Redmond Elementary School’s Stormwater Detention System
Lake Washington School District’s new Clara Barton Elementary School in Redmond, Wash., is one of the new elementary schools in the Redmond Learning Community that was included in the district’s Long-Term Facilities Planning Task Force recommendations. The new school is built to house 690 elementary students under state-funded class-size reductions. As part of the project, Oldcastle Precast Auburn was contracted to supply several hundred precast concrete panel sections for two massive detention...
Madison Square Park Tower: Slender, Inverted, Remarkable
The last decade witnessed a global boom in tall building construction, and, like every year since 2014, 2017 set another record for tall building construction with the completion of 144 buildings taller than 655 feet. New York City, practically synonymous with skyscrapers, saw its fair share of tall buildings erected as developers continue reaching for the sky. However, unlike most of the tall buildings going up worldwide, New York leads the way in a new trend: slender skyscrapers. Slender Skys...
Tulsa’s ‘Gathering Place’ Brings a Community Together
Located along the Arkansas River in Tulsa, Okla., the Gathering Place is too large and topographically complex to be taken in from a single vantage point. Circulation ties the wide-ranging elements together. Thousands of Tulsa, Okla., residents turned out Sept. 8, 2018, to get their first look at the Gathering Place, a $465 million riverfront park developed by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. Situated along the Arkansas River just two miles from downtown Tulsa, the 66.5-acre park’s...
Auto Auto Parking: It’s About More Than Just Parking Your Car
When it comes to discussions of moving people around, self-driving cars, ride-hailing services and bike-sharing companies are grabbing all the headlines. These industries and associated technologies certainly are interesting: for a long time we’ve dreamed about kicking back and letting our cars drive us to our destination and park themselves; we love our phones and the convenience of apps that bring a car to our doorstep with a few taps; and the increased global interest in bike riding, dedicate...
Square Building in a Round Hole
Integrating virtual construction and geospatial technologies into design-build projects reduces risk and improves control costs. It’s hard enough to build a complex industrial structure 12 stories tall. Putting the structure into a deep, concrete-lined hole is even more difficult. And then you’ll need to do it twice. That’s the challenge facing Abe Torres and his colleagues at PC Construction. When the job is finished, however, they will have helped solve a problem more than 200 years o...
112-Foot-Tall Reinforced Soil Slope Project Challenges Bay Bridge Construction Team
There are many aspects of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s recent reconstruction that could be considered engineering wonders. After nearly 12 years of construction, engineering challenges and cost overruns, the new eastern span opened in September 2013 to replace a seismically unsound portion of the structure that was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The new self-anchored suspension bridge, with a final price tag of $6.5 billion, was designed to withstand the strongest eart...
Real-Time Reporting: Information Management Keeps $1 Billion Light-Rail Project on Track
Traditionally, the construction and engineering sectors have been somewhat reticent to adopt new technology. However, with the prospect of a U.S. government infrastructure bill in the works, which could trigger spending of $200 billion in federal money during the next decade to spur an additional $1.3 trillion in spending from cities, states and private companies on major projects, this is changing as firms look to modernize and improve efficiency and collaboration. Leveraging a cloud-based nex...
Bond ... 54 Bond Street: NYC Building Restoration Wins Prestigious Award
54 Bond Street in Manhattan is a circa-1874, corner cast-iron building in the French Second Empire style. Its recent facade preservation and restoration project in Manhattan received a 2018 Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award, the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s highest honor for preservation excellence. “The $4.5 million project was phased, with the first phase being the facade restoration, and the second, final phase being the reconstruction of the sidewalk, which is currently being completed,”...
Emergency Operations: Loyola University Medical Center Upgrades Stormwater Mitigation System After Dangerous Flooding Event
By Bill Wood, P.E. The year 2013 typically isn’t remembered for its storms. There were no Hurricane Harveys or Marias, no Superstorm Sandys, and no Katrinas. However, while not given names, smaller storms still can severely impact communities and cause major damage and disruption at local and regional levels. This was the type of storm that hit the Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC) Campus in Maywood, Ill., just west of downtown Chicago, in April 2013. On the heels of weeklong int...
Hilton Head Airport Extension Sustainably Overcomes Environmental Concerns
Residents of Hilton Head, S.C., have long been sensitive to the island’s environment. The island covers more than 69 square miles, but nearly 40 percent of it is water. The island includes 12 miles of Atlantic Ocean beachfront and has grown in popularity among tourists, retirees and people seeking vacation homes or a full-time residence on or near the shoreline. Harbour Town Village, the island’s primary shopping and resort destination, opened in 1969 when 2,500 residents lived full-time at...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
