Coastal Controversies Abound at Record-Breaking Conclave
Coastal Zone '78 was the largest specialty conference ever held by the ASCE, drawing over 1,000 participants from a wide spectrum of professions that are involved in coastal...
Modern Concrete Structures Survive Romanian Earthquake
On March 4, 1977, 35 buildings collapsed during a severe earthquake (7.2 on the Richter scale) in Bucharest, Romania. Thirty-two of the 35 were older structures, erected before World War...
NYC's Plan to Meet the Water Quality Challenge
Most parts of New York City's waterways do not meet state standards. Combined sewer overflows cause the discharge of raw sewage. The City's ancient sewer system...
Precast Veneer Replaced By All-Precast Structure
Utilizing engineering solutions to architectural problems greatly enhanced the architectural appearance of this building. Long-span prestressed, light weight concrete beams, post-tensioned...
King Post Truss System Cuts Roof Framing Cost by 30%
The design was based on requirements for minimally obstructed sight lines (Robin Hood Dell Open-Air Theater, Philadelphia, Pa.) for outdoor seating and a tight construction budget of $4,500,000....
502-ft Diameter Laminated-Timber Dome Provides Fast, Low-Cost Cover for Arizona Stadium
Varex Dome, a 502-ft diameter engineering marveel of glue laminated timber, was built in record six months erection time. This dome shell structure forms both walls and roof for the new...
Can Trench Cave-In Deaths Be Cut�
About 100 construction workers die each year in trench cave-ins. That toll can be cut, two engineer-researchers conclude. Approach would be to make more-adequate geotechnical analysis...
Tiebacks Support Excavations Without Bracing
Tiebacks are used to support earth retaining walls in deep excavations without using internal bracing. Although more expensive than bracing to construct, tiebacks can result in overall...
Ports '77
Proceedings of the 4th Annual Symposium on the Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Division of ASCE, held in Long Beach, California, March 9-11, 1977. Sponsored by ASCE, Los Angeles Section;...
Kansas City Bank Tower Features Water-Filled Columns, Exposed Spandrels
In this first article in a series on recent innovations in structural steel design, the spotlight is on the 20-story Mercantile Bank Tower in Kansas City. This structure features several...
California Soon to Have Platform in 850 Ft of Water
Exxon's oil drilling and production platform, to be placed off Santa Barbara, Calif. next July, will stand in water twice as deep�� 850 ft versus about 420 ft�� as any other...
Concrete Barge of First Totally Offshore LPG Facility
Some 20 miles off Java, below waters 95-ft to 135-ft deep, is the Ardjuna Field, from which oil and gas soon will be taken. The adjacent coastal land is marshy, so onshore storage would...
Concrete Replaces Steel in Offshore Coal-Loading Terminal
An open water coal-loading terminal off the east coast of Australia berths 100,000 dwt coal ships. The concrete caissons for the berth were constructed within a drydock and later a breakwater,...
Innovative Design at Florida Bulkhead Reduces Material and Construction Costs
Remedial work to an existing bulkhead at a deep-water berth for Port Everglades, Florida, has been done with substantial savings through the application of innovative design concepts....
Birth of the Skyscraper
Before invention of the elevator, six stories was the practical limit to the height of a commercial building. Following the Chicago fire of 1871, building designers there were quick to...
Empire State: Greatest of All Skyscrapers
The Empire State Building! That major name instantly brings to mind Manhattan's intoxicating skyline, a skyline this greatest of all skyscrapers has dominated for 45 years....
Polyethylene Pipe Solutions to Sewer Outfalls
One of the primary concerns of the Chief of Naval Operations is to insure that environmental pollution standards are met in this country and abroad at those naval bases near oceans or...
New Foundations in an Old Neighborhood
Sixty State Street is rising 38 stories from its deep foundation in a congested, historical site in urban Boston's business/government area. The foundation elements and the...
Methods of Structural Analysis
Proceedings of the National Structural Engineering Conference, Methods of Structural Analysis, an ASCE Structural Division Specialty Conference held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison,...
The Forgotten Engineer: John Stevens and the Panama Canal
John Frank Stevens was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 to take over the flagging Panama Canal project when John Wallace quit. Stevens had been an outstanding railroad...
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