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PEOPLE |
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Joseph S. Champagne, P.E., NAFE Mr. Champagne graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, in 1955, with a degree (BCE) in Civil Engineering and received a Masters Degree (MCE), also from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, shortly thereafter. He did further graduate work on the Yale University Campus, Bureau of Highway Traffic in Traffic Engineering, Transportation Planning and Pedestrian Planning and Design. He later studied accident reconstruction at George Washington University.
Mr. Champagne began his professional career in 1955 as an engineering officer in the U. S. Navy assigned to a destroyer in the Pacific. In 1958 he joined the New York State Department of Public Works, working in both the district and main offices. While with the Department, he was in charge of the Interstate Traffic Control Program and worked on various highway design projects. He then joined the National Fence Company in Meriden, Connecticut, as Chief Engineer in charge of planning, design and installation of traffic control devices. Later, with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Mr. Champagne assumed the position of Senior Traffic Engineer in the Authority's Traffic Engineering Division. He was in charge of Traffic Studies, Research and Safety Section, and worked in traffic and pedestrian planning, design and operations of port facilities, including airports, bus and truck terminals, seaports, tunnels and bridges. For several years before forming CHAMPAGNE ASSOCIATES, P.C., Mr. Champagne had been a project manager for a New Jersey based consulting firm. He was directly involved in urban and mass transportation planning, the appraisal and design of large traffic generators, including shopping centers, super block developments, convention centers, hospitals, colleges, banks, office buildings, apartment complexes, and industrial sites. Other work included expert testimony before municipal boards and in court. Mr. Champagne's duties included planning and design, preparation of plans and specifications, and construction supervision of more than 600 transportation, traffic and pedestrian engineering projects. Many of the transportation planning projects have included mass transportation. He has advised many communities on various aspects of traffic and municipal engineering. In this capacity, he also provided expert testimony on transportation issues before municipal boards and in court. For 21 years, Mr. Champagne was in charge of maintenance and safety for a resort including 7 miles of roads and a recreation facility. These duties also include pedestrian safety in the recreation area, and on the roadway system. Over the last thirty years, Mr. Champagne has provided expert testimony in actions stemming from the results of highway and pedestrian accidents. This work involves the investigation, refinement and interpretation of the circumstances surrounding the accident, its reconstruction and an analysis. Mr. Champagne has investigated more than 3000 accident cases, representing either plaintiff or defendant, as a qualified expert in traffic engineering, transportation planning, pedestrian planning and design and accident reconstruction. He has worked on such cases in New York, New Jersey, Iowa, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Mr. Champagne was an Adjunct Associate Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Transportation Department. He is the author of several technical papers and has lectured before the New York State Town and County Highway Superintendents Association, Massachusetts and Vermont Association of Towns, Nassau, Suffolk and Albany County Bar Associations, the New York City Law Department, the New York State Trial Lawyers Institute and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Mr. Champagne is a registered Professional Engineer in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and Maryland. He is a member of the New York State and National Society of Professional Engineers, and a Fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Transportation Engineers. |
