Implementing Highway Safety Improvements
The goal of the ASCE Specialty Conference on Implementing Highway Safety Improvements was to enhance the safety of our nation's highways by identifying the best, most successful...
Bicycle Transportation
A Civil Engineer's Notebook for Bicycle Facilities
The planning and design of bicycle facilities are examined, with the facilities divided into these topics: pavements, drainage, traffic controls, amenities, lighting, parking, landscaping,...
Pile Field Support Prefabricated Plants Floated into Place
A unique pile support system, combined with earth dikes and superflooding inside an earth drydock to found floating, prefabricated plant structures on the piles, is estimated to have saved...
Solar Energy for Heating Homes: How Practical�
There is a widespread belief that on-site solar energy for heating homes is still not a proven technology and that, in any event, it's much too expensive. The fact is that...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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