Sell-Off
In 1996, the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, offered its Fairbanks Municipal Utilities System for sale to private bidders. Four different entities assumed ownership of the water and wastewater,...
Dealing with DNAPLs
Trichloroethylene (TCE) in groundwater is one of the most prevalent contamination problems at hazardous waste sites; a problem that is substantially greater if the TCE is present as dense...
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...
Discovering Your Niche
Small consulting engineering firms often find themselves working on multiple projects and heading in no clear direction, and eventually quality begins to suffer. The solution is to concentrate...
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,...
Ethics: A Professional Concern
The 1998 Daniel W. Mead Student winner answers the essay question What is the role of ethics in professionalism? by discussing ethical conduct as the key to gaining public trust and obtaining...
Wetland Wonder
Pinellas County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District's Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Department jointly retrofitted an urban drainage basin...
Bottoms Up
Placement of dredged material in an environmentally beneficial manner appears to be the trend for the future, considering the economics as well as the increased environmental consciousness...
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...
Bioremediation in the Highway Environment
Three Case Studies
Prepared by the Environmental Technology Evaluation Center (EvTEC) and the Highway Innovative Technology Evaluation Center (HITEC), CERF Service Centers. ...
Opportunities in Asia
An Assessment of Construction Trends, Needs, and Potential Collaborations
Prepared by Civil Engineering Research Foundation. This book presents findings of a 1996 technology assessment mission to East Asia that examined the...
Historic American Covered Bridges
Covered wooden bridges are a visual testament to the American spirit. Originally designed with roof-like covers to protect the exposed wood from the effects of sun and rain, these bridges...
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...
Stressing Masonry's Future
Post-tensioning techniques are expanding the possibilities for masonry in building and bridge construction. Two projects in Britain and the U.S. show the rewards of rethinking approaches...
Public Water in Private Hands
The nation's water utilities are becoming a battleground for control between private companies that want a share of the market and public employees who are bidding for their...
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...
On the Texas Fast Track
When Texans do something, they do it big, and they do it fast. So it comes as no surprise that the second largest sports facility in the U.S., Texas International Raceway, is currently...
Net Results
On any sort of cleanup, digging is expensive and intrusive, but when the cleanup involves unexploded artillery shells and other munitions, digging can also be dangerous. Understandably,...
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