Interesting engineering news and general interest to get you through the week. » Latest Engineering News » Civil and StructuralCivil and Structural Everything in this wonderful world of ours just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Civil and structural engineering helps shape todays world. Whether it's towering skyscrapers or bridges spanning unfathomable distances, if it's newsworthy you'll no doubt see it here.
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Sean
Oxford's so-called hamburger roundabout has won an award for its innovative and practical design.
The junction, nicknamed because the A40 cuts through its centre, was constructed to ease congestion around one of the city's busiest bottlenecks.
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Tuesday 1 July, 2008 10:45 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Yan Chu
BEIJING: This ancient capital city , long known for the architectural splendor of its centuries-old palaces and temples, is getting a new look that could have been plucked from science fiction.
A series of landmarks, notable for their futuristic design, will greet visitors to the Olympics. They include an Olympic stadium that looks like a giant bird's nest, a swimming venue literally built of bubbles and a pair of black office towers that lean toward each other at a 10-degree angle.
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Tuesday 1 July, 2008 06:47 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ryan
VANCOUVER - Seismically upgrading Vancouver city hall would be expensive and could change the look of the heritage building, so engineers are considering an innovative way to save it during an earthquake: lifting up the structure and putting a rubber foundation underneath.
The rubber would absorb the vibrations of a large tremor and protect the old building from being too badly damaged, said Garrick Bradshaw, city hall's director of facility design and management.
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Tuesday 1 July, 2008 02:48 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
Canada's construction industry is being pushed to its limits, a new report says.
And the pressure is only going to get worse before it gets better, with 162,000 workers needed to replace retiring Baby Boomers, according to an assessment of Canada's construction labour markets from 2008 to 2016 by the Ottawa-based Construction Sector Council (CSC).
Another 94,000 construction workers will be needed over the next eight years just to keep pace with new projects. These numbers are above and beyond the 42,000 workers hired last year, a figure the CSC calls unprecedented.
"From 2007 to 2016, that's close to 300,000 construction workers. The magnitude of that should be a call to action," says CSC executive director George Gritziotis.
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Friday 27 June, 2008 12:10 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ali Hamoud
NEW YORK — An Italian architect said he is poised to start construction on a new skyscraper in Dubai that will be "the world's first building in motion," an 80-story tower with revolving floors that give it an ever-shifting shape.
The spinning floors, hung like rings around an immobile cement core, would offer residents a constantly changing view of the Persian Gulf and the city's futuristic skyline.
A few penthouse villas would spin on command using a voice-activated computer. The motion of the rest of the building would be choreographed in patterns that could be altered over time.
Speaking at a news conference in New York on Tuesday, the building's designer, David Fisher, declared that his tower will revolutionize the way skyscrapers are made — a claim that might strike some as excessively bold.
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Friday 27 June, 2008 07:16 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
ISLAMABAD: The Chinese government has offered Pakistan to provide skilled labour for the construction of the Bhasha Dam , sources told Daily Times Tuesday.
Chinese government has conveyed to Pakistani government that it has 17,000 skilled labourers who worked on three Gorges Dams in China and these dams were generating 30,000MW electricity. It had also informed Pakistan that these labourers could be provided to construct Basha Diamer Dam.
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Thursday 26 June, 2008 04:25 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ali Hamoud
Manazil Steel Framing Factory has signed a Dh7.6 million deal to produce and install light steel framing for the capital's Naser Alnwais development.
Manazil is the UAE partner of Canada-based Genesis Worldwide. Managing Director Ali Muhsin told Emirates Business the contract was the second the company had won since linking up with Genesis.
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Tuesday 24 June, 2008 08:14 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
“The problem is the building codes. They’re standing in the way of green building, and forcing us to build standardized structures that are bad for the environment.”
Like many half truths, this familiar lament of people who want to “build green” is based on some real obstacles to green building, but also on some fundamental misunderstandings of what building codes do and don’t allow.
