Engineered Solutions: Steep Slopes Require Trench Dam Security
When storing AquaBlok material onsite, it should be tarped and protected from the elements. Land to be used for a housing development in Silverthorne, Colo., was originally homesteaded in the 1860s as ranch land for hay production and grazing Scottish Highland cattle. Although the ranching tradition continues on the property, a portion was recently set aside for construction of a new housing development. The property is located on the slope of a mountain, with some sections of road traversing...
Engineered Solutions: Campus Revitalization
Contra Costa College is revitalizing the central core of its campus to better meet the needs of today’s students. The new $52 million, 108,379-square-foot Contra Costa College Center consists of three new buildings that will define three outdoor campus spaces: an amphitheater, an eating area and a quad area for social activities. Project Summary Organization: Contra Costa Community College District Construction Manager: Critical Solutions Inc. Design Firm: tBP/Architecture Inc. Genera...
Collect Data Once, Use Whenever Needed: Mobile-Mapping Systems Create Quick and Detailed 3D Models of Infrastructure
European engineers have long been at the forefront of scanning and infrastructure technology, being much faster to adopt all-digital workflows than most of their American counterparts. One of these technologies is mobile mapping, which is typically a combined system that includes GNSS satellite positioning equipment, inertial measuring units, distance measuring, 3D laser scanning and some form of digital imaging. All of this is combined in a mobile platform such as a car or truck; rail car;...
BIM Breakthrough: Historic Grand Paris Express Employs BIM on Monumental Scale
When the original Paris Metro system was built more than a century ago, it connected all the most vital parts of the city. But Paris has changed a lot in 116 years. Now outlying neighborhoods are home to Europe’s largest business district, the world’s largest produce market, several universities and areas with denser populations than Paris itself. The Grand Paris Express (GPE) aims to ease travel to and from these outlying neighborhoods by adding four new metro lines, extending two existi...
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...
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...
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...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
