Tunnel Vision: Blended Technologies for Tight Schedules and Tighter Conditions
By John Stenmark John May is accustomed to taking on challenging projects, but he soon recognized that this one would be different. Meeting the project requirements would involve multiple technologies, advanced software and a team of dedicated and—quite literally—flexible surveyors that would spend days working in a cramped underground pipe built to carry water, not humans. The work originated from a utility owner in Northern California who needed to rehabilitate a 90-year-old buried...
Aiming for Net Zero in Public Buildings: 8 Principles
Buildings account for as much as 40 percent of all energy consumed in the United States. To increase the efficiency of buildings and address climate-change issues, government programs increasingly promote “net zero energy” (NZE) goals for public buildings. The following eight guiding principles for project design phases will help produce buildings that generate energy onsite using clean renewable resources through the course of a year that are at least equal to the total amount of energy cons...
After the Wildfire: Soil Stabilization Key to Recovery Efforts
Fiber-reinforced matrix products are designed to give seed a stable growth medium on particularly steep slopes. Hydromulch was used on hillsides in the Verdugo Mountains in Los Angeles following the La Tuna Fire, which started Sept. 1, 2017, and burned 7,194 acres. It was the city’s largest wildfire in 50 years. Soil erosion is a common concern after a wildfire—just ask Logan Moore, a landscape associate with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) North Region. Moor...
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 check precise layout points as part of regular inspection duties. In 2016, construction inspectors at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) had a problem, but in a way it was a good problem. “A lot of our contractors are using machine control now on our projects, a lot more than just five years ago,” explains ODOT Construction...
Don’t Believe in Magic: Berne, Switzerland, Demonstrates 20 Years of Public Works Coordination
Smart City, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Asset Lifecycle Management are today’s buzzwords to put a magic spell on many an infrastructure manager. How nice would it be to control unwieldy roads, bridges and tunnels, distribution networks or even an entire city by myriad light pulses in a fiber optics fabric and wirelessly through the air? How beautifully safe and sustainable would our cities be if maintenance and restoration could be budgeted and scheduled according to continuo...
Clearing a Hurdle for the Potomac Yard Metro Station
Innovative financing played an important role in getting a long-anticipated Metrorail station on track for a 2021 opening. The addition of a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) rail station at Potomac Yard is a central feature to successfully redeveloping a 300-acre former rail yard in Alexandria, Va., into an accessible and walkable mixed-use development, poised to give the area an economic boost. In September 2018, WMATA and the city of Alexandria a...
Storm on the Horizon: Sewage Overflow Is a Problem for Today, Not Tomorrow
Climate change often is depicted as a far-off threat; something for future generations to worry about. However, while politicians continue to debate how to solve this critical issue, the effects of global warming and changing weather patterns are already being felt close to home. Across France, for example, heavy rainfall, flooding and other extreme weather events are becoming increasingly commonplace, putting further strain on already overworked infrastructure, including wastewater s...
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 and the difficulty of distinguishing between base stations (which may or may not be sited on a tower-like structure) and actual towers (which may host several base stations). But reasonable estimates for the global number of cell tower...
Panel Discussion: How Can We Improve U.S. Transportation Infrastructure?
Introduction The title question for this feature has been discussed and debated countless times by countless people and organizations in many formats. But a letter Informed Infrastructure received and published in its July/August 2018 issue sparked our own questions about how we can better discuss and analyze this problem as well as come up with some real, actionable solutions. The letter was from Mike Lawrence, the CEO of Tensar Corp., which produces geosynthetic technologies for infrastr...
Fairfield Glade: Pressure Sewer System Perfect Fit for Tennessee Retirement Locale
In the early 1970s, a flashy promotional campaign launched Fairfield Glade, a private retirement enclave atop East Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. It was the first step of a marathon project that developers likely knew would take generations to complete, but the momentum of its expansion and allure has never wavered. Today, the 12,000-acre enterprise (population about 8,200; average age 68) is consistently lauded as one of the best retirement spots in Tennessee, and reviewers reg...
Video: New Roundabout Under Construction at McIver and Old Florence Roads in Darlington County
Promenade at The Point
June Issue 2026
.jpg?width=225)