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Wednesday 11 June, 2008 02:01 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ali Hamoud
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Dubai World’s leading facilities management strategic solutions provider, Imdaad, signed a 10-year agreement with Civil Engineering Department, the building and construction licensing arm of the Trakhees - Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation.
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Tuesday 10 June, 2008 06:04 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by George Tan
LAHORE: An old Hindu temple of historical significance situated in the east of Thokar Niaz Beg, called the Bhadhar Kali Mandar , is facing decay and destruction.
The exact date of the construction of this mandar has not been deciphered but according to the founder of Punjabi research institute, Khojgarh, Mr Iqbal Kaisar it has to be around 2000 years old. The temple has one central building, with a huge pool in the center of the main complex. The walls of the mandar had beautiful frescoes, some of which have managed to survive over the years. The stone pool was fed by 12 wells through an indigenous drainage system.
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Tuesday 10 June, 2008 12:51 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator
The Chicago Spire, the most significant residential development in the world, is emerging on a site near the intersection of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Deep foundation work is proceeding on this spectacular 2,000-foot twisting tower that will dramatically change the Windy City's skyline.
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Tuesday 10 June, 2008 02:45 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by George Tan
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With new bridge-building materials , industrial production methods, and an efficient construction process, it will be possible to start using a bridge only two weeks after construction starts on the site. This is shown in a new dissertation from Chalmers University of Technology.
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Saturday 7 June, 2008 09:31 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Susan Decker
The historic urge to view Kew Gardens from a great height has found its ultimate expression in a new Treetop Walkway
In 1761, work began on the construction of William Chambers’ Chinese Pagoda at Kew — a 10-storey structure built as a surprise present for Princess Augusta, mother of George III.
As it rose towards its ultimate height of 50m, it was observed by Horace Walpole from his house at Strawberry Hill on the far side of the Thames. “We begin to perceive the tower of Kew from Montpelier Road,” he wrote to a friend. “In a fortnight you will be able to see it in Yorkshire.”
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Saturday 7 June, 2008 01:30 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Dillon Smatcher
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.- Engineers from Purdue and Notre Dame universities are working with Indiana startup EmNet LLC on a wireless sensor network for the city of South Bend to prevent raw sewage from overflowing into waterways, especially from surging runoff during storms.
The system will use a citywide network of 105 manhole-mounted sensors and "smart valves" to automatically hold back the flow of rainwater and sewage in existing sewer system pipes and retention basins until the storm has passed.
"To our knowledge, this monitoring system will be the first of its kind in the world because it will be the largest wireless sensor network in a permanent, industrial setting," said Luis Montestruque, CEO of EmNet, founded in 2004 and located in Granger, Ind.
The system, called CSOnet, consists of numerous computer chips that communicate with each other over a wireless radio network. These microcomputers are embedded in the city sewer system and are connected to flow sensors, pressure sensors and valves in a network that works in a cooperative manner to control storm runoff, Montestruque said.
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Friday 6 June, 2008 06:59 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Yan Chu
Construction work on one of South Korea's biggest infrastructure links is in full swing, with substructure erection of the two main bridges under way and the first units of the immersed tube tunnel in place. Don Fraser reports on progress so far
When the new link from the Korean mainland to the island of Geoje opens in December 2010, the journey time between them will be slashed by two hours. The 8.2km-long transport connection will provide a four-lane highway link from Busan, South Korea’s second largest city, to the island of Geoje, home to two of the world’s largest shipyards. Two cable-stayed bridges and an immersed tunnel will take vehicles on an island-hopping route across water depths of up to 40m, at a site exposed to severe open sea conditions from the Pacific Ocean (Bd&e issue no 43). The US$2.5 billion fixed link is being built by GK Corporation, a seven-contractor consortium led by Daewoo Engineering & Construction. A joint-venture of Halcrow and TEC is providing technical consulting services to Daewoo E&C, in a design team led by Cowi.
