THE CHALLENGE: Excavation revealed different geotechnical conditions onsite from original design

Sometimes, best-laid plans can go awry. That’s the case with the retaining wall needed to create space for a new hangar for the governor’s airplane at John C. Tune Airport in Nashville, Tennessee. Excavation for the cut wall opened up a can of geotechnical worms.

“It was originally scheduled to be a gravity Redi-Rock retaining wall. That’s what it was spec’d at,” said Irvin Vittitow, owner of Redi-Rock of K.I.T., the manufacturer and installer for the project. However, when site contractor Civil Constructors, LLC, started excavation it was

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Are you doing everything you can to minimize your workers’ exposure to heat-related illnesses? Does your company have a heat illness prevention program in place? We’ve got you covered with these tips and guidelines for keeping your workers safe and productive during these hot summer days.

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Technically, the first day of meteorological summer doesn’t arrive until next Tuesday when, but parts of the country have already seen record or near-record highs this month. The folks over at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are predicting a hotter than normal summer for most parts of the country. The dog days of summer will soon be upon us and the higher temperatures bring with it the danger of suffering heat-related illnesses at the construction site. Construction workers are at high risk for heat-related illnesses due to the strenuous nature of their jobs and

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Initial Jobless Claims and UI on Right Track

This article features a quick overview of the latest key statistics for the U.S. and Canadian economies, presented mainly in graph form.

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The accompanying table records the 10 largest construction project starts in Canada in April 2021. Also included is the latest trend graph on starts. This looks at 12-month moving totals of the civil and non-residential building categories in Canada.

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Durham

Stephan A. Durham, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, assistant dean for student success and outreach of the College of Engineering as well as a professor of civil engineering at the University of Georgia, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.

Durham led the development of the new Civil Engineering degree program through the first full accreditation in the College of Engineering at UGA in 2015. He came to UGA from the University of Colorado Denver in 2012, and since joining academia in 2005, he has graduated over 30 M.S. and Ph.D. students in the area of

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Lembo

Michael J. Lembo, P.E., F.ASCE, patent portfolio manager of CertainTeed LLC and an engineer with more than 30 years of active practice in construction engineering and construction materials, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.

The CertainTeed LLC companies are manufacturers of interior and exterior construction products, including roofing, siding, gypsum board, insulation, and ceilings, and are based in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Through the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products, the group has helped shape the building products industry for more than 110 years. A subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s largest

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Griffin

Stephanie Griffin, P.E., CFM, F.ASCE, a senior project manager at Halff Associates Inc., who has more than 20 years of experience as a stormwater engineer, water resources engineer, and project manager, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.

Griffin focuses at Halff on stormwater planning, flood planning, stormwater/drainage utilities, and funding. She combines her water planning experience and flood planning experience to assist communities in developing flood plans that mitigate current and future flood risk. She has the unique perspective of having prepared and implemented flood mitigation plans and projects from the consultant’s and

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Stower

David Ndubi Stower, C.Eng, F.ASCE, a civil engineering professional with over 40 years’ experience in design, construction, and management of civil and water services infrastructure, project financing, and public administration, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.

Stower was employed in 1979 as an assistant engineer in Kenya’s Ministry of Water, where he rose through the ranks to become chief engineer / director of water and ultimately to lead the Ministry as permanent secretary (PS). He has also served as PS for the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and Ministry of Regional Development,

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Zhang

Guohui Zhang, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UHM), has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.

Zhang’s primary research areas include transportation system resilience analysis; large-scale transportation systems modeling; sustainable traffic network infrastructure design, planning, and operation; traffic sensing and senor data analytics; artificial intelligence in transportation; connected and autonomous vehicle systems; traffic-impacted public health; cyber-transportation systems; and transportation safety and security.

He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and technical reports and presented his research contributions

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