Larry D. Madrid Receives The 2013 GMEC Award
President of Madrid Engineering Group, Inc. Larry D. Madrid, MSc, PE, D.GE, has received the 2013 GMEC award. Presented annually, this award honors the individual whose professional career has made a significant positive impact on the geotechnical and materials engineering profession. Engineer Madrid has been practicing geotechnical engineering since he graduated in 1982 and is currently the owner of Madrid Engineering Group, Inc., (MEG) with offices in Bartow and Panama City, Florida.
Chair Jeff D’huyvetter, PE (right) presenting the 2013 GMEC award to Larry D. Madrid, M. Sc, PE, D.GE (left)
MEG has been operating since 1992 and is a registered DBE firm with UCP and FDOT. Engineer Madrid is a well-rounded professional engineer who also plays the Spanish guitar has the voice to go with it. He is an acknowledged expert in Florida sinkholes, having completed over 4000 subsidence investigations and having served as an expert witness in several legal cases. Early in his career, he participated in the pilot project by FDOT to expedite the consolidation of very soft clayey soils using wick drains during the construction of the Polk Parkway. In addition, he has patented a stormwater quality improvement product called PhosFilter™. He was named Principal Investigator on a research project for the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research to study a method to strengthen/stiffen waste phosphatic clay (aka: slimes, a byproduct of phosphate mining). Later, based on his own personal research, he developed a proprietary stabilized material known as PhosphoCrete™ that can improve the strength of the clays from 10 to 50 times the original strength.
From This… To This
Mr. Madrid believes in giving back to the community. He served for several years as a board member of the Greater Bartow Chamber of Commerce, culminating as its President in 2011. A current member of the Education Committee, he is an advocate for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Engineer Madrid contributes regularly to our youth by offering his skills and knowledge for middle school mentoring programs, and he has hired several summer engineering interns, offering them a window into the engineering profession. His most recent pro-bono project began in early 2012 in the state of Queretaro, Mexico and the town of Bernal, which happens to have the tallest monolith (single rock outcrop, like the Rock of Gibralter) in the world, known as “La Peña.” The project is intended to help reduce the need for potable water for a Christian youth camp Palabra de Vida (Word of Life). This area of Mexico is very dry and has a short rainy season, so the government has prohibited new water well construction to protect groundwater. Municipal water is therefore pumped at a high cost to the camp. Madrid’s proposed plan is to redirect and accumulate rainfall runoff to two cisterns on the property which can then be used to provide gray water to the cabins and other facilities for showers and commodes. The rainwater diversion project will have a secondary benefit of reducing erosion of the main access road.
A second project, which has just been completed, is the redesign of the 70-acre property’s septic system such that the effluent is now treated and directed to an underdrain distribution system beneath the soccer field – creating a playing surface of green grass which was formerly dry and barren. The innovative design makes the nutrient-rich water bio-available to the turf and reduces losses from both evaporation and infiltration. Palabra de Vida held their inaugural soccer tournament in April 2013, with Larry and his wife Connie attending as honored guests.
At the GMEC annual conference, which was held in Orlando, Larry said this award was very significant to him in that it was recognition from his peers. And he let the crowd of geotechnical engineers know how he felt about their profession: “I love being an engineer!”
[Based on an article published in the Florida Engineering Society’s Journal Magazine May 2013 issue]
