Maguire Group's Richard Bernardo Receives Prestigious Freeman Award

FOXBOROUGH, MA, February 09, 2011 (Press-News.org) A/E/P Maguire Group is proud to announce that Senior Vice President and Regional Transportation Director Richard A. Bernardo, P.E., was given the 2011 Freeman Award by the Providence Engineering Society (PES), the oldest professional engineering society in the United States.

At the Society's 92nd Annual Awards Banquet on February 3, 2011, Society President and Maguire Project Manager James W. Coogan, P.E., presented the Freeman Award to Mr. Bernardo. The Award Banquet included newly elected Providence Mayor Angel Taveras as guest speaker.

The Freeman Award is named after John Ripley Freeman, who is considered "by birth and training a true representative of New England and showed throughout his long life those qualities which many of us believe are particularly representative of New England leaders: integrity, vision, thoroughness, mental and physical strength, and unrelenting industry." This prominent early 20th century civil engineer was chief designer of the original Charles River Dam in Boston, a project with which Maguire later was also involved with design and engineering. Maguire Group was awarded a Presidential Award for Design Excellence for our work on this project.

Mr. Bernardo is a registered Professional Engineer in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. He has worked over 31 years in the engineering profession and has extensive experience in public works projects as both a consultant and a government employee. Over the past seven years, Mr. Bernardo has been a director of public works for the City of Cranston and the Town of Burrillville. Prior to that, he held various positions with major New England-based engineering firms.

Mr. Bernardo is also past president of the Rhode Island Society of Professional Engineers (RISPE) and remains active since 1983 with the society's MATHCOUNTS program. He has also served as past PES president and has served on the Board for the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and is a Life Member of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers. He was the recipient of RISPE's Young Engineer of the Year award in 1990 and Engineer of the Year for 2002.

Mr. Bernardo was appointed to the Rhode Island Board of Registration for Professional Engineers in 2000 by Governor Almond and was re-appointed in 2005 by Governor Carcieri to a second five-year term. He served as Chairman of the Board of Registration from 2006-2008. In 2008, Governor Carcieri appointed Mr. Bernardo as Chairman of the Unified Board of Design Professionals. In 2010, he was named an Emeritus Member of the Board of Registration by the National Council of Engineering Examiners (NCEES).

Maguire President and CEO Carlos Duart said, "We are honored to have members of our senior leadership recognized in this way. Award-winning engineer Rich Bernardo and his staff bring their persistence and commitment to work every day at Maguire. This is a proud day for him and our engineering departments."

About Maguire Group Inc.
Maguire Group was founded in Providence, Rhode Island over 70 years ago as a small civil engineering firm. Today, Maguire is a full-service, nationally recognized architectural, engineering, planning, and construction management organization. Throughout its history, Maguire has played an important role in the planning, design and construction of the infrastructure used in our daily life for thousands of clients—from tiny towns to Fortune 500 companies—across the country and around the world. That role continues today as part of the Metric Engineering Group.

About Metric Engineering Group, Inc.
Metric Engineering Group (MEG) is one of the nation's leading engineering, architectural, construction and emergency management organizations specializing in infrastructure and transportation for government clients. Today, the Group includes over 500 dedicated professionals in 25 strategically located offices throughout the eastern coast of the United States, Texas, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Ranked as #291 on the Engineering News Record Magazine's list of "The Top 500 Design Firms," MEG provides full-service project delivery, from conceptual design to construction, maintenance, and operation.