New Umbrella Society for Engineering is Taking Shape
If all goes as planned (and the prognosis is good), 1980 will see the start of operation of a new umbrella society in engineering. The joint creation of many engineering specialty societies...
Women Engineers: Here to Stay
Women represent 51% of the U.S. population; 1% of the engineering profession. That is now changing and, consequently, women graduates are highly sought after. But once hired, many women...
Underground Buildings Save Energy
While properly designed underground buildings use less energy for heating and cooling, that's not always the reason they're underground. For example, San Francisco's...
Washington METRO: A People's Eye View
Much has been written about the technical aspects of this 101 mile, 86 station system. But as important in Washington, D.C. were the political aspects. Backed by Presidents; scrutinized...
Largest Inverted Shell Houses Two Theaters
A meeting center in Albany, New York, has such a complex shape that it took months just to design its surface mathematically. Perched on a pedestal, it is nearly elliptical in plan. From...
Honolulu Sewage Plant Pioneers Advanced Primary Treatment, Has Deepest Ocean Outfall
Honolulu recently started up a new sewage treatment plant that brings a new twist to decades-old sewage-treatment technology: advanced primary treatment. Key to this primary treatment...
Modern Engineering Saves Troubled Dam
A badly deteriorated and potentially unsafe dam has been recycled. The 135-ft-high, 300-ft-long LaPrele Dam is a concrete slab-and-buttress structure. Its sloping face slab has leaked...
Coming This Year: Reusable Link with Space
Scheduled for launch in early 1980, the Space Shuttle is the first reusable space vehicle. It will reduce space flight cost, saving an estimated $11.2 billion between 1980 and 1991. This...
Building Skyscrapers in Orbit
NASA plans to build a host of large structures (communications antennas, remote-sensing radiometers, solar power satellites, etc.) in space. Three ways to build them are: (1)Fabricate...
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...
Education in Civil Engineering: Boost Professional Orientation�
ASCE held a Conference on Civil Engineering Education at Madison, Wisc., in April 1979, and these three items seemed to be among those generating most interest: (1)Professional Schools...
New Use for Filter Fabric: Highway Construction
A growing area of filter fabric use is road construction, both secondary and superhighway. The article focuses on one case history in Cambridge, Maryland where, after a one-year test,...
Environmental Engineering Research Needs
In June 1979 a National Science Foundation�ASCE workshop was convened to prepare a report suggesting top-priority research needs in civil engineering for the 1980s. The field was split...
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...
Jacked Pipe Provides Roof for Underground Construction in Busy Urban Area
Construction of a major underground station for the metro in Antwerp, Belgium was done in a busy downtown area employing a method that virtually eliminated ground subsidence. The method...
Transportation Engineering Research Needs
In June 1979 a workshop on Civil Engineering Research Needs was convened by the National Science Foundation and ASCE. Of 10 subfields into which civil engineering was split, one was transportation...
Redesigning the Auto: A Key to Solving the U.S. Energy
The automobile is a tremendous consumer of energy. The entire transport sector uses 26% of the energy used in the U.S.�� and half the oil. In fact, the American auto alone consumes one-ninth...
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...
Winter Roads and Ice Bridges
In order to realize development of the La Grande hydroelectric complex in the James Bay Territory of northern Quebec Province, Canada, the cold weather had to be capitalized on for construction...
Research Needs in Structural Engineering
Here are some highlights of the state of Research Needs in Structural Engineering, prepared at National Science Foundation�ASCE workshop in June 1979. Overall, the statement says, U.S....
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