Materials

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Like modern chefs tweaking classic techniques, concrete industry insiders are experimenting anew with ingredients—additives and aggregates such as fly ash, slag and quarry waste—and “plating,” which includes methods such as two-lift paving and real-time smoothness monitoring.

Pavement design may become more efficient and cost-effective based on enhanced data from subgrade layers obtained by an automated plate load test.

Two Israeli marine biologists have joined that country’s start-up craze, using $1 million in new investor cash to develop their innovative, environmentally friendly concrete for marine infrastructure and expand their company, ECOncrete Ltd., into the booming U.S. coastal-upgrade market.

Architect Michael Green thinks most cities don’t need high-rises taller than 30 stories.

National efforts are underway to refine specifications for reclaimed materials in asphalt mixes.

This point became clear to Walter Shanly, a civil engineer from Canada, who finally pierced the Hoosac Mountain in western Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day, 1873, in an age when tunneling was accomplished by the strength of strong arms swinging sledgehammers.

Jonkers shows self-healing concrete at his lab in the Netherlands. The bacteria-based technology costs more to produce than conventional materials but promises to extend the life of concrete structures.