A Profession Peers at Itself
An increasing number of firms are inviting their competitors to come in and survey the way they do business. Peer reviews cover all aspects of a firm's management, from record...
Celebrating a Conquest
During construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which marked its 50th anniversary on Nov. 11, 1986, great public attention was paid to the high-climbing steelworkers, but...
Designing for Flow
Geotextiles used for in-plane drainage can carry surprisingly large amounts of water within their structures. These composite drains, known as sheet drains, prefabricated drainage composites...
Designing for Shock Resistance
If a product or structure is subject to shock loadings, and is unable to take them without unacceptable damage, it must be insulated from the shock. The decision may be to redesign the...
Constructing a Better Environment
The civil engineer is traditionally designated the jobsite environmental engineer during construction, and is responsible for managing environmental protection and monitoring. Jobsite...
Earthmoving and Heavy Equipment
These proceedings are comprised of technical papers, reports, remarks, and discussions presented at the Specialty Conference on Earthmoving and Heavy Equipment in Tempe, Arizona, on February...
Grouting a Sand Dam
Hardy Dam, owned by Michigan's Consumers Power Co., was constructed in 1929 by dumping sand from railroad trestles for an embankment to support a concrete core wall. Some...
Soil Nailing a Wall
Soil nailing is the reinforced-earth idea (in which the earth must be backfilled behind the wall) applied to cut situations. Soil nails are an inexpensive post-tensioned tieback, consisting...
Jet Grouting: Snail's Pace of Adoption
Jet grouting is grouting of soil, but the process, the equipment and the subsurface product are different from the familiar ones. Here the cement grouting is mixed in situ with the surrounding...
The Training of the Owner
Engineers would do well to explain to their clients just what the role of the engineer is. The place to start is with one's ability to produce a perfect set of plans. Imperfections...
New Runways Take Off
The two mile long runway 9-27, now being constructed at Houston Intercontinental Airport, was built for about 30% ($7 million) less than if designed conventionally. Rather than concrete...
Complexity in Concrete
Centrust Tower in Miami, Fla., is a $95 million, 37 story, 600,000 sq ft tower rising from one side of a block-square 11 story parking garage. Columns on the curved side of the triangular...
Wicking Bay Muds
Mud deposits in the San Francisco Bay area make construction difficult. Subsidence prevents many from building in the area. Engineers for O'Brien Kreitzberg conquered this...
Isolating Earthquakes
The Foothills Communities Law and Justice Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is the first U.S. building to rest on base isolators for protection against a possible earthquake of 8.3 Richter....
Global Water Issues
Five critical global water-related issues are discussed. First is the issue of climatic changes and drought. Unfortunately, the opportunities to construct major irrigation projects are...
Cut-and-Fill Becomes Cut-and-Drain
The U.S. Navy's facility in Subic Bay, Philippines, is in a mountainous area which experiences 182 inches of rain per year. These factors plus weak soil, made necessary an...
Spreadsheets: A New Design Tool
New techniques are developing which make computer programming easier. One new technique is spreadsheet programming for microcomputers. Two programs are presented which give a quick overall...
Nuclear Waste Handling and Storage
These papers examine a number of topics related to handling and storage of nuclear wastes and spent fuel as well as some topics related to transportation and long term disposal of nuclear...
Construction Management
A State-of-the-Art Update
Construction Management (CM) is an anomaly of the tradition steeped construction industry. Consequently it has been surrounded by controversy. Now that its brief but rapid development...
Designing for High Technology Use
Four papers are presented detailing factors and/or case studies on high technology facilities. The authors represent different points of view. An owner discusses the three phases of the...
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