Roads for Sale
Due to the decline in available federal revenue for transportation facilities, privatization is becoming a common alternative to project financing. A case study of a public/private partnership...
Design/Construct Contract Speeds Bridge Job
In the name of time and money savings, Pennsylvania DOT is building a bridge using a modified turnkey contract. In contrast, the standard approach is first to design the bridge, then ask...
Rehabbing the Underground Railroad
The Park Ave. Railroad Tunnel brings three commuter rail lines into New York City's Grand Central Station. The four tracks occupy three tubes from 97th St. to 57th St., where...
Japan Spans the Inland
Japan recently opened the Kojima-Sakaide Route, a 13.1 km series of bridges across the Inland Sea. The route connects two of Japan's four main islands�Honshu and Shikoku....
Dams and Earthquakes: A Shaky Relationship
The rarity of earthquake-related dam failure does not mean that it can't happen. A phased geologic assessment could prevent potential catastrophe by determining where and...
Costing Contingencies
Estimating the cost of constructing a tunnel is an art rather than a science. The unknowns are too great to predict costs relianblbly. On the other hand, owners need cost estimates in...
RAM Residents
RAM resident programs can eliminate the tedious tasks that normally require leaving the computer. These programs include calendars, phone dialers, calculators and notepads, and they lie...
Lessons from Schoharie Creek
The failure of the Schoharie Creek Bridge in New York State occurred in April 1987. Several investigative panels were commissioned. The failure has been generally attributed to scour,...
Japan Tunnels under the Ocean
The 54 km Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea railroad in the world, opened in March. The tunnel, which connects Japan's two largest islands, Hakkaido and Honshu, is part...
Quality: Out of the Manual and Into the Field
The intent of ASCE's
Opening the Manual for Questions
User response is key to the development of ASCE's
The Cause of the Johnstown Flood
The Johnstown flood occurred in 1889, when an earth and rock dam failed during a record rainfall in eastern Pennsylvania. The flood was one of the worst civil disasters in the U.S.; 2,200...
Lightning Spurs Hydro Rehab
In 1986, a bolt of lightning hit the Upriver Hydro Project in Spokane, Washington and tripped the plant off line. The event triggered a series of events that included an undermining of...
Megaproject Management Tool
Program management oversight is an administration innovation in the water and wastewater treatment field. The method is increasingly being used when a public entity takes on a project...
The Heavy Duty Geogrid Wall
The geogrid reinforced soil retaining wall was a key component in reconstructing a small hydroelectric plant situated at the center of Cascade Dam in Michigan. It was necessary that the...
Contract Documents: Lessons from Litigation
Perfect contract documents and a flawless design are uncommon. Given the complexity of many construction projects and the advances in technology, it is not surprising that contract language,...
Getting the VOCs Out of Well Water
Two technologies are successfully removing volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) from groundwater supplies. Not surprisingly, since the application is new, many of the designs were not optimized...
Special Topics in Foundations
This book contains papers presented at a session related to various theoretical and experimental developments on foundation analysis, design and construction. The papers were written by...
Energy/Environment Opportunities for Civil Engineers
In the West, Nuclear Facilities Decommissioning; In the East, Implementation of Waste to Energy Systems
The papers in this book examine and provide illustrations for civil engineering opportunities in resolving apparent conflicts between needs for energy generation and environmental acceptability....
Microcomputer Knowledge-Based Expert Systems in Civil Engineering
This book contains sixteen papers presenting applications of expert system technology to civil engineering problems with emphasis on microcomputer implementations. It is divided into four...
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