Baltimore Borrows Bridge Beams
A look at the construction of the Baltimore Convention Center, its four domelike exhibition halls, the main lobby and its service areas. The Center's four columnless exhibit...
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...
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...
Parrotts Ferry Bridge: Pioneer in Lightweight, Pumped Concrete
Spanning the Stanislaus River in Northern California, this bridge includes a 640-ft center span that is the world's longest span in lightweight concrete and the longest bridge...
Republic Steel Recycling Over 85% of Wastewater from Steel Mill
At its hot-rolling mill in Canton, Ohio, Republic Steel is recycling over 85% of the wastewater it produces. The wastewater contains suspended particles of scale and oils and greases....
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...
Critical Path Scheduling: An Overview
CPM and PERT project-management scheduling are seldom used or understood in spite of over 20 years availability. In fact, many are strongly opposed to it, having had reams of computer...
Strategic Petroleum Reserves: Billion Dollar Project to Provide Energy Security for U.S., Part 1 and 2
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, created in 1975, is intended to provide security to the U.S. by storing 750 million barrels of crude oil in salt domes in Louisiana and Texas. Since 1976,...
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...
Mount St. Helens Eruption�Impact and Civil Engineering Response
The May 18 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state, estimated to have the energy equivalent of a 20 to 50 megaton atom bomb, did tremendous damage. It destroyed an estimated 160...
Miami Riot�Will a Phoenix Rise from Ashes�
In May, inner-city black residents of Miami, Florida, looted and burned about 300 buildings in their neighborhoods. The cause is detailed�their perception that the judicial system was...
Saving the U.S's Rapidly Dwindling Farmland and Other Priceless Natural Resources
Key to land management in the U.S., according to experts at the Council on Environmental Quality, is management of federally owned lands. U.S. needs to protect prime farmland, wetlands,...
Municipal Sewage: Three Communities Try to Cope
To meet federal clean water guidelines, New Hampshire's Winnipesaukee River Basin, the City of San Francisco, and the City of Milwaukee have to upgrade their treatment to...
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?...
Workers as Managers Boost Productivity
A prime U.S. resource is the workforce. Given the opportunity, workers can improve working conditions, morale, efficiency and, as a result, boost productivity. First, though, management...
Some Ideas for Reducing Subway Construction Costs
This article presents the conclusions of a major study made during the past few years of both U.S. and European practices in building subways. Among the key conclusions: Planners and designers...
Pavement Recycling Catching On
Sparked by rising prices of asphalt, aggregates, energy, and construction labor, and plagued by a decline in the real dollars available for highway and road maintenance, many highway departments...
Inspecting Dam Construction
Through and competent inspection during construction is crucial to assure dam safty. Inspection for dam construction is more important than for other types of structures because plans...
How Texas got a New Highway Plan and More Construction Dollars
Texas has a new highway system plan, a new systems approach to highway design and about $300 million a year increase in highway funds over the next 20 years. Here are two articles that...
Temporary Detention Cuts Storm Flow Peaks
In the Chicago area, ordinances require that the storm water runoff rate of a site after development be no more than it was before site development. This is because urbanization is often...
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