Geologic Hazards
Large Sinkhole Opens Near Denver City, Texas
A 200-ft plus diameter sinkhole, about 50-ft deep opened up about 75 miles southwest of Lubbock, Texas, near Denver City on Monday, 7/27/2009 at 11pm. Check out the video below which is basically some aerial still photos. Credit to Geology.com. (Image from KCBD Video) […]
Project Related
Video Tour of NY Subway Mega-Projects
The New York MTA is in the midst of a “golden era” of tunneling for the New York subway. Three separate mega-projects are currently underway totaling some $15 Billion: The Second Avenue Subway, The East Side Access Project (which features the new Grand Central Terminal), and The Number 7 Subway Line Extension Project. The short video below was published by the NY Post and included in an AP Article. It is tantalizingly short, but gives a great perspective on what the underground construction project at Grand Central looks like and a sense of the scale…the amazing huge caverns being constructed. The article says that from underneath Grand Central Terminal alone, the construction crews have removed enough material to cover Central Park almost a foot deep!
[Source: KOMO News (Seattle) via ASCE SmartBrief. Image: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer via KOMOnews.com]
Click through for the video.
Project Related
Foundations and Geotechnical Engineering for the Burj Dubai – World’s Tallest Building
The Burj Dubai Tower has recently reached it’s final height of 818m (2,684-ft or almost exactly 1/2 a mile!). The foundation system for the Burj Dubai is comprised of 192 bored piles (drilled shafts in my practice) 1.5-m (approximately 5-ft) in diameter and approximately 50-m deep (164-ft). A 3.7-m (12-ft) thick raft foundation sits on top of the piles under the full footprint of the structure. (Image from BurjDubaiSkyscraper.com)
The geotechnical investigation for the Burj Dubai (now to be known as Burj Khalifa after the UAE President) is described in detail in a paper by the geotechnical engineer of record, Grahame Bunce of Hyder Consulting (UK) and the independent technical reviewer for the geotechnical design, Harry G. Poulos of Coffey Geotechnics. Click through for the link to the paper and more details. […]