Thomas and Marker Construction won a $1.5 million lawsuit against Wal-Mart on December 23, 2008 through a unanimous jury verdict and court order in Federal Court in Dayton, Ohio. The lawsuit was related to unanticipated […]
Geotechnical drilling was set to begin yesterday on the 710 Tunnel Technical Study in the L.A. area. Currently the 710 freeway ends along the city of Los Angeles-Alhambra boundary but was intended to run north […]
The Center for Yucca Facts has presented a letter to the chairman of the Spending and Government Efficiency Commission (SAGE) of the State of Nevada recommending that an objective look at the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository might show that it provides a solution to Nevada’s budgetary dilemmas. More after the break.
On Wisconsin State Highway 63 near the village of Baldwin, a WisDOT project is using precast bridge abutments to shave 30 percent off of the overall construction time. The foundatios consist of driven piles, and […]
On the ballot this November in San Diego is a proposition to allow developers to build a 96-acre deck over downtown San Diego marine cargo terminal. The deck would be built 40-ft in the air […]
The new Dallas Cowboy’s stadium in Arlington, Texas has gently curving steel arches to form a retractable roof. Using rack-and-pinion system to pull the panels uphill, the system is different than most previous retractable roof systems according to the Cover Story by Nadine M. Post (no relation!) in the July 14, 2008 edition of ENR. Of course the thing that interested me was the foundations that support the two 1,225-ft long steel arches. More after the break. (Photo copyright ENR and Manhattan Construction)
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[Editor] National Science Foundation (NSF) Press Release – June 30, 2008. Screenshot Credits: Jeramy Decker, Kiewit Corp [/Editor]
Running for more than 1,000 kilometers along picturesque coastline, California’s Highway 1 is easy prey for many of the natural hazards plaguing the region, including landslides.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is currently building a kilometer-long tunnel to bypass one of the most landslide-prone stretches of the highway, the Devil’s Slide, to help ensure drivers’ safe passage.
Using a new software package developed by researchers at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., project engineers are getting a detailed 3-D view of the rock exposed in the excavation, adding a new tool for improving both safety and construction progress.
[Editor] Click through for the rest of the press release. [/Editor]
[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.
The Claremont tunnel beneath the Berkeley Hills on the east side of Oakland is a water supply tunnel that serves over 800,000 customers in Richmond, Oakland, San Leandro and neighboring communities. One of the unique things about the tunnel is that it crosses the active Hayward Fault. Most of the time when you talk about designing for earthquakes you’re talking about designing to withstand the seismic forces. In this case, the designers needed the water transmission tunnel to withstand up to 7.5-ft of offset due to fault slip and still maintain a minimum level of service. (Photo credit: Sue Bednarz, Jacobs Associates, Inc. by way of Civil Engineering Magazine)
This post describes the relatively recent Claremont Tunnel Seismic Upgrade Project as reported in Civil Engineering Magazine (May 2008, v. 78, no. 5, pp 58-63, 96-97).
Another nice post from Robert Thompson with Dan Brown and Associates (DBA) about the geotechnical work on the kcICON project. They are the geotechnical designers for a $245 million project that will involve a new cable-stayed bridge over the Missouri River in downtown Kansas City along the I-29/35 corridor. In his post, Robert gives an update on the status of the work including the borings and recent test shaft installation and testing as well as an update on the overall project. (Rendering by Paseo Corridor Constructors)
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