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....
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,...
Your Numerical Model Begins at the Site Investigation — Phase Improving the Suitability of Numerical Geotechnical Modeling
The success of an advanced geotechnical numerical analysis depends foremost on a thorough geologic and geotechnical understanding of the site, and thus the geometric definition and adequacy of input parameters...
When AI Meets DIGGS — The Birth of a New Site Characterization Paradigm?
Drilling and sampling to obtain borehole logs, together with various in-situ testing, are usually performed to determine subsurface soil and rock profiles and their associated engineering properties. However,...
Bring Your A-GaME! and Dominate the Field [Investigation] — As Newer Technologies Mature and Are Adopted More Widely — It’s A Whole New Ball Game Out There
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), in collaboration with industry partners, is helping state DOTs take their existing geotechnical site characterization programs to the next level. Technologies...
Practical Aspects Of Routine Geotechnical Site Investigations — They Should Be Anything But Boring!
It’s likely that on any given day there are hundreds of geotechnical site investigations in progress in North America alone. While many of these investigations are carried out in support of large projects,...
Moving Down the Road of Progress: Geosynthetics Subdue Failures on Expansive Clays and Frost-susceptible Soils
Using geosynthetics in roadway projects has provided sustainable alternatives for reconstruction and maintenance and now represents a significant portion of the total geosynthetics market. Geosynthetics...
Seismic Performance of a Deep Soil Mixing Grid: A Magnitude 7.1 Load Test at the Port of Alaska
The Port of Alaska in Anchorage (Port) has embarked on a multiphase modernization program that includes the development of a new petroleum and cement terminal (PCT) berth. The berth consists of a pile-supported...
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...
Composite Special Moment Frames
Wide Flange Beam to Concrete-Filled Steel Column Connections
Prepared by the Composite Construction Committee of the Metals Technical Administrative Committee of the Structural Engineering Institute of ASCEComposite Special Moment Frames: Wide Flange Beam to Concrete-Filled...
Highway Embankment Failure on Soft Clay: Bad Input = Bad Output
Our ability to analyze and compute 2D and 3D factors of safety for embankments and slopes, including finite element and finite difference analyses, has increased greatly in the last decade. However, use...
Flexible Rockfall Barrier Post Support Performance: Deflection as a Positive Attribute
Rockfall has plagued infrastructure for centuries, whether generated by natural weathering of unaltered rock slopes or due to jointing and weaknesses in constructed rock slopes. Rockfall in the U.S. has...
Big Steps for Mankind: Extraterrestrial Sampling and Exploration 50 Years after Apollo 11
Between June 1966 and January 1968, four Surveyor missions successfully landed on the Moon, collecting invaluable scientific data required to support the coming manned Apollo missions. Central to the goals...
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...
Seismic Success
An innovative seismic retrofit has prepared the nearly 90-year-old Robert A. Young Federal Building in St. Louis for the future. Despite extensive work within the 1 million sq ft structure, the building...
Dried Lakes Do Tell Tales: Seismic Soil Amplification in Mexico City
Mexico City is a vibrant, urban metropolis — a living and breathing example of an "old layered city," where past civilizations coexisted with one another. Standing more than 2.2 km above sea level, surrounded...
Connecting Continents: Challenges of the Eurasia Tunnel in Istanbul
The Eurasia Tunnel, the first bored tunnel crossing of the Istanbul Strait (Bosphorus) in Istanbul, Turkey, is a site that presents many unique challenges, including very poor ground conditions, unusually...
Rapid Recovery
In May 2017, the California Department of Transportation had to contend with a massive landslide that closed a section of the iconic State Route 1 through central California’s scenic coastal region of...
Preserving the Past: Recovering the Destroyed Buddha Statues and Niches in Bamiyan Afghanistan
For millennia, civilizations have built monuments to honor their gods, leaders, or founding principles, and with time those monuments that still exist have become revered treasures. Take, for example,...
State of the Practice for Laboratory Testing of Soft Soils: It's All in the Details
As with all material testing, soils testing has undergone dramatic advances in technology because of computer automation. In the 1970s, laboratories were filled with dial gages, proving rings, mercury...
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