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Saturday 31 May, 2008 10:07 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Barot Casha
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About one mile out from the shore of the Chesapeake Bay stands the nation's last operational screw-pile foundation lighthouse in its original location — Maryland's Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse. The 43-foot-tall lighthouse has withstood the most tremendous weather conditions of the Bay and South River since 1875. Located about four miles from Annapolis, Md., the lighthouse is a beacon of safety for vessels traveling the bay. It was constructed offshore to alert watercraft operators of the dangerous shoal near the coastline to the west. The Victorian cottage-style lighthouse, nested atop a hexagonal foundation, has also served as a weather center for many boats that have serviced the Chesapeake Bay waterways. Before 1986, when it became fully automated, Maryland's Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse was the last of its kind to operate manually. The significance of this lighthouse is so great that it was awarded National Historic Landmark status in 1999.
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Wednesday 28 May, 2008 02:27 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ryan
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Raleigh/Durham, NC- SSOE, Inc. one of the nation’s largest architecture and engineering firms , announced that they will be providing design services for BMW’s new 1.2 million SF assembly plant. SSOE will provide the detail architectural and all civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and fire protection engineering services. In an announcement on Monday March 10, BMW confirmed the expansion of the Spartanburg North Assembly Building, keeping in line with their plans to increase production capacity at its US operation from 160,000 to 240,000 automobiles annually by 2012. This expansion will allow BMW to increase their output and add 500 new jobs. Once completed, BMW will have invested $4.2 billion into its South Carolina operations since the production site opened in 1994.
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Tuesday 27 May, 2008 09:32 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ryan
Alexander Lukashenko believes it is necessary to pay priority attention to the development of the Belarusian civil engineering industry. While visiting Shklov’s industrial companies on May 16, the President stressed, a construction spree is observed in the world at present and Belarus should use it.
Investments should be channelled into civil engineering on a priority basis, said the head of state.
Alexander Lukashenko underscored, all projects should be finished according to the plans within the present five-year term.
While in Shklov the head of state visited the new timber processing enterprise, which is part of the newsprint mill company, where wooden houses and laminated forest products are made using modern technologies. Its production capacity makes 250 wooden houses, 15,000 cubic metres of multilayer laminated veneer lumber and beams, 23,650 cubic metres of planed timber annually. The facility uses the latest European equipment bought in France, Austria, and Lithuania.
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Tuesday 20 May, 2008 12:29 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by John William
CHICAGO - The boat glides under the Michigan Avenue bridge and heads into the heart of the city, as the shimmering white Wrigley Building and neo-Gothic Tribune Tower rise to the north.
It passes the corncoblike Marina Towers, the sprawling Merchandise Mart and glass-and-steel skyscrapers - a tapestry of new and old that draws architecture enthusiasts from around the world to the city that famed architect Daniel Burnham once called his ''Paris on the Prairie.''
''I knew I was going to be coming to Chicago and the one thing that I wanted to do was the river cruise,'' said Kristen Moore, 35, of Phoenix, snapping photos on the tour, sponsored by the nonprofit Chicago Architecture Foundation.
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Monday 19 May, 2008 12:42 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Peter Wu
Wrenching scenes of survivors being dug out of collapsed schools and apartments after this week's earthquake in central China suggest widespread disregard for building codes in the rapidly urbanizing region, observers said Wednesday.
"There are lessons to be learned from this, and I think the main lesson is that codes need to be followed," said Reginald DesRoches, a civil engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Although widespread damage from Monday's magnitude-7.9 earthquake was "not terribly surprising," cities like Beijing and Shanghai -- where construction is more closely regulated -- would likely have fared better than the cities of Sichuan province, where the quake's epicenter was, DesRoches said.
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Friday 16 May, 2008 02:36 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ali Hamoud
Experts on earthquake engineering and simulation will meet at the Sacramento Convention Center May 18-22 for the fourth decennial Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics conference, organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Conference topics will address how soils and the structures built on them behave during earthquakes, and how dams, levees, bridges, tunnels and other structures can be engineered to withstand earthquake damage. Sessions will range from basic research to specific case histories and new technologies for preventing earthquake damage.
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Thursday 15 May, 2008 08:21 PM |
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