The first thing to understand about space elevators is that, in principle, they should work.“A space elevator appears feasible, with the realization that risks must be mitigated through technological progress,” concludes the International Academy of Astronautics in a peer reviewed feasibility assessment with 41 contributors published late last year.
A London designer looking to transform polluted cities into enclosed environmental havens could have used the more proven geodesic dome as its technology.
Image Courtesy of InterBering LLC The proposed 64-mile long tunnel would intersect with two islands to allow for ventilation and construction access. Related Links: Dream Projects Dream Projects Test New Realities A rail crossing of the 51-mile-wide Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia is certainly not a new dream project—the idea dates back as far as the late 1800s. Since then, numerous railroad magnates, engineers and even heads of state have proposed bridge and tunnel schemes to link the Asian and North American continents. In recent years, a tunnel running underneath the 161-ft-deep channel has been the preferred option. In 2011,
Photo by Tom Sawyer for ENR Founder and CTO Keith Bentley spoke at the software company's user conference this week in London. Related Links: Long Courtship Ends as Bentley Buys Site Options Analyzer Bentley Water System Tools Gain Enhanced Access To Real-Time Data Bentley Systems has taken the wraps off a major upgrade for all of its many project lines, including a total remake of its MicroStation design platform and ProjectWise collaboration tools.The new capabilities, especially with data integration and extensibility, reach across all of its product lines but still function in a so-called hybrid environment that honors some customers'
Photo Courtesy of NASA Space-station-bound rocket exploded after launch, but pad is intact. Related Links: Orbital Sciences Corp. VIDEO: Antares explosion The explosion of an unmanned rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) on Oct. 28 has once again put the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's privatization program in the spotlight.Within seconds of liftoff, the first stage of Oribital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket self-destructed, scattering debris across the southern end of Wallops Island, Va. The Virginia Commercial Spaceflight Authority leases a flight facility from the National Aeronautical and Space Administration. Most of the debris fell within an 8,500-ft
Related Links: Aconex Connected BIM PROBUILD Construction A cloud-based project-management system has added building-information-modeling management to its 2D-based workflow. Aconex has an eye on enriching models with life-cycle data by giving access and annotation capabilities to project participants via their browsers.The firm's new "Connected BIM" feature now is integrated with Autodesk Revit. Other integrations with Trimble's Tekla and Bentley's MicroStation are in development. Revit users can publish models from the design software directly into the Aconex ecosystem for management within the context of the common data environment and project collaboration workflow. As the project evolves, subcontractors can attach information about
Photo Courtesy of WAR Construction Inc. The city of Northport's Fire Station No. 3 was built by WAR Construction in 2009. The team used several ConsensusDocs contracts on the project. Related Links: Improved Digital Practice Documents Beware of Hidden Risks Buried in Contract Language Since its introduction in September 2007, the ConsensusDocs movement has struggled to become a serious contender in the arena of standardized design and construction forms. Developed by a coalition of more than 40 industry groups, ConsensusDocs—a catalog of 100-plus standardized contract documents—set out to become the industry standard, but early software challenges and other criticisms thwarted
Photo Courtesy of Bartlette Cocke/Plangrid Jobsite and office communication regarding issues and answers is synced with RFI feature. Related Links: PlanGrid RFI Workflow Navigant Construction Forum Study on RFI An app designed to automate sharing and version control of construction documents has added a new functionality and now can capture issues and generate, circulate and post requests for information (RFI) within the same application.The PlanGrid tool is a cloud server-based system that stores and manages project documents for access by tablets on the jobsite. It is used as a collaborative platform for sharing information, such as field markups, progress photos
There is a lot going on in the area of asset management that portends dramatic change in our approach to resource management in the near future—and it’s about time.The adjustments that will be required of the A/E/C/FM industry to move it to disciplined asset management systems will force it to develop new workflows and measures of value, just as the gradual embrace of building information modeling has done, but the changes are necessary and the payback will be large. The simple premise is that physical assets should be evaluated, first of all, on their contribution to desired organizational outcomes. Asset
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