A New Fast Track for Public Works
Most public contracts are still awarded to the lowest bidder, but some states are experimenting with other approaches for complex projects. In Oregon, officials facing a tight deadline...
Concrete Surface Characterization Using Optical Metrology
The displacement of the surface of a concrete specimen is measured as it cures using an optical method. This method, known as optical metrology, is one in which a line is projected onto...
Reassessing the Risk Assessment
Risk assessments should help an engineer determine cost-effective remedies to environmental pollution. Unfortunately, most don't. Most assessments drastically overestimate...
Landfills: Anatomy of Automated Design
California's 360 acre Bee Canyon landfill (completed last year) sits amid a complicated network of narrow canyons with side slopes 300 ft high. As with most landfill projects,...
Dynamic Compaction of Nuclear Waste
When ponding, caused by settlement of the original soil cover over low-level nuclear waste buried at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Nuclear Plant near Aiken, S.C.,...
The Environment is Good Business in France
The environmental movement is an important political concern in Europe with the Green party gaining ground in several nations. The European Economic Community is developing environmental...
Howdy, Partner
Litigation has long been a nemesis to the construction industry. In recent years, contractors and owners have used innovative alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques, such as arbitration,...
Value Engineering at a Superfund Site
The Helen Kramer Landfill ranked fourth on the EPA's National Priorities List and the estimated cost of clean up was about $39 million. By value engineering selected parts...
Coal-Gas Conundrum
Manufactured gas from coal brought streetlights and clean cooking fuel to the late Victorian era, but a hundred years later their legacy isn't quite so beneficial. Investigators...
Collective Excellence
Building Effective Teams
Life in the Fast Track
Through innovative financing and skillful construction management, Oklahoma is proving that transportation megaprojects are still possible, even during an economic downturn. The result...
Motown Tunneling
When finished in 1993, Wayne County Michigan's $69 million wastewater treatment/sewer project will link outlying areas such as Dearborn with sewage treatment facilities in...
Project Management: Keys to Success
Successful construction projects can be traced to several key factors observed by the owner, the AE and the contractor. They include: 1) Goals and commitment of the managing partners agreed...
Densification/Creep Behavior of Experimental Glass-Ceramic Waste Forms for Immobilization of High-Level Calcined Waste at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant
A mixture of simulated high-level calcined waste (HLW) and Frit additives was hot isostatically pressed (HIPed) to a dense glass-ceramic waste form. A densification mapping software was...
Geoelectrical Tomography: Model Studies Related to Nuclear Waste Site Characterization
Borehole geoelectrical measurements offer a promising means for detecting and delineating resistivity anomalies in candidate geological formations being considered for underground storage...
Effect of Water on the Consolidation of Crushed Rock Salt
The consolidation behavior of crushed rock salt, as the backfill in the under-ground disposal of nuclear waste, will be important in controlling room closure rates and local permeability....
Anatomy of the Loma Prieta Earthquake Records of Two Steel Buildings Using MIMO System Identification
The Loma Prieta strong-motion records of a 4-story and a 47-story steel building are analyzed using system identification. A time variation study from the 4-story building records reveals...
Seismic Stability Analysis of Landfill
The failure mechanism of a waste containment system is not well understood due to the complexity and the heterogeneity of the system. The recent slope failure of the Kettleman Hills waste...
Genesis: The Creation of a Lunar Base
A lunar basing scenario that utilizes lunar resources to manufacture lunar concrete modules is considered. An eleven year basing program, starting with initial robotic exploration and...
Construction and Development of a Human Base on Mars
Humans on Mars will face many challenges. Possibly the first and one of the longest will be the construction and growth of the base. In this paper a number of techniques are looked at...
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