Rensselaer Civil Engineering Students Take First Prize at National GeoChallenge Competition

May 20, 2011 rockman Conferences Comments Off on Rensselaer Civil Engineering Students Take First Prize at National GeoChallenge Competition
Winning team for 2011 Geo-Challenge from Rensselaer

Winning team for 2011 Geo-Challenge from Rensselaer

Here’s a press release from Rensselaer about their students winning the MSE wall competition at the Geo-Frontiers conference. Congratulations guys! [Source: Rensselaer via ASCE SmartBrief. Image: RPI]

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Rockman's Ramblings

Problems with Registration and Outside News and Blogs

January 22, 2008 rockman Rockman's Ramblings Comments Off on Problems with Registration and Outside News and Blogs

I just found out that there was a problem with the site that prevented new members from registering on GeoPrac. My appologies to anyone who got a permission error after filling out the registration form. I humbly invite you to try again at your convenience.

Additionally, the Outside News and Blogs page that I was patting myself on the back for has apparently not been visible to the public either. Great big oops on my end. It should be up and running now.

Thank you to Elizabeth at the ASCE Geo-Institute who took the time to let me know about both problems. Do me a favor and check out the new G-I News Feed blog that she maintains.

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Geo-Institute's GeoConstructability Report
Available Resources

GeoConstructability – An Owner’s Guide Obtaining Essential Geotechnical Information for Construction

June 19, 2011 rockman Available Resources Comments Off on GeoConstructability – An Owner’s Guide Obtaining Essential Geotechnical Information for Construction

A new report issued by the Geo-Institute and prepared by the Geotechnical Constructability Task Force is targeted at owners, and seeks to educate them on why they need the services of a geotechnical engineer and […]

Project Related

Sea-Tac Runway Nearing Completion

June 30, 2008 rockman Project Related Comments Off on Sea-Tac Runway Nearing Completion

[Correction] Whoops, I think it’s North America’s tallest MSE Wall, not the world’s. Anyone know what the World’s tallest MSE wall is? [/Correction]

TheNewsTribune.com has an interesting article on the Sea-Tac third runway project and how it is nearing completion and an overview of the hurdles faced. This was a unique project from a geotechnical perspective because in order to construct the runway, North America’s tallest MSE retaining wall at 130-ft high was built. One thing I didn’t know is that the 13 million cu-yd of fill needed to construct the runway needed to pass careful inspection to make sure it was free of contaminants and similar in mineralogical composition to the on-site materials. The implications and reasoning are explained in this quote from the article:

“We had to find gravel that originated in the same place in Canada and that was transported here by the glaciers as the gravel that was here on the site,” said King.

The reasoning behind such a requirement is that water that leached through the fill would pick up minute traces of the minerals in the fill, drain into the creeks and confuse or damage native salmon returning to those creeks.

By way of ASCE SmartBrief. 

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