Carbon Treatment of Drinking Water: N.J. Plant Trying to Get Out Bugs
The federal Environmental Protection Agency wants drinking-water plants in the U.S. to install granular activated carbon treatment. Such would remove synthetic organics in the water. There's...
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...
Subsidence�A Geological Problem with a Political Solution
Subsidence due to groundwater overdraft is a problem common to areas in the western U.S. with minimal water supplies and growing populations. Action to prevent subsidence-related damage...
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...
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...
Notched Trusses Give Low-Cost Conversion of Hangars for Jumbo Jets
Physically notching the structural members in a hangar roof solved the problem of moving new DC-10 aircraft into and out of maintenance hangars built for smaller, earlier-generation commercial...
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...
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...
Political Action�Why Are Engineers Getting Involved�
Two engineering societies�National Society of Professional Engineers and American Consulting Engineers Council�in the past two years have established Political Action Committees. Their...
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?...
Japan as Number One (Book Review)
Japan is world champ in rate of growth of productivity of its economy�� 10% a year compared with 0% currently for the U.S. Any of the reasons for this dramatically different economic performance...
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