Dr. Peter Rankilor, a pioneer in the geosynthetic, geotextile and geomembrane industry was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison as a result of his January conviction on “indecent assault and incest” charges stemming from events between 1980 and 1996. The charges came in a Manchester, UK court on 24 different counts of serious sexual offences against children. Source: New Civil Engineer.
Standards and Codes
ASTM Updates April 2010
Standards governing the testing of tensile strength of geogrid and geotextile tensile strength are among the standards updated over the past month by the ASTM. This includes a new standard for "Determining Small-Strain Tensile Properties of Geogrids and Geotextiles by In-Air Cyclic Tension Tests". A number of standards relating to concrete including capping of concrete cyllinders for testing have also been updated. Click through for the list.
Failures
Whales in Geomembranes: Stronger than Concrete
Geosynthetica has some interesting photos of so called ‘whales’ in geomembranes. These giant bubbles are caused by a variety of things, but are essentially gas trapped underneath the geomembrane that can have significant buoyant force, […]
Project Related
MSE walls going up for landmark Ohio highway project
Tensar announced that construction has started on $3 million worth of ARES MSE retaining walls on one of Ohio’s largest highway projects. 200,000 square feet of the mechanically stabilized earth retaining walls will be built […]