Norine M Walker

Norine M. Walker (63) passed away on January 24, 2023. Her sunny smile and warm presence will be missed by all who knew her.

Throughout her illustrious career, Norine amassed a vast array of friends, associates, and professional accomplishments covering many facets of transportation engineering in the Baltimore/Washington area. A Professional Engineer (PE) specializing in transportation, she excelled in and enjoyed community outreach, environmental protection and traffic management. One of her favorite projects was the “new” Woodrow Wilson Bridge $2.3 billion mega-project. The project, for which construction began in 2000, involved multiple stakeholders to build the world’s largest drawbridge on I-95. She was deeply involved in the environmental planning and approval phases, and then in design oversight work and construction phases. She led the community relations aspects, highlighting her strong communications skills.

Over the years, her volunteer activities encompassed serving on the Boards of Directors for the National Capital Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and for the Washington DC Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (WDCSITE), as well as stints with many committees.   Norine received the ASCE “Lifetime Excellence in Service Award” in 2018.  She was elected a Fellow of the ASCE in 2016.  That year, she co-authored the award-winning book, “Engineering the Nation’s Capital” commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Section. Largely for her work with the Section, but also due to her work on a major widening project of the Baltimore Beltway (from I-70 to I-97), WDCSITE honored her with the Young Engineer of the Year award in 1992. 

A proud graduate of the University of Maryland (UMD), she invested many hours mentoring undergraduates and younger engineers. She regularly attended Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS-DC) events in the region, supporting advancing women in the transportation field. She was active in the American Council of Engineering Companies of Metropolitan Washington and their Transportation Committee. The National Academy of Sciences’ Transportation Research Board (TRB) hosts its annual meeting, “home” to many in the transportation community for a week each January, similarly drew Norine. She served on many TRB committees and subcommittees throughout her career; the impressive list appears below.

Norine was a former member of the Board of Directors of the Arthritis Foundation. Having contracted rheumatoid arthritis in her teens, she largely ignored its debilitating effects and simply soldiered on through challenges.  This past year, she weathered an unrelated condition with her usual grace and optimism. Finally, she succumbed to complications after surgery for the condition.

An “Army brat”, born at Fort Belvoir, VA, Norine spent her early years in California before her parents settled in Laurel, MD.  While pursuing dual degrees in Civil Engineering and Urban Studies at UMD, Norine interned with the Maryland Department of Transportation in its Washington Regional Office. Upon graduation, she took a position at Rummel, Klepper and Kahl in Baltimore in their growing NEPA planning department and she rose with her Engineer-in-Training and subsequent PE license. Her career then took her to Greiner (now AECOM) where she continued to lead NEPA planning studies, including for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project. At one point in mid-career she went solo but was lured back to the corporate world working for Sabra Wang & Associates. Later Norine switched over to the public sector when she worked at Virginia Railway Express. Most recently she was Vice President for SYSTRA’s metropolitan Washington area office. 

Norine is survived by two brothers, several cousins, many lifelong friends and a host of colleagues.

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Among her Awards and Honors:

• University of Maryland B.A. '81 urban studies and B.S. '83 civil engineering
• Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2016
• Lifetime Excellence in Service Award by ASCE, 2018
• Trailblazer Award, Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), 2006
• Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers, a 2006 book featured four UMD Clark School of               Engineering alumnae, including Norine M. Walker.
• Maryland’s Top 100 Women, by The Daily Record, 2000
• Young Engineer of the Year, Washington DC Section Institute of Transportation Engineers, 1992

Transportation Research Board Committee Assignments:

• Member, TRB Standing Committee on Statewide Multimodal Planning, 1996-2002
• Member, NCHRP Project Panel on Quantification of Benefits and Cost Effectiveness of Context Sensitive Design and Solutions in Transportation Facilities, 2005-2009
• Chair, NCHRP Project Panel on Transportation Project Management--Best Practices, 2005-2010

She also had been a “Friend” of standing committees on Public Involvement and Sustainability since 2016.

Donation Suggestions

• The ASCE/NCS Scholarship Trust: https://asce-ncs.org/index.php/special-features/scholarship-program/37-scholarship/228-the-asce-ncs-scholarship-trust-funding-sources

Send a check to "ASCE/NSC Scholarship Trust" and note “Norine Walker” in memo line of check. Mail to Attn: Mr. Fady Afif, Chairman, 8071 Sebon Drive, Vienna, VA 22180    

• Washington DC Section of ITE: https://wdcsite.org/Become_a_Sponsor
• WTS Scholarships: https://www.wtsinternational.org/chapters/washington-dc/scholarships
• TRB Minority Student Fellows Program: https://www.trb.org/AboutTRB/MinorityStudent.aspx