Countering Chemical and Biological Terrorism
Prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, building protection related to terrorism primarily focused on the threat of bombs detonated inside vechicles. However the September 2001...
Training Grounds
A state-of-the-art training facility at a Texas community college is ready to train fire and rescue personnel to cope with disasters ranging from fuel fires and floods to collapsing structures...
Saving Saluda
One of the largest roller-compacted-concrete berms in the United States will stand sentinel in case South Carolina's Saluda Dam undergoes liquifaction in response to strong...
Fast Forward
Under the aegis of the French government, the Soci�t� Nationale des Chemins de Fer Fran�ais (French National Railway Society), or SNCF, has built two new bridges, each approximately 1,100...
Going Against the Grain
Conventional wisdom has it that granular soils perform better in mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall systems. Their properties are well known and simple to express in mathematical...
Competence or Collapse
Gottshall, the winner of ASCE's Daniel W. Mead Prize for a paper on ethics by younger members, refers to the large-scale damage from recent earthquakes in Turkey as well as...
Back from the Brink
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, has been moved to prevent it from toppling into the sea as a result of coastal erosion. Engineers from...
Advances in Composite Materials and Mechanics
Recent advances in the development and use of composite materials have renewed interest in the applications of engineering mechanics in this growing field. This proceedings provides a...
Scaffolding�What Can We Do? (Available only in Structural Engineering Special Issue)
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. investigated a construction site scaffolding collapse at a West Coast hotel which permanently injured three workers. The engineering investigation...
Repeated Loading of Stabilized Recycled Aggregate Base Course
The fatigue behavior, resilient properties, and progressive accumulation of damage due to repeated flexural loads on a fiber-reinforced pavement base course material composed of cement-stabilized...
Dam Engineers Go Over the Top
In the 1980s, dam engineers with the Lower Colorado River Authority worried that the Wirtz Dam, near Austin, Texas, would fail in the event of a maximum probable flood. They looked to...
Corrosion Control
As pipe systems with nonwelded joints have become more common, so have problems with corrosion. It's up to designers to carefully consider corrosion issues in order to avoid...
Braced for Failure (Available only in Structural Engineering Special Issue)
Investigations into the collapse of steel-framed structures often focus on minor, insignificant design flaws, only to ignore the real culprit: inadequate temporary bracing. The collapse...
Balancing Act (Available only in Geoenvironmental Special Issue)
On March 9, 1996, at the Rumpke sanitary landfill near Cincinnati, a precariously overbuilt waste slope collapsed and more than 20 acres of waste slammed into an adjacent excavation site....
Construction Safety Affected by Codes and Standards
These five papers present an insight into, and highlights of, some very recent design/construction standardization activities in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Japan and Israel. New performance-type...
Forensic Engineering
This proceedings contains the papers resented at the First Forensic Engineering Congress, a special part of the American Society of Civil Engineers Annual Convention held in Minneapolis,...
Grand Gusset Failure
In May 1996, structural failure forced the closure of twin 850 ft long arched truss bridges, each carrying two lanes of interstate traffic over the Grand River, 30 mi east of Cleveland....
Communication Breakdown
Are modern telecommunications networks vulnerable to earthquakes? Researchers say yes, and have developed a computer tool to quantify potential economic impacts. Telecommunications service...
Cable Corrosion in Bridges and Other Structures:
Causes and Solutions
This book provides the reader with basic facts concerning cable corrosion and means to avoid or rehabilitate corrosion damage. Corrosion problems associated with cable-supported structures...
Historical Development of Bridge Scour Evaluations
Scour of bridge foundations (piers and abutments) is the largest single cause of bridge failures in the United States. Conversely, uncertainties of the scour depth at bridge piers and...
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