The Changing Face of Construction Management?Staffing up for a Major Program
The East Bay Municipal Utility District's (District) Wastewater Department annual construction program grew from $2.4 million in 1986 to $60 million in 1991. The District...
The Liability Crisis-Revisited
The 'liability crisis' of the 1980s which has affected engineers and other professionals in a significant way is considered. A number of theories or opinions...
Dispute Review Boards ? Not Just Another Alternate Dispute Resolution Method
Dispute Review Boards are developing an impressive track record as practical and effective mechanisms for avoiding and resolving contractual disputes. Preliminary research findings indicate...
Safety in the Construction Industry
Although the construction industry employs only 5% of the workforce, it comprises 20% of all accidents and 26% of all occupational related fatalities. The costs of acidents is 9 billion...
Negotiations: How do You Measure Success?
Negotiating a 'successful' outcome once a dispute has arisen is often more difficult than negotiating agreement prior to the emergence of conflict. The basic...
Kinematics and Trajectory Planning for Robotic Excavation
One of the high volume and repetitive construction operations at the construction site is the excavation of soil. Automation of the excavation work requires a robotic system that is able...
Scheduling for Effectiveness
Telephone calls, drop-in visitors and the assorted instant crises that arise in the course of a busy workday can leave engineering and construction professionals feeling they have little...
Building Green
Some scientists say polystyrene insulation may be responsible for up to 40% of the ozone depletion caused by CFCs. That's only one reason why construction and design professionals...
Construction Documents Revised
The Engineers Joint Contract Document Committee has produced revised documents, which are available from ASCE. The committee includes ASCE, the National Society of Professional Engineers,...
Avoiding Defective Specifications
Despite everyone's best efforts, the design intent as portrayed in the contract documents is rarely crystal clear. As a result, the owner and the project team often find themselves...
Jointless Redecking
If you're redecking a bridge, why not eliminate a major cause of its corrosion at the same time? Why not remove the expansion joints? The Department of Public Works in Steuben...
Kuwait: The Incredible Shrinking Rehab
With rehabilitation estimates now just 20% of what they first were, the liberation of Kuwait has not been a cure-all for the construction industry. Firms participating in the emergency...
The Soil-Rock Boundary: What is it and Where is it?
A major issue in many areas of Civil Engineering practice is the boundary between earth materials that are defined as soil and those that are defined as rock. Designers, contractors, and...
Special Bedrock Conditions in Greater Boston
The Cambridge Argillite, a weakly metamorphosed shale, forms the major portion of the Boston Basin, a structural as well as topographic depression. In the greater Boston area, the argillite...
Foundation Studies in a Fault Zone and a Steep Valley Slope
This paper presents two case histories which illustrate unique problems in defining the character of rock for support of structures. The first case study concerns a conventional building...
Soil-Rock Transition Zone: Uncertainties for Design and Construction
This paper addresses the problem of establishing definitions of the soil-rock boundary with regard to different engineering applications in the Piedmont geologic provinces. Three engineering...
Rock in the Limestone Regions of the Southeastern United States
Problems often arise in the shaft drilling industry in the Southeast. The karst areas in this region have certain situations found in few other places. Erratic boulders and limestone pinnacles...
Determination and Presentation of Subsurface Conditions for Design and Construction
A major problem in the design and construction of many engineering projects is the lack of adequate geotechnical information both for design and for determining conditions to be encountered...
Construction under Fire
Construction is not carried out in a laboratory setting under controlled conditions�especially in areas of socio-political conflict, such as El Salvador in the 1980s. Instead, the construction...
Double-Decking the Freeways
Elevated highways cost more than at-grade construction. Nonetheless, the hidden costs of increased traffic congestion and the real cost of urban right-of-way make elevated highways feasible....
Return to search