- Announcer: This GUMBANDS podcast is made possible by the Buhl Foundation, serving Southwestern Pennsylvania since 1927, and by listeners like you.

Thank you.

- [Rick] This is Gumbands 009.

It's a cool conversation with a Pittsburgh geotechnical engineer who's been dealing with projects and problems, from new big bridges to local landslides for more than 20 years now.

He's originally from Bogota, Colombia, and when I first met him in 2020, he told one of the most amazing stories I'd ever heard about his father on a construction site in the South American jungle.

I'm hesitating to say his name, because it's one of the first things we talk about.

He is Sebastian Lobo-Guerrero.

I wanna start by asking about your name, just to make sure I'm pronouncing it correctly.

Lobo-Guerrero.

- Lobo Guerrero, yes.

Close enough, close enough.

- Say it again, say it again.

- Lobo-Guerrero.

So Lobo is wolf and Guerrero is warrior, basically, in Spanish.

- A warrior wolf, that's what you are.

- Yes.

Which looks very aggressive, right?

- And it's not a combination of your mother's name and your father's name, or it is?

- No, no, it's not on my generation.

My dad actually has been looking at the history of the family last name, and I think what he found is that it was a combination in Spain centuries ago.

The interesting part is that the combination happened there, and then somebody with that last name went to Colombia.

However, the records that he found, there are only two people that went to Colombia.

The first two people that went to Colombia with the last name, one was a bishop of the Catholic Church.

- [Rick] In Lima, Peru?

- I think so, yes.

- [Rick] Yeah, I found that when I was looking up Lobo-Guerrero.

- Exactly, but the thing is that he was not expected to have kids, because he's a bishop, right?

And then the second one was a mercenary that used to sell guns and basically do hit jobs and stuff like that.

So... Yeah.

That's me.

I have to come from one of the two.

I'm not very sure which one, but not much of a royal ancestors, I imagine.

- So Sebastian, are you the first Sebastian in your family, or is that also- - [Sebastian] That I am aware.

That I am aware, yes, yes.

- [Rick] Okay.

- And in reality, since we're friends, I pronounce it Sebastian, that's the accent in Spanish.

- [Rick] Sebastian.

- Yes, but when I came to the US, I started trying to say Sebastian, and it went to Austin, and I was like, "Well, might as well just start pronouncing Sebastian."

- [Rick] Sebastian.

- Yes.

But I love it both ways.

- [Rick] Say it again.

- Sebastian.

- [Rick] Sebastian.

- Yeah, so I have a little comma, or a little thing on the A at the end for the accent.

- [Rick] Sebastian.

- But it's all cool.

- No, I think I probably told you when we first met, I had a foreign exchange brother from Guatemala.

- Yes.

- Roberto Gandara Guzman, and he was in Pittsburgh living at our house in Bethel Park, and he wasn't there a week when he said, "Why does everyone say my name is Roberto?"

And I said, that's because we know Roberto Clemente.

- [Sebastian] Exactly.

- And he said, "But my name is Roberto."

- [Sebastian] But, it's a good thing because I'm not that good on pronouncing names also.

So it gave me a perfect excuse, to say, "Well, if you cannot pronounce mine, it's okay that I don't pronounce yours perfect."

- [Rick] Sebastian.

I think we met three years ago, because we have a mutual friend, Pete Kurzweg.

- [Sebastian] Yes, yes, yes.

- And I think, Pete Kurzweg owns a number of bars here in town.

He has Lorelei in East Liberty.

And Golden Age Beer in Homestead, and then two side by side bars in Squirrel Hill.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- A tiki bar called Hidden Harbor- - [Sebastian] Hidden Harbor.

- And the Independent Brewing Company, where I play records on Wednesday nights.

- Exactly, exactly.

- But I think I met you before I even started to play records.

- Yes, that was before.

That was before.

It was during COVID, and it was right at the beginning of COVID 2020.

I don't know, we were talking at some point and I expressed the admiration that I have for your work.

And then he said something like, "Do you want to meet him?"

And I feel like a groupie, a fan.

Because I have been following your work since I came to Pittsburgh like two decades ago.

So I said, "Yeah, that would be awesome."

But it was right in the middle of the pandemic.

So it was not okay to make a party on your house, or anything like that.

So he arranged for us to meet in one of his restaurants, but it was outside.

The restaurant was closed.

So we met there, and it was the three of us.

And I think we spent an afternoon that I will never forget, because it was the three of us drinking a lot of alcohol and talking all kind of stories.

- [Rick] And eating good food too, I think.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He had some food ready and it was a long day, but- - Yeah, no, I looked up- - It was awesome.

- I found the picture.

It was in July of 2020, which is early in the pandemic.

- Yes, and the worst part is that I waited 20 years to meet you, and then I meet you and I take a picture with you, but I cannot post it on any social media, because then everyone was like, "Why are you seeing people and why are you in restaurants?"

And stuff like that.

I also didn't want to get Pete into any trouble, so I have to hold that picture and not show it to anyone for a while.

- Right.

We ate outside in the back.

- Yeah, it was as safe as it could be.

It was outside.

- And I think we all came in with masks on, but we took them off to eat.

- Yes.

- Eat and drink.

- Well, after two hours of drinking, the masks were gone.

But we were all fine, so it's cool.

- Okay.

So you are born in Bogota, Colombia.

- Yes, born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, until I was 20 years old.

- [Rick] Sebastian's family has been practicing civil engineering for generations, sometimes in the jungle.

- [Sebastian] It is a family tradition.

And that's the way that I grew up.

- Tell me about this.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, so the first one is this.

This one is a plaque, so it just say in Spanish, "MJ Lobo-Guerrero," which is my grandfather, Manuel Jose Lobo-Guerrero.

- Manuel Jose?

- Manuel Jose Lobo-Guerrero.

- [Rick] Lobo-Guerrero.

- [Sebastian] Yes, and he was a civil engineer.

So it says, "Ingeniero Civil."

So I grew up seeing that plaque.

The first memories, I think he was already retired.

I don't remember him working at a place, but he was a civil engineer forever.

Every office that he had, because he was still doing things, not with a company, but just in a private point, I guess, he used to have that plaque.

And I just remember as a kid growing up, and seeing that plaque, and thinking that it was so cool.

- [Rick] But you knew him?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have a good 10 years probably of my life with him that I remember.

So he was a civil engineer.

He has the craziest pictures.

And you probably have seen some that I have posted on LinkedIn and Facebook.

He did the boundaries of Colombia, like the border between Colombia and Venezuela.

- I think of that as like a surveyor.

- [Sebastian] It's like a surveyor.

Because what happened is civil engineers at those days, work as mostly surveyors, and he always had all these tools to throw lines and stuff like that.

And I'm talking this is in the middle of the jungle, and he used to go- - And he's laying out the boundary between two countries?

- [Sebastian] So if we're saying between Colombia and Venezuela, he said from that rock to that waterfall, this side is Colombia, that side is Venezuela.

But then I grew.

So the pictures that he had are insane, because they're all like with suits and ties in the middle of the jungle.

But that's the fashion that they had.

And then it's all kind of crazy story.

'Cause they were natives, indigenous tribes from the region, so they have to be protected.

And he has his stories of them attacking them.

And they were cannibal.

It's all kind of things, and all kind of great memories.

So he was my first reference on civil engineering, because I grew up looking up to him.

And then my dad comes along, which is a different kind of engineering, but equally awesome.

So he's a very practical person.

In engineering, you can stay on design or you can go on construction.

So he went in construction because he wanted to build things.

He wanted to build the world.

He wanted to build Colombia's infrastructure.

So from a very early age, when he came back from Purdue, he started working on construction of highways and that's what he did.

