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Claire Smith, an undergraduate in civil engineering, takes a swing at the CEE Mini Golf course set up in the Blue Lounge of the George G. Brown Laboratory on the North Campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, October 12, 2022.
For this round two environmental engineers teamed up to play with two civil engineering undergrads. Behind her are are Renisha Karki, left, and Anthony Colton, right.
Photo: Brenda Ahearn/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Communications and Marketing
A report that recommends steps to reduce hurricane damage in New Orleans was released today by an expert engineering panel of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The 84-page report, “The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Wrong and Why,” targets the public and policymakers, and complements and synthesizes the thousands of pages released so far by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during their post-Katrina investigation. Dr. Robert Gilbert (pictured), the risk expert on the ASCE panel and a civil engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin, noted that their risk analysis confirms the vulnerable nature of the city’s hurricane protection system.
In the report, the international risk expert and other panel members estimated the New Orleans' levees and floodwalls had put lives at risk at a 1,000-fold higher rate than considered minimally acceptable for a major U.S. dam.
The City of Hoover has seen enormous growth in its sports programs over the past 10 years and needed a new complex that would fulfill their existing needs, allow for growth and give the City the ability to create new revenue streams and take advantage of sports tourism by hosting large tournament events. Hoover had not built any new athletic facilities in 15 years. At the same time the City’s sports participation had increased by multiples of 200% - 500% depending on the sport. The growth was caused by increases in both youth and adult sports leagues, as well as the relatively recent popularity of additional sports.
The multi-purpose Finley Center, which connects to the existing Hoover Met baseball stadium with a covered walkway, is able to accommodate a full-size football or soccer field, nine regulation-size basketball courts, 12 regulation-size volleyball courts or six indoor tennis courts. It can also seat 2,400 for banquets and 5,000 for events with general seating, such as a graduation ceremony or concert. Additional features of the indoor facility include a recreational walking track suspended 14 feet in the air, an athletic training and rehab center, and a food court.
The Finley Center sits on a 120 acre site that GMC master planned and includes fields for soccer, lacrosse, football, baseball and softball, tennis courts, a play ground walking track and splash pad.
Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood (GMC) provided master planning, architecture, interior design, civil engineering, construction materials testing, and environmental engineering services for this project.
Colon City to Panama City, Panama
Constructed 1904-1914
The United States became interested in a water route through the Panamanian isthmus in the mid-1850s, but it was the French who first attempted to build the Panama Canal. Led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt, the French began the project in 1876. Conditions were brutal: rampant yellow fever and malaria; massive landslides and flooding; sweltering heat; and construction equipment that was too light for the job.
In 1898, with a little more than one-tenth completed, the French started negotiations to sell the project rights to the United States. Congress authorized the U.S. to complete the Panama Canal, and construction began in May 1904. American engineers, including John Frank Stevensand Col. George Washington Goethals, faced many of the same challenges as the French, but succeeded by implementing a truly monumental construction plan.
For more information on civil engineering history, go to www.asce.org/history.
The UK's longest road tunnel and a new section of dual carriageway on the A3 near Hindhead in Surrey.
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Constructed 1916
"Water from the Rio Grande Project, coupled with improved farming methods, has transformed a formerly desert-like region into a lush, productive landscape. Astronaut John Glenn - as the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 reentered the earth's atmosphere in 1962 and passed over New Mexico - described the project area as a ribbon of green extending straight north from the Mexico border."
- Bureau of Reclamation brochure, 1982
One of the first major efforts to increase farming and encourage habitation in the arid regions of the western United States, the Rio Grande Project was designed to provide reliable irrigation as well as resolve a dispute over water supply with the Republic of Mexico. The project's centerpiece is Elephant Butte Dam, a concrete gravity structure 301 feet high and 1,674 feet wide. Elephant Butte Reservoir - with a surface area of 36,600 acres and a capacity of more than 2.2 million acre-feet - was the largest reservoir in the world at the time of its completion.
