Industry News Briefs
August 7, 2008 Headlines
How To Avoid The Next Tunnel Tragedy
Federal Government Urges States To Take Road Safety Measures
USDA Awards $447.5 Million to Rural Electric Utilities
Industry News
How To Avoid The Next Tunnel Tragedy
Design News (07/14/08) Vol. 63, P. 59; Smock, Doug
There are a number of lessons that engineers can learn from the fatal 2006 Big Dig tunnel collapse in Boston, Massachusetts. According to engineering expert Myer Ezrin, one of the risks leading to the tunnel collapse was the fact that engineers are often work with new materials and many have had no prior experience with those materials. Ezrin believes that if engineers had tested the adhesives used during the Big Dig construction, the collapse would have been avoided. Specifically, Ezrin cites several engineering errors, including the wrong material was chosen to hold up the concrete panels as part of a suspended ceiling; a lack of communication between the engineers and the resin suppliers; engineers ignored a similar failure in another tunnel in 1999; and the use of a concrete suspended ceiling. Ezrin says that the using a better adhesive would have prevented the collapse. Engineers ignored the adhesive capacity of the epoxy used to suspend the ceiling, which is largely dependent on the strength of the hardener used to set the adhesive. According to NTSB, the Big Dig epoxy supplier, Power Fasteners, failed to notify engineers that the epoxy they supplied was only to be used in short-term projects. While Power Fasteners was liable for the mistake and was forced to change the product information for the epoxy, NTSB recommends that engineers test adhesive anchors used in sustained tensile load overhead highway applications.
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Federal Government Urges States To Take Road Safety Measures
Federal Highway Administration Release (07/25/08)
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration is urging state departments of transportation to take a proactive approach toward roadway safety. The roadway accident rate in the United States is at its lowest in history, standing at 1.41 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Still, about 43,000 people die on U.S. roadways each year, a number that has stayed relatively static for five years. In urging states to adopt a more coordinated, systemwide approach to reduce accidents, the agency is promoting several tools. These include roadway safety audits; rumble strips and stripes; and roundabouts. Also being promoted are cable median barriers to separate opposing traffic on divided highways; sloped safety edges to reduce the severity of crashes that occur when a tire falls over a road-edge; and turning lanes at stop-controlled intersection with high turning volumes. The agency further recommends a one-second increase in yellow signal intervals, which it says can reduce red-light violations by up to 50 percent, thus reducing crashes related to red-light running. Another tool, raised medians or pedestrian refuge areas at pedestrian crossings at marked crosswalks, has demonstrated a 46-percent reduction in pedestrian crashes, says the agency, which recommends that medians be between 4 and 8 feet wide to boost pedestrian safety. Walkways along roadways, which can reduce accidents with pedestrians by up to 88 percent, are another tool that can be employed to boost safety. "Safety is our top priority and, while the fatality rate on our nation's roads is the lowest in history, we are always seeking new ways to prevent tragedies where lives are lost," says Acting Federal Highway Administrator Jim Ray. "We owe it to the traveling public to work even more creatively."
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USDA Awards $447.5 Million to Rural Electric Utilities
U.S. Department of Agriculture (07/30/08)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that 24 rural electric utilities in 20 states have been earmarked to receive a total of $447.5 million in loans to build new distribution lines and make needed improvements. The funding will be made available through the Rural Development program, which has awarded about $28 billion in electric loans since 2001. "Communities need reliable electric service in rural areas and USDA's support helps businesses expand and create more economic opportunities," says Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer.
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How to Avoid the Next Big Dig Tragedy (How To Avoid The Next Tunnel Tragedy)
Design News (07/14/08) Vol. 63, P. 59; Smock, Doug
There are a number of lessons that engineers can learn from the fatal 2006 Big Dig tunnel collapse in Boston, Massachusetts. According to engineering expert Myer Ezrin, one of the risks leading to the tunnel collapse was the fact that engineers are often work with new materials and many have had no prior experience with those materials. Ezrin believes that if engineers had tested the adhesives used during the Big Dig construction, the collapse would have been avoided. Specifically, Ezrin cites several engineering errors, including the wrong material was chosen to hold up the concrete panels as part of a suspended ceiling; a lack of communication between the engineers and the resin suppliers; engineers ignored a similar failure in another tunnel in 1999; and the use of a concrete suspended ceiling. Ezrin says that the using a better adhesive would have prevented the collapse. Engineers ignored the adhesive capacity of the epoxy used to suspend the ceiling, which is largely dependent on the strength of the hardener used to set the adhesive. According to NTSB, the Big Dig epoxy supplier, Power Fasteners, failed to notify engineers that the epoxy they supplied was only to be used in short-term projects. While Power Fasteners was liable for the mistake and was forced to change the product information for the epoxy, NTSB recommends that engineers test adhesive anchors used in sustained tensile load overhead highway applications.
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HUD Announces $100 Million in Disaster Assistance to Three Midwest States
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (08/04/08)
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced the allocation of a total of $100 million in emergency funding to support infrastructure recovery in Iowa, Indiana, and Wisconsin. An additional $200 million will be allocated when a more thorough study is completed on each state's needs. The funding was made available through the Community Development Block Grant Program, which has allocated about $120 billion since 1974 to support community development.
