Beautiful Bridges
There are no rules for creating beautiful bridges. While talent and experience count, bridge design is quite complex and collaboration between highway engineers, architects, and landscape...
Quick Response on the Mississippi
In November 1987, the Mississippi River broke through the foundation of the St. Anthony Fall's Lower Dam Hydropower Plant. The plant's owner, the Northern State...
From Guesswork to Guarantee?
Maser describes a project to determine the effectiveness of radar and infrared thermography in detecting deterioration of asphalt overlaid bridge decks. The project, sponsored by the New...
Detecting the Defects
According to estimates, for every dollar spent on preventive maintenance of the infrastructure, $10 will be saved by avoiding emergency repairs after major structural failures. Technologies...
Preventive Maintenance: Fixing What Ain't Broke
Municipalities are often caught in the cycle of built-neglect-rebuild. For bridges, the solution is preventive maintenance: keep the bridges clean and painted, and they'll...
Parking Garage Crisis
Corrosion in reinforced concrete parking garages is reaching crisis proportions. The rehabilitation market for these structures is estimated to be as much as $750 million a year, or 30%...
Fast Track, Instant Track
There is a newly constructed railroad bridge over the Wilamette River in Portland, Oregon. The 499 ft. clear maritime channel allows the world's largest ships to navigate...
Box Segmentals: Refining Design
Officials at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), which has built more precast concrete segmental box girder bridges than any other state, say their troubles with that design...
High-Strength Concrete: Weighing the Benefits
Russell, Gebler and Whiting describe the properties of high-strength concretes, the current state of knowledge on freeze/thaw effects, and procedures for batching, mixing, transporting,...
The Great Quake: On Site Reports
Written within two weeks of the Oct. 17, 1989 California earthquake, these comments cannot be considered definitive. But they do stress two points: 1) Earthquake codes do work. Buildings...
Bells Under Bells
Chicago's newest office tower is supported on new bells that had to be constructed below existing belled caissons. Existing caisson foundations from a previous structure on...
Classic Wood Structures
Wood has been used in a wide range of structural applications. When properly maintained, these structures can have a useful life from 50 years to several centuries. Thirty-seven unusual...
Cedar Falls Project-Rehabilitation with RCC
This paper presents an overview of the planning, design, and construction considerations used during the development of the 9. 1 m (30-foot-high) Cedar Falls Roller Compacted Concrete...
Geotechnical Exploration?Rio Bravo Hydro Project
In order for the Rio Bravo Hydroelectric Project to become a reality, a thorough evaluation of alternative project configurations was necessary. Various power canal shapes, sizes, and...
Summer Falls High Head Kaplan Turbine Project
The Summer Falls Project is located on the Main Canal of the Grand Coulee Irrigation Project approximately eight miles south of Coulee City in Grant County, Washington. The power development...
Landmarks in Civil Engineering
Historic American engineering projects sampled in this article represent those documented in
Building Bridges Faster
Guidelines are presented that tell how to write a contract that will lead to radical reductions in the time to build or rebuild a bridge. The article covers how to write an incentive/disincentive...
Subsurface Savings
Less conservatism than usual in designing building foundations is being accepted or demanded by some owners to save money. The article describes four examples of cost-cutting innovations,...
Roller Compacted Concrete Dams?An Overview
The development of roller compacted concrete for gravity dams is traced from forerunners, through its use at the Shihmen and Tarbela Dam Projects to Willow Creek Dam and the Japanese Roller...
Planning, Design and Cost Estimates for RCC Dams
Engineers, planners, and officials of agencies responsible for developing water resource projects are confronted with preparing preliminary designs and cost estimates for dams. This paper...
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