Articles
High Octane Solution Solves Raceway Dips
The modern race car being driven on the professional circuit today is an aerodynamic wonder. With mere inches of ground clearance, the car is designed to utilize airflow over the body of the car to force the tires down firmly against the pavement, maximizing traction. The objective, of course, is to safely maximize speed.
Professional race car drivers criticized Texas Motor Speedway regarding“bumps” in the 1.5-mile track between turns one and two. They said that these bumps limited them from running “multiple grooves” on the track (the “side-by-side” racing that NASCAR fans crave) and made it difficult to control cars coming out of turn one.
Texas Motor Speedway responded to this criticism immediately, engaging surveyors to shoot elevations across the track to detect any track deficiencies. It was determined that the unlevel areas were not “bumps”; to the contrary, the problem was, in fact, areas of settlement, dubbed “Dale’s Dips” by the press.
[Editor] Read on for more on this interesting project from GeoPrac sponsor URETEK ICR. [/Editor]
Project Related
URETEK ICR restores concrete, but your golf game?!?!
Sometimes you need a geotechnical pro more than a golf pro to improve your game.
As a golfer, mechanics are a vital part of how you play the game… however, soggy course conditions can affect your game just as much as your golf pro. Click through to see how URETEK alleviated soggy fairway conditions at a premiere course in Texas.
Geologic Hazards
Dozens of Sinkholes in Plant City, Florida after Farmers Pump Extra Water Trying to Protect Crops from Bitter Cold
In early January of this year, Florida experienced some unusually cold temperatures that forced Plant City area strawberry farmers to pump extra groundwater to try to protect their crops. Over the course of about 11 days, the groundwater table in areas of Plant City was lowered by as much as 60-ft.
Almost immediately as many as 80 sinkholes began opening up around that region. Including ones that jeopardized a 500,000-gallon water tower, several that shut down an elementary school and numerous ones that shut down roads and highways and affected individual property owners. Around 20 local homeowners were left homeless after sinkholes left their house uninhabitable. For comparison, based on data from Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Sinkhole Database for the period of 1998 to 2008 (the last year for which data is available), 77 sinkholes were reported to have opened up in Polk, Pasco and Hillsborough counties combined.
Local officials are seeking help from the State and FEMA to cover the estimated $3 million in damages. That figure is double what Plant City received from FEMA for the particularly bad 2004 hurricane season. And that dollar amount does not include what individual homeowners and property owners will be seeking from their insurance carriers. (Photos by Tampa Bay Online)
Read on for maps of Plant City sinkhole locations and more information.