- So he studies at Purdue, and then he comes back to Colombia to build highways in Colombia?

- [Sebastian] To build highways and make the infrastructure that the country badly needed.

So he goes back and he does that.

And then I enter the equation as a young kid, going to all the construction sites.

I honestly didn't realize in my life that not everyone was a civil engineer, because everything that I remember is going to construction sites on the weekends.

And it was something that I was very proud to be part of.

But I remember I start talking with friends in school and they're like, "No, we don't do that.

Our parents don't take us to go and see bulldozers cutting mountains."

And so that was pretty cool.

And I knew from a very early age I wanted to be a civil engineer.

You have seen the pictures that I have.

Pretty much the same thing that I go now with my cell phone and take pictures.

At that time, I have this beautiful camera that I used to go and take pictures of cuts and rock cuts, and foundations and things like that, and it fascinated me.

I have no idea what it was.

I didn't know the technical terms and anything like that, but it was just that spirit of dealing with the earth, and trying to be able to, I don't want to say dominate, because that's the wrong word.

It's more working with nature and make it happen that you have this infrastructure.

That was my youth.

That was my youth.

I think I took both, from my grandfather and my dad, the technical aspect and the practical aspect.

I think that's why I have been able to have a really enjoyable career.

And actually, one of the things that I have there is the Pittsburgh Civil Engineer of the Year that I got in 2020, which is a very special award.

I have been extremely lucky in my career to get some amazing awards.

This is one that is very close to my heart because I came to Pitt, as we talked before, as a student, and seeing that 20 years later I was able to be involved with the cup.

I'm doing a lot of stuff with PWSA, I'm doing a lot of stuff with Alcosan, the new wastewater tanks for the city.

I designed 2000 piles that this is resting on.

For a city that I fell in love, thanks to you also, it's awesome to see that you pass from being the student to be the one doing these projects.

And an award like that, saying that you are the Pittsburgh Civil Engineer of the Year means the world to me.

- As a kid, you go on weekends with your dad.

- Correct, correct.

- And there's one special time?

- Yeah, one that is not that nice, but yes.

So it was 1990.

- 1990?

- 1990.

So it's what, 33 years ago.

So we were working, he had a project in the south of Colombia.

This is like eight hours from Bogota.

And it's basically a brand new highway in the middle of the jungle.

The most beautiful area that you can imagine, because you are literally crossing the jungle and doing this highway.

I used to spend my summers with them here.

He was the project manager.

We used to go and maybe spend one week a month or something like that.

During the summer, I used to go with him.

They have the resident engineer, different people that were working on the project.

So on January 24th, 1990, we go to do this visit.

We stayed the night before in a town that was probably a couple hours.

And then we're deep in the jungle and we're having a meeting.

My dad is having a meeting with the engineers.

I used to sit on those meetings at the beginning, but in 10 minutes I was checked out, because I don't understand anything they're saying.

- [Rick] You're how old?

- I am I think 11 I was, at that time.

They're having the meeting, and then I go to one window like this, that we have in front, and then I see 50 people coming out from the jungle, around 50 people.

- [Rick] 50 people- - 50 people out of the jungle, all covered, with automatic guns.

So obviously you say, "Well, that's not gonna be good."

So they enter the room, the little house that we were, and then immediately they ask for IDs.

They identified themselves as the FARC.

FARC is the guerilla that used to be in Colombia.

Good thing is they dissolve a few years ago.

They have a peace treaty and all that.

But at that time, it was not the beginning, it was like the middle, but it was definitely getting into the peak of FARC.

- So it's not drug related, but political.

- [Sebastian] It end up being.

At the beginning it was political.

So at the beginning FARC, it was an organization with ideas and all that.

Unfortunately, they end up getting into the business of drugs.

Growing up in Colombia in the '90s is no joke.

Because you have the drug lords, you have Pablo Escobar, you have all that.

And when we thought we got rid of that problem, then the guerilla took over the drug.

They basically became the drug cartel of the late '90s.

So, but anyway.

- So you are seeing 50- - 50 guys coming- - Guerillas coming, yes.

- Guerillas coming at us with all heavy guns.

They immediately asked for IDs.

My dad gets his ID.

They were going for a kidnap, they were gonna kidnap somebody.

They were not going for my dad.

They were going for the resident engineer.

But the problem is that they saw my dad was there.

So immediately it's like, "Well, why are we gonna have this if we can have this?"

They were going to kidnap somebody for ransom money.

It's what they did.

So they took my dad.

I have a conversation with him.

They gave me the chance to talk to him to say goodbye, which it really sucks when you're 11 years old and you have to go through that.

But we did that.

- [Rick] They realized you were his son.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- And they said, "You can say goodbye to your dad."

- [Sebastian] Exactly.

And my dad said that for him was frightening because he thought they were gonna take me.

That didn't even cross my mind.

But it's obviously seeing your dad walking away with 50 guerillas is not a joke.

- [Rick] How many men are there with your dad?

- So it was my dad, the resident engineer, couple other engineers.

It was probably a group of six people.

- [Rick] They chose your dad?

- Yes, because he was the head of the operation, basically.

We have that conversation.

My dad say that I was extremely brave, because I even talked to the guy like upset.

I'm pulling his shirt like, "Hey, when are you gonna give me my dad back?"

So it was very hard at that time.

I'll tell you the equation for life, I figure it out.

It's tragedy plus time equal comedy.

So anything that is tragic, if you give enough time in your life, it becomes comedy, and it becomes a great story to be talking here.

At that time, it was not.

- [Rick] No.

I can't imagine.

- It was very hard too, because when I was growing up, my parents split.

They have a very good relationship.

They have a divorce, but it was very civilized.

They never really saw any fights or anything like that.

But I spent a lot of time with my dad during the weekends.

Not much during the week.

In particular, what is really strong for me is because the night before the kidnapping, we were in this little town.

It's a little town.

We go to a hotel.

The hotel have very limited number of rooms.

They gave us one room with my dad, but he only had one bed.

So my dad was like, "We can sleep together the way that we sleep together when you were a kid."

So even though I was 11, we sleep together.

And I just remember being so happy to have my dad with me there, because it's not something that I experience often, sleeping, hugging him.

So obviously when the kidnapping comes, "Oh, come on, man.

After that night, now I have this?"

Anyway, moving forward, so they take him.

I ask and say, "When are you gonna give my dad back?"

They say, "Don't worry, it's gonna be 24 hours.

We are fighting for Colombia," and all the BS that they give, and then they take him and they tell us, "You have to be in this office for one hour, and if you go out, we're gonna shoot you.

Everyone."

So they make us walk, I remember with the hand here, I remember having that gun here, and we go into that little room, we wait for an hour.

We were even afraid to look on the window.

So what we did is that the other five guys, or six guys or whatever, they lift me.

And I was able to look from a little hole under the roof.

And I was the one seeing if they were gone.

So once I saw that they were gone, it's like, "What do we do now?"

Obviously, they cut the tires on the cars that were there, so we could not chase or we could not go to the police.

I don't remember exactly, but it took a while after we were able to go to another town.

Somebody came, or maybe the equipment that we had.

I remember going to the next town and I was very, very tired, because it's a lot of emotions.

And I just remember falling to sleep, and this is probably the worst part for me in the story, which is I fall asleep.

I wake up again, probably 5:00 PM, and you know that moment in the morning when you open your eyes, and your brain is loading your life?

So for a brief split of a second, I did not remember that my dad was kidnapped.

And then the memory came and it like, "Oh, this just happened."

And I just remember that feeling sinking in my stomach.

And it's like, "Now the worst part of this is that now I have to go Bogota."

