
A crane setting girders for a bridge in New Zealand toppled over as the temporary embankment it was sitting on gave way. [Source: The Landslide Blog. Image: Vertical.net]

A crane setting girders for a bridge in New Zealand toppled over as the temporary embankment it was sitting on gave way. [Source: The Landslide Blog. Image: Vertical.net]
Hot on the heals of the revised MSE Wall Manual, the FHWA has released another manual, this one on Spread Footings. Selection of Spread Footings on Soils to Support Highway Bridge Structures was authored by Naresh C. Samtani, PE, PhD, Edward A Nowatzki, PE, PhD and Dennis R. Mertz, PE, PhD. So what is this manual all about? I think the foreword by Scott Anderson, PE, PhD of the FHWA Resource Center says it best:
On March 9, 2018 a “limited breach” of the tailings dam at the North Tailings Facility of the Cadia Mine tailings impoundment occurred in New South Wales, Australia. The area of the failure is approximately […]
According to Silicon Valley’s MercuryNews.com, a [very lucky] worker suffered minor injuries when the crane he was opperating toppled down an embankment. The accident apparently occured on a CALTRANS project as the crane was lifting a 10,000-lb pile when a "wood retaining wall" gave way. It sounds like they were constructing a soldier pile lagging wall with steel h-pile soldiers and wood lagging. (Photo by Donna Jones/Sentinel)
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