How about Reverse Filters
Reverse or inverted filters allow water to drain freely without carrying away suspended solids. Their pore size must be properly related to the fines being protected. Terzaghi's...
Entrenchment of Sewage Sludge�a Disposal-Use Alternative
Entrenchment of sewage sludge is an alternative for the disposal and use of sewage sludge. Its advantages include high disposal rate, little odor problem, and no surface runoff. Two methods...
Research Needs in Hydraulics, Coastal Engineering and Irrigation
Last June an ASCE/NSF team gathered at Warrenton, Va., to prioritize research needs in civil engineering. They split the field into 10 subcategories, one of which is Hydraulics, Coastal...
The Zero-Energy House: The Bold Low-Cost Breakthrough that may Revolutionize Housing
The world is in the early stages of a revolution in housing. About 200 houses have already been built in Canada that use under $125/yr for electric-resistance space heating�� even where...
Subsidence�A Geological Problem with a Political Solution
Subsidence due to groundwater overdraft is a problem common to areas in the western U.S. with minimal water supplies and growing populations. Action to prevent subsidence-related damage...
Basics in Failure Analysis of Large Structures
Failure analysis procedures can usually determine the most probalbe cause of a structural failure. Then it is possible to determine why the initial design, materials selection, and fabrication...
The Fly-Over: It Unclogs Urban Traffic in A Hurry
Fly-overs are light-weight, low-cost, prefabricated steel structures that elevate only one or two lanes over a traffic-choked city intersection but dramatically reduce congestion. By removing...
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...
Cognac: World's Tallest Offshore Oil Platform
Shell Oil's 1980 OCEA-winner is a three-sectioned design of steel fabrication and deep-sea installation. Cognac is currently the world's tallest, heaviest, and...
Duluth Sanitary District First in U.S. to Take Charge of Both Sewage and Refuse
The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District, serving Duluth, Minnesota and its suburbs, is the first sanitary district in the U.S. to be responsible for both wastewater and municipal refuse...
Space Shuttle
In modifying the decade-old Apollo man-to-the-moon launch facilities at Cape Kennedy, FL, for the forthcoming Space Shuttle mission NASA and contractors made two major innovations: To...
Baltimore Borrows Bridge Beams
A look at the construction of the Baltimore Convention Center, its four domelike exhibition halls, the main lobby and its service areas. The Center's four columnless exhibit...
Vail Pass Highway�Respecter of Mountain Ecology
Environmental constraints to a large degree controlled both the design and construction of a 14-mi segment of Interstate Highway 70 through Vail Pass in Colorado and necessitated adoption...
Electricity from the Sea
In Hawaii, the state, Lockheed Space and Missile Co. and Dillingham Corp. have conceived, designed and built the first prototype ocean thermal energy conversion plant. OTEC uses the 40�F...
New Telescope has Innovative Structural Design
The new optical telescope at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, is the third largest in the world, but one of the most economical to build. The savings is the result of using 6 lightweight, small mirrors...
Automatic Steam Gathering Reduces Emissions at The Geysers
At the site of The Geysers, America's only geothermal power plant and the largest such plant in the world, the first completely computerized steam gathering system has been...
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...
Parrotts Ferry Bridge: Pioneer in Lightweight, Pumped Concrete
Spanning the Stanislaus River in Northern California, this bridge includes a 640-ft center span that is the world's longest span in lightweight concrete and the longest bridge...
TVA's Pumped Storage Plant
TVA's Raccoon Mountain Plant is one of the U.S.'s largest with generating capacity of 1530 MW for 20 hours. The project, nominated for a 1980 OCEA, consists of...
Notched Trusses Give Low-Cost Conversion of Hangars for Jumbo Jets
Physically notching the structural members in a hangar roof solved the problem of moving new DC-10 aircraft into and out of maintenance hangars built for smaller, earlier-generation commercial...
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