I'm 11 years old, So somehow they held me an arrange, and I was able to go to the closest city.

I think the other engineers paid for my airfare.

So I end up flying to Bogota.

I end up arriving on January 25th, which is my mother's birthday.

So I end up going home.

"Surprise, my dad has been kidnapped."

So it went like that.

And as tragic as it sound, it started getting better after that moment.

- Your mother knew that the kidnapping had happened, or you got to tell her?

- [Sebastian] No, I got to tell her, because we're talking 1990, so there is no cell phones, there is nothing.

So I show up and she's like, "Why are you here?

You guys are supposed to come back in a few days."

And I'm like, "No, my dad was kidnapped, but I'm early."

So it went from that point, the company end up handling after that point.

It was a kidnapping for pure money, ransom money.

Now the story- - [Rick] But you don't know where he is.

You don't know anything.

- I have no idea.

Then the story takes two courses.

One is what happened to us and what happened to him.

So what happened to him is they take him, and they go into the jungle, deep into the jungle.

He always say they walk during the day.

No, no, sorry.

They walk during the night and sleep during the day on camps.

He did not have a solid floor for three months.

So it's basically he's going through the middle of the jungle.

He says that he saw the most beautiful scenery that anyone can see.

And he's looking at it from the positive side.

He was trying to not go crazy.

And his immediate concern was me, I guess, because he didn't know what happened to me.

But then they gave him a- - [Rick] That's three months?

- Three months.

But I think after a couple days, they gave him a newspaper.

The newspaper says that I was fine, and I was able to go back to Bogota.

'Cause that's the next step, which is, unfortunately, kidnapping was a common business in Colombia in the '90s.

So the next step is the survivor proof.

You need to prove that the kidnapped person is alive to ask for the ransom money.

So he has to sign.

So he get a newspaper that says that, "I'm okay."

And then he writes on the newspaper saying, "Hey, I'm fine.

These guys are keeping me captive.

I'm in an undisclosed location."

And he send it.

And then we send proofs of surviving, also going back.

So it goes into these questions that only family can know the answer.

So when you are close to family, you have nicknames and things like that.

They ask like, "Who is this person?"

and then I have the shortest stick on that side of the story because he's asking all these things.

And when he ask about my mom and my sister, he is like, "Who is the princess of whatever?

Who is the queen?"

All that.

And my description was the worst, which is, "Who is more afraid of a chicken than a chicken?"

Something like that.

Who is more scared of a chicken than a chicken?

Who is more of a chicken than a chicken?

And that's me, 'cause the reason is, when I was a kid, I used to run from chickens because they terrify me.

He always make fun.

But when you look back 30 years and you see the survivor proofs, they are all very exotic.

And mine is like the short end.

But anyway, so all this goes- - And so this was to let him know that you were okay?

- [Sebastian] Yes.

And it's all on newspapers, because it's the only way that you can write it on a newspaper, with ink.

You write it on a newspaper and then you show that that thing was done that day.

- [Rick] That day.

- So a few went back and forth.

And then once everything was fine, the negotiation started, and it was three months.

So for three months we didn't really knew much about him.

We just knew that the negotiation was going on.

You basically have people that end up handling.

Later on, he became one of those negotiating other kidnappings.

And then after three months, he ended up being released.

And it's a call that I will never forget, because we were at home, and I don't know if that happens to you, but that happens to me in a few occasions in life that you kind of know when something is gonna happen.

And I just remember hearing the phone like 2:00 AM, and I was like, "That's my dad."

I knew.

My mom told me the negotiations were going well, and the phone just rang.

And then I answer and it's him.

And it's the happiest memories of my life.

- Your dad actually called you and said, "I'm out."

- Yes.

So what happened is he works for three months.

And then during the three months, once he found out that the family was okay, he was like, "I need to do something to not go crazy."

So he thought about chess.

He used to play a lot.

My grandfather used to play a lot, and he used to play a lot as a kid.

So he say, "If you want to waste time in your life, play chess because your hours are just gonna fly."

So he was like, "I'm just gonna dedicate myself to play chess during the day, see beautiful waterfalls."

- [Rick] Had he already taught you to play chess?

- At that time, yes.

But I was really bad and I hated it, because he was beating me every single time we play.

So he asked for a little knife, like a little pocket knife, obviously could not be big because he could be a threat.

He asked for one.

And then for a few weeks he carved the pieces, which I have here, and we can start showing them.

So he carved the pieces.

- In the jungle?

- In the jungle with a pocket knife.

- With a pocket knife.

- Yes.

He started- - Because he was bored?

- Because he realized he was gonna go crazy.

Because basically, during the day, he's like, "What do you do?

You just look around.

You have nothing to do, just getting nervous."

So he was like, "I'm just gonna play chess."

So he taught them how to play chess.

And then he let them win for a month, the guerillas.

'Cause you also have to understand the context.

these guerillas are people that were born in the middle of the jungle in Colombia.

They didn't really have any opportunity in life.

They probably just were born in a small family.

They were working in the fields.

And then the guerillas come and he's like, "Well, you either part of the guerilla, you join us, or I kill your family."

So he's like, "Okay, I'll join you."

So he never really hold them guilty for what they were doing.

They just didn't know better.

So these are the pieces.

He did a fantastic job.

This is, for example, a knight.

- It is a fantastic job.

- He carved this for weeks.

Most of these are made from a single piece.

He get a single piece of wood, and these are the rooks, and the knights he say they were the most complicated.

The pawns are the easiest ones.

No, sorry, this is the queen.

This is a rook.

So he does the white ones.

And then he has to find other kind of wood, to make the dark pieces.

But he doesn't have anything.

So he end up just doing, I guess, with a pen.

He just end up doing little circles.

Let me show you one with the circles.

He end up doing little circles at the top to identify.

- To mix the dark pieces.

- Correct.

These pieces that I'm putting here, these are the original ones that he did.

The board was not there.

He used to just play with the poncho.

They gave him a poncho during the three months, so he could protect from the rain.

So with that and a marker, he was able to make the chessboard.

- [Rick] He made a chessboard on his poncho.

- On his poncho.

And then he puts the poncho, play with the guerillas, let them win for a month, so they engage in the game, and then after that he start playing well, but he's also not the best player.

So it was all good.

But just look the quality of the pieces.

To me, it's insane.

He's not a craftsman or anything like that.

I don't know if you're an expert.

- [Rick] I'm impressed that he gave you this.

- Yeah.

Look, the knights are beautiful.

What happened is I used to play as a kid growing up, but then I got tired because I thought it was a complex game.

And I was always beaten by my dad.

So, I stopped playing.

When I was in college, some friends start playing and I was like, "I need to study, my life is to study engineering."

But then, when my son started growing up and watching the Harry Potter movies, and they play chess.

Wizard chess.

So he wanted to learn how to play.

So then I taught him how to play.

And then I became obsessed with chess again.

And I started playing a lot online.

I started playing with different friends and stuff like that.

I started helping at my son chess club, which is the Falk chess club.

So I started helping there, and running the chess, with the instructor, Mr.

Jules.

And I start helping there, my son start playing there and all that.

And then it transcended.

I also have a chess club in the building that we live, which is the Neville House over here.

And then on Thursdays night in the summer, we play on the rooftop.

So it's a beautiful view of the city, and it's like five of us playing.

And now actually, I'm playing at Schenley Plaza because I play with Officer Dave Shifran.

He has a program with the Pittsburgh police that is called Chess with Cops.

I don't know if you have heard about it.

- [Rick] No.

- This is an awesome initiative that he has started in 2021 during COVID that basically, he works in the Office of Public Engagement.

So he goes to different neighborhoods, set up tables, and play with the community.

