ADAMA Software downloads page.
Software Updates
MSEW and ReSSA Updates
ADAMA Software has released update 9.2 for their Mechanically Stabilized Earth retaining wall design software, MSEW 3.0 as of December 12, 2008. They also released update 3.1 for ReSSA 3.0, a reinforced soil slope design program on January 15, 2009. The ReSSA update seems like a relatively minor one, but the MSEW update contains a number of updates related to AASHTO LRFD resistance factors and design methods. If you are involved in MSE wall design for highway structures using LRFD, be sure to click through for a few highlights from the update and the download link.
Project Related
North America’s Tallest MSE Retaining Wall
[Update Jan 28, 2008] It appears as if the Port of Seattle is in some hot water for some alleged shady dealings with one of the contractors on the project. More at Seattle Times. [/Update]
Erosion Control magazine has an interesting article on MSE Walls. I think the tie-in of MSE Walls with erosion control is a little questionable (they did mention wall drainage a few times), but the article highlights several interesting projects, particularly the Seattle-Tacoma Airport or Sea-Tac Third Runway Project retaining walls. The West wall for that project is the tallest MSE Wall in North America, 130-ft at its highest point. More after the break. (Photo by Sea-Tac Airport)
Software Updates
ReSSA Major Update and MSEW Update
The downloads page at ADAMA Engineering lists an update (Number 1) for ReSSA 3.0. I have not even heard anything about the release of version 3.0, and even other pages on their website only mention ReSSA 2.0 as the latest version. As soon as I hear anything about the new version and its additional features, I’ll be sure to post the info here. ReSSA is software for the design of reinforced soil slopes or RSS.
An update for the MSE wall design software MSEW was also released recently. This update is number 8.1 and primarily updates the way reinforcement database files are referenced, allowing the location of the database file currently in use to be stored in the project file. After recently completing a major MSE wall review using MSEW, all I can say is halleluia! I had to manually locate the database file for every single one of my old runs. This should be a nice fix.