Isn't a Subway for Washington, D.C., Just the Thing�
After 100 years of dreaming and 10 years of design and construction, more than 22 miles and 28 stations of the Washington, D.C., Metro are now in revenue operation. When completed in 1983,...
Los Angeles Reservoir is Safe From Earthquakes
The Los Angeles Reservoir was nominated for the 1978 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award. The reservoir, which replaces the Van Norman Reservoir damaged during the 1971 San...
Land Treatment: An Alternative Technology for Wastewater Management
The 1977 Clean Water Act provides some strong incentives for increasing the use of less costly, less energy intensive technology for municipal wastewater treatment facilities. Specifically,...
Small Midwestern Consultant Introduces Inhouse Desk Top Computer
This article traces the history of engineering and surveying calculations in a small civil-geotechnical consulting office in Rock Island, Ill., W.J. Reese & Associates. The expanding...
Dredge-and-Fill Saves $2 Million at Steel Mill Built in Swamp
The Georgetown Texas Steel Corp., in late 1973, accepted the challenge of developing a previously cleared cypress swamp on the east side of the Neches River across from Beaumont, Texas....
Prefab Structural Components Solve Expansion Problem
Another story was added onto an existing low-rise building, where soil strength was so low that the new floor had to be built by sinking new columns down to a sounder stratum, placing...
Reservoir Outlet Extended Above Silt to Prevent Clogging
Accumulation of silt in an on-stream water storage reservoir almost completely buried the concrete tower originally provided as an outlet intake shaft for releasing stored water through...
Aerated-Pile Composting: A Promising New Alternative for Sewage Sludge Disposal
In the past several years, traditional methods of sludge disposal such as incineration and ocean dumping have come under fire from environmental groups and the EPA. This has sparked a...
Subway Designs and Construction Methods That Cut Costs
The high cost of subway construction in the United States can be reduced by adopting station and track structure configurations, structural systems, and construction techniques best suited...
Gophers Go Underground
A major facility, Williamson Hall, was constructed to be almost entirely below grade on the East Bank Campus of the University of Minnesota. Heating and cooling energy requirements will...
Expansive Soils�Geotechnical Problems Are in Hand; Now Need to Familiarize Nonengineers
Expansive soils damage thousands of buildings, many miles of highway each year. How and why these types of clays expand is explained. How geotechnical engineers in Colorado, Texas and...
Soil Improvement
History, Capabilities, and Outlook
This report is intended to help engineers meet the need for practical, efficient, economical, and environmentally acceptable means for improving unsuitable soils and sites, for expanded...
Pitfalls of Overconservatism in Geotechnical Engineering
The article cites at least three reasons why geotechnical engineers may be overconservative: (1) They may try to satisfy unreasonable standards established by themselves or others; (2)...
Mammoth Transshipment Terminal Links Montana Coal to Michigan Power Plant
In 1973 Detroit Edison contracted with the Decker Coal Company for 200 million tons (181 Tg) of Western low-sulphur coal over a period of 26 years to meet its requirement for low-cost,...
Filter Fabrics in Shore-Protection Structures: Save Money, Ease Installation
Over the past decade, plastic filter fabrics have seen growing use in shore-protection structures (e.g. revetments, breakwaters, jetties), river-bank protection schemes, and other areas...
Sand and Gravel � Don't Take Them for Granted
One assumes the supply of sand and gravel is inexhaustible. In fact, at certain times and places it is not. At least not at today's relatively low prices. This is particularly...
Recording River and Reservoir Water Depth
At the Kerr Reservoir on the Roanoke River in Virginia and North Carolina, reservoir bottom was surveyed before reservoir filling and twice thereafter, to determine rate of siltation....
Vibroreplacement and Reinforced Earth Unite to Strengthen a Weak Foundation
Two relatively new engineering concepts in the U.S. were successfully used to solve a difficult soils problem. A highway skirting Idaho's Lake Pend Oreille was built on a...
Minnesota Interceptor Sewer Breaks New Ground
The Beltline Interceptor is a gravity interceptor sanitary sewer which has its outlet in St. Paul and its beginning in White Bear Lake. Major requirements called for a design which would...
Channel Siltation Determined with Side-Scan Radar
Of the new electronic means to measure water depth, side-scan sonar is unusual in that it gives not just a cross-section of the bottom but a semi-3-D picture of the bottom surface. Experienced...
Return to search