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Interior Department Initiates New Five Year Oil and Gas Leasing Program for Outer Continental Shelf
U.S. Department of the Interior (07/30/08)
U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said his department will start work on a program for selling undersea oil and natural gas leases for the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, a move that could make it easier for the next administration to increase energy production from federal offshore areas, including some which have been protected by a congressional ban since 1982. "Areas that were considered too expensive to develop a year ago are no longer necessarily out of reach based on improvements to technology and safety," said Kempthorne. "The American people and the president want action and this initiative can accelerate an offshore exploration and development program that can increase production from additional domestic energy resources." On July 14, President Bush rescinded the Executive Withdrawal on oil and gas leasing operations on the Outer Continental Shelf and urged Congress to lift its ban. Today, the Outer Continental Shelf supplies 27 percent of U.S. domestic oil production and 15 percent of national natural gas production. An extra 18 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas can be found in jurisdictions under the congressional ban. Kempthorne has asked the Mineral Management Service to lay the groundwork for developing the new five-year program and to solicit comments from all parties.
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Utah Bridge Renovation Has National Builders Intrigued
Salt Lake Tribune (UT) (07/30/08) Foy, Paul
Before the summer is over, Utah is hoping to replace 20 aging and deteriorating highway bridges in what is being called the most ambitious bridge replacement project in the United States. Because highway builders must stick to a two-month schedule, they are constructing many bridges or their chief components offsite and putting them into place with cranes or skids greased with soap. African ironwood is used to make the skids to increase their density and weight. State highway officials said plans to overhaul the Utah's bridges were in the works prior to the collapse of an interstate bridge above the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in 2007. "The Minneapolis disaster got a lot of states aware of their own bridges," said Rukhsana Lindsey, director of research and bridge operations for the Utah Department of Transportation. "But I would have to say that Utah decision makers were on board with our bridges and funding them well before that bridge collapse."
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Expansion of Pipeline Stirs Concerns Over Safety
Wall Street Journal (08/04/08) P. A4; Casselman, Ben
The demand for natural gas is pushing new pipeline construction further into environmentally protected areas. The U.S. government estimates that approximately 4,400 miles of new pipeline will be built in 2008, more than 2.5 times the amount of new pipeline laid in 2007 and the largest yearly expansion in the decade since the government started keeping a record of pipeline construction. With the expansion comes criticism over construction's environmental impact on groundwater and plant and animal life. As a result, many of the companies laying new pipeline have been sued and face eminent domain battles. Pipeline expansion has also sparked jurisdictional battles among local, state and federal authorities that preside over projects. Arguably the most pressing concern for critics is safety. Onshore transmission lines killed two people, injured seven and did $39 million worth of property damage in 2007, according to the Department of Transportation. One of the deadliest incidents recorded occurred in Carlsbad, N.M in 2000, when a natural-gas pipeline ruptured, killing 12 campers. Concern over similar incidents occurring in communities tapped for expansion is creating new obstacles for the gas transmission industry.
Framing the Land
POB (07/08) Vol. 33, No. 10, P. 24; Hendrickson, Allen
The National Integrated Land System (NILS), developed by ESRI under contract to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the United States Forest Service (USFS), establishes a common data model, workflow, and GIS software tools for collecting and managing land survey data and record information. NILS is able to store spatial data from the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) and can display both urban and rural information. Parcels can be created based on map control when there is no precise survey data available, and it can combine digitized and scanned data, GPS data, land descriptions, and aerial photography. The Survey Management and Measurement Management modules of NILS enable users to collect, analyze, and adjust survey data, combining measurement data from different sources with different levels of reliability in a GIS desktop environment. These modules help bring together the GIS technology and land surveying disciplines in a system designed to be usable both for specialists and land managers within the BLM and USFS. The Parcel Management module, meanwhile, is a desktop GIS application that land managers can use to create and manage parcel features and land descriptions, including land and mineral records and cadastral feature data. NILS also has a Web site at GeoCommunicator.gov that allows for distribution and access of spatial data from all the NILS applications. Users and developers can provide Web and map services via the GeoRSS feed format as well as Shape file format and other data formats.
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Great Wind on the Great Lakes
Renewable Energy Access (07/31/08) Wasserman, Harvey
The Great Lakes provide some of the top wind resources in the world. Cleveland's 225-kW Vestas machine is the original utility-scale wind turbine to produce electricity in a U.S. city. Separately, a 750-kW windmill on the shores of Lake Ontario has been generating power for Toronto since 2002, manufacturing 1 GWh of electricity annually. Both of these viable lakeside city projects forecast a highly promising future for offshore, freshwater wind farms. Lake turbines, though, encounter a lot of the problems marine offshore wind farms face, including the steep price of implementation, anchoring problems, and potential challenges associated with access for maintenance. In the Great Lakes, installations face as well the issue of ice floes hitting the towers and harming or ruining them. Conversely, the freshwater Great Lakes installations will not be corroded by saltwater, which has been troublesome for marine-based arrays. Several companies in the Cleveland region are ready to take part in what the Cleveland Foundation's Richard Stuebi hopes will be a huge industrial revival. Scientific and engineering facilities at Case Western Reserve University, the Glenn Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a broad variety of fuel-cell businesses, and several foundries, mills, and additional area ventures are all prepared to partake in the pending wind evolution. Industry expert Paul Gipe strongly recommends creating ownership deals that involve public stakeholding, like ones in Europe.
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