Dubai: Mapping the Smart Path to Happiness
The city of Dubai takes its smartness and its happiness very seriously. In fact, happiness is the stated end goal of all the ambitious and clever initiatives the city launched since the start of its Smart Dubai program in 2013. The all-encompassing strategy influenced the creation of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first-ever Minister for Happiness and Wellbeing, and it’s ultimate aim is to transform Dubai into the smartest and happiest city on Earth. A significant part of Smart Dubai has bee...
Automation Is Coming to Your CMT Lab
In the field, technicians sample fresh concrete and cast cylinders to cure in the testing lab. Specimens tagged by hand. Results written on clipboards. Data entered, line by painstaking line. Materials testing has always been overly manual. Then COVID-19 happened. The traditional construction materials testing (CMT) workflow is, unequivocally, a human-dependent process. Humans write things down. Humans hand things off. Humans read what’s been recorded by other humans. Pretty much every...
Digital Twins: Cutting Through the Hype From Concept to Operations
A digital twin of a pump room and its operations dashboard. (KCI Technologies, Inc.) The Future, Now In a brand-new highrise office building in the heart of Chicago, a facility-maintenance manager gets a notice on her cellphone that a pump is operating outside its normal parameters. After reviewing the pump specs on the mobile dashboard, she notes a failure is imminent and shuts down the pump. Viewing a 3D model of the pump room, she notes the location, model number and warranty inform...
Video Interviews: 2021 IECA Award Winners
The International Erosion Control Association (IECA) announced winners or a variety of awards during the virtual IECA Annual Conference and Expo held in February 2021. The IECA awards program recognizes outstanding achievements in the erosion and sediment control and stormwater industries. This year’s awards recognized young professionals under 30 and under 40, sustained partners, outstanding professional, sustained contributor and the environmental excellence award. Todd Danielson, the ed...
Dream Team Turns Challenges into Assets at 110 N. Wacker Drive
Image Credit: Ulivieri Stainless-steel panels originally part of the Morton Salt Headquarters (top) were installed at the lower level of the new building (bottom).Goettsch Partners When the development team of Riverside Investment and Development (Riverside) and the Howard Hughes Corporation made the decision to build a trophy-class skyscraper on 110 N. Wacker Drive in Chicago, they knew they would face several challenges. They also knew just the team who could sol...
Identifying Problems with Post-Tension Concrete
Photos show debonded grout over an anchor pocket (top) as well as removed grout revealing corroded wedges and anchors due to water intrusion at the grout pocket (bottom). Post-tensioning is a technique for reinforcing concrete with steel cables typically referred to as tendons. Post-tensioning tendons, which are high-strength steel cables inside plastic sheathing, are positioned in the forms before the concrete is placed. After the concrete has gained strength and before service...
Alpine Engineering: Ramcharger 8 Continues a History of Chairlift Innovation
Big Sky Resort’s Ramcharger 8 is the first eight-seat chairlift in North America and one of the most technologically advanced chairlifts in the world. (Big Sky Resort) The most modern chairlift ever built in North America now is open at Montana’s Big Sky Resort. Montana’s Big Sky Resort, where wide-open spaces meet dramatic peaks to provide world-class ski experiences, is the second-largest ski resort in the United States by acreage. Opened in 1973 and founded by Montana n...
A Blueprint for Stormwater Mitigation: Coral Springs Proactively Addresses Multiple Concerns and Strategies
As the U.S. population mushrooms in some areas and development continues to create impervious surfaces, both factors put increased demand on stormwater infrastructure. With more-frequent and intense storms and snowmelt on top of flooding events, an increasing amount of runoff from impervious surfaces risks flooding of communities, stream erosion and water pollution. The U.S. stormwater infrastructure received a D grade in the newest American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE...
Map Your City, Even from the Comfort of Your Home
It’s possible to make data accessible by anyone and get the job done anywhere, anytime. If 2020 taught us anything, it taught us that we must be remote. Many involved in mapping and planning cities are realizing that not only do things change, they change fast. With that change comes a massive amount of new and updated data, and staying current requires the skillful deployment of digital data management. For cities—where more than half of the world’s population lives—that data and cadastra...
A Big Deal by Any Measure: Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Opens for Business
Currently clunkily named, but impressive by every other measure, the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement opened all six vehicle lanes to traffic on Oct. 5, 2020, marking the triumphant conclusion to a seven-year, $1.47-billion project that may well turn out to be the most significant and successful infrastructure achievement in California this decade. Headlining superlatives include the following: • With two towers reaching 515 feet into the sky, it will be the second-tallest cable-stay...
Video: New Roundabout Under Construction at McIver and Old Florence Roads in Darlington County
Promenade at The Point
June Issue 2026
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