BRENNON MORIOKA TO SERVE AS DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION – HIGHWAYS
For Immediate Release: December 28, 2004
HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle announced today that Brennon Morioka, Ph.D, P.E., has been named deputy director – highways for the state Department of Transportation (DOT). He will begin his new position in late January.
Morioka, who currently is the chairman and executive director of the Hawai`i Republican Party, is a civil engineer by training. He previously served as a senior geotechnical engineer in the Honolulu Office of URS Corporation, one of the largest engineering firms in the world. His responsibilities included project management, geotechnical investigation, analysis, design, and report writing for trenchless technologies (micro tunneling, directional drilling), solid waste landfills, landslide mitigation, and geotechnical foundation and infrastructure projects. He also was as an engineer with Harding Lawson Associates and Metcalf & Eddy, Pacific.
Morioka, earned a doctorate in civil engineering with a specialty in geotechnical engineering (foundations and soil engineering) from the University of Hawai`i (UH) at Manoa College of Engineering, where he has also been a lecturer, research assistant and teaching assistant.
He was selected to serve as Hawai`i State Young Engineer of the Year in 2000, and was chosen to represent the United States as one of five delegates to the First International Youth Geotechnical Engineering Conference that same year for his research at UH.
Morioka is a member of the Hawai`i State Earthquake Advisory Committee, and serves as the Geotechnical Committee Chair, Hawai`i Section, of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is also involved with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineers and Canadian Geotechnical Society.
Morioka is a graduate of I`olani School and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
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For more information, contact:
Rod Haraga
Director, Dept. of Transportation
Phone: 587-2150
Lenny Klompus
Senior Advisor – Communications
Phone: 586-7708
Russell Pang
Chief of Media Relations
Phone: 586-0043
