Timber Rising
Ever-taller buildings made from engineered wood are being proposed and constructed around the world. To meet that demand, designers are being tasked with learning about the new capabilities, attributes,...
Access Granted
In southeastern Pennsylvania, CSX Transportation sought to increase the productivity of its Trenton Line freight rail service by improving the vertical clearance of its tracks so that it could operate...
Updating History
A beloved 1921 Parker truss bridge in Healdsburg, California, underwent an extensive rehabilitation and seismic retrofit so that the community could continue to use the historic crossing....
Beneath Biscayne Bay
To improve the reliability and resiliency of one of its most critical wastewater components, the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department replaced more than a mile of aging force main used to convey flows...
Room To Grow
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London’s renowned decorative arts and design museum, has unveiled a new, expansive underground exhibition gallery topped by an elegant courtyard. The need to maximize the...
Permanent Sensors Turn Construction Project into Long-term Research Study (part of "Room To Grow")
The Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) at Cambridge University, in conjunction with Arup, has placed fibre-optic cables that will serve as permanent sensors on the underground structure...
West Side Extraordinary
VIA 57 West is one of the newest skyscrapers in Manhattan, New York, as well as one of its most geometrically distinct and spectacular. The geotechnical and site civil challenges of the project were equally...
A Different Angle (part of "West Side Extraordinary")
The unique, sloping shape of the VIA 57 West building is formed from cast-in-place concrete from the single, partial basement level up to the structure's 34th floor; braced galvanized steel framing completes...
Safer in Seattle
Constructed in the early 1900s, the Elliott Bay Seawall, in Seattle, protects the city’s downtown waterfront from the erosive forces of Puget Sound and Elliott Bay. Because of its deteriorating condition...
Pipeline Protection
To improve the seismic reliability of three critical pipelines, California’s Santa Clara Valley Water District installed what is believed to be the first large-diameter earthquake-resistant ductile iron...
Using Geophysics to Assess Geohazards Before Construction: Increase Your Odds for Success!
Understanding subsurface conditions is the key to any successful construction project, including new construction, excavation, and drilling. The consideration and understanding of the subsurface geology...
Helicopter-Based Geophysical Reconnaissance of Levees: A Faster, Cost-Effective Tool for Assessing Their Risk
As with much of the nation's infrastructure, people are becoming more and more aware of the condition of levee systems in the United States. The media cast a spotlight on the New Orleans levee failures...
What's Hiding Between the Boreholes?
Often, geotechnical explorations consist of a few, strategically placed boreholes and considerable interpolation and extrapolation by the geotechnical engineer. The information between boreholes in most...
Dry Dams in the Desert: Chasing Land Subsidence and Earth Fissures with Geophysics
Homogenous embankment dam flood retention structures (FRSs) were built throughout central Arizona desert basins in the mid-twentieth century to protect mostly agricultural lands and military installations...
Avoiding Impacts of Collapsed Mines on Railways: A Multidisciplinary Geophysical Detective Approach
The presence of abandoned mine workings can pose a significant risk to the use and development of surface structures above them, including railway lines. Typically, the adverse and often sudden effects...
State of the Practice for Laboratory Testing of Soft Soils: It's All in the Details
As with all material testing, soils testing has undergone dramatic advances in technology because of computer automation. In the 1970s, laboratories were filled with dial gages, proving rings, mercury...
A Good Cause for a Causeway: How Geotechnology and Project Delivery Restored a Roadway Embankment Crossing a Historically Challenging Soft Ground Site
As part of a Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) design-build project, a causeway was constructed in 2017 to replace an aging bridge in the southwest metropolitan area of Minneapolis. The causeway...
Design of the Future Mexico City Airport: Attaining Resilience in Soft Ground
The Lake Texcoco region to the east of Mexico City is famed for its deep lacustrine deposits of compressible clay, which amplify ground shaking during seismic events. The area is also gradually subsiding...
Austin Green
A former brownfield site in Austin, Texas, has been converted into a mixed-use, sustainable neighborhood—known as an EcoDistrict—that focuses on renewable and innovative energy systems, water conservation...
Hidden in Plain Sight
In Rome, the new headquarters of the BNL-BMP Paribas Group banking organization is squeezed onto a narrow stretch of land between a railway station and a set of roadways. Yet the site helped yield a stunning...
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