I’ve never thought too much about this, I guess I’m still waiting for my first geotechnical assignment in Hawaii! But if you bring soil samples into the continental USA, they must go through a heat treatment at their port of entry. In the latest GeoComp Corporation newsletter, Gary Torosian from GeoTesting Express, GeoComp’s lab testing arm, describes how their firm’s certification with the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows them to accept soil samples without the required heat treatment. They can receive, and test the samples and then upon completion of the testing, they heat treat the soil, sample containers and any effluent generated from the testing process to safely dispose of any potentially harmful organisms. Something to keep in mind for those cushy projects in Hawaii or the US Virgin Islands or something. (Photo by Eric K. Veland on Flickr)
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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.
Kansas City Company Uses US Product, TerraThane, to Keep Natural Gas Flowing in Nation’s Ninth Largest Gas Reserve
FORT LUPTON, CO—An unfortunate inlet line break at one of Anadarko Petroleum’s hydraulic fracturing stations in Weld County, Colorado just north of Denver, allowed injection fluid to wash out the end of the pumping station and get beneath the concrete slab foundation causing erosion. The voids created beneath the slabs were from three inches to five inches and left the slab floor uneven. The general contractor for the station, Open Range Services, initially thought to use the legacy method of mudjacking, or pressure grouting: pouring a thick grout of mixed concrete and other aggregates into the void, or backfill, but the “mud” is heavy which can affect the surrounding soil, time consuming, and difficult to apply and clean, and backfilling would have required the costly process of ripping out the slab and replacing it. Instead, they contacted Pro Foundation Technology, based in Kansas City, MO, to learn more about a contemporary technology called “foamjacking” or “polyjacking,” which uses lighter weightgeotechnical polyurethane foam instead of grout.
[Editor] Click through for the rest of the press release from GeoPrac.net sponsor, NCFI Polyurethanes! [/Editor]