And the whole point is that you can come and play with a cop, nothing is asked.

And you can have a good time.

It helps developing a relationship.

So he does an excellent job.

It's almost every day he plays in a different neighborhood.

- [Rick] Chess With Cops.

- Chess With Cops, yeah.

Yeah.

You can look it online.

And on Fridays during the summer, we are playing in Schenley Plaza.

So any kind of people can come, and I play against him.

Sometimes I help the police and play on their side, if there are many people coming.

It's great.

I believe chess has a magic on it, that it's something on your brain and critical thinking, and it brings so many good things, and it makes also friendships and stuff like that.

So, obviously for me, chess has a special value because of my dad and this story.

This chess set and all that.

But it's cool.

Nothing to get obsessed.

Most chess champions go crazy, so you don't want to go into that side, but definitely to enjoy it.

So, yeah.

That's the story of this one.

- It's an amazing story.

And your dad is still alive?

- Yeah.

The story have a happy ending.

So at the end, they end up negotiating.

He's released, he comes, he lives a really good life.

He works in engineering.

This is also another scary part.

He also becomes very pro on helping people that have been kidnapped.

There is a sad part here.

The person that end up negotiating.

I hope nobody has to go through this in life, but a kidnap is negotiated as a business.

It's, "How much is the person value to you?"

Obviously the guerillas ask for certain money, but you have to say, "No, I cannot give you that."

And it's finding a point in the middle.

So the person that negotiated for him, it was a friend that was also a civil engineer.

The story of how they deliver the money is from a movie almost.

They have this car, they put all the money on the spare tire of the car, on the back of the Jeep.

They drive to this restaurant.

They leave the keys in one table, they sit in another table, somebody comes and take the keys, takes the car, take the spare off, brings the car back, they give the good, and then everything is fine.

And then after that, they release him.

So the guy that did all this, a very good friend of my dad, he end up being kidnapped three years later.

- [Rick] Whoa.

- My dad end up doing the negotiation for him.

But unfortunately at that point, the FARC start going into, basically they negotiate, they get the money, but then they still kill you.

So he was killed on that.

That has a very deep impact on my dad.

So he helped a lot more cases in the '90s.

Some of those more famous than others, but he helped a lot to other people on their negotiation for kidnapping.

The worst part, or not the worst part.

Obviously, he didn't tell any of us.

So he was saying, "I'm going for the weekend."

He has a small ranch with cattle.

So like, "I'm going to the ranch just for the weekend."

And in reality, he was driving to the jungle of Colombia, negotiating kidnappings and stuff like that.

He told us later on, and it was also something like, "Well, you cannot tell anyone," because in theory it's illegal to negotiate a kidnapping.

Because the police is the one.

But at that time, the police was doing nothing.

So yeah, it's a sad story in Colombia in general.

It's a mix of things.

It's the best land in the world, but it's the worst also.

It depends on the angle that you're looking at.

The good thing is all that change.

In the 2000, most of the kidnaps stop.

They fought the guerilla.

They end up coming into negotiations and a peace treaty a few years ago.

Now it's different, Colombia, it's a great place.

I love going there and it's very safe.

Going as a tourist, it's safe.

You're not gonna get kidnapped.

- [Rick] You hope.

- You hope.

So it's a different world.

Colombia has a resilient.

I would say it's the most resilient people that I have seen in the world.

We overcome adversity very quick.

You only have one shot in life.

So the fact that you have something happen to you doesn't mean it's the end, and you can bounce back.

I even look at on my own personal experience.

My dad was kidnapped just because he was a civil engineer.

I never hold that against civil engineering.

I still wanted to be a civil engineer.

I wanted to continue all this beautiful tradition.

It's just sometimes you have these things happen to you and adversity.

You will always need to face adversity at some point of your life.

- How does someone from Bogota, Colombia find out about Pittsburgh, or what's the opportunity?

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- How do you end up here?

- So I was studying in Colombia in Universidad de Los Andes.

That's where I became a civil engineer.

And towards the end of my career, I was looking into how to continue my education.

So initially, my plan was to do a master's in Colombia and then maybe come to the US for a PhD.

But in a summer class, I end up meeting Dr.

Luis Vallejo, which was a professor from Pitt, that he went there to teach a class on advanced slope stability.

So I took that- - [Rick] I'm sorry.

On advanced- - Advanced slope stabilization, basically.

It's basically techniques to stabilize landslides.

- Landslide stabilization.

- Yes.

So I met him.

I think he liked the way that I was very passionate about what I was studying.

And I was very young because I took that class when I was in my twenties.

The rest of the people in my class were like twice my age.

And I used to have long hair, and very passionate about what I was doing.

And I think he liked that.

And then, at the end of the class he say, "Do you want to come to Pittsburgh, to do your master's and PhD?"

And I said yes, "But I need to finish my undergrad first."

He said, "Well, I have a scholarship, but I need to get you down immediately."

And it's a whole long story that is kind of a rabbit hole, so I don't know if it's worth it, but it's basically, he got a grant weeks before he went to Colombia, and he desperately needed a student.

The problem is that this was in July.

So all the students already committed to different universities, so he didn't really have anyone lined up.

So when he met me, for him, it looked like the great opportunity.

My problem is that I was still finishing my undergrad.

But I said, "I'm not gonna waste my shot."

As Hamilton said.

We end up going and talking to professors and we made it happen.

And then two weeks after that conversation, I was in Pittsburgh, really having no idea where Pittsburgh was.

So the first thing that I did is I came to Pitt, I went to a computer lab and at that time, I think it was not Google, but it was like Yahoo or Ask Jeeves or one of those engines.

And I just Googled, "Pittsburgh," and then I showed the map and I'm like, "Okay, well now I know where I am."

So that's the way that I came here.

And then I did my masters and PhD at Pitt, and then I start working in consulting.

So, I work in consulting for the last 18 years, doing design and remediation of landslides around the area, doing foundation for bridges and all kind of cool stuff.

Which is what is called geotechnical engineering.

- Geotechnical engineering.

So as I understand it, has a lot to do with understanding what goes under a structure.

- [Sebastian] Correct.

So I always said you never see our best work, because what we do is we study the soils and the rocks.

So you can do two things.

One is to put things on them.

Let's say that you're doing a building, you're gonna need a geotech engineer to design the foundation.

Basically where you put it.

You can put things in piles, for example, or you can put it on a spread footings.

- [Rick] On a spread footing.

Meaning- - Yes, so a spread footing.

Let me use my phone.

Basically if I'm doing something and I have the ground, I can put a spread footer, which is just like a slab, and then I can put a building on top.

That will be one way.

Or the other one is if the soil is here, but this is weak, I can do piles, which is like putting elements, imagine like columns that go in the ground.

And I can go to rock, or I can do friction piles, that is just, they stay shallow.

We do that a lot.

The part that I specialize is doing it for transportation.

So I work a lot with PennDOT and Turnpike.

So when they do the bridges, we do the subsurface investigation to see what is on the soil.

And then we design these foundation systems.

That's part of what I do.

The other part, which is the one that I like the most, is the landslide stabilization, which in this region, as you imagine, is perfect- - Landslide stabilization.

So I wanted to ask.

People around Pittsburgh, where are we gonna know your work?

I think the most famous landslide I can remember in recent years was along Route 30.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- You were involved in that?

- We were involved on that one.

We did the subsurface investigation for that one.

- Subsurface investigation.

- Which is doing borings.

So, borings is basically going with a machine that drills into the ground and you take samples.

And actually, I brought you some gifts that were done like that.

For example, this is a sample of coal that we core through with this machine.

In this case, this one comes from the Upper Freeport coal, which is one of the coal seams that used to be like mine.

