Engineered Solutions: Big Service for Small Design and Engineering Firms
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Engineered Solutions: Leaning Into the Best Technology
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ReEngineering the Engineer: Security 101: COVID, a New Level of Growing Pain
Life was seemingly simple when I started engineering. We printed out a large floor plan from the architect and drew the floor framing on tracing paper. Then we designed one beam after another, writing the reactions on the plan, then the girders, then on to the columns and carrying the reactions down to the foundation. Difficult? Not really. Tedious? Absolutely. Reflecting on that process, all I needed was a calculator, the composite beam design guide to interpolate designs for the beams and gir...
All Aboard the St. Louis MetroLink: Big Block, Hollow Core Retaining Wall System Protects Trains in Beautiful New Digs
The St. Louis MetroLink serves as a lifeline for commuters and visitors alike, with routes extending through downtown to the city’s international airport, near Washington University, and out to Scott Air Force Base near Shiloh, Ill. One of the busiest light-rail lines in the Midwest, MetroLink carries more than 53,000 passengers daily along its two lines with 38 metro stations. It’s a vital component of the St. Louis transportation infrastructure, so the Bi-State Development Agency sought...
Letters from October 2020 Issue
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Construction Concerns: Ten Strategies for Planning a Successful Construction Project
JACQUELINE GREENBERG VOGT There has been a recent abundance of catastrophic construction failures. One of the more-famous failures occurred on March 15, 2018, when a pedestrian bridge collapsed at Florida International University, killing six people. On Oct. 22, 2019, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a report blaming design errors and poor oversight for the tragedy. Two other deadly accidents occurred in the last year involving construction cranes. These examples highlight a...
Code Update: Construction Stormwater Permitting and Regulations
LILY MONTESANO, CISEC Construction sites can generate substantial amounts of pollutants during a relatively short period of time. From exposed soils to concrete, trash and solvents, pollutants present at construction sites, if uncontrolled, can easily be conveyed offsite and into waterways, degrading water quality and damaging delicate ecosystems. To limit such degradation, the discharge of stormwater from construction sites is regulated at several levels: federally by the U.S. Environmenta...
Increasing Profits and Winning More Work: GMF Industries’ Journey from Traditional to Model-Based Estimates
Estimating is inarguably one of the most-important and challenging aspects of any project, especially in today’s market in which the pressure is high to deliver competitive estimates in tight timeframes. At the same time, errors during takeoff, the volatility of material prices and complexities of predicting labor requirements increase the potential for risk. Traditional estimating processes, which have evolved from hand-written documents and spreadsheets to on-screen digitizing takeoff, can be...
Engineered Solutions: Solving Common Bridge Design Problems with BIM
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Executive Corner: Four Action Items to Help Move Your Firm Forward
As we come to grips with the current economic landscape and ponder the post-pandemic future, it’s natural that negative feelings arise. We have the choice, however, to let these negative emotions debilitate or energize. As owners or leaders of our businesses, we can’t afford to let emotions get the best of us; and I believe, from personal experience, that the most-beneficial way to deal with these feelings is to take action. In this column I suggest a few actions you can take right now that will...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
TriMet’s Banfield Type 1 Substation Replacement Project
February Issue 2026
