Crossing the Forth
Scotland’s Queensferry Crossing spans the Firth of Forth, connecting Edinburgh and the Kingdom of Fife. Built at a cost of $1.89 billion in six and a half years, the 1.6 mi long cable-stayed bridge, with...
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...
Avoiding Impacts of Collapsed Mines on Railways: A Multidisciplinary Geophysical Detective Approach
The presence of abandoned mine workings can pose a significant risk to the use and development of surface structures above them, including railway lines. Typically, the adverse and often sudden effects...
A Good Cause for a Causeway: How Geotechnology and Project Delivery Restored a Roadway Embankment Crossing a Historically Challenging Soft Ground Site
As part of a Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) design-build project, a causeway was constructed in 2017 to replace an aging bridge in the southwest metropolitan area of Minneapolis. The causeway...
Sustainability and Resilience in Transportation Infrastructure Geotechnics: Integrating Advanced Technologies for Better Asset Management
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, enumerates 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be achieved by the member countries...
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 2016
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers Vol. 181, 2016 contains abstracts for all ASCE journal and periodical papers and technical notes, Civil Engineering - ASCE feature...
When Old Meets New: Railway Geotechnics and Remote Sensing
Railroad track, like any other built structure, relies on a foundation of geomaterials for support. In its most basal form, the railway track is quite simple: steel load-bearing members (rails) supported...
Railroad Tunnel Clearance Improvement and Linear Replacement: What Happens with Unexpected Ground Conditions during Tunnel Construction?
To increase the capacity and efficiency of transporting waste by rail to an existing landfill, Enviro Solutions Inc., the landfill owner, and CSX Transportation (CSXT), the rail line owner, sought the...
Railway Geotechnical Asset Management in Great Britain: How Modern-Day Techniques Help Monitor Railway Infrastructure Dating to the 1800s
This article discusses asset management, risk management, and earthworks failures as experienced by Network Rail (NR), the owner, operator, and asset manager of the majority of the rail network of Great...
The Case for Tolerable Risk Guidelines to Manage Flood Risk: Nature Bats Last
Since ancient times, people have used levees to reduce flood risk. We have built over 30,000 miles of levees in the U.S., largely on the belief that levies will unconditionally protect people who live...
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
The Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems contains technical and professional engineering articles on the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of air, highway, rail,...
Testing the New Locks (part of "A Greater Wonder")
The recently completed third set of locks at the Panama Canal incorporates several civil components and hydraulic design features that are intended to reduce routine maintenance and conserve water. For...
Risky Business: Identifying an Acceptable Rockfall Standard
For many parts of the U.S. highway system, cut slopes in rock are as common as bridges and embankments. These cut slopes, as well as some natural ones, produce rockfalls that pose risks to highway conditions...
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 2015
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers Vol. 180, 2015 contains abstracts for all ASCE journal and periodical papers and technical notes, Civil Engineering - ASCE feature...
Soil Nailing in the 2010s: Its Evolution and Coming of Age
While the early 2000s witnessed soil nailing as a well-established method in the U.S. for providing temporary and permanent support of excavation (SOE), the technique has since continued to evolve thanks...
What Does the Case Law Say? Geotechnical Risk on Design-Build Projects
The growth of design-build (DB) contracting, particularly on public-sector civil projects, has generated a great deal of industry discussion over the age-old question of who should bear the risk of unforeseen...
Geotechnical Delivery on Mega Transportation Projects: Challenges of Accelerated Delivery
Transportation projects have traditionally been delivered through the design-bid-build (DBB) delivery model, which continues to be the preferred method of delivering the majority of smaller and more traditional...
Ground Feature Monitoring Using Satellite Imagery: How Interferometric Stacking of SAR Can Mitigate Geo-Disasters Along Transportation Corridors
Landslides, debris flows, and other types of ground movements are among the most common hazards to humans and infrastructure. According to the United States Geological Survey, annual domestic...
Applying Scanning Technology to Tunnel Inspections: Leveraging Technology to Reduce the Public Agita
A large number of transit and vehicular tunnels in the New York Metropolitan area were inundated by the tidal surge caused by Super Storm Sandy on October 29, 2012. The storm created major...
Landslide Risk Perception: Consequences of Failure to Reconcile Contradictory Beliefs
While the basis for geotechnical safety is important, public perceptions of risk and its apparent willingness to ignore or discount hazard warnings should also be considered. Why does...
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