June 1, 2011, was a tragic day in Springfield, Mass. (settled since 1636, it’s Massachusetts’ third-largest city); seven devastating tornadoes touched down in and around the city, killing three people, injuring 300 and leaving more than 500 homeless.…
Making Everyone Happy: Early and Effective Collaboration to Realize a Beautiful Building
Structural engineers occupy a difficult niche in high-rise construction; too often, their role is perceived as a “reality check” on the actual…
Oregon DOT Uses Technology to Keep up with Progressive Contractors
ODOT inspectors use the Windows 7-compatible DT Research model DT391GS tablet equipped with a GNSS antenna and MicroSurvey FieldGenius to stake out and…
Cell Tower Inspection and Maintenance: UAV Reality Capture and Digital Twin Pilot Project Suggest Major Efficiency Gains
Telstra’s complex cell-tower arrays typically are mounted at the top of 25-meter, non-climbable steel monopoles. Determining the precise number of cell towers in the world is a difficult task, complicated by the lack of coordinated international reporting…
Infrastructure Digitization: Two Industry Analysts Discuss Recent Tech Efforts from Autodesk and Bentley
Three Trends Defining Industrialized Construction By Drew Buechley On the main stage of Autodesk University 2017 in Las Vegas, Jim Lynch, vice president of the Autodesk Building Products Group, highlighted Autodesk’s increased focus on the industrialization…
A Tunnel That Improves Automated Vehicles
Willow Run, a manufacturing complex located near Ypsilanti, Mich., was built by the Ford Motor Company in 1940 as one of the first facilities dedicated to the mass production of military aircraft, primarily the famous B-24 Liberator heavy bomber, the most…
Getting the Lights Back On in Puerto Rico: The Army Corps and Fluor Mount Massive Grid Restoration After Hurricane Maria
Hurricane Maria, which made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 2017, was the worst natural disaster ever to befall the U.S. commonwealth, and also the deadliest storm of the record-setting 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. With peak sustained winds of 175…
Long Island Rail Road Builds an Award-Winning New Bridge
The Long Island Rail Road Company (LIRR) was chartered in 1834, and is one of the few railroads that survived as an intact company from its original charter to the present. Like any transportation network—especially those that have been around for 183 years—LIRR…
Surveying Is Fun and Data Is Cheap: Bentley Systems Sets Pace of Reality Capture
Surveyors are accustomed to working with sophisticated and powerful technology, such as GNSS, laser scanning, and photo capture, which makes their jobs so much easier than it used to be. Even 30 years ago, gathering geometric data about the real world used…
A Scenic, Secure Thriller: Elk Falls Park Suspension Bridge Provides Sensitive Access to Canadian Treasure
By Angus W. Stocking, L.S. Elk Falls, beautifully cascading for 89 feet (27 meters), is the centerpiece of Elk Falls Provincial Park on Vancouver Island. By all accounts, it’s one of Canada’s most-scenic waterfalls, but for most of the park’s existence,…
