New York’s St. Lawrence County DOT has attracted the attention of the FHWA…in a good way. The agency has built 5 Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil (GRS) bridge abutments since last fall, and the sixth will be the subject of a Florida film crew hired by the FHWA. The footage will be shown at various meetings leading up the the creation of a new technical manual on the building of GRS bridge structures which are a cheap and rapidly constructible solution to crumbling bridges in these difficult economic times. [Source: Watertown Daily Times via Geosynthetica.net News. Image: FHWA]
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ASTM Updates August 2009
Another busy month for ASTM with 66 new, revised or otherwise updated standards related to geotechnical and geological engineering (although not as busy as last month). A couple that caught my eye include brand new standards for geospatial data requirements related to abandoned mines, a new standard for sampling of EPS or geofoam, updated standards for mortar and cement, flexural strength of concrete, LA Abrasion test for aggregates, acceptance testing of geosynthetic clay liners, electrical methods for leak detection of geomembranes with earth cover and classification of soils and soil-aggregate mixtures for highway construction purpose (AASHTO classification).
Those involved in the materials testing side of the business should take a close look at the full list as there are also a number of updated standards relating to various asphalt and and aggregate tests, capping of concrete cyllinders and other related testing standards.
For my practice, perhaps the most significant standard that was updated was D 2488 – Standard Practice for Description and Identification of Soils (Visual-Manual Procedure) which we rely on for our field USCS classifications. I’ll be curious to see what those changes entail. Click through for the full list.