Challenging the Natural Flow Models

January 22, 2008 rockman Comments Off

According to the New York Times (by way of Geology.com), researchers from Franklin and Marshall College are saying that early work by geologists and hydrogeologists to formulate water-flow models may have been based on remnants of old dams created by settlers in the 1600s. The implication of these findings is that it changes the way ecologists and conservationists look at streams and what it means to return one effected by urbanization to a "natural state." (Photo by silverxraven)

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Geo-Institute Website Changes

January 22, 2008 rockman Comments Off

The Geo-Institute of the ASCE has made some changes to their online services. For starters, they have now posted online versions of the Geo-Strata magazine. The only catch is you have to be a member to read them. Additionally, they now have a blog with an associated RSS news feed. If you don’t use RSS feeds, you can always head over to our Outside News and Blogs page where we have already incorporated this new blog’s feed into our aggregated news.

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More Movement on La Jolla Landslide

January 20, 2008 rockman Comments Off

For those of you following the landslide in residential La Jolla California known as the Soledad Mountain Road landslide, it made the news again a couple days ago when a section of the slide re-activated and slid 10-ft down the hill. Doesn’t sound like too big of a deal to me, no additional houses damaged. I’m curious how it related to the shear pins they installed a couple of months ago.

Additionally, the San Diego City Attorney has released a report detailing the sequence of events leading up to the landslide. One interesting note is that the Mayor of San Diego is in hot water with the City Attorney’s office for hiring outside legal council to handle the legal aspects of the landslide. According to the City Attorney’s office, he wasn’t allowed to do that, but so far the City Attorney hasn’t stepped in to force the outside attorney(s) to drop the case saying it would open the City up to even more liability.

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Louder drilling to occur as I-35W bridge foundation work nears completion

January 17, 2008 rockman Comments Off

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. â€“ Crews constructing the Interstate 35W St. Anthony Falls Bridge are nearing completion of the bridgeâ€™s primary foundation work. [Editor] Dated January 4, 2008. (Photo by Koldark) [/Editor]

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Personal Reflections on I-35 Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis

January 17, 2008 rockman Comments Off

On January 15, the National Transportation Safety Board released a safety recommendation letter report to the FHWA related to the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis Minnesota that claimed the lives of 13 people and injured 145. The safety recommendations are based on the findings of an interim report from the FHWA Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center that some gusset plates, components of the steel trusses, were undersized (not thick enough). This deficiency was confirmed to be a flaw in the design and not construction-related based on review of the original drawings from the 1960s and inspection of the wreckage. Whether this was a calculation error or a drafting error will perhaps never be known as only portions of the original design calculations were located. But the point is that it was never caught by any reviewers.

When this event first happened back on August 1, I remember being very shaken up by it. After my initial sadness for the victims of the accident, my first thought as a geotechnical engineer was: â€œwere the foundations at fault.â€ As more information came out, it quickly became evident that the failure did not have anything to do with the foundations but that it was related to the superstructure of the bridge. But this still was something that profoundly affected me. (Continuesâ€¦)

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Journal Article Reviews

Second Issue of International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories

January 17, 2008 rockman Comments Off

I’m very pleased to see that the International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories has finally published their second issue. I was beginning to wonder if they would ever publish again. I was looking for a date of when that first issue was published but I couldn’t find one. But I suspect it’s been at least a year. I was sort of interested in creating a similar type of site when I was first thinking about GeoPrac, but it never worked out. But i digress. Click through for a list of the case histories and some additional goodies.

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Pilot Project for CO2 Sequestration

January 17, 2008 rockman Comments Off

A pilot study is about to be undertaken by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to study the possibility of CO2 sequestration in deep basalt formations throughout the West and Northwest. The study will involve injecting 3,000 to 5,000 tons of liquid CO2 at a depth of between 3,000 and 4,000-ft. The team hopes that mineralization will gradually transform the CO2 and basalt into limestone. The total cost of the pilot study is approximately $10 million and is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Geosynthetics at De-Icing Facitility

January 15, 2008 rockman Comments Off

GeoSynthetica was kind enough to track down an interesting case study in the use of geosynthetics at a new de-icing facility at Cleveland’s Hopkins International Airport. Ethylene Glycol and Propylene Glycol are commonly used de-icing chemicals. Most de-icing is done at the gate to avoid flight delays, but it also increases the chance of environmental contamination. In the design of a new dedicated de-icing facility at the airport, geosynthetic clay liners (GCL), Geocells, geotextiles and geocomposites were all used to handle chemical-laden runoff as well as regular runoff during the non-icy times of year. Also there is a problem with high water table and a resulting detrimental effect on the pavement subgrade. This is where the aggregate-filled geocells were used. Read on for the link. (Photo by Spiritwood Images)

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Digital Mapping Duopoly

January 15, 2008 rockman Comments Off

By way of Geology.com, the Wall Street Journal reports on some interesting news related to GPS and even our beloved Google Maps / Google Earth. Apparently there are only two games in town when it comes to data providers for online and digital mapping products that are used by the aformentioned software as well as your GPS navigation system: Netherlands-based Tele Atlas NV, and Chicago-based Navteq Corp. (Photo by Websteria)

In October, Nokia bought Navteq for …wait for it… $8.1 billion. They plan to use the technology as the basis for a business model involving selling advertising tied to your phone’s location. A month later TomTom, a maker of GPS products, beat out rival Garmin and bought Tele Atlas for $4.2 billion. Were either of these companies really worth that much money? It doesn’t appear like it. Thus concern has been raised that the new owners of the technology might be in a position to hurt competitors by raising prices. We will have to see how things pan out.

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North America’s Tallest MSE Retaining Wall

January 9, 2008 rockman 7

[Update Jan 28, 2008] It appears as if the Port of Seattle is in some hot water for some alleged shady dealings with one of the contractors on the project. More at Seattle Times. [/Update]

Erosion Control magazine has an interesting article on MSE Walls. I think the tie-in of MSE Walls with erosion control is a little questionable (they did mention wall drainage a few times), but the article highlights several interesting projects, particularly the Seattle-Tacoma Airport or Sea-Tac Third Runway Project retaining walls. The West wall for that project is the tallest MSE Wall in North America, 130-ft at its highest point. More after the break. (Photo by Sea-Tac Airport)

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