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 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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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Tony Elmasri
Upgrading of bridges on an historic cog railway in Greece is due to be completed by the end of the year. Sotiris Raptopoulos reports on an unusual and challenging project
Refurbishment of a tourist railway in the Kalavrita valley has required engineers in Greece to come up with some imaginative solutions. Narrow and restricted access, steep slopes and historic structures made the contract, to replace bridge bearings and improve the seismic response of the structures on the line, particularly challenging.
....click the link to read more
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Friday 9 May, 2008 10:01 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by John William
A recent story in The New York Times alerted me again to the problems we engineers face when called upon to inspect and be responsible for all the possible safety ramifications of our work. This headline caught my eye: "Engineer faces perjury charge after fatal Bronx fire."
The possible charges are the result of an engineer's (alleged) failure to fully (the key word) inspect a construction site, which might have caused the death of two firefighters. They were fighting a fire at a discount store when rotting support columns gave way under them, the floor collapsed, and the two men were subsequently trapped and perished. Others were also injured.
....click the link to read more
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Thursday 8 May, 2008 06:07 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by jackson Browne
Hurricanes often lift the roofs off buildings and expose them to havoc and damaging conditions, even after the worst of the wind has passed. A local roofer, Virginia Tech faculty members from architecture and engineering, and a graduate student have devised an inexpensive vent that can reduce roof uplift on buildings during high winds, even a hurricane.
....click the link to read more
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Thursday 8 May, 2008 06:40 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Tony Elmasri
Soaring food and fuel prices will make current planning model obsolete, architect says
METRO VANCOUVER - Sky-high fuel and food prices will eventually make Metro Vancouver's current planning model of suburban communities linked by gas-guzzling highways economically obsolete.
So says Vancouver architect Richard Balfour who believes the region's future should resemble Switzerland rather than Los Angeles
....click the link to read more
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Wednesday 7 May, 2008 09:35 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Bob Smith
When my grandchildren turn 13, I take them on a trip of their choosing. The trip must be in North America and have some educational value. This time around, I spent the better part of three weeks in the American southwest with grandson Quinlan Vannatter.
The Hoover Dam was one of the best stops on our trip. If you're in Las Vegas, this huge dam and Lake Mead are only 30 miles away and worth a day trip. Designated a national historic landmark and rated as one of the seven modern civil engineering wonders by the American Society of Civil Engineers, it's no wonder that millions of people visit the site every year.
We rounded a turn in the highway and pulled into a parking lot overlooking the dam and the visitor centre. Other parking lots sprawled farther down. Quinlan was out of the car and running his video camera immediately. He wanted to walk the rest of the way but instead, we drove across the dam and parked inside a garage next to the visitor centre for $7. That was a deal when I considered the long hike back up hill under a blazing desert sun.
....click the link to read more
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Tuesday 6 May, 2008 02:00 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by jackson Browne
RESTON, VA,- When it opened in 1961, the original Woodrow Wilson Bridge was designed to accommodate 75,000 trips per day. By the end of its life it was carrying nearly 200,000 trips and was classified as functionally obsolete. The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge project replaced nearly 12 percent of the Capital Beltway (Interstate 495/95) and created four new interchanges, resolving one of the worst bottlenecks on the East Coast while at the same time implementing numerous projects and programs to protect the local environment. In recognition of the project's success, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project has been honored with the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) 2008 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) Award.
....click the link to read more
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Tuesday 6 May, 2008 09:02 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Susan Decker
To demonstrate the building design software his firm uses, structural engineer Andrew Gayer dragged his computer mouse along a building's floorplan.
He wasn't just drawing lines that represented beams and columns. By using building information modeling, or BIM, software, he saw three-dimensional images of the structures.
Gayer, who works at St. Louis-based Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum Inc., and others in the design and construction process say this software is the successor to the two-dimensional computer-aided design programs that have been popular for years.
It's still the early days for widespread use of this software, developed by several competing companies, but those in the construction and architecture industry say its use is growing nationally and in the St. Louis region.
....click the link to read more
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Monday 5 May, 2008 02:05 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Susan Decker
"What the heck. You're insured."
It's not uncommon to hear words like that from a client representative's mouth, or to get the sense it's being thought. And what's so wrong with that? After all, isn't that what professional liability insurance is supposed to do, transfer risk from the engineer and the client to the insurance company? Yes, it is, but that doesn't mean, after someone does something stupid, the insurance company asks, "You want that million in tens or twenties?"
Both owners and design professionals need to understand a few things about professional liability insurance. And that's what this column's about—a few things. There's more to know, and you should want to find out what. After all, whether you're an owner or an engineer, the insurance is in place for your protection.
