The Planning and Engineering Interface with a Modernized Land Data System
Concern for the modernization of our land records and land resources information systems has been evolving since the early 1960's. Geographic location is the common denominator linking...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
Tangshan Rebuilds after Mammoth Earthquake
The City of Tangshan, China was totally devastated in 1976 by a major earthquake. Over 240,000 people were killed in one of history's greatest disasters. The quake had a Richter...
Ontario Writes New Bridge Code
In 1976, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation and Communications decided to write its own bridge design code, breaking away from the AASHTO code, because: (1)It wanted a metric...
U.S.-China Relations: Friends Now, Partners Tomorrow
Now that diplomatic relations are resumed, U.S. firms are vying for a share of the big development contracts China has to offer: ports and waterways development, earthquake engineering,...
First Line of Atlanta's New Transit System Opens
With lessons learned from San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Atlanta hopes to avoid some of the problems encountered by those cities in building and operating its new transit system....
Has Metrication Run Out of Gas�
The U.S. is the only major country not to have adopted the International System of Units (SI) as its official measurement system, but the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 established official...
Stub Girders Cut Steel Use
One innovation in steel building construction, now 10 years old, is the steel stub girder floor framing system. By using a girder that is a composite of steel girder, metal deck and lightweight...
Top Highway Problems: Finance and Maintenance
The nation's highway departments say their number one problem is inadequate funds. Congress and the Federal Highway Administration are worried that, due to inadequate highway...
World's First Iron Bridge
In 1779, using a new man-made material, skilled English workmen built a single-span bridge of cast iron over a steep river gorge about 140 miles northwest of London. The result was a 424-ton...
Reducing Sewer Infiltration/Inflow
Under the terms of the EPA Water Pollution Control Legislation, cities must eliminate excess infiltration/inflow to be eligible for 75% EPA sewerage construction grants. To determine the...
State-of-the-Art Report on Air-Supported Structures
A structure with a structural system which is dependent on pressurization, either positive or negative, is termed a pressure preloaded structure. Most pressure preloaded structures intended...
Irrigation and Drainage in the Nineteen-Eighties
Proceedings of the 1979 Irrigation and Drainage Division Specialty Conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 17-20, 1979. Sponsored by the Irrigation and Drainage Division of the...
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