We are pleased to add new faces to our transportation engineering and design team.
Deborah Yirdaw is an experienced traffic design engineer based in our Tysons office. Emilio Tognelli is an associate transportation planner in the transportation practice, also in our Tysons office, mainly focusing on projects in the Washington, DC metropolitan region, including Virginia and Maryland.
We asked them a few questions to highlight what they bring to our team …
Q (Debbie): Tell us a bit about your core experience in traffic design.
A: My main work and experience are in developing signing and pavement marking designs, signal modifications, maintenance of traffic plans, design concept alternatives, and safety analyses.
Q (Debbie): What motivates you in your work life?
One thing that motivates me is knowing that my work contributes to something larger than myself. Whether it’s improving roadway design or enhancing pedestrian safety, it’s rewarding to see tangible results that make a difference in people’s everyday lives.
Q (Debbie): What experiences helped lead you into transportation design and engineering?
When I was in university, I had the opportunity to work on the transformation of Northern Virginia roadway unsignalized intersections to signalized ones, which helped enhance traffic flow and safety. I also had the opportunity to use CAD tools for the traffic engineering analysis of a senior design project and to make use of data from VDOT to optimize geometric design accuracy.
Q (Debbie): What other work experience do you bring to W+A and our projects?
Every project is different! My work has included conducting preliminary planning level analyses that are focused on safety and congestion and determining congestion scoring. I also have experience assessing detour traffic impacts on nearby roadways and recommending mitigation strategies for ramp closures.
Q (Emilio): What is your educational background as it relates to transportation?
My coursework at Virginia Tech was wide-ranging and included studies of the legal foundations of planning, statistics for social sciences, land use and environmental regulations, and policy implementation. During this time, I completed an Urban Affairs & Policy Capstone focused on creating an assessment framework for pedestrian infrastructure and participated as a member of the Public and Urban Affairs Society. In addition, I studied communications, which comes in handy in various aspects of transportation planning.
Q (Emilio): What experience do you bring to our transportation planning team on a more pragmatic level?
I have experience with ArcGIS, statistical analysis, data collection, community outreach, spatial design, and project management.
Q (Emilio): What project work have you been engaged in?
In the DMV region, my project work has ranged from new developments to projects that involve changes to existing land uses, comprehensive plans, zoning or vehicle, pedestrian, and bicycle systems. I have also assisted the TDM team in their mission to promote and implement more sustainable forms of transportation for commuters.
Q (Emilio): What aspects of transportation particularly interest you?
I love multimodal transportation. I think that the future of transportation is going to have an emphasis on various modes of getting around rather than single-occupancy vehicles. I think the most important thing is to properly plan and market these other options for transportation. Redesigning streetscapes and cities to be comfortable and cost-effective for all modes!