Not in Pittsburgh, but you have to move around to get into the elevation where that is.

So this sample, which is yours now, it's 650 feet below the ground.

- And it's called Freeport coal.

- Yes.

- I think I know a little bit about coal seams.

They're usually named for where the seam comes closest to in the earth.

- Exactly.

When it outs.

- The surface of the earth.

- Exactly.

So that is called outcropping.

It's basically when the layer goes into the surface, that is an outcrop.

In this case, the place that we took it is not when it outcrops.

It's 650 feet above that.

So we have to cover it, because when we do bridges and things like that.

A lot of these seams are empty, because they were exploded before they were mined out.

So we have to put the foundation below that, or we have to do what we call a mine grouting plan, which is basically filling those voids.

So what you want to avoid is that you put the bridge and then the bridge collapses into that.

So, that was from one investigation.

- [Rick] Mine subsidence.

- Mine subsidence.

That's a big deal with this.

- 'Cause around here so much has been mined that you probably have to deal with this problem all the time.

- All the time.

Yeah.

So, we need to go and see if the coal seam was mined out.

If it was not mined out, so that means the coal is there, that's fine.

But if it was mined out, we need to do some kind of grouting plan or treatment or simply just have drill shafts that go below that.

- [Rick] So, is it usually mined out?

- Depending, yeah.

This area, it's all mined out, because that's the reason this city started.

I learned all that from you when I was a student.

- No, I was gonna say, I remember learning the Pittsburgh seam of coal, which comes closest to the surface of the earth on Mount Washington- - [Sebastian] Correct.

- Was the largest natural resource in the world at the time.

- [Sebastian] Probably, yes.

Probably was.

- And it was astounding, the amount of coal that was there, and that really led to the industrialization of Pittsburgh.

- Well, I think I learned that from you, and I have to explain why I keep referring to this.

When I was finishing my PhD, I graduated in May, because the visa restrictions that I had as a student at that time, I needed to graduate in May.

But in reality, I finished my work in December.

I defended my PhD dissertation, and I have a few months, and I dedicate myself to learn about Pittsburgh because I fall in love with the city, almost since the day that I came here.

So I start going to the Carnegie Library, and then I found all your shows, all the videos for the Pittsburgh History series, and I went deep into it.

At that time it was not following you on social media, because it was not social media.

So I start watching all the videos, it was cassettes, VH cassettes, and yeah.

It was great, and I learned a lot.

I always said you are one of the people that inspired me also to stay here, because the way that you presented, and WQED and Mr.

Rogers and all that, learning all that as an adult, it's fascinating to see the view that you have of the city.

You're not selling the city, you don't work for the city, but you definitely influence a whole generation on showing how cool Pittsburgh is.

And I stay here, and as we were just talking, I live two blocks from here because you make me fall in love with Oakland and Shady Side and the neighborhoods, and you have episodes- - Well, thank you.

Thank you very much.

When you put things out in the media, you don't know what the effect will be.

And to hear a good effect, like causing you to stay here in Pittsburgh is very nice.

What do you miss most about Bogota?

- I actually go to Bogota quite often.

I try to go twice a year.

My family would be probably the main thing.

I think before, I used to miss a lot more things like the food.

But now, Pittsburgh has this place that is called the Colombian spot.

And I'm doing advertisement not in purpose, but it's a really good place.

They have one in Oakland, one in the south side, and you can go and get original empanadas and the Colombian drink that is called Colombiana.

It's really good.

So that part has become a little easier, in terms of missing home because of that.

- I think I've seen the Colombian spot, but I've not been there.

Yeah, it's right on- - [Sebastian] Oh, I have to take you there.

- It's right on Forbes.

- [Sebastian] It's right on Forbes.

Yeah.

And it's a really good place.

It's very affordable, and you get completely authentic Colombian food.

- It's a question I like to ask people.

Do you have a place you love to go to eat?

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- So the Colombian spot on Forbes, and there's another one?

- There is another one in the south side.

- Right on- - Right on Carson.

- Carson Street.

- Yes, yes, yes, yes.

This one was dangerous, because when they open it, I was going every day to get an empanada, and then my wife has to intervene, and it's great that you're enjoying the food, but it's like one empanada a day is not good for your heart.

So, I have to control a little bit myself, and the prices are very affordable, so you can go crazy on empanadas there.

- So is empanada a typical Colombian food?

- Yes.

Well I think every country in South America and Central America had an empanada.

- Because I think Mi Empanada in Lawrenceville is Argentine.

- Yes, it's Argentine.

So, Argentina have their empanadas and Argentines, they think they're the best people in the world.

They have the best soccer team in the world.

So you have to understand the dynamics between Colombia and Argentina are always complicated, because we have always been number two in soccer.

- [Rick] After Brazil.

- Yes.

- Brazil and Argentina are like the elite.

And then Colombia and Peru are always fighting there, and Uruguay, but we grow up always being the number two in Argentina.

We have one game in 1993 that we won five zero against Argentina.

It was not even that relevant.

It was for the World Cup qualifying.

We were already qualified, I think.

And they were kind of qualified, but we still hold that as the biggest victory that we have ever had.

But anyway, going back into the topic, Argentina, it's a great country.

I'm just joking, but they always look down to us, even in the empanadas.

They have the Argentinan empanada.

But yeah, every country has a different empanada.

They're all delicious to be honest.

- What's your favorite filling?

- I like the beef one.

They also have the chicken one, but I personally like the beef.

But they have chicken, beef and even vegetarian.

- And you put chimichurri on top.

- Yeah.

So I like that.

And then I put a lot of Aji, which is a Colombian spice.

Well, Aji I guess is also from other parts, but it's a hot spice.

- [Rick] Aji?

- Aji.

A-J-I.

- [Rick] Ah, it's garlic?

- It has a little bit, yes, but it has a lot of other things.

It's a mix of heavens, I will say.

- That's good to know.

A new place to go and have Colombian food.

- I have to thank you.

- Yes.

And so you mentioned that the work that you do is largely around highways and transportation.

- Yes.

Transportation.

- Which is also what your father did.

- Yes, yes, yes.

That's the interesting part.

So I grew up in Colombia and my dad was doing construction.

He was a contractor.

He grew up in Colombia.

He had an opportunity to go to Purdue University in Indiana.

Being in Colombia, he got a scholarship there.

So he came here, he study, he loved the country and all that.

And then he went back to Colombia.

He wanted to go back to Colombia.

'Cause Colombia was in a boom of construction.

So he wanted to be part of that.

So he went there and- - So, he actually came to America first?

- Yes.

- He was showing you how you could do that.

- Yes, and I think that's part of what I love with the US too, because I grew up listening to his stories and his education and all that.

And in reality, everything goes back to, we used to come for vacation, but 1996, it's a year that is very important for me because he was trying to convince my sister.

I only have one sister, Paula, and he was trying to convince her to come to the US and study here.

She really wanted no business on that.

So he said, "Well, I'm gonna take you, I'm gonna show you Purdue, I'm gonna show you Michigan, I'm gonna show you Texas.

I'm gonna show you different universities so you can fall in love."

The same way that he was in love when he was here, studying.

And they planned the trip, and at the end I feel he kind of felt bad to leave me there.

And he was like, "Well, you also come."

Little that he knew, I was still in high school.

I was a senior in high school.

Little that he knew that my sister went back to Colombia and like, "I'm fine, I don't need to go to the states to study."

I was not even in college and I was like, "As soon as I finish, I need to go and study there."

I fall in love with the whole concept of the university in this country, the way that it is, the campus and all that.

We didn't really have that in Colombia at that time.

The university was in the middle of the city, but they didn't really have a full campus and the libraries and all that.