Today, the Rio Grande Project provides irrigation for almost 200,000 acres in New Mexico and west Texas along with 25,000 acres in Mexico. A pioneering accomplishment, the Rio Grande Project provided significant experience for many of its engineers, two of whom - Arthur P. Davis and Louis C. Hill-later served as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Facts
- Initiated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation soon after its formation in 1902, the Rio Grande Project was the first in the world to distribute water across international boundaries. Under the terms of a 1906 treaty, the project provides water to the Juarez Valley of Mexico by means of the American Diversion Dam and Canal system, located 2 miles northwest of El Paso, Texas.
- In 1938, the Reclamation Bureau constructed a hydroelectric plant at Elephant Butte Dam and -- 25 miles downstream -- the project's second major storage facility, Caballo Dam and Reservoir. Today, water held at the Elephant Butte reservoir is used for winter power generation, then held at the Caballo reservoir for summer irrigation.
- The Rio Grande Project currently extends 100 miles north of El Paso and 40 miles to the city's southeast, comprising a total of two major dams, six diversion dams, 140 miles of canals, 460 miles of laterals, 465 miles of drains, a hydroelectric plant, 500 miles of transmission lines, and 11 substations.
- Among the crops grown in the Rio Grande Project area, "King Cotton" remains one of the most prominent, along with peppers, onions, and lettuce. Other crops include barley, alfalfa, and pecans.
For more information on civil engineering history, go to www.asce.org/history.
Bristol, England
Built between 1835 and 1841
In the early 1830s, the merchants of Bristol, long dissatisfied with their communication with London, began to wonder if the new railroad technology might be a solution to their problem. The Bristol Chamber of Commerce, the Merchant Adventurers and other local industrial bodies formed a committee in 1833 to discuss the ambitious proposal of laying a railway to London. Matters progressed swiftly. Money was advanced and the search for a first-class engineer to guide the effort.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who had helped his father build the Thames Tunnel and who had been appointed engineer for the Clifton Suspension Bridge, was among the many applicants for the engineer-in-chief on the new railway. In March, 1833, the 27-year-old Brunel was chosen to superintend the construction of the Bristol-London railway, which in the same year adopted its Great Western Railway (GWR) as the corporate identity it would retain until consolidation into the nationwide British Railways system in 1948. It was the first major civil engineering work to be designed, directed, and completed by Brunel. Parliment officially established the company in 1835 and construction began the next year.
Brunel's route ran north of the Marl-borough Downs via Reading, Swindon, and Bath. He selected this northern course because it offered easier gradients and because it would readily allow later extensions to Oxford, Gloucester and South Wales. West of Reading he laid out the railway to follow the Thames River and pass through the valley of the Chilterns. For a distance of 77 miles the track would gradually gain elevation as it proceeded west to Swindon, never exceeding a gradient of 0.15 in 100 (8 feet per mile). From Swindon, the descent to Bristol was to be made over two short gradients of 1 in 100 (52.8 feet per mile). One of these would be in a tunnel through the Box Hill east of Bath.
Portions of the GWR opened as they were completed, beginning with the 24-mile London Paddington-Taplow section, which included the eight-arch Wharncliffe Viaduct, in 1838. Completion of the Maidenhead Bridge over the Thames, with its two, unusually flat, elliptical arches, allowed the line's extension to Twyford the following year. By December 1840, the railhead had reached Chippenham, where it crossed the center of town on another Brunel-designed arch viaduct. Almost appearing to be two separate structures, this viaduct includes six large and three small arches. While the railhead steadily advanced from the east, construction began onthe western section from Bristol to Bath, which also began service in 1840.
The last 24 miles between Chippenham and Bath - out of the total of 118 3/4 total between London and Bristol - were the worst. This final stretch contained the famous Box Tunnel, considered by many at the time to be almost impossible to build or operate through. Brunel believed otherwise, and he intentionally chose a route that required a tunnel through Box Hill to maintain the most-favorable gradients over the entire line.
