Information Availability
There seems to be a great deal of concern about lack of availability of information concerning the results of failure investigations. In most court cases there is virtually no technical...
Failure Information Needs in Civil Engineering
If we are to learn from failures of engineered facilities, failure information must be in a useful form, and it must reach those who can effect improved practice. This paper discusses,...
Learning from Failures
Modern technology and innovation have created a gap between what the design drawings predict with respect to safety and serviceability of a structure and the real safety and serviceability...
Learning from Failures: Procedural Changes in the Design and Construction Process to Reduce Failures
This paper first defines failures and their number and scope in the design and construction fields. It then presents the writer's opinion as to the cause of the failures and...
Failure Investigations in Undergraduate Education
Author stresses the need for failure investigations in undergraduate education especially in Civil Engineering. The civil engineer often creates only one major project of a kind, and is...
The WMATA Resident Engineer?The Team He Leads and His Responsibilities
This paper discusses the role of the Resident Engineer as a key member of any construction team. It uses the organization and functions as practiced at the Washington Metropolitan Area...
Computer Keeps New Orleans: Head Above Water
The city of New Orleans has been beset with drainage problems since its founding in 1718. A major drainage system was installed in the city in the late 1800s, but it has grown increasingly...
Drainage Tunnels Save Freeway Link
A 15 mile section through downtown Phoenix will complete Interstate 10. After years of delay, the project is now close to completion. The project required construction of 6.5 miles of...
Small Water Users�Planning Crisis
Planning to rehabilitate small water systems�both irrigation and municipal water supply�often is ignored. In contrast, planning for new construction and for operations/maintenance work...
Decision Support System for Tunneling
This paper first discusses methodologies for considering geological uncertainty in tunneling projects and for determining the most economic excavation and support methods under such condition;...
Type C Fly Ash and Clay Stabilization
Because the soils onsite have a high swell potential, a 37 foot high retaining wall was designed with counterforts and was supported by pier foundations to limestone. In order to reduce...
A Systematic Approach to Evaluating the Risk of Contractual Disputes
Construction contract disputes along with A/E malpractice actions have raised much concern in the industry. Considerable literature has been written along the lines of claims avoidance...
Building Condition Assessment�An Owner's Perspective
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has recently instituted a program to inspect all of its buildings structures to insure structural integrity and public safety and to provide...
Evaluation and Modernization of Veterans Administration Facilitaties
This paper discusses two examples showing in detail that procedures for building assessment require much consideration for engineers' programming and must be properly specified...
Changing Priorities in UK Construction Research
This paper addresses two types of situations to contend with in building assessment: aging structures all built at about the same time and to standards no longer acceptable, and newer...
Research Needs for Extant Iron and Steel Buildings
A brief review of iron- and steel-making processes is background for the development of shapes and codes. Sources of information for the condition assessment of iron and steel buildings...
Structural Integrity Assessment of the Flexible 870 Advanced Design Bus
The Grumman Flxible 870, a lightweight advanced design urban bus, entered service in Atlanta, GA in 1978, and some 2,800 of these buses were in service nationwide by 1980. In the autumn...
Prestress and Cracking Problems in Concrete Structural Components of an Elevated Rail Transit Guideway System
In 1983 the Department of Transportation evaluated the quality of construction of selected structural components on the Dade County Transportation Administration METRORAIL elevated guideways....
Damage Tolerance Assessment of Commercial Airframes
The regulatory authorities now require that commercial transport aircraft structural design be based on a damage tolerance philosophy. A brief history of the development of the regulations...
Continuum Modeling of Periodic Truss Structures
Procedures for deriving equivalent stiffnesses for an extended Timoshenko beam used to represent truss beams are presented. A typical substructure of a truss is used to calculate these...
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