US Fabrics is a geosynthetic products company specializing in geotextiles, geogrids and geomembranes.
Miscellaneous
Mizzou Memorial Union Gets Lift from TerraThane Geotechnical Foam
Univ. of Missouri’s Historic Memorial Union, Built to Honor WWI Dead, Gets New Life with TerraThane Geotechnical Foam
MOUNT AIRY, NC—The Univ. of Missouri’s iconic Memorial Union, with its Gothic architecture and central bell tower, was built to commemorate the 117 Mizzou alumni who lost their lives in WWI, and has been under silent attack. Like all buildings built atop the ancient dry riverbeds of the tributary valleys of the Missouri River, the soil beneath is a mixture of sand, clay, and fine rock particles and highly susceptible to erosion from water. So, while hundreds of thousands of students walked the hallways of the building, water escaping steam pipes far beneath caused severe drying of the soil and destabilized it enough so that erosion created voids, or cavities in the soil, some as large as four feet. In turn, this caused the concrete slab floors atop the voids to become uneven, and the eventual danger of even greater problems loomed large.
A team of engineers went after the problem, including MU alums, Matt VanderTuig, P.E., of Bartlett & West, Jefferson City, MO, and Mark Whitehead, P.E. with extensive structural design and environmental engineering management experience. They suggested to Chris Hentges, president of SIRCAL Contracting, Jefferson City, the general contractor in charge of the job, that instead of using the older method of mudjacking, a highly involved and intrusive process of drilling large holes in the slabs—sometimes removing the slabs entirely—and pumping “mud”, ultra-heavy Portland cement-based grout, into the void, then leveling the slabs, that the university might better be served by using the newer polyurethane foam system method called “foamjacking” or “polyjacking.”
[Editor] Be sure to click through for the rest of the interesting project from GeoPrac sponsor NCFI Polyurethanes and TerraThane! [/Editor]
Links
North American Steel Sheet Piling Association
The North American Steel Sheet Piling Association (NASSPA) is dedicated to providing information and guidelines for efficient design and construction utilizing hot rolled steel sheet piling. It was founded and sponsored by the major sheet […]
Press Releases
AMEC acquires leading US engineering and environmental services company MACTEC
London, United Kingdom (18 May 2011) – AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, announces today that it has agreed to buy MACTEC, a leading US engineering and environmental services company, from its private equity and other individual shareholders for a cash consideration of US$280 million. Completion is subject to regulatory approval and is expected by the end of June 2011. [Editor] Click through for the rest of the press release from AMEC. [/Editor]