Multimillion-Acre Tea Bag
Just as pouring the same cupful again and again through a tea strainer makes bitter tea, so irrigating again and again with return-flow water concentrates salts in the water supply. While...
America's Covered Bridges
Soon after the Revolutionary War, bridge construction became more important in the United States. Early builders developed by trail and error an economical, permanent, long-span covered...
Alaska's Native Log Bridges
There are several thousand bridges of this type which carry heavy logging trucks in Alaska and remote areas of the lower 48 states. Covers bridge safety, wheel-load distribution, field...
Computer-Aided Design and Drafting for Small Engineering Firms
As the cost of computer hardware decreases, use of the computer-aided design and drafting is becoming a cost-efficient investment for smaller engineering firms. The article includes four...
West Virginia Cooling Tower Collapse Caused by Premature Form Removal
The collapse of a reinforced concrete cooling tower under construction at Willow Island, W.Va. in April 1978 resulted in 51 fatalities, making it the worst construction accident in American...
Continuing Education in Engineering�What's New?
ASCE's growing program in continuing education is described, plus a view of projected program growth. Two background factors�whether or not more states are likely to follow...
New Approach to Storm Drainage Pipe Design
Using a recently developed computer program, drainage swales can be designed to provide short-term storage of stormwater. Benefits of this approach to stormwater management include reduced...
Post-Tensioned Foundations as Economical Alternative
Although post-tensioned (p-t) foundations have been utilized in the U.S. since the early 1960s, the last five years have witnessed a substantial increase in their implementation. Used...
Stumbling Blocks to Effective Management
The author, who for a time was a manager with a powerplant design/construct company, after working with many aspiring managers, concludes that five stumbling blocks exist that sometimes...
Willow Island Aftermath: The Limits of OSHA
In April 1978 a natural-draft hyperbolic concrete cooling tower under construction at Willow Island, W.Va. collapsed. Fifty-one workers, suspended on a scaffold supported mainly by a layer...
The Concrete Canoe: A Technological Challenge
In 1970 the first concrete canoe was built, and since that time many colleges and universities have built and raced concrete canoes. The Union College (Schenectady, NY) Stone Boat Club...
River Clean-Up Plan Developed with Citizens and Industry
In Wisconsin, a group of citizens has worked closely with industry and professional water quality planners to develop a plan to make a once polluted river fishable/swimmable. This plan,...
Public Engineers�Why the Least Happy Category of Civil Engineers�
Civil engineers in government, city, county, state and federal, and especially the first three, seem to be the group of ASCE members who are least happy. Reasons why include lower pay...
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...
Hartford Coliseum Roof Collapse: Structural Collapse Sequence and Lessons Learned
As with all structural failures, the collapse of the Hartford Civic Center Coliseum roof has raised many questions about design and analysis procedures. The profession should learn from...
Whither Satellite Remote Sensing�II�
For about six years, NASA SERTS (now called Landsat) satellites have been circling the globe, radioing back digital information on what they see on earth. After being massaged by computer,...
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...
Re-decking a Bridge With Precast Concrete
Re-decking a 1627-ft deck girder bridge on the Pennsylvania Turnpike with precast concrete slabs allowed the bridge to remain partially open to traffice during the entire construction...
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