Prediction of Soil Water Properties for Hydrologic Modeling
Water flow in soils can be characterized for many boundary and initial conditions by solving governing differential equations. Thus, a physically consistent means of quantifying water...
Silent Negotiations: Listen with Your Eyes
More than sixty per cent of all communication is non-verbal. The impact of body language during negotiations can be either positive or negative, depending on the negotiator's...
A Case History of Leakage from a Surface Impoundment
A manufacturing company constructed a 48-acre (19 hectare), unlined surface impoundment at a site in northern Texas to store wastewater. The site is underlain by unsaturated, alluvial...
Probability of Stability Design of Open Pit Slopes
Uncertainty and risk have always been associated with mining. This is evidenced in the common mining terminology of proven ore, probable ore, and possible ore. From a geotechnical standpoint,...
Probability Applied to Slope Design?Case Histories
A major problem encountered with the choice of an appropriate value for the design probability. Initial experience, obtained during open-pit investigation, suggested that slope geometry...
Noise and Air Blast from Construction Blasting
Noise generated by construction blasting differs from other construction noise because of its frequency content. The audible high frequency portion is accompanied by a non audible, lower...
Highway Noise: FHWA Requirements and Barrier Design
Since 1973, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has required noise studies for nearly all proposed roadways and roadway improvements that receive federal aid. An overview of these...
Noise Characteristics of Alternative Urban Transit Technologies
The noise characteristics of alternative transit technologies for an urban area are summarized. Among the transportation technologies considered are a busway system, light rail transit...
Cost-Effective Design of Practically Vibration-Free High-Technology Facilities
Advanced electro-optical equipment, such as that used in the production of integrated circuits, requires clean environments with extremely limited vibrations. Ground motions, personnel...
Auditors Eye the Environment
Environmental audits are being used by an increasing number of companies, and are providing a substantial new market for environmental engineers. Environmental audits are formal self-appraisals...
Can Clay Liners Work?
Nearly all liners for landfills and surface impoundments were constructed from compacted clay until about five years ago. But this is no longer so. In the past few years, clay liners used...
Lift Bridge looks Like Sculpture
A lift bridge built in 1926 over the U.S. Canal at Kaukauna, Wis. was replaced by a sleek new lift bridge whose sculptured shape encloses all the machinery within welded steel box sections....
Hammering Out a New RCRA
Recent amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) add thousands of new waste generators and many new wastes to the list of those to be regulated. Some say RCRA is...
Is There Grit in Your Sludge?
Getting the grit out of municipal sludge can lower the total cost of operating a wastewater plant. Grit escalates maintenance costs and abrasive-laden sludge is costly to dispose of. Because...
A Tale of Six Cities
Battle Creek is a four mile urban stream that had an erosion problem that was accelerating with urbanization of its watershed. Erosion created unstable ravine slopes over 60 feet high,...
Innovative Strategies to Improve Urban Transportation Performance
The field of urban transportation is facing some severe challenges. Roadways continue to deteriorate, the financial condition of public transit systems is abysmal, and general productivity...
A Road to Recovery
Inspections of the Golden Gate Bridge revealed that the bridge had localized corrosion near its expansion joints, corrosion of its reinforcing steel, and was severely contaminated with...
Challenges to Civil Engineering Educators and Practitioners?Where Should We Be Going?
The papers included in this publication present an overview of the current state of civil engineering education and resolutions for future development in the field. Six key areas are covered:...
Construction QA/QC Systems that Work
Case Studies
Four case studies discuss the issue of responsibility for quality assurance and quality control by describing actual situations where quality work is being done in the field. The case...
Organization and Management of Public Transport Projects
Transit development projects are undertaken to help satisfy escalating transportation needs in modern cities. The projects address an array of technical, social, and environmental considerations....
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