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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
Municipal Sewage: Three Communities Try to Cope
To meet federal clean water guidelines, New Hampshire's Winnipesaukee River Basin, the City of San Francisco, and the City of Milwaukee have to upgrade their treatment to...
What Can be Done to Boost the Efficiency of the Civil Engineering Profession�
In view of all the talk about the declining efficiency of American business, how can civil engineering works be planned, designed, constructed, operated, or maintained more efficiently?...
Some Ideas for Reducing Subway Construction Costs
This article presents the conclusions of a major study made during the past few years of both U.S. and European practices in building subways. Among the key conclusions: Planners and designers...
Pavement Recycling Catching On
Sparked by rising prices of asphalt, aggregates, energy, and construction labor, and plagued by a decline in the real dollars available for highway and road maintenance, many highway departments...
Inspecting Dam Construction
Through and competent inspection during construction is crucial to assure dam safty. Inspection for dam construction is more important than for other types of structures because plans...
Return to search