee and a corresponding member of the ASCE History and Heritage Committee.  In 2008, he was the ASCE Chairman and featured speaker for Brooklyn Bridge 125th Celebration in New York and, in 2010, he presented the closing speech at the ASCE Hoover Dam 75th Anniversary Symposium in Las Vegas.  In 2012, Paul served as the ASCE Chairman and principal lecturer for the Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary.  In 2014, Paul was a featured speaker at Global Engineering Conference to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal.  Paul is the author of several bridge design and civil engineering history papers.  He is also an active public speaker having presented over 200 lectures and seminars at 60 engineering schools throughout the United States.  Paul was the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award for 2013, the G. Brooks Earnest Award in 2015, and was elected a Distinguished Member of ASCE in 2016.