Brownfields by the Book
To spur the redevelopment of brownfield properties, many state legislatures have passed laws that allow developers to revitalize contaminated industrial sites without the high risks or...
Tornado Aftermath: Questioning the Tools (Available Structural Engineering Special Issue Only)
In May 1997, several tornadoes hit central Texas. The strongest of these killed 27 people and destroyed about 40 single-family houses on the outskirts of Jarrell, north of Austin. A post-storm...
Building Between Buildings (Available in Structural Engineering Special Issue Only)
Construction of tall buildings in the centers of the world's large cities almost invariably involves working within severe site constraints. The constraints can involve all...
Alaska's Last Link
Alaska's Seward Highway has been upgraded this past year. The last section of the highway dates back to the state's early mining days in the Kenai Peninsula,...
Baseball Caps
The last ten years have been a renaissance for baseball stadium construction�a trend that doesn't look likely to stop just yet�and four of the new parks are on the cutting...
Cementing the Future
One of the most devastating effects of the Loma Prieta Earthquake that rocked northern California on Oct. 17, 1989 was the collapse of the elevated Cypress Freeway (Interstate 880) in...
Superfund Success, Superfast
After 15 years of indecision, unprecedented cooperation among regulatory agencies, community action groups, and Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) resulted in the completion of remedial...
Preliminary Evaluation Findings for Ice Ban
Prepared by the Highway Innovative Technology Evaluation Center, a CERF Service Center. This report describes results obtained from the field evaluation...
Evaluation Findings for Earthquake Protection Systems, Inc. Friction Pendulum Bearings
Prepared by the Highway Innovative Technology Evaluation Center (HITEC), a CERF Service Center. This report summarizes the results of a detailed evaluation...
Northumberland's Ice Breaker
Extending more than 12.8 km over treacherous waters, the new Northumberland Strait Crossing had to go a long way to finally join the last separate Canadian province to the mainland. Design...
Compensation Grouting
To minimize ground movement while tunneling a sewer 5 m below Toronto's Spadina subway line, engineers used special instrumentation, tunneling control and grouting to limit...
A Race to Innovate
The annual Concrete Canoe Competition, which is co-sponsored by the ASCE and Cleveland-based Master Builders, fosters several engineering breakthroughs that are ignored or forgotten by...
Putting On Your Safety Cap
Geomembranes are an important part of landfill cap design. However not all geomembrane liners are created equal, and it's best to know what a liner is made of before specifying...
Dam Engineers Go Over the Top
In the 1980s, dam engineers with the Lower Colorado River Authority worried that the Wirtz Dam, near Austin, Texas, would fail in the event of a maximum probable flood. They looked to...
Monumental Restorations
Modern nondestructive field surveys and state-of-the-art static dynamic monitoring systems provide important information for historical renovations while ensuring that the structure remains...
On Solid Ground (Available only in the Geoenvironmental Special Issue)
On four transportation projects in Portland, Ore., soil nails and micropiles are used as alternatives to conventional earth-retention and foundation systems. The use of soil nails and...
Concrete Colossus
After finding 120 million cubic meters of oil and 30 billion standard cubic meters of natural gas 175 kilometers off the Norwegian coast, Houston-based Conoco, Inc. was faced with a second...
Better Salt Storage
Facing tighter maintenance budgets and stringent environmental regulations, many highway departments are designing and building innovative structures to store road salt. One such structure...
Corrosion Control
As pipe systems with nonwelded joints have become more common, so have problems with corrosion. It's up to designers to carefully consider corrosion issues in order to avoid...
Timber!
For engineers accustomed to working with steel, using large wood beams in structural applications can be an unusual experience. Three Midwestern construction projects�a nature center,...
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