Sandbridge Virginia Oceanfront Seawall Arbitration Hearing: Some Lessons Learned for Coastal Engineers
A group of beach property homeowners claimed that their new oceanfront seawall was defective in design. A beefed-up design cost about $1.3 million more and they sought this amount from...
Cost Effective Risk Allocation for Coastal Engineering Projects
Project participants will benefit significantly by routinely taking a more systematic, structured, and global view of risk than is sometimes done at present. Enhanced and broadened cognizance...
Our Aging Coastal Infrastructure
The River and Harbor Act of 26 May 1824, signed by President James Monroe, authorized the first involvement of the United States Federal government in the construction of harbor works...
L'Ambiance Plaza: What Have We Learned
In April 1987, a structure called L'Ambiance Plaza collapsed during construction, killing 28 workers. The building, in Bridgeport, Conn., was being built using the lift-slab...
Engineering a Monument, Evoking a Nightmare
Rather than simply standing as a backdrop for exhibits, the $53.2 million U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is intended to be part of the fabric of the exhibition itself. Now under construction...
A New Fast Track for Public Works
Most public contracts are still awarded to the lowest bidder, but some states are experimenting with other approaches for complex projects. In Oregon, officials facing a tight deadline...
Simulated Field Trials of Non-Destructive Concrete Test Methods for Highway Structures
The data presented results from a two year Strategic Highway Research Program investigation into suitable NDT methods for determining the early age, and residual strengths of highway structures....
Reassessing the Risk Assessment
Risk assessments should help an engineer determine cost-effective remedies to environmental pollution. Unfortunately, most don't. Most assessments drastically overestimate...
Howdy, Partner
Litigation has long been a nemesis to the construction industry. In recent years, contractors and owners have used innovative alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques, such as arbitration,...
Value Engineering at a Superfund Site
The Helen Kramer Landfill ranked fourth on the EPA's National Priorities List and the estimated cost of clean up was about $39 million. By value engineering selected parts...
Coal-Gas Conundrum
Manufactured gas from coal brought streetlights and clean cooking fuel to the late Victorian era, but a hundred years later their legacy isn't quite so beneficial. Investigators...
Piles Over Problems Sites
It's increasingly difficult to find suitable space for construction in urban areas. Pile foundations can fill the void by making questionable and heavily regulated sites,...
Life in the Fast Track
Through innovative financing and skillful construction management, Oklahoma is proving that transportation megaprojects are still possible, even during an economic downturn. The result...
Project Management: Keys to Success
Successful construction projects can be traced to several key factors observed by the owner, the AE and the contractor. They include: 1) Goals and commitment of the managing partners agreed...
Double Diamonds: New Brand for a Texas Bridge
Double diamond towers, distinctive as a cattle brand but tall as a 44 story building, have reached landmark status on the Texas Gulf Coast even though the bridge they will carry won't...
Automating The Corps
Automated soil testing machines solved several problems at once for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' South Western Division Laboratory in Dallas, Texas. The machines replaced...
On the Role of Experimental Mechanics in Assessing the Performance of Concrete
The role of experimental mechanics in material characterization, design, construction, performance evaluation, repair, rehabilitation and finally destruction of concrete structures is...
Behaviour of Prestressed Concrete End Blocks
This paper briefly reports on a series of experiments carried out on strip-loaded prestressed concrete end blocks. The results show that corresponding design methods presently used in...
Experimental Photoelastic Analysis of Tunnels Containing Cracks
Due to the presence of cracks the strength of the structure is decreased in the present paper an experimental two dimensional photoelastic technique has been developed to analyze the circular...
Geoelectrical Tomography: Model Studies Related to Nuclear Waste Site Characterization
Borehole geoelectrical measurements offer a promising means for detecting and delineating resistivity anomalies in candidate geological formations being considered for underground storage...
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