The Long Road to Regulatory Reform
A brief report on ASCE's actions to encourage the regulatory reform movement in Washington. Included are the resolution as accepted by ASCE's Board of Direction,...
U.S. Water Policy: Putting the Lid on the Pork Barrel
Federal water policy is undergoing a significant change, both in the way projects are developed and approved and in the kinds of water problems addressed. The Congress and the Executive...
The New Energy Boom: Hydropower
Based on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimate, there are 49,500 dams in the U.S. that could produce around 9,000 MW of power. The government has been subsidizing demonstration projects...
Earth-Filled Slurry Walls Provide Economical Seepage Control
Slurry trench cut-off walls are often used for seepage control after structures requiring excavation are completed, but at a construction site on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway project...
Computerizing Public Works Design
Computers are an easy way to increase engineering design productivity. This is especially important to public works departments who have decreasing budgets and increasing work loads. This...
San Antonio Freeway: Social-Impact Landmark
San Antonio's McAllister Freeway, or rather its proposed construction, aroused so much furor as to generate national publicity in the early 1970s. Objections arose because...
Critical Path Scheduling: An Overview
CPM and PERT project-management scheduling are seldom used or understood in spite of over 20 years availability. In fact, many are strongly opposed to it, having had reams of computer...
Strategic Petroleum Reserves: Billion Dollar Project to Provide Energy Security for U.S., Part 1 and 2
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, created in 1975, is intended to provide security to the U.S. by storing 750 million barrels of crude oil in salt domes in Louisiana and Texas. Since 1976,...
Value Engineering and Cement-Bentonite Cutoff Wall Save Dam Project for Arizona Indian Tribe
Value engineering showed how it was possible to save $1 million in construction costs for the San Carlos River Dam, east of Phoenix, Ariz. The proposed dam site was moved to take advantage...
Municipal Sewage: Three Communities Try to Cope
To meet federal clean water guidelines, New Hampshire's Winnipesaukee River Basin, the City of San Francisco, and the City of Milwaukee have to upgrade their treatment to...
Some Ideas for Reducing Subway Construction Costs
This article presents the conclusions of a major study made during the past few years of both U.S. and European practices in building subways. Among the key conclusions: Planners and designers...
Gabions: Economical, Environmentally Compatible Erosion Control
Not well known in this country, gabions have been in use for about 75 years in Europe. Gabions are wire baskets, filled with rock and wired together to form an erosion control or bank...
Highway History: Modern Turnpike Era Recounted
Early history of the development of revenue bond financing of transportation projects is outlined including advances in engineering technique and policies. The origins of the original...
Why Does a Federal Demonstration Project Succeed or Fail�
This is a condensed version of an article published in
The Computer Service Bureau: What Role Today�
Given the fact that minicomputers are finding their way into more and more engineering offices today, it is timely to ask: does the computer service bureau still have a role to play? This...
Stamford's Urban Renewal Project Takes Off
Stamford, Conn. is one of the most fiscally sound cities in the United States. And a key reason is that over the past 13 years, it has become the home of 16 of the nation's...
Washington METRO: A People's Eye View
Much has been written about the technical aspects of this 101 mile, 86 station system. But as important in Washington, D.C. were the political aspects. Backed by Presidents; scrutinized...
Corps Takes New Approach to Flood Control
As urban development increased storm runoff into the Charles River, a dam built in 1910 became inadequate to protect the Boston area from flooding. Boston suffered $5,000,000 in flood...
More Than Just Another Routine Job
Split-second scheduling, attention to community needs and esthetics�� all figures into the design and construction of the Mission Road highway-railroad grade separation in central Los...
Has Metrication Run Out of Gas�
The U.S. is the only major country not to have adopted the International System of Units (SI) as its official measurement system, but the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 established official...
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