It was different.

So I really fell in love with that.

I did my undergrad, and then at the first opportunity, I came here and I'm very happy now, because I am back at the University of Pittsburgh now and I'm teaching as an adjunct professor.

So it's as another job.

So I guess I have multiple jobs.

- So I'm not that familiar with academia, but there are those layers.

So you are an adjunct lecturer?

- [Sebastian] Yes.

What happen is you can be a full-time professor, and typically that involves research.

So we have great researchers at the University of Pittsburgh.

We have Andrew Wonger, for example.

He does a lot of hydraulic fracking and rock mechanics in geotech.

That's your full-time job.

For him, that is his full-time job.

I already have a full-time job.

That goes way more than 40 hours, so I cannot really have that.

But they also have adjunct lecturers or adjunct professors that basically you just go and teach a class, and I teach classes on the graduate program.

For example, I teach the landslide stabilization class, which is the same class that brought me to Pittsburgh.

So for me, it's like closing the circle very, very nicely.

- You teach a class in landslide stabilization?

- Yes.

In the fall.

- In the fall.

- I also teach another one on foundations, but I just finished that during the summer.

- I wanna get back to your dad and his influence.

- Yes, yes, yes.

- But wait, that also makes me think, do you deal with retaining walls?

- Yes.

Basically what I do is foundations, landslide stabilization and retaining walls.

- As I say, we make a big to-do about being the city of bridges, but we really are city of retaining walls.

- Retaining walls.

And then we have field retaining walls, which is like gravity, concrete walls and MSC walls, which is mechanically stylized earth.

We have GRS, which is geosynthetic reinforced walls, but we also do a lot of cut walls, like solid panel and lagging.

Solid panel lagging is what you see a lot when you drive around.

It's basically you go and put piles, and then you put lagging, which is these concrete panels that you put in between the piles and then you excavate in front.

But the thing- - I think that's along 28.

- Yes, exactly.

- 28 has a beautiful one.

Yes, and I also get super excited with these walls, which is kind of interesting.

But not just me.

But yeah for me, Pittsburgh, exactly as you said, it's probably even more.

The bridges are big deal, and we have the statistics, but the retaining walls are also huge, because we have so many, we have so many weak rocks and bad soils that it really makes it for a great profession.

When I graduated from Pitt with my PhD, I was like, "I'm not going anywhere.

I have job guarantee for the rest of my life here."

- Do you have a favorite retaining wall?

- You mean like a style or a particular one?

- A particular one.

- Yes, I do.

I do.

Probably the ones that I have done are dear to my- - Yeah, tell ones you have done.

I'm impressed.

- Let's see.

Let's see.

In Pittsburgh.

I'm trying to think.

I did one in Boyce Park, I think, 'cause I work all over the state.

But I do a lot of MSCs and anchor walls.

I have one that we did for the Shaler Street Bridge, and that's probably one of the ones that I'm the most proud, because we use a whole new technique.

It was a temporary one.

And for years I have been saying.

This is getting super technical.

I tried to just go at the high level, but for years I was saying that you can do a wall with a steel mesh, a high strength mesh that is called a georock mesh that is also (indistinct).

And you can put anchors and just put that mesh, and you don't have to do concrete, so you save the cost of concrete.

You put this mesh and it also promotes vegetation.

So it's very eco-friendly and green infrastructure.

For years I was saying that, but the traditional manuals don't allow you to do that.

And then finally we have this project, it was a temporary wall.

So I talked to PennDOT District 11, which is a fantastic district that we have in the city of Pittsburgh, that take care of all our roads and infrastructure.

And I pitched the idea and I say, "This can save a lot of money, so give me a shot and then we do it."

And it was a success.

It's a very good picture that I have.

I actually wear my suit and everything.

I took the picture next to it, so I have my hard hat and boots and a suit, because I was so proud that we did it, that they trusted and that it worked and it cost half.

I like to think that that's the beauty of being a geotech engineer with experience, which is, "How can I make this cost effective, and how can I save money in these projects being safe?"

So that's probably my favorite one.

But if I can elaborate on that, I'll tell you another one favorite.

- Wait, but I wanna make sure I know where that is.

You said the Shaler Street Bridge?

- Yeah, so Shaler Street is on 19, and Shaler Street, if you come down from one Washington, and you go on the backside and you go down, it's a very steep bridge over 19.

Yeah, it's probably not that visible, but it's a really steep bridge.

It's a very complicated project.

But that's the beauty.

You see, in geotech we say you will never see our best work, which is a funny phrase because it doesn't mean we're not trying, it just means that we do it so well that it's buried underground and you don't see it, because we try to merge it into the surrounding.

- I think you also worked on the Cap.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

That's the one that I wanted to talk, because that is an insane project that has changed my career a lot.

So the cap, for the listeners that are not familiar, it's a bridge that is in the middle of downtown.

It's over I579.

- It's over the Crosstown Boulevard.

- Exactly, and then it's right between what used to be the US Steel building, I guess the UPMC tower now, and PPG Arena.

So what happened is, I believe in the '60s, when they did the interchange, they basically broke downtown into two.

I don't think it was the intention.

They just wanted to have that road there, but they basically fracture it.

And then you have the upper Hill District and the uptown.

And then they have the downtown below.

But the problem is that the community was completely isolated.

Because then you could- - To cut the Hill district off from the rest of the town.

- Exactly.

And thanks to you too, we all know the history of the Hill District, and what it was and what it used to be.

So a few years ago, a lot of people empowering the city, the major and the county executive wanted to do some kind of cap over the highway that basically covers the hole that you have on the highway, and then you communicate downtown.

And the crazy thing is that you can do it not just with a bridge of concrete, but you can do it with that.

And then you can put a mountain, and then you can put bike paths, and then you can put plants.

And so they did that crazy idea.

And it end up being fantastic, I was involved.

Obviously, all these projects that I'm telling you is not just me.

It's a team of people on the company I work, but also a team of other companies.

- [Rick] So, many people involved.

- Many people, many companies.

That project, the prime engineer, which is basically the main engineer, was HDR, which is a great company in the city.

And then they subcontracted us for the foundations.

- They're essentially building a bridge over a highway.

- Yes.

So it's a bridge, but it's the widest bridge that you will ever see, because it's a three span bridge crossing, but it's really, really wide.

It's like football fields wide.

So, it's a lot of elements.

And then we design drill shafts, which is basically making holes in the ground and putting concrete columns.

And then we also did micropiles on the extremes.

We did 75 drill shafts and 220 micropiles.

It's a big number.

And then we did this.

- You have to do all of that while the traffic is still going?

- While the traffic is going.

So it was crazy.

And then, to make it even more challenging, this started the fall of 2019.

So you know what's coming?

COVID came.

And then, imagine doing this.

In reality, it actually make things a little easier, because the volume of traffic decreased.

So we were able to close the roads and things like that.

It went very well.

It was a fascinating project.

I enjoy it a lot.

My son goes to Falk, which is the school from the University of Pittsburgh.

And if you go through the Hill District, it's really close.

So every day that I was picking him up, I used to take him to the job site and show him the construction of things.

So it was a personal project in that sense too, that my son got to see it, because he's so close to where we live.

And then, it was beautiful in every sense.

But the part that I never imagined was that it was gonna take over in another sense, which is the publicity.

Because it is basically the spirit of what it represents.

So, it start getting award after award after award.

We are right now up to 15 awards.

It got the Ashton, which is the main agency for infrastructure and transportation.

It got the project of the year award, it got the American Society of Highway Engineer National Award.

So now in October, it's getting the one from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

It got the one from the ASE Pittsburgh Award.

Everyone is giving awards.

