Ground Improvement

TCL2010--the International Conference on Textile Laminating and Coating--will be held 4-5 November 2010 in Cannes, France. Please note that these are new dates for the event. The theme of the gathering, which will be held at the Novotel Montfleury, will be "An Industry Moving Forward - Focus on the future. A call for papers has been issued. Read about the sessions here.

Randall-Reilly Publishing, parent company of the magazines Better Roads and Aggregates Manager, have announced two promotions. Tina Grady Barbaccia has become executive editor of Better Roads magazine and Kerry Clines has been promoted to senior editor on Aggregates Manager. Geosynthetica congratulates them on their promotions and looks forward to working with them in their new positions. Learn more here.;

The future is bright for India’s nonwovens and technical textiles sector on rising middle income population. This will be one of the drivers for growth for the nonwovens and technical textiles (NWTT) industry in India, according to Seshadri Ramkumar, Associate Professor of Non-wovens and technical textiles at Texas Tech University. Geotextiles are among the material classes to benefit. Learn more here.;

Diane Hitt, General Manager of East Coast Erosion Control, has a lot to smile about these days. The company, based in Bernville, Pennsylvania, has developed steadily in recent years,...

Climate change has created less predictable precipitation and in many cases more intense precipitation events. This influx of water flow is a significant challenge for infrastructure planning, with and...

While coal ash facility design has been all the talk, there are other challenging sites in need of re-evaluating the environmental security of. The Geosynthetic Research Institute (GRI) has published its White Paper #18: "Geosynthetic Lining Opportunities at Uranium Mill Tailings (UMT) and Low Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) Facilities in the USA." It's a cursory but fascinating snapshot of the extent of base liner, capping systems, and affiliated geosynthetics potential for these critical containment sites. From environmental protection to slope stability, the incorporation of geosynthetic technologies could be as beneficial here as they already are (and already are required) for municipal solid waste (MSW) facilities. Read the six-page white paper, with a break down of some facility scopes, here (PDF). Learn more here.;

Terrafix Geosynthetics is among the five finalists for this year's Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Mind to Market award, with the winner to be announced during events on May 11 and 12 events. OCE's release singles out Terrafix for "making the world's landfills safer with its geosynthetic clay liner." Read the full release here.

The GeoAmericas 2016 transportation engineering track will hold paper presentation sessions on April 11 and 12 at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel on South Beach. These sessions will present...

Strata Geosystems (India) has launched a series of videos to highlight geocell advantages. The company has helped considerably raise the profile of geocellular confinement systems in the fast-growing Indian infrastructure...

CSX Transportation is seeking permission to place caps over contaminants from the old Creosote Works that settled in the West Pascagoula River and Bayou Pierre in Gautier, according to company officials and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. The proposed cap will include layers of reactive core mat, silty sand isolation area, non-woven geotextile and poorly graded stone. The cap would be overlaid with a veneer of fine sand and indigenous wetland vegetation within the intertidal zone to mitigate the seven-tenths acre of tidal fringe wetlands that would be affected. Learn more here.;

California needs to spend $17 billion to repair levees because more than half of these structures are substandard, according to a flood plan from the state Department of Water Resources. "The system is based on antiquated technologies, so you have to upgrade it and keep in mind changing societal demands. Modern flood control is wickedly complicated, because it has to take into account a lot of factors," said Jeffrey Mount, a professor at the University of California, Davis. Learn more here.;

The India-based Business Coordination House (BCH) publishes TechTex India quarterly. The publication prevents a broad view of technical textile manufacturing issues, companies, materials and applications in one of the world's hottest development zones. The October-December 2010 issue includes articles on erosion control blankets (written by Conwed Plastics' Stefan Tielen) and road stabilization with geotextile separators. Download the issue (PDF). Learn more here.;

Construction work on an important bypass is being held up by a gas bubble found beneath a disused landfill site lagoon. The unusual problem has halted work on Colchester’s Western Bypass, in Stanway, United Kingdom. Investigations are now under way to find a way of safely dispersing the methane gas, which has also been giving off bad smells and upsetting residents for months. Learn more here.;

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's (PennDOT) lengthy I-99 Skytop road construction is finally nearing completion after five years of questions surrounding how to contain the old acid rock unearthed during the project. High-denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) liner has been used to make the former spoils site safe for the last stage of roadworks. Learn more here.;

The Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) approved the state’s first Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) “green” projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. For example, a $2 million streambank stabilization and erosion control project along the Illinois River and Eucha/Spavinaw Creek watersheds. Learn more here.;

The World Intellectual Property Organization has publishd a patent for Tensar International Corporation concerning a knitted geotextile and geotextile tube constructed of that geotextile. It's intended for applications such as dewatering. Learn more here.;

The American Public Works Association (APWA) 2011 conference and exhibition is accepting presentation proposals through 30 September 2010. The event will be held 18-21 September 2011 in Denver, Colorado. Learn more here.;

Over on the World Bank's blog regarding reducing poverty in Africa, today's post pertains to the role infrastructure can play and the challenges to that idea. A side-event at the United Nations on-going Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) took place on September 22 and focused on "Scaling up Africa’s infrastructure to meet the MDGs." The writer of the post notes that the discussion on infrastructure's potential role was unusual for three reasons. Read more. Learn more here.;

Geofabrics Australasia has enjoyed a successful partnership with Maccaferri Australia Pty Ltd and Maccaferri New Zealand Ltd. Since 2002, Geofabrics has been the majority shareholder of these enterprises. Now,...

Company newsletters can be excellent sources not just for tracking current projects and technology updates but for gauging how various regional markets are developing. The Titan Times,...

After a series of well-received engineering webinars in September and October on canal lining, international geosynthetics manufacturer HUESKER is enhancing its education schedule with three free webinars in December....

Denver, Colo. – The International Erosion Control Association (IECA) Region One and the IECA Southeast Chapter has signed an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4 to hold a...

North American Geosynthetics Society (NAGS) Executive Director David Suits has announced that NAGS is now an approved provider for professional development hours (PDHs). No additional information has yet been announced, but this is certainly a welcomed development for NAGS members. Learn more here.;

The US Environmental Protection Agency announced on May 27 that a long battle to update and expand the protection of the Clean Water Act to all like waters in...

Waterproof Membranes 2009 is almost here! The event takes place in Duesseldorf, Germany from 19-21 October. Companies from all over the world will gather to discuss the latest in geotechnical and architectural waterproofing technologies. Greenroofs, HDPE geomembranes, thin-film solar laminates atop exposed TPO membrane caps on landfills, and much more. Will you be there? Presentations and attendees include companies such as Colbond, Dow, GSE Lining Technology GmbH, Agru, Sotrafa, SENSOR, and many others. Geosynthetica's Chris Kelsey will be there presenting and covering the event. If your company will have a representative there, please let Chris know so he can be sure to include your firm in the conference coverage.