Don't Always Put Dam in Narrowest Part of Valley
Hydraulic factors must be taken into account in dam planning and design, because the best structural design is not always the most economical. When the potential for downstream flood damage...
Republic Steel Recycling Over 85% of Wastewater from Steel Mill
At its hot-rolling mill in Canton, Ohio, Republic Steel is recycling over 85% of the wastewater it produces. The wastewater contains suspended particles of scale and oils and greases....
Birth of the Synthetic Fuels Industry
The U.S. is now in the early stages of creating a synthetic fuels industry, a much needed step to help to decrease America's dependence on foreign oil imports. Synfuels refer...
Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant Pioneers in Conservation Approach
One way to save fuel costs in sewage treatment plants is to use methane gas produced during sludge digestion as fuel. Cleveland's Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant, however,...
Part Two: Basics in Failure Analysis of Large Structures
Part two of a article, with part one appearing in May, 1980. Part two begins with microscopic examination which includes the use of scanning and transmission electron microscopes. Covers...
Venezuelan Dock Features Unconventional Design, Quick Set-Up
This structure, designed by Caracas design/construct firm Precomprimido, kills two birds with one stone: a series of huge, hollow concrete cylinders both support the service deck of the...
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,...
Five-Story Timber Framed Building
Multi-story glu-lam frames used as a structural system in the Terman Engineering Center, Stanford University. Covers the problem and solution of combining timber framing with reinforced...
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...
Reducing Failures During Earthquakes
There are common building design and structural errors that result in unnecessary building failures during earthquakes. The failures are the result of design errors, changes and economies...
The Fabric Roof
Only six years after the opening of the first fabric-roofed building, fabric structures are being used all over the world in applications undreamed of only a decade ago. The article recounts...
Political Action�Why Are Engineers Getting Involved�
Two engineering societies�National Society of Professional Engineers and American Consulting Engineers Council�in the past two years have established Political Action Committees. Their...
Public Works Directors�Why Do Some Stand Out�
William Hennessy, Commissioner of New York State's DOT began as a junior engineering aide, went into real estate acquisitions for the state and later entered the state's...
Mount St. Helens Eruption�Impact and Civil Engineering Response
The May 18 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state, estimated to have the energy equivalent of a 20 to 50 megaton atom bomb, did tremendous damage. It destroyed an estimated 160...
Miami Riot�Will a Phoenix Rise from Ashes�
In May, inner-city black residents of Miami, Florida, looted and burned about 300 buildings in their neighborhoods. The cause is detailed�their perception that the judicial system was...
Will the World Face Up to Its Ever-Worsening Environmental Problems�
This article is based on interview with Gerald Barney, a consultant to the President's Council on Environmental Quality and other staff members of that organization. Among...
Groundwater and Non-Point Pollution: Key Water Quality Issues of the 1980's
Problems of the '80s will include: (1)A major effort to bring municipalities into compliance with clean water laws. So far only 40% of the municipalities are in compliance;...
Saving the U.S's Rapidly Dwindling Farmland and Other Priceless Natural Resources
Key to land management in the U.S., according to experts at the Council on Environmental Quality, is management of federally owned lands. U.S. needs to protect prime farmland, wetlands,...
Regulations Complicate Land Reclamation in the West
The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act provides necessary protection to land during and after strip mining. However, according to the coal industry, some of the regulations...
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