And I think it has to do with the engineering, but I think mostly is what it represent.

And then after that- - [Rick] To reconnect.

- To reconnect- - [Rick] Two communities.

- It's such an awesome idea.

It's such an awesome idea.

When we did the opening, we actually did two openings.

One in the summer, one in the fall.

The governor came here and opened it.

We have two majors actually opening, because it was right at the transition.

So Bill Peduto opened it, and our new major also open it.

And yeah, it's been great.

It's been an awesome experience.

We actually now are doing one in Philadelphia, because different cities are copying this concept.

So now, Philadelphia's also having their cap.

And we designed that one too.

- So the word cap has almost become a word for this wide, wide bridge.

- Exactly.

It is literally just doing that cap.

I'm actually going to Mexico in about two weeks in Carretero, because they want to see that.

So I'm doing a presentation, I'm getting a keynote lecture and a conference, 'cause they want to see the concept and see if they can recreate.

So it is pretty cool.

As I said, it goes beyond engineering.

Our part, and I want to be very clear on that.

I'm not taking all the credit.

I just did, and when I said I, I'm talking a company that I work for, we just did the foundation on that.

There is plenty of other companies.

HDR did the design of the bridge.

There is environmental aspects, there is surveying, it's a team effort.

But it's great that we have.

With all these awards, we actually became a very close team too, because now we travel to all these awards.

- I don't think you said the name of the company that you work for?

- Oh yeah, yeah.

No, I haven't mentioned.

I have to make a blog for them.

It's called American Geotechnical and Environmental Services.

- American Geotechnical and Environmental Services.

- Yes.

It's short for AGES Inc.

Which is what I have on my hardhat.

It's a company that was founded in Pittsburgh about 28 years ago.

I started working with them 18 years ago when I started it as a company.

Probably about 23 people, I think.

Now we're up to like 80.

We have offices in Philly, Pittsburgh, and also in Virginia.

So we have been expanding, and it's awesome to have been part of that big growth.

So yeah, it's a really good place.

- Engineers do so much for the world we live in, but get so little attention.

- I'm trying to change that.

I think traditionally engineers are not very good communicators.

The stereotype is that the engineer is more of a quiet person, and I think that is very incorrect.

We have fascinating engineers and we just need to do a little better job on selling it.

Honestly, I try to do that a lot.

I know I appreciate every life that you leave me and all that, because I try to do a lot of things on LinkedIn and Facebook and transmit that passion and fire that I have since I was a young person, loving civil engineering, trying to transmit to newer generations.

I know we live in a world that you can have many professions.

When I was growing up, you probably have three options.

You could be a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer.

Now it's like you have all these fascinating professions, but engineering, in my opinion, it's still the coolest thing that you can be.

- And engineers solve problems.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- I've tried to define it, but no matter what your problem is, an engineer can help you figure out how to fix it.

- [Sebastian] Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

And I think you have done two of my favorite shows in the Pittsburgh history.

One is the stories of the Bridge to Nowhere, and that is my favorite one.

You cover all the bridges in Pittsburgh and the history.

And then you also have Pittsburgh Engineering, which is a really good show because you talk about civil engineering, but you talk about different kinds of engineers in Pittsburgh, and how Pittsburgh has a very rich tradition, obviously with Westinghouse and Carnegie and all that, of covering all aspects of engineering.

- Including George Washington Ferris.

- Correct.

- Who made the Ferris wheel.

- Yes.

- He was a bridge engineer who- - Exactly.

And that fascinates me, his story.

I can guarantee 90% of people don't even know it.

And then his house is still there, on the north side.

So yeah, I think Pittsburgh has a really good history of engineering, and you help a lot with those episodes.

But I think we still need to sell more engineering, because we have- - [Rick] Oh, I totally agree.

- Great history.

We have great institutions.

Carnegie Mellon right there, Pitt right there, walking distance.

So I'm very glad to live between the two.

- To end all this, I wanna talk a little bit about what I've seen you write about maybe your favorite project of all time was when there was a bridge collapse.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- In Colombia.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

Yes.

I'm very glad that you asked about that.

- The name of the bridge.

- Try that one.

Chirajara.

- Chirajara.

- You got it.

- C-H-I-R-A-J-A-R-A.

- Wow.

You really got it.

So you got Chirajara.

Not Lobo-Guerrero, what's up with you?

So the Chirajara bridge is another sad story in some respect because I'm from Colombia.

I come here, I do my master's and PhD here.

And basically I do a whole career in Pittsburgh.

I'm in love with Pittsburgh.

I love working here.

I'm extremely proud of all the projects that I do here.

But a big part of me always felt, "What life would have been if I have stay in Colombia?"

Because I really have no affiliation professionally with anything in Colombia.

I was still going every six months, but I was not doing anything professional.

I was visiting family and friends.

And then in January 15th, so you see January is the month of tragedies, I guess.

- [Rick] That's the same time that your father was kidnapped in January.

- Exactly.

This is January 15th, 2018.

It's a bridge that they were constructing in Colombia.

It was an iconic bridge.

The president actually gave a speech about a month before the collapse.

They were still constructing it.

It's a cable stay, let me just define it.

Very simple.

Two piers, two columns, and then cables going like that.

- [Rick] Yeah, we have a cable stay bridge.

- A cable stay bridge here.

So it's two piers and two abutments.

They're constructing them.

They're not yet touching.

They're almost ready to touch constructing from both sides.

The one month before this happened, the president of Colombia goes there, and he's talking about how infrastructure in Colombia is progressing.

And he literally says, "It's designed by Colombian engineers and constructed by Colombian engineers, inspected by Colombian engineers, so this is our sign."

And then it collapses.

He probably could have added, "And the forensic investigation by Colombian engineers."

But anyway, the bridge collapses.

And I remember, 'cause I was- - While under construction, it collapses.

- Yes, it collapses.

- People died.

- People died.

Unfortunately, 10 people die.

It could have been worse.

It collapsed during launch.

They estimate that they probably have around 150 people working.

But at launch, one thing that you have to learn is, in Colombia, when it's noon, everyone stops.

It doesn't even matter what you're doing.

So this bridge, it's a launch.

Everyone is having lunch, and there are 10 people that are still working on the bridge.

And then this thing collapse in a beautiful canyon.

But they end up going down, I don't know, 500 feet or even more, free falling into this canyon.

Unfortunately they die, and it's the end of the lives of 10 people.

So I remember, 'cause I was working at my office and then my phone started ringing like crazy.

All kind of text messages, but I was really busy so I didn't look any of the stuff.

I finished working, go home.

I have my ritual at home, when I come every day.

I live, as I said, seventh floor, very close here, beautiful view of this building and Schenley Park and all that.

I sit on a chair and I start going through my messages, and then it's all kind of videos, because this is all recorded on security cameras.

I'm going through all the videos and I see the collapse.

And my first thought is, "Unfortunately, this only happens in Colombia."

A bridge like that only collapses in Colombia.

And then the second thought was, "I feel bad for the guy or the woman that end up doing the forensic investigation."

Little did I know is that I was gonna be that guy.

Because at that time I have no affiliation to Colombian engineering.

Next day, I'm in the office and I get a call from the branch manager of our company in Virginia.

And he says, "Hey, there is this company that we have worked in the past that is called Majestic Masters."

They contact us, because they were approached by the owner of that bridge in Colombia.

They want to have a forensic investigation to know what is went wrong.

I have done a lot of work in caissons, which is a very specific kind of foundation.

And they say, "They know your work, and they know you're from Colombia, so it will fit perfectly right if you join the team."

So we joined the team and we prepared a proposal.

We send it.

Then when we send the proposal, they reply back and say, "The only condition is that if you get the contract, you have to be in Colombia in 48 hours."

