The Area of Scour Hole Around Bridge Piers
The study is focused on what parameters determine the area of scour hole around bridge piers. An analytical study based on momentum principle has been used to reveal the variables involved...
Award for an A-Frame
The Waddell A-frame truss bridge that now stands in Parkville, Mo. was neither the longest, largest nor most all-encompassing civil engineering project of 1988. But the story behind the...
Top Projects for 1989
Transportation-related projects, most notably bridges, dominate the 1989 OCEA projects, but each of the 11 improved the quality of life of people in the community without harming the environment....
Scour Assessment at Bridges
Due to the key role that bridges play in the national transportation system, the Federal Highway Administration has developed a scour evaluation program. This program, issued in the form...
Local Scour at Bridge Abutments
Comparison of local scour depths at bridge abutments computed using different equations yields a large variation in predicted values. To consolidate the fragmented results of previous...
State-of-the-Art Report: Mexico
Design recommendations for groins and spur dikes are presented. For groins the most important ones are: to build them with sloping crests, orientated downstream and maximum spacing of...
Hydraulic Analysis of the Schoharie Creek Bridge
Ten people died on April 5, 1987 as a result of the collapse of two spans of a New York State Thruway bridge into the floodwaters of Schoharie Creek. The cause of the bridge failure was...
Beautiful Bridges
There are no rules for creating beautiful bridges. While talent and experience count, bridge design is quite complex and collaboration between highway engineers, architects, and landscape...
From Guesswork to Guarantee?
Maser describes a project to determine the effectiveness of radar and infrared thermography in detecting deterioration of asphalt overlaid bridge decks. The project, sponsored by the New...
Detecting the Defects
According to estimates, for every dollar spent on preventive maintenance of the infrastructure, $10 will be saved by avoiding emergency repairs after major structural failures. Technologies...
Preventive Maintenance: Fixing What Ain't Broke
Municipalities are often caught in the cycle of built-neglect-rebuild. For bridges, the solution is preventive maintenance: keep the bridges clean and painted, and they'll...
Parking Garage Crisis
Corrosion in reinforced concrete parking garages is reaching crisis proportions. The rehabilitation market for these structures is estimated to be as much as $750 million a year, or 30%...
Fast Track, Instant Track
There is a newly constructed railroad bridge over the Wilamette River in Portland, Oregon. The 499 ft. clear maritime channel allows the world's largest ships to navigate...
Box Segmentals: Refining Design
Officials at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), which has built more precast concrete segmental box girder bridges than any other state, say their troubles with that design...
High-Strength Concrete: Weighing the Benefits
Russell, Gebler and Whiting describe the properties of high-strength concretes, the current state of knowledge on freeze/thaw effects, and procedures for batching, mixing, transporting,...
The Great Quake: On Site Reports
Written within two weeks of the Oct. 17, 1989 California earthquake, these comments cannot be considered definitive. But they do stress two points: 1) Earthquake codes do work. Buildings...
Classic Wood Structures
Wood has been used in a wide range of structural applications. When properly maintained, these structures can have a useful life from 50 years to several centuries. Thirty-seven unusual...
Landmarks in Civil Engineering
Historic American engineering projects sampled in this article represent those documented in
A Station With a View
The Port Authority TransHudson Corp. (PATH) is renovating and expanding Exchange Place station, the first stop in New Jersey across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan. To be completed...
Building Bridges Faster
Guidelines are presented that tell how to write a contract that will lead to radical reductions in the time to build or rebuild a bridge. The article covers how to write an incentive/disincentive...
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