....click the link to read more
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Saturday 3 May, 2008 02:32 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Tony Elmasri
The next generation of asphalt and concrete pavements used to build and rebuild roads, bridges and other paved surfaces in much of the world likely will be based on a design guide produced by researchers in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.
Officials with the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences, in addition to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), have approved new design guidelines for pavements developed by a team led by Matthew Witczak, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
....click the link to read more
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Thursday 1 May, 2008 10:19 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by John William
When choosing a building envelope or façade , engineers and designers can work with or against the surrounding environment. The initial choices in designing the building envelope determine the degree to which mechanical systems and excess energy are required to facilitate human comfort, says Albert Bicol, a partner with Cobalt Engineering, a design company with offices in British Columbia and Toronto.
Bicol says half the world’s energy is expended on building lighting, heating, ventilating and air conditioning and 65 per cent of that energy is lost in transmission. A net zero approach to building design eliminates dependence on outside energy sources while optimizing comfort.
....click the link to read more
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Sunday 27 April, 2008 10:01 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by jackson Browne
An improved, more environmentally friendly Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) is the star of the short course "Understanding and Using Bendable Concrete" set for June 24-26 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
This new material bends but does not break because specially coated microscopic polymer fibers slide past each other instead of snapping under stress. Reducing the brittle nature of concrete opens a new world of possibilities for commercial construction and civil infrastructure by enhancing durability, safety, and sustainability.
The course will be taught by inventors Victor Li, E. Benjamin Wylie, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan, and Michael D. Lepech, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. They will cover materials, applications, and economics of bendable concrete.
....click the link to read more
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Saturday 26 April, 2008 02:15 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Rose Shah
When engineers designed the 1,671-foot Taipei 101 skyscraper, they had to calculate stress factors such as load, the weight of materials and contents and how the building would twist under wind pressure - always mindful that Taiwan has frequent earthquakes .
All of that means erecting the world's tallest building is better understood than the stress factors in the 26 bones of a human spine. But a robot in a lab at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is changing that, making spinal medicine more precise.
....click the link to read more
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Friday 25 April, 2008 06:08 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Susan Decker
The Canadian Museum of Nature will undergo a dramatic change in appearance this summer with the construction of a $10-million glass tower above the front entrance, which, according to its designers, pushes the limits of glass and structural engineering.
Two storeys of structural glass will be suspended from a cantilevered roof and supported by a cluster of interior steel columns. "It's pretty acrobatic," says Toronto architect Bruce Kuwabara.
....click the link to read more
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Friday 25 April, 2008 02:06 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Tony Elmasri
Genesis Worldwide Inc., an industry leader in "green" structural building technologies using light steel, is pleased to announce that the GenesisTP Inc. Engineering department has expanded with the establishment of a new engineering office in Ankara, Turkey's capital city. The new Genesis Engineering Design Centre ("Genesis Centre") has been created to provide Genesis' engineering resources to Genesis' licensees around the world.
The Genesis Centre will support and assist its licensees in the development of their businesses by offering structural engineering and design expertise.
....click the link to read more
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Friday 25 April, 2008 12:04 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Rose Shah
MUMBAI: The Brihan-Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has voiced concerns over Chinese firms putting in bids to construct the Rs 600-crore Vaitarana Dam in Maharashtra.
BMC is driven by security issues raised by the National Security Council (NSC) after several Chinese companies showed interest to participate in hydel power projects coming up along the national border and security sensitive areas.
Chinese construction giants such as Chinese Water & Hydro Engineering (CWE), China Gezhouba Group, Sino-hydro, Harbin Engineering, China International Water & Electric have bid for the construction work of the Vaitarana Dam.
....click this link to read more
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Wednesday 23 April, 2008 02:18 PM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Pat Sheen
Two papers were accepted for publication out of six submitted to peer-reviewed technical journals after advice to do so from Noam Chomsky
Mathaba.Net - "Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction" was published by the Open Civil Engineering Journal on Friday, giving cause to jubilation amongst the many activists who have been seeking recognition of the glaring contradictions and impossibilities of the official version of the September 11, 2001 attacks within the United States of America.
....click this link to read more
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Wednesday 23 April, 2008 06:14 AM |
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Clipped to the Drawing Board by Tony Elmasri
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A mothballed engineering project to build the world's longest suspension bridge spanning 3.3km between Italy and Sicily looks set to be resurrected after Silvio Berlusconi swept back to power in the Italian elections ....click the link to read more
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Tuesday 22 April, 2008 02:32 PM |
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