Shale-gas drilling and its alleged impacts are very much in the news, particularly linked to water quality. Environmental activist groups claim that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, poses a dangerous risk to drinking-water sources. But pre-existing conditions may be a bigger threat, one that simple home baseline tests may detect.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is undertaking a national study to understand the potential impacts of fracking on drinking water. Environmental best practices are necessary to responsibly manage resources and inspire public and regulatory confidence in the industry's ability to conduct safe and clean life-cycle operations in the shale-gas arena. KOHLHAASBaseline water
Our long history and experience is that, in general, the failure rate for construction projects has remained high. Why haven't advances in project-management science, computer technology and communications been more effectively brought to bear in our business? What about the advertised beneficial impacts of 3D computer-aideddesign, computerized critical-path method schedules and building information modeling? Are today's engineers not as good as those who built yesterday's megaprojects—the Panama Canal, the Empire State Building or the Hoover Dam?Owners, architects, engineers and contractors have been challenged to deliver capital projects on time and on budget because of their complexity and because of the
All 50 states in the U.S. require registration of all professionals practicing engineering. The basic reason is to protect the public by enforcing standards that restrict practice to qualified individuals.
Related Links: Recycling Asphalt Rescues Roads The rate of evolution in highway products is very slow compared to electronic, medical or communication products. If you think back to the 1960s, roads today still have the same asphalt, concrete and signs.In fact, we are still designing pavements based on the American Association of State Highwa and Transportation Officials' road tests of the early 1960s. On the other hand, if you compare cars, computers, household products and medical facilities to those of the 1960s, you see a much greater change.I have always felt amazement at nature's brilliant selection process that advances the
Related Links: High Schoolers Are Engineering Early Birds ROSENBAUMIf you spent any time this year volunteering at a low-performing high school—thank you! As a math and engineering teacher in such a school, I know how disorienting the experience can be. Teenagers can be all gas pedal and no brake. That's especially true for my students, many of whom are from families in which neither parent finished high school. As disoriented as you may feel in a classroom in which most students score below or far below basic levels on state standardized tests—and too many still count on their fingers—you might consider
The long and sorry saga of litigation between Tampa Bay Water and HDR Engineering over needed repairs to the six-year-old C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir has taken yet another turn for the worse as TBW’s board apparently will insist on pursuing an appeal from the federal court that hosted the jury trial TBW lost earlier this month.
The deteriorating state of our aging infrastructure has become a pressing concern at all levels of government, but one part we don't hear much about is underground storm piping culverts and sewer systems. The owners of such systems have long recognized that the only way to adequately ensure a product's service life is to confirm that ithas been both designed and installed correctly. Most operators now also recognize that some type of post-installation quality assurance is essential to confirm that the pipe system was not damaged during construction in a way that could result in inadequate structural capacity, excessive maintenance
The Keystone XL pipeline—an approximately $7-billion project that complements the original Keystone Pipeline and nearly doubles the size and capacity of the system with an extension to the Gulf Coast—has been in the planning stages since 2008.
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