CAD Speeds Viaduct Replacement
Lack of an available detour around construction of a major viaduct spurred city officials in Reno, Nev. to build a bridge nearby to serve the purpose. Although funded separately, the permanent...
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...
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...
Storing Sediment and Freeing Fish
When Mount St. Helens erupted in May 1980, it sent a river of pyroclastic ash and other debris into Washington's North Fork Toutle River Valley. The resulting debris pile...
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...
Post-Tensioned Transportation
Post-tensioned highways are relatively new. U.S. 220 near Altoona, Pa. has the first major installation in the country. There two miles of pavement are continuous concrete panels, each...
Unbonded Performance
Unbonded single strand tendons have been used in the U.S. for about 30 years. In a small number of buildings, strand corrosion failures have occurred. Although it is clear that post-tensioning...
New Roof for an Aging Temporary
The wartime temporary design of a 1942 industrial building justified use of green timber for its roof trusses and higher than usual allowable design stresses. Some 45 years later, a new...
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,...
Isolated Examples
The technology of seismic isolation, also known as base isolation, is being used to protect the contents and occupants of a building as well as its structure. Isolators are led-rubber...
Knowledge-Based Construction Project Planning
This paper describes CONSTRUCTION PLANEX as a prototype of a knowledge-based construction process planner. CONSTRUCTION PLANEX is a knowledge-based system that generates project plans...
Tunnel Talk
Much talk in tunnel circles has centered on various methods of tunneling, especially the new Austrian tunneling method, or NATM. To be a true tunneling method it must provide a description...
Building Onto History
In a single design/build/renovation project, an Oklahoma City AE firm acquired new offices, provided new life for an abandoned historic church building and spearheaded redevelopment of...
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...
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