From Good to Great: The Evolution of Cutoff Wall Quality Control and Verification Techniques
The last three decades have brought tremendous improvements to quality control (QC) procedures for construction and post-construction verification of deep cutoff walls installed in active high-hazard dams....
A Brief History of Jet Grouting in the Last 50 Years: The Story of Its Evolution
Jet grouting, a grouting soil improvement construction technique, was first developed in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s, and then introduced in Europe a few years later in the form of a proposal for soil...
Working Platforms for Specialty Geo-Construction
A major cause of rigs toppling over is the state of the "working platform" that they must work from. A working platform is a layer of material, often compacted sand or gravel, placed over the subgrade,...
IoT and Big Data in Geotechnical Construction: Connecting Drill Rigs to the Cloud
It’s almost impossible these days to escape the fervor and buzz surrounding technologies and concepts such as Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI)....
Beyond the Water’s Edge: Geotechnics in the Wet
Gaining insight into the subsurface and developing an understanding of what’s hidden below ground is a key to the design and construction process. Geotechnical engineers and geologists often develop their...
Site Constraints Complicate a Bulkhead Replacement: It Takes a Team to Overcome the Challenges
North American Aggregates (NAA), a leading supplier of aggregates in the New York area, recently constructed a new processing facility in Perth Amboy, NJ. One of the final components of the new facility...
Swift Support
In April and May, Civil Engineering published online a "Special Coverage: COVID-19" series of articles that focused on how civil engineers quickly responded to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Three...
Back in Action
At one of Northern Virginia’s most complex and notoriously congested intersections, the superstructure of a critical highway overpass was demolished, removed, and replaced in a single weekend. The design’s...
Creating Copenhill
The design and construction of a new waste-to-energy plant in Copenhagen, Denmark, was meant to do more than just generate electricity. The unique structure also features a rooftop public park with an...
The Genoa Approach
The Morandi Bridge (formally known as the Polcevera Viaduct) was more than just a critical part of the infrastructure of Genoa, Italy; it was part of the fabric of the city itself. When the bridge partially...
Niagara Transformed
A $65-million capital rehabilitation project improved attractions, facilities, and services across the 400-plus acres of New York State’s Niagara Falls State Park. Throughout the five-year construction...
Mixed Foundations Resolve Complex Conditions
A 46-story residential tower currently under construction in downtown Boston abuts an existing parking garage, necessitating extreme care to ensure its stability amid tight space constraints. Part of the...
The Present And Future Of Virtual and Augmented Reality In Geotechnical Engineering: This Technology Has Gone Way Beyond Gaming!
One of the greatest challenges with subsurface construction has always been our relative inability to visualize underground conditions that are often comprised of spatially variable soil and rock strata,...
Micropiles Support the "Missing Link": Understanding Load Transfer in Challenging Subgrades
Authorized by Congress in 1944, the Foothills National Parkway partly traverses the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Eastern Tennessee. Large sections of the parkway cross high ridges located...
Basements On The Beach: Overcoming South Florida's Shoreline Excavation Challenges
The South Florida beachfront is awash with an ever-increasing number of high-rise condominiums. As land becomes scarcer and increasingly expensive, and building regulations change to require above-grade...
Under-Slab Utility Installation with Aggregate Piers: It's All About Planning
Aggregate pier ground improvement is commonly used in North America to support buildings. The technology has expanded in the last decade thanks to refinement and introduction of new techniques, more rigorous...
Geotechnics of the Suez Canal Construction: 150 Years Old, but Nearly Four Millennia in the Making
Construction of the Suez Canal created one of the most important waterways in the world, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Its construction from 1854 to 1869 created three cities, Port-Said, Ismailia,...
Skinny 'Scrapers
Incredibly slender towers are rising around the globe into the skylines of major cities, especially New York City. Often targeted at the wealthy who are able to pay astronomical price for spectacular views,...
Designing Secret Cities
Before the U.S. government could develop the first atomic bombs in World War II, it first had to design and construct three “secret cities” at which that work would be completed. Created almost entirely...
What Lies Ahead?
How will trends in climate change, alternative energy, high-tech construction, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and public funding affect communities, infrastructure, and the practice of civil engineering...
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