10,000 Midland County, Mich., residents were forced to leave their homes when heavy rains May 19 and 20 swelled the Titabawassee River to a record high and caused the Edenville and Sanford dams to fail.
Dam owners, state and local authorities must do a better job of understanding the history of the dams in their inventory as well as preparing for ice runs that could destroy dams like Nebraska's Spencer Dam, which collapsed under the weight of heavy rain combined with cold temperatures and frozen ground last spring.
The only group in the U.S. and Canada that collects and disseminates lessons from failures, errors, mishaps and safety issues is calling for reports on structural and jobsite hazards arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Colorado Dept. of Transportation hopes to have a half-mile-long collapsed section of eastbound U.S. Route 36 in Westminster rebuilt and reopened by October.
The Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers recently announced the launch of a U.S. version of the U.K.’s Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety program.