The investigations: The World Trade Center towers
On Aug. 21, 2002, the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced it would conduct a building and fire safety investigation of the World Trade Center disaster. This investigation was conducted...
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....
Poison Oak, Mistakes, and Lessons
When things go wrong in geotechnicalengineering ? like ground movements andearthwork construction delays ? failureinvestigations are often performed. In a typical geotechnical project, the path is relatively...
ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering
The journal will meet the needs of the researchers and engineers to address risk, disaster and failure-related challenges due to many sources and types of uncertainty in planning, design, analysis, construction,...
Dry Dams and the Dayton Flood of 1913: The Origins of Integrated Systems Engineering Concepts
This article examines the history of integrated flood protection with particular focus on the 1913 Dayton Flood....
Small Projects are Big Deals
Geotechnical engineers work on a wide array of projects, ranging from small retaining walls or pavement projects, to construction of dams, canals, and foundations for bridges and high-rise...
Evaluating Bridges With Unknown Foundations for Susceptibility to Scour: North Carolina Applies Risk-Based Guidelines to Over 3,750 Bridges
Scour occurs when flowing water removes erodible material such as sand and rock. For bridges over water, scour affects the stability of pier and abutment foundations and contributes to...
Loading, Geometry, and Analysis
This Standard applies to latticed steel transmission structures. These structures shall be either self-supporting or guyed. They consist of hot-rolled or cold-formed prismatic members...
Dynamic Shearing Properties Of Compacted Clay
A series of 116 Q-type triaxial compression tests was performed using specimens of Goose Lake clay compacted at water contents ranging from 9 percent dry of optimum to 3 percent on the...
Failure of a Large Circular Excavation
A circular excavation, 117 feet (36 m) in diameter by 90 feet (27 m) deep, was designed by an experienced engineering firm and construction was performed by an experienced contractor....
Failure of a Twenty-Foot High Retaining Wall
A cantilever retaining wall, designed in apparent accord with provisions in a civil engineering handbook, failed soon after construction. Analyses of the causes of the failure are presented....
So, Why Do You Want to Write a GBR?
Since 1974, scores of papers, articles, conferences, and legal documents have been dedicated to explaining how to write and/or how to use a Geotechnical Baseline Report (GBR). But the...
The Best Surprise is No Surprise: The Geotechnical Engineer's Ethical Responsibility to Say No to Bidding
The subsurface characterization work that a geotechnical engineer must perform is critical to the success of every project that requires the cooperation of the ground, regardless of whether...
Calendar: Bridges 2010
Featured bridges are: Chesapeake Bay Bridge, MD; Pedestrian Bridge, TX; Pont Gustave Flaubert, France; Leonard P. Zakim Bridge, MA; Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia; Tacoma Narrows Bridge,...
Discussion of Time for Development of Internal Erosion and Piping in Embankment Dams by Robin Fell, Chi Fai Wan, John Cyganiewicz, and Mark Foster
(Originally published in
Estimating Slope Stability Reduction due to Rain Infiltration Mounding
(Originally published in
Toward a Unified Approach to Anchorage in Reinforced Concrete Design
The introduction of rationalized design procedures for cast-in and post-installed anchors inEurope and the U.S. was intended to provide a uniform factor of safety for anchorages inconcrete,...
The Levees Fail
This chapter examines the failure of levees against storm forces and the flooding that ensued....
Direct Causes of the Catastrophe
This chapter examines direct physical causes of the hurricane protection system failures, including soil strength assessments and pumping station limitations....
Contributing Factors
This chapter examines contributing factors of the hurricane protection system failures, including the underappreciated risk to New Orleans, a piecemeal implementation of the hurricane...
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