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Showing results for tags 'Civil Engineering'.
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For several years, and certainly during the past several pothole-ridden days, I have wondered to myself, "What if?" Having spent nearly 25 years working with the EPA, I have often asked myself where my recyclables are ending up? I see them alongside trails in the form of benches. I see them in carryout food containers. But I don't think I've ever seen them underneath my tires, unless I run over an old plastic bottle. What if? What if we could make highways out of recycled material? Asphalt is hot, it cracks, it forms potholes (in the past few days, I have probably screamed out loud five times when I hit a pothole that felt like I just ran over a curb). I have never looked into this before in my life, but I'm going to Google it, right now. --- Hmmm ... Where do I start? --- Okay, I just started with the fourth one, since that was published by the Department of Transportation - that deals with the opposite issue: recycling existing highways; not making highways out of recycled waste. Then there's this by the EPA: "Using Recycled Industrial Materials In Roadways" So, as I figured, someone has at least thought of this before (I can't tell you how many times I've had *amazing* ideas, sometimes being sure that nobody could have possibly thought of them before, that have already been patented - this was definitely *not* one of those times, as I couldn't imagine that someone hasn't thought of it by now). --- Alright, I'm done. I wanted this idea out there just in case nobody was working on it, because it seems like such a *good* use of waste, but not being an engineer, I have no idea about things such as tensile strengths, heat capacities, or any of those other "terms" that you've heard of before, but don't really know what they mean. I don't know if this is even possible, but hopefully someone, somewhere, is looking into it. And sure enough:
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You didn't ask me, but I'm a total bridge freak and will attempt a simple explanation (I'm further from being an engineer of any kind than from any other profession, and simple is all I can do). In a suspension bridge, the main cables are strung between two towers, and smaller cables (sometimes called "hangers") run vertically from the main cables to the bridge deck, holding it up. In a cable-stayed bridge, cables are run directly from the towers to the bridge deck. The Brooklyn Bridge employs both kind of cabling, as you can see here: Among the best-known pure suspension bridges is the main section of the Golden Gate Bridge, the form of which is shown here: Probably the most breath-taking cable-stayed bridge is the Millau Viaduct in France, which opened in 2004: It's the tallest bridge ever built, its tallest mast being approximately twice the height of the Washington Monument. I'm hoping to go an a bridge tour one day, and visit this and some other remarkable bridges I've never seen.
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The Bakken Pipeline (also known as "The Dakota Access Pipeline") is a nearly 2,000-km pipeline that's to run from Northwest North Dakota to Southern Illinois. However, a portion of it is going to run underneath the Mississippi RiverMissouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation - therein lies the conflict. "Judge Rules that Construction Can Begin on Dakota Access Pipeline" by Merrit Kennedy on npr.org A request by the Standing Rock Sioux to temporarily halt construction of the pipeline has been denied by a U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, although three federal agencies have, for now, blocked the pipeline at Lake Oahe (which, ironically, only exists because of a dam that was constructed on the Missouri River).
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I remember New Hampshire Avenue at the intersection of Tanley Road being a two-lane road (one lane in each direction, not divided). Does anyone know when this changed? It must have been the mid-60s, because I distinctly remember that it was two lanes, but that's *all* I remember - merely the fact that it was.
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An article starring a good buddy of mine talking about the end of a highway plan that would have destroyed DC and his role in it: "The Insane Highway Plan That Would Have Bulldozed DC's Most Charming Neighborhoods" by Harry Jaffe on washingtonian.com For what it's worth, some people think that was the Three Sisters' curse, and not anything Matt and his crew did -- that doomed that bridge.
