New York state’s Dept. of Transportation is bringing science to snowdrifts. The agency last month presented “SnowMan,” software for optimizing snow fences on existing roads and for designing highways to reduce drifts, at a conference of the National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board. Stuart Chen, a professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, who designed the software with Michael Lamanna, a former graduate student, says it can reduce whiteouts and pavement icing and the “extra costs” of snow plowing and deicing salts. Photo: Darrell F. Kaminski, NYSDOT Ten-foot-tall
Quick thinking and a unique construction solution allowed crews to repair a burned wooden trestle on the southern approach of the 72-year-old Pattullo Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, in eight days rather than the anticipated six weeks. The compression-arch, suspended-deck bridge caught fire Jan. 18. As firefighters battled the blaze, Mark Smith, vice president for Surespan Construction, North Vancouver, B.C., hustled his family into his truck and drove to the site. After surveying the charred timbers, Smith called Buckland and Taylor Ltd., the local bridge design firm hired to design a replacement for the wooden structure, to devise a solution.
Even before completion, the new National Enrichment Facility is being expanded. Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif., was awarded a two-year contract to provide engineering, construction and construction management to expand Louisiana Energy Services’ $3-billion uranium-enrichment facility in Eunice, N.M. The plant is one of three now being built in the U.S. to enrich uranium fuel for nuclear powerplants using energy-efficient gas-centrifuge technology instead of gaseous-diffusion technology.
A standard for the design of green residential buildings, from single-family to high-rises, was approved late last month as an American National Standard. The standard, know as ICC-700, includes a rating system that lets builders, designers and communities choose the levels of performance. ICC-700 is the first and only green standard consistent and coordinated with the International Code Council’s group of I-Codes and standards, says ICC. Among its many provisions, the standard covers land conservation and rainwater collection. It even has provisions for construction of smaller homes to conserve resources. ICC is finalizing a green-building technologies certification program for building
Construction of the future tallest building in Latin America, the 300-meter-tall Torre Costanera in Santiago, Chile, is on hold “temporarily,” says the developer. The frame now is up 23 stories, reports the structural engineer. Locally based Cencosud SA announced on Jan. 28 it was halting work on the 70-story concrete frame. Work had stopped earlier on the surrounding mixed-use Costanera Center. The developer cites the weak economy as the reason, saying the current work pace is not justifi ed if the development is not “profitable.” Rendering: Pelli Clarke Pelli Chilean job includes 300-m-tall tower. Photo: Rene Lagos Assoc. The frame
Roof construction of the $720 million London 2012 Olympic stadium began in late January when the first section went up and the Olympic Delivery Authority claims to be on track. All venues in the east London Olympic Park are on schedule, claims ODA. But the global banking crisis is spoiling its party. The ODA can’t secure as much private funding towards the $13.3 billion overall construction budget as forecast. Stadium construction project for London Olympics remains on time. The Olympic Village, a public private partnership, is worst hit. Funding negotiations for Village construction with Australia-based Lend Lease Corporation “are continuing,”
Literally miles of pile will be installed in New Orleans over the next two years as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rushes to bring the area’s flood-control system to 100-year protection levels by June 1, 2011. As the largest civil-works project in the area’s history, it could be a very loud job. But so far it isn’t, thanks in part to a quiet hydraulic machine that area engineers are making some noise over. Initially, the Giken unit sits on a reaction stand. Later, it works atop existing pilings and uses them as counterweight. After driving a piling, the rig�s
Bong-Hyun Cho, manager of the immersed tunnel site for the $1.8-billion Busan-Geoje fixed- link project, finally can get some sleep. Six of 18 concrete tunnel elements, 180-m long and 45,000 tonnes, have been towed successfully from a dry dock 35 km away, sunk into the turbulent depths of the Pacific and placed atop specially designed gravel beds with tight tolerances. "If the gravel beds fail, the project fails," he says. "I was so anxious." Slide Show Photo: Halcrow Korea’s 8.2-km-long sea link will connect the mainland to Geoje Island through three islets. After a rocky start with glitches in the
The structural performance of a single-story, wood-stud frame with brick veneer during a Jan. 26 shake-table test at the University of California, San Diego, offered no surprises. However, the structure’s masonry veneer showed distress in places, and that did surprise researchers. The full-scale earthquake test was the first of two designed to help engineers use performance-based design to improve the seismic behavior of masonry and wood buildings, common in residential and light-commercial construction. Related Links: Testing the Strength Of Brick Veneer Seismic Researchers Shake the Brick Veneer “We believe that under many circumstances veneer can help structural performance,” says Richard
To get the world’s tallest building to stretch beyond 800 meters (slide-1), workers jacked, in eight lifts, a steel-pipe pinnacle from a lifting apparatus within the steel spire (slide-2). Crews are expected to finish the cladding, including the spire’s cover (slide-3), several months before the projected fall finish. Slide Show
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