380,000 Jobs Now in Jeopardy Because Congress Fails To Rescue America’s Transportation Account

[Editor] Note: NCS Consultants, LLC is Randy Post’s full time employer…ie. my day job! [/Editor]

There are some significant changes being made to the state of the practice in geotechnical engineering in Arizona. NCS Consultants, LLC has prepared three policy memoranda for the Arizona Department of Transportation or ADOT that have been issued to consultants all over the State. These memos are on the topics of bearing capacity and settlement of spread footings and retaining walls, the design of drilled shaft foundations in gravelly soils, and the preparation of drilled shaft axial capacity charts for use by bridge engineers.

Although primarily applicable to upcoming ADOT projects implementing the AASHTO 2007 LRFD code, the memos will have a ripple effect down through other local agencies within the state who frequently defer to ADOT guidelines for geotechnical engineering. Also, the memos and the ADOT/NCS approach to LRFD implementation in geotechnical engineering were presented by NCS at the 2008 TRB Conference in Washington D.C., and many other state DOTs and the FHWA were very excited about the memos. The approach used if not the exact content may become a model for other agencies. More info and links to download the policy memoranda are provided after the break.

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April 7-11 is National Workzone Awareness Week (NWZAW) which draws attention to the hazards roadway construction crews face from motorists not heeding safety warnings. For 2006—the last year for which data is available—more than 1,000 died in work zones. Figures for 2007 will be released by the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse later this year. Motorists are also at risk for not following work zone safety precautions. They may face damage to their vehicles, injuries, and loss of life. For 2006, 614 motorists died in work zone crashes. (Graphic by Caltrans)

Below are a few items to think about the next time you’re driving through a workzone taken from a Caltrans fact sheet. More after the break (sorry for the “Duh” ones, but I didn’t write them). As someone who occasionally works on the road and knows many more people who do, please, please remember to slow down!

• Most injuries and deaths in the Cone Zone are from rear-end collisions.
• If you slow from 65 to 55 mph for one mile, you only lose 10 seconds on your travel time.
• The first cause of death for people aged 16 to 20 is car crashes. Even if you don’t lose your life causing a car crash, it could still cost you your license or a heavy fine.
• If a car’s speed is doubled, the stopping distance is doubled twice over. For example, if a car traveling at 30 mph requires 100 feet to stop, the same car at 60 mph takes not 200 but 400 feet to stop.
• At 60 mph, you’re traveling 88 feet per second. A lot can happen in one second, so give yourself plenty of room to stop in case of an emergency.
• For the 15,000 miles of California highway Caltrans maintains, it must buy 120,000 new cones every year to replace ones run over by careless drivers.

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A report titled ‘Falling Weight Deflectometer Calibration Center and Operational Improvements: Redevelopment of The Calibration Protocol and Equipment’ has been published by the FHWA. This report is the result of a pooled fund study that […]