Box Tunnel was a major feat in those early days of railway engineering. At 1 7/8 mile, it was the longest railway tunnel in existence. The bore measured 30 feet wide at the spring of its arch with a crown 25 feet above the rails. For construction access, and later ventilation, Brunel sank six vertical shafts 30 feet in diameter and varying from 70 to 300 feet deep, along the alignment of the tunnel. They permitted excavations to proceed simultaneously at fourteen working faces. During the construction of the tunnel, workers used a ton of gunpowder and a ton of candles every week. Having taken five years to build at an average cost of £100 per yard, Box Tunnel, along with the last portion of the GWR was finished in June 1841, and the ambition of the Bristol merchants to see trains running from London to Bristol was realized.
In Bristol, Brunel teamed with noted architect Matthew Digby Wyatt to design Temple Meads Station. Its Brunel-designed train shed featured a 72-foot-span hammerbeam roof structure-still the world's widest. Although superseded by a newer station, the original building and train shed survive as a museum and car park, making the complex the world's oldest purpose-built railway terminus. Other notable works still in service on the line include Box Tunnel, Sonning Cutting near Reading, Maidenhead Bridge, Wharncliffe Viaduct, and Chippenham Viaduct. London Paddington Station has been enlarged and modified over the years, but Brunel's 1854 three-span train shed remains essentially intact over platforms 1 - 8. These structures and the railway's overall alignment comprise a fitting tribute to one of civil engineering's boldest and accomplished practitioners.
For more information on civil engineering history, go to www.asce.org/history.
So far, so good as more weight is added to the bucket. Photo by Robert Jordan/Ole Miss Communications
From a set of souvenir photos of the construction of Hoover (Boulder) dam. Thirty years later they built Glenn Canyon dam the same way. I saw that one about a fourth of the way done but NO pictures.
eBay purchase
The City of Hoover has seen enormous growth in its sports programs over the past 10 years and needed a new complex that would fulfill their existing needs, allow for growth and give the City the ability to create new revenue streams and take advantage of sports tourism by hosting large tournament events. Hoover had not built any new athletic facilities in 15 years. At the same time the City’s sports participation had increased by multiples of 200% - 500% depending on the sport. The growth was caused by increases in both youth and adult sports leagues, as well as the relatively recent popularity of additional sports.
The multi-purpose Finley Center, which connects to the existing Hoover Met baseball stadium with a covered walkway, is able to accommodate a full-size football or soccer field, nine regulation-size basketball courts, 12 regulation-size volleyball courts or six indoor tennis courts. It can also seat 2,400 for banquets and 5,000 for events with general seating, such as a graduation ceremony or concert. Additional features of the indoor facility include a recreational walking track suspended 14 feet in the air, an athletic training and rehab center, and a food court.
The Finley Center sits on a 120 acre site that GMC master planned and includes fields for soccer, lacrosse, football, baseball and softball, tennis courts, a play ground walking track and splash pad.
Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood (GMC) provided master planning, architecture, interior design, civil engineering, construction materials testing, and environmental engineering services for this project.
13th MIDAS International Conference took place at Cracow University of Technology in Poland on 7th of May, 2014. About 200 professional engineers, researchers and PhD students joined the conference.
Constructed 1873-1887
"The pouring into this City and Gold Hill of a large stream of water … was the signal for a general jollification and rejoicing of 12 or 13 thousand people."
- The Virginia Evening Chronicle, August 7, 1873 In celebration of the first-phase completion of a small diversion dam on Hobart Creek
In the mid-1800s Virginia City was America's greatest producer of high-grade silver and gold ore. When mining activities began, natural springs provided water to the camps. As the population grew, the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company was formed to address the need for more water. The company first drew water from tunnels that had been driven into the mountains by prospectors. Water was stored in wooden tanks and sent through pipes into the town.
But the water supply soon began to wane, threatening a drought. In 1871 the company consulted with engineer Hermann Schussler to develop a plan to bring water from a new source in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Marlette Lake Water Supply was the first American water system designed to sustain the high pressures generated by the elevation changes in mountainous regions. Its initial inverted siphon was the largest in the world, and it withstood more than double the pressure of any contemporary pressure pipeline.
