Apollo 11 Lunar Landing 40th Anniversary (not 20th!)

July 21, 2009 rockman Rockman's Ramblings Comments Off on Apollo 11 Lunar Landing 40th Anniversary (not 20th!)
View of Lunar Module footpad, subject of much geotechnical analysi

View of Lunar Module footpad, subject of much geotechnical analysi I’ll be brief since I have already mentioned this in a previous post and in the July GeoPrac newsletter. But today was the 40th Anniversary of the first time humans set foot on the moon. I’m embarrassed to say, but I mistakenly noted this historic anniversary as the 20th instead of the 40th anniversary in both of the above links. I’m surprised nobody called me on this, but I guess you ridiculed me in private. If you haven’t already, check out the wonderful article by Ed Nowatzki on the geotechnical engineering aspects of the lunar lander…fascinating reading, even for non-geotech types.

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February 19, 2010 rockman Project Related Comments Off on Geotechnical Engineering Challenges of British Columbia’s Sea-to-Sky Highway, gateway to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games

Sea to Sky Highway I don’t know about you, but I’ve been enjoying watching the 2010 Olympic Winter games over the past few days. If you have, you know that Whistler is the venue for many of the sports including alpine skiing, luge, skeleton, bobsled, ski jumping, biathlon and cross-country skiing among others. The Whistler area is located about 50-miles or so North of Vancouver. In order to get to Whistler, you need to drive along Highway 99, better known as the Sea-to-Sky Highway.  This highway has a long history of geotechnical problems, including some significant structurally controlled rockslides and landslides.  In the years leading up to these Olympic Games a fair amount of work was done on the highway with some significant geotechnical innovations.

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Cannon Place office building in London
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Innovative Foundation System for London Office Building

August 3, 2009 rockman Project Related Comments Off on Innovative Foundation System for London Office Building

Cannon Place office building in London This has to be one of the most complex geotechnical engineering problems I’ve heard of for a building, if not for any kind of project. For starters, beneath the proposed 10-story office building referred to as Cannon Place lies the Cannon Street Train Station built in 1868. Also beneath the site are walls and foundations of a Roman Governor’s palace. In order to accommodate these features, the building has 21-m cantilevers at each end, with the load bearing happening over two groupings of columns at the 1/3 points. In section it looks quite like a 3-span bridge…without the abutments and stacked 10-stories tall! More after the break. (Images by New Civil Engineer) […]