Who Should Design Bridges?
For many years Design-Build-Proposals have been common practice in Europe (except in the UK). Structures in these countries are 20% more economical than similar projects in the U. S.,...
Successful Use of Trench Box in Sewer Line Construction
Faced with the problems of ever increasing construction costs, more and more methods are being employed in an attempt to keep expenses to a minimum without sacrificing the quality of construction...
Overtopping of Small Dams?An Alternative for Dam Safety
A research effort was initiated in 1983 by the Bureau of Reclamation to gain insight in the development of cost-effective modifications to small embankment dams which would enable them...
Embankment Overtopping
Embankment overtopping and dam safety are major concerns of civil engineering and the general public. Very little is known about overtopping events and much less has been published or...
Transport by Cable: Possibilities and Limits
Cable systems offer a high degree of passenger safety; they do not cause pollution and can, in a very flexible way, be adapted to the local conditions. They can be operated as reversible,...
A Unique Communication System for Aerial Ropeways
The basic principles of operation of a Double Reversible Aerial Tramway are introduced. A brief note is given explaining a safety circuit or survey current used on the haul rope, since...
Safety Aspects of Detroit DPM Station Designs
The Detroit Downtown People Mover (DDPM), currently under construction in the Central Business District of downtown Detroit, offered a unique set of challenges to the architects and engineers...
Downtown People Mover System Security: Detroit and Miami Responses
The Detroit and Miami downtown people mover (DPM) systems will be in uncontrolled environments in major urban central business districts. Both plan not to have personnel on vehicles or...
Shear Stresses in Composite Masonry Walls
The behavior of composite masonry walls subjected to inplane loads is a subject that has received little attention during the last few years. The small amount of experimental and analytical...
Notes on Statistics of Failures of Constructed Works
This paper is concerned with both catastrophic and sub-catastrophic failures, which may be categorized into three types: Safety (type S), Functional (type F), and Ancillary (type A). Often...
Failure Statistics Categorized by Cause and Generic Class
Failures can be classified into the three categories, ie. , SAFETY, FUNCTIONAL, and ANCILLARY. Within the causation definition, failures fall into five general areas: DESIGN DEFICIENCIES;...
Learning from Failures
Modern technology and innovation have created a gap between what the design drawings predict with respect to safety and serviceability of a structure and the real safety and serviceability...
Project Administration
The paper discusses the vital issues involved for the efficient administration of a construction contract: effective communication, field office staffing, long lead procurement of equipment,...
Hazardous Waste Cleanup: The Preliminaries
Court-ordered negotiations rather than a trial took five years but led to a flexible plan for cleaning up an inactive hazardous waste disposal site in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Contamination...
Blind Drilling Down Under
Australia's largest blind drilled shaft is a 14 ft diameter fresh air shaft for the Agnew nickel mine 500 miles northeast of Perth. It was drilled in one pass using air-assisted...
Building Condition Assessment�An Owner's Perspective
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has recently instituted a program to inspect all of its buildings structures to insure structural integrity and public safety and to provide...
Damage Tolerance Assessment of Commercial Airframes
The regulatory authorities now require that commercial transport aircraft structural design be based on a damage tolerance philosophy. A brief history of the development of the regulations...
Foam Grout Saves Tunnel
Pittsburgh's 81 year old Mt. Washington tunnel has been made safe for many more decades of light-rail transit use, with the use of foamed chemical grout. The job is the first...
The Outardes 2 Concrete-Faced Rockfill Dam
The main dam of the Outardes 2 development consists of a rockfill embankment, built against an old water-retaining structure, and faced with an upstream concrete membrane. The interface...
Design and Construction of Terror Lake Dam
Terror Lake Dam is a central feature of the 189 million Terror Lake Hydroelectric Project, located on Kodiak Island Alaska. The dam is a 193-feet (59 m) high concrete-faced zoned rockfill...
Return to search