Sludge's Re-Treat
The Shreveport, La., water treatment plant was losing up to 25% of the water it pumped into filter backwashing and sludge. Demopulos & Ferguson Associates (DFA), Shreveport, designed...
Oil in the Soil
An oil well blowout in northern Italy contaminated about 1,500 ha of agricultural land primarily used to cultivate rice. The cleanup team decided to use bioremediation techniques because...
Brownfields by the Book
To spur the redevelopment of brownfield properties, many state legislatures have passed laws that allow developers to revitalize contaminated industrial sites without the high risks or...
Containing the Cold War's Hot Waste
A new method for the construction, verification, and maintenance of underground vaults isolates and contains radioactive burial sites without excavation or drilling in contaminated areas....
Sell-Off
In 1996, the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, offered its Fairbanks Municipal Utilities System for sale to private bidders. Four different entities assumed ownership of the water and wastewater,...
Dealing with DNAPLs
Trichloroethylene (TCE) in groundwater is one of the most prevalent contamination problems at hazardous waste sites; a problem that is substantially greater if the TCE is present as dense...
Standing Firm: When Ethics are Challenged
The Daniel W. Mead Prize for Younger Members is awarded annually for the best paper on ethics submitted by an ASCE younger member. Participants in the 1998 contest responded to a specific...
Shake, Rattle and Hold (Available in Structural Engineering Special Issue Only)
In-situ lateral load tests of two bridge bents were conducted on Interstate 15 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to determine the strength and ductility of an existing concrete bridge and the improvements...
Tornado Aftermath: Questioning the Tools (Available Structural Engineering Special Issue Only)
In May 1997, several tornadoes hit central Texas. The strongest of these killed 27 people and destroyed about 40 single-family houses on the outskirts of Jarrell, north of Austin. A post-storm...
Building Between Buildings (Available in Structural Engineering Special Issue Only)
Construction of tall buildings in the centers of the world's large cities almost invariably involves working within severe site constraints. The constraints can involve all...
Discovering Your Niche
Small consulting engineering firms often find themselves working on multiple projects and heading in no clear direction, and eventually quality begins to suffer. The solution is to concentrate...
Deep Mixing Method: A Global Perspective
Various contemporary deep mixing method (DMM) techniques have been used in the United States since 1986. Such techniques owe their origins to Japanese and Scandinavian developments, which...
Alaska's Last Link
Alaska's Seward Highway has been upgraded this past year. The last section of the highway dates back to the state's early mining days in the Kenai Peninsula,...
Cure for Thinning Concrete
After placing 75% of the concrete liner for twin 4.6 km transit tunnels in Portland, Ore., engineers discovered areas of concrete that were thinner than the prescribed 305 mm thickness....
Baseball Caps
The last ten years have been a renaissance for baseball stadium construction�a trend that doesn't look likely to stop just yet�and four of the new parks are on the cutting...
Ethics: A Professional Concern
The 1998 Daniel W. Mead Student winner answers the essay question What is the role of ethics in professionalism? by discussing ethical conduct as the key to gaining public trust and obtaining...
Wetland Wonder
Pinellas County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District's Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Department jointly retrofitted an urban drainage basin...
Bottoms Up
Placement of dredged material in an environmentally beneficial manner appears to be the trend for the future, considering the economics as well as the increased environmental consciousness...
Cementing the Future
One of the most devastating effects of the Loma Prieta Earthquake that rocked northern California on Oct. 17, 1989 was the collapse of the elevated Cypress Freeway (Interstate 880) in...
Superfund Success, Superfast
After 15 years of indecision, unprecedented cooperation among regulatory agencies, community action groups, and Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) resulted in the completion of remedial...
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