Facts
The project involved 21.47 miles of pipeline, 45.73 miles of flume, a 3,994-foot incline tunnel, and over 6,200-acre feet of reservoir storage capacity.
The system is capable of delivering about six million gallons of water per day.
- The laying of seven miles of over very rough terrain in just six weeks was a remarkable feat considering that all labor was performed by men and mules.
- The first stage involved construction of a diversion dam on Hobart Creek, a 4.6-mile wooden flume (channel) from the dam to an inlet tank, and the seven miles of pipe 12-inch, riveted iron pipeline which served as an inverted siphon. The inverted siphon provided a pressure pipeline supplying additional water to the Hobart Reservoir.
- The water company installed a second inverted siphon in 1875, as well as another flume from the Hobart Diversion Reservoir. In 1877, workers completed a 4,000-foot long incline tunnel through the Sierra, traversing down one side of a ravine and up the other from the west side of the Sierra.
For more information on civil engineering history, go to www.asce.org/history.
Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Island, Texas
Seawall constructed: 1902-1904
Grade raising: 1903-1911
Galveston Island is a barrier island located two miles off the Texas coast. The island is about 3 miles wide at its widest and about 28 miles long. The Galveston Seawall extends over 10 miles along Galveston's oceanfront, protecting life and property against hurricanes and tropical storms.
The need for such a seawall became apparent when on September 8, 1900 a hurricane struck Galveston Island resulting in the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history. The storm killed, at a minimum, 6,000 of the island's 44,000 inhabitants and caused an estimated $30 million in damage. A three-member board of engineers [Henry Martyn Robert, Alfred Noble (President, ASCE 1903), and Henry Clay Ripley] was formed to make recommendations regarding protecting the city from overflows, raising the city above overflows, and building a seawall.
The board presented its report on January 25, 1902 and recommended construction of a curved-faced concrete seawall rising 17 feet above mean low tide and stretching over 3 miles in length along the oceanfront. In response to this recommendation, Galveston County, Texas contracted with J.M. O'Rourke and Company of Denver for construction of a 17,593-foot seawall. Built between 1902 and 1904, the seawall consisted of a curved, concrete gravity section 16 feet wide on the base at elevation 1 foot above mean low water, and 5 feet wide on top at elevation 17 feet above mean low water. It would weigh 40,000 pounds per foot of length. A 100-foot wide embankment was built up behind the concrete section to a maximum elevation of 16.6 feet. Over time the seawall was extended both westward and eastward to provide protection to other areas.
Concurrent with construction of the seawall, the city of Galveston undertook extensive grade raising which not only provided support for the seawall but also facilitated drainage and sewage systems. The initial grade raising took place from 1903-1911. Work was accomplished in quarter-mile-square sections and involved enclosing each section in a dike and then lifting all structures and utilities such as streetcar tracks, fireplugs, and water pipes. Around 2,000 buildings were raised on hand-turned jackscrews. The sand fill was dredged from the entrance to Galveston Harbor and then transported to the residential district through a 20-foot deep, 200-foot wide, and 2.5 mile long canal using four self-loading hopper dredges. After the fill was discharged in the areas to be raised, new foundations were constructed on top of it.
Facts
- The seawall was founded on timber piles and protected from undermining by sheet piling and a layer of riprap, four-foot-square granite blocks extending 27 ft outward from the toe of the sea face of the wall.
- Materials used in constructing the original seawall included 5.200 railway carloads of crushed granite; 1,800 carloads of sand; 1,000 carloads of cement; 1,200 carloads of round wooden pilings; 4,000 carloads of wooden sheet pilings; 3,700 carloads of stone riprap; and 5 carloads of reinforcing steel.
- About 500 city blocks were raised using 16.3 million cubic yards of sand spread from a few inches to eleven feet thick.
Resources
Bixel, Patricia Bellis. Galveston and the 1900 storm: catastrophe and catalyst. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000.
McComb, David G. Galveston: A History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986.
For more information on civil engineering history, go to www.asce.org/history.