We’re excited to announce that Dave Henkel has joined our Lochmueller Team as the Regional Leader for Central Indiana! In this role, Dave will leverage his nearly 35 years of civil engineering experience in Central Indiana in an effort to expand the communities Lochmueller provides impactful full-service engineering to in the region.
With 27 years of consultant experience, and seven years with INDOT, he understands the challenges communities face to implement meaningful infrastructure improvements and how a consulting firm can tackle these challenges with a team that aims to create solutions mindful of municipalities’ and agencies’ budgets. Dave is enthusiastic about the opportunity to capitalize on his industry experience to grow our Central Indiana team’s talents in order to continue to provide top-of-the-line civil engineering and planning services.
Throughout his career, Dave has been a part of meaningful infrastructure projects throughout Central Indiana. One of his favorite projects is the recently completed 96th & Keystone improvements that won an ACEC Indiana Grand Project Award. This intersections represents one of the biggest bottlenecks in Carmel, IN, and the improvements mitigated the issues causing congestion. The engineering solutions included five roundabouts, a six-lane bridge, new multi-use paths, and a collector-distributor roadway. The project required multi-agency coordination between the Federal Highway Administration, the City of Carmel, the City of Indianapolis, and Hamilton County and reduced travel times by upwards of 15 minutes.
Another one of Dave’s favorites, consisted of a $1.4 billion upgrade to the I-65 downtown Louisville Ohio River Bridge crossing that eliminated one of the worst traffic congestion bottlenecks in Indiana. Design included the addition of a new northbound river crossing bridge, the upgrade of three interchanges (two in Indiana and one in Kentucky), and the upgrade/addition of more than 50 secondary bridges. This mega design-build solved a traffic safety/congestion problem that had existed for decades, making it extremely rewarding for Dave to be a part of. The collaboration between federal, state, and local agencies, along with various contractors and design team partners, was a tremendous undertaking, and playing a role in bringing the project to fruition was a great honor for Dave.
Lastly, Dave identified the US 31 project for Hamilton County as a favorite because of the massive amount of data analysis required and the unique interchange concepts developed. This project consisted of a $480 million upgrade of US 31, from a congested arterial corridor containing 13 traffic signals to a full freeway, improving safety and mobility for motorists while also reducing travel times through the corridor by more than 30 minutes. More than 145 intersections were studied/analyzed, and five different interchange types were utilized – system flyover, folded diamond, split diamond, teardrop roundabout, and urban single point – with several of the interchanges connected by collector-distributor roadways.
Outside of his professional life, Dave is a huge baseball fan who supports the Chicago White Sox and a national park enthusiast having visited 46 of the 63 national parks. Dave, his wife, and twin sons, who are in college, visited Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area in Montana/Wyoming last summer.
Join us in welcoming Dave to the Lochmueller Team!
