Optimizing Time with VDC:Steel
By Josh Zimmerman Project teams are beginning to integrate services inhouse, including steel fabrication, to optimize overall cost and shorten timelines. In the past, the steel fabricator hired a detailing firm, who then created its own model and set of drawings. In the new approach, the detailing is scheduled up-front instead of in the middle of the project—typically about 60 percent of the way through the design phase. This article details some key considerations to optimize all the...
Structural Solutions: Proper Communication - Engineers Need It Just Like Everyone Else
I’m sure there are many readers of this column who can remember when the telephone was the only substitute for an in-person meeting—it wasn’t that long ago. Today, we have myriad ways to communicate through the internet: talking to multiple people at once via conference calling and video conferencing, talking and watching via screen-sharing apps, and writing via e-mail. And where would we be without chatting, blogging, texting and messaging? One thing that hasn’t changed is the need to communic...
Keeping Ocean Shores Clean: Coastal Town Relies on Vacuum Sewers
By Steve Gibbs Some public works officials and civil engineers think twice when considering vacuum sewer technology as a viable alternative for municipal wastewater collection. Vacuum sewers provide several advantages, including significant upfront cost savings, easier installation, minimal exposure to raw sewage and near-zero infiltration (which also saves money at the treatment plant). But there have been lingering questions about long-term operations and maintenance (O&M). Will a...
Infrastructure Showcase: America’s Top 12 Transportation Projects
Twelve projects from 10 state departments of transportation are finalists for the 2016 America’s Transportation Awards competition, selected by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), AAA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Online voting for the People’s Choice Award will continue through Oct. 31, 2016, at AmericasTransportationAwards.org. A panel of experts will select the Grand Prize winner. Both awards will earn a $10,000 donation from AASHTO on behalf...
Engineered Solutions: Topographic LiDAR Data Employed to Map, Preserve U.S. History
By Michael Meiser and Daniel Ngoroi In August 2015, the National Park Service (NPS) contracted Woolpert for the Little Bighorn National Monument Mapping Project to record the locations of thousands of headstone markers at the Custer National Cemetery as well as hundreds of battlefield markers at the Little Bighorn National Monument site, which covers approximately 5.5 square miles. Woolpert used high-density, airborne topographic light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data acquired via...
Safety Still First! BIM Takes Rule No. 1 to the Next Level
By John Turner As the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry evolves, with new technologies leap-frogging our capabilities forward and shifting our approach to managing projects, there’s no aspect of the jobsite left untouched—and that includes safety. Innovative consultants are greatly impacting construction by leveraging new technologies to accomplish more. They’re reducing costs, streamlining schedules and improving safety—not just on the jobsite, but for the...
Better BIM: Laser Scanning Improves Accuracy and Speed in Onsite Data Acquisition
By Chew Beow Kwan Building information modeling (BIM) first came about in the 1970s, but its methods have been refined considerably since then. Widely used by city planners, architects and civil engineers today, BIM enables stakeholders to better make high-impact decisions by providing timely, relevant information. 3D drawings can be created with line-fitting and building-specific tools found in the PointSense Building software. Laser-scanning solutions have shaped the way teams wor...
GRAVITY: It Just Works—Massive Concrete Blocks Resolve Detention-Basin Challenges
By Angus W. Stocking, L.S. Houston’s Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No. 17 is clumsily named, but its mission is admirably clear: per the organization’s website, TIRZ 17 is a “local government corporation created to aid, assist and act on behalf of the City of Houston in promoting the common good and general welfare in the Memorial City area of Houston.” Also known as the Memorial City Redevelopment Authority, the agency is focused on developing, maintaining and rehabilitating pub...
Sponsored Content: One Forest, Multiple Perspectives
By Mary Jo Wagner With nearly 60 percent of the country––23 million hectares (56.8 million acres)––covered in trees, forestry in Sweden is big business. The world’s second-largest exporter of paper, pulp and sawn-wood products, Sweden’s forest industry is valued at around 90 billion euros ($100.4 million)––about one-fifth of Sweden’s GDP––and employs about 200,000 people. Managing Sweden’s forests also is serious business. Ensuring the sustainability and health of this wealthy asset fa...
Engineered Solutions: Tricky Feedmill Site Requires Stormwater Conveyance System
By Bart Hartsfeld and Chris M. Ross, P.E. After acquiring Durbin Farms, Mar-Jac Poultry Alabama LLC planned a major expansion to build a new $25 million feedmill in Franklin County, Ala., that would efficiently provide feed to poultry growers in the region. Unfortunately, potential project sites with rail access and acreage for a substantial rail loop accommodating up to 100 rail cars were not readily available. Following much study and careful consideration, CDG Engineers selected the Sp...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