And I'm like, "Fine, I'm Colombian, so I have my papers in place."

I have my passport, I have my US passport, I have my Colombian passport.

So we committed.

And literally two days after that, I was in Colombia.

So I texted my parents from the airport like, "Hey, guess what?

I'm going to Colombia."

And they're like, "What?"

'Cause at that time, I have no experience.

I think the owner wanted to have a company from the US that have no affiliation to the country, so it was a complete unbiased opinion.

But it's funny, because I landed in Colombia, and then keep in mind I go every six months.

And then my dad picks me up in his car and it's completely low key.

Now I go and they have bodyguards for us, and police and we are escorted.

And they didn't want me to stay with my family.

They wanted to be completely isolated, because the media was going crazy with this collapse.

So they put us in a hotel, we go to the site.

It is one of the most difficult things that I have done, because when you go to a site that, days before, 10 people died.

The police was still present, because I guess it could be considered a murder site.

And then you walk and you're trying to do your job, trying to look for evidence of what caused the collapse.

But you still see hardhats, and you still see gloves.

And most likely those are from the people that died.

It went into an investigation.

We worked there.

I was going back and forth from the US to Colombia.

At the end we finished our job.

It's hard because to me, I consider it probably the peak of my career, one of the peaks of my career.

But it's extremely difficult to come to peace with that, because it's the end, or not the end, but it's a very difficult time in the life of 10 families that they lost their dads probably.

And I also relate to the kidnapping, because I was very lucky in life that I got a second chance.

The experience with my dad could have gone south, and he could have been killed as his friend and as many other people in Colombia.

But I got that second chance in life that these families didn't have.

So it's a lot of things in my mind at that time, because you want to do the best professional job that you can.

You know that it's important for your career, but you also know the heavy load.

It was a very stressful part of my life, and I think I did a really good job handling all that.

It opened a lot of doors for me, because then I started becoming very involved in Colombia.

I got a ton of invitations to do keynote lectures in Colombia, in Brazil, in Peru, 'cause this was famous all over South America in Panama, in many places.

So if I look back, this is only five years ago, and absolutely put my career in exponential mode.

I mean that, and do these things in Pittsburgh.

I got this award, the lifetime achievement award, I got the Foundation president award.

So it's a lot of collection of plaques that really goes back to that thing.

So it's great for me, but just knowing that it is the lass of their lives, of 10 families, it's hard.

So yeah, but I mean it's what it is.

- But it's also a highway project.

- [Sebastian] It's also highway project.

- Yeah, it connects to your dad.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- And I have to ask, maybe this will be my last question.

What did you think when the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed?

- [Sebastian] Yes.

I saw that.

- [Rick] That was also in January.

- That was in January.

It's January, it's a bad month.

So I saw that.

And as I say, Pittsburgh have two really good things.

I don't know how many people are aware.

The first one is the DMI office, which is the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.

- Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.

- [Sebastian] Yes.

- It's a city.

- [Sebastian] It's a city agency- - [Rick] Department.

- Department.

Yeah.

But it's amazing.

And again, they don't have the publicity they deserve.

They are the ones that keep us with the landslide, They fix the landslide, they fix roads, they fix bridges and all that.

PennDOT also has a great district that is called District 11, which are the ones that maintain the highways and all that.

And they do fantastic job and they have amazing engineers.

It's just that engineers are quiet, so you don't know about them.

So when this happens, it's the worst time because Biden is in town.

And they are talking about infrastructure and needing more investment and all that.

So many people have conspiracy theories and things like that.

So the first thing that I do is I always have friends that work in these agencies and it's like, "Hey, I'm available."

But they already have other people else involved.

A lot of what people don't know, they have engineers on site the minute after.

They're looking into all these, they're already planning.

So I was not formally involved, but if you know me, I'm not gonna miss on that opportunity.

So I was ready to go that Friday, but I was like, "You know what?

If I go now, I'm gonna get in trouble because there is gonna be secret service and all kind of stuff."

So I was like, "I'll wait for my time."

So, I plan my next day, I wake up really, really early, because I know on all these things, when you go at 5:00 AM there is nobody there.

So I wake up really early, put my heart, put my vest, go to the site, enter as if I belong there.

Which again, I was not contracted by the city or anything like that.

I actually have the chance to walk all that.

I walk the deck that collapsed and all that.

Obviously from my geotech background, what I was looking, it was if it was foundation related, which it was not.

It was another cause.

- [Rick] It was maintenance.

- Yeah.

But people kind of give a bad cred to maintenance.

It was maintenance, and it was identified that it needed to be replaced.

But there is not really guilty parties here because the city and PennDOT can only do so much with the funds we have.

Another thing that people don't realize is that we have an infrastructure that needs a facelift desperately, and needs the funds for that.

I think these agencies do the best they can with what they have and what they know.

The way that they act is impressive.

The fact that they were able to, because the engineer from PennDOT that end up being the one responsible for the bridge is the same one that was at (indistinct), which we're really good friends.

So day to day, I was notified of what was going on.

But they did an amazing job.

I don't know any other city in the world that take a bridge collapse, and in less than a year they have another bridge in place.

That to me is remarkable.

Let me put it this way.

The Chirajara bridge collapsed in 2018.

They're still working on the replacement five years later.

In Pittsburgh in a year, we got it.

It's a statement I think too that it shows the spirit of the people in Pittsburgh.

Again, we are all gonna have adversity in our lives, but it's how we react to adversity.

And to me that's a story.

It's a good story 'cause nobody die on that bridge.

So it's better than the Chirajara part, but it also exemplifies the resiliency of the Pittsburgher, And then we overcome, and I want to say that I'm a Pittsburgher, because I have been here for 22 years.

- And we're happy that you're a Pittsburgher.

So thank you so much for doing this.

Let's end with the talk about this.

What is this that you've brought?

- Yes.

It's amazing, because obviously I have been following the season that you're doing now, and I saw the title and immediately I thought about this.

- You knew the word, "Gumbands".

- Yes, yes.

I knew, I knew.

And I don't know.

When my son was born, I started doing a gum band ball.

I don't remember why.

I think it's because we used to shop a lot at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and they used to give you a lot of these rubber bands and gum bands.

So I start just putting them together.

This is completely handmade.

That is one on top of the other, on top of the other one.

So I started when he was born, because he was born, I wanted to have something that I was showing his age.

So I start doing it and I'm still doing it.

It's just that now you don't have that many products that come with gum bands.

So I probably haven't had one in a while.

But it's pretty cool.

I like it.

I don't know, it is one of those things that as the time passes, you can see it.

- I want you to give him this one too.

- Oh wow.

Thank you.

- This is a made in a factory or by a machine.

- Oh, okay.

So this is not like, all right.

- This is not put together by hand, like yours is, which is beautiful.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- But I thought it'd be kind of fun to see all that.

- No, absolutely.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

And we keep talking because as I say, we live on that seventh floor.

And I grew up in Colombia in a high floor too.

Which is not good to say, but I was always wondering, "What happen if I drop this and see?"

So I always wonder what happened if I drop this from my seventh floor, but yeah, probably I shouldn't, especially after I say it in camera.

- [Rick] You might try this one.

- Yes.

Appreciate it.

- It doesn't bounce very well at all.

But thank you so much for being here.

- No, thank you.

Thank you for having.

As I said at the beginning, you have been an influence for me all these years.

- Thank you for these gifts too.

- No, absolutely.

Awesome.

Thank you for the invitation.

All right.

- [Voiceover] This GumBands podcast is made possible by the Buhl Foundation, serving Southwestern Pennsylvania since 1927, and by listeners like you.

Thank you.