Ground Improvement

Tri-Tech Holding Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIT), a leading total solutions provider to China's water resources, municipal wastewater and industrial pollution control markets, said today that Mr. Phil Fan, President, will present at the Brean Murray, Carret & Co. 2010 Global Resources & Infrastructure Conference to be held on Monday, 14 June 2010 at The Park Hyatt Hotel Zurich in Switzerland.

The July 2010 issue of CE News has been released, and in addition to interesting articles on an engineer's perspective of design-build, an exclusive on the EPA's strengthening of NPDES, and an "Olympic-sized" upgrade to one community's wastewater system, the Progressive Engineering section features an article from Laurie Honnigford of the Erosion Control Technology Council (ECTC). Honnigford's article, "Opening the QDOR," outlines the Quality Data Oversight and Review (QDOR™) program from ECTC--a program which takes a scientific view on selecting the best erosion control materials.

The Biotic Earth blog has posted a nice update from a critical erosion control project performed at the Milner Ridge wastewater facility in Manitoba, Canada. The work was part of stabilizing the soils around the wastewater ponds, the slopes for which were in jeopardy of failure from erosion. A combination of erosion control blankets and biotic-enriched hydromulch was used. One year later, the site is showing tremendous signs of success; as is this combination approach to erosion control in cold climates. Learn more here.;

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Rajib Mallick of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) who was about to deliver multiple papers at the annual TRB...

Geosynthetics have established themselves as vital go-tos on construction sites and in environmental projects throughtout the world. In Grading and Excavation Contractor Magazine, Charles D. Bader writes on the proliferation of the materials, taking a snapshot of applications such as road reinforcement, drainage management, and erosion control. Learn more here.;

Start the week with the latest in the geoengineering world. Here's the GeoWire conversation for the week of June 29. WORK SMARTER. BIG PROJECTS The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)...

Sonoma County supervisors have put off until 27 October a vote on a contract to sell the Mecham Road landfill to Republic Services because they needed more time to review details of the proposal. Republic Services proposes opening a new section of the county landfill by installing a $70 million liner that prevents leakage of toxics into area groundwater. It wants a 20-year commitment of trash flow from cities and promises $2.7 million in annual royalties to the county. Learn more here.;

Hesco Bastion Ltd., a manufacturer of cellular confinement systems for soils, erosion control, and protective barriers (such as those used by Coalition Force military units in Iraq and Afghanistan), has confirmed that its chairman, Jimi Heselden OBE, has died in a tragic accident near his home in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. The company has invited people to leave sympathy notes on a special "In Memoriam" web page. Learn more here.;

From the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): "Major manufacturing and business sectors are improving environmental performance to cut waste, improve economic competitiveness and gain other important benefits. Steel recycling in the United States reached an all-time high in 2005. Chemical manufacturers cut air emissions in half from 1995 to 2006. During the same decade, cement manufacturers reduced their waste per unit of production by one quarter. These environmental trends are highlighted in a new EPA report released today on some of the nation's most important economic sectors." Read a PDF copy of the EPA's 2008 Sector Performance Report. Learn more here.;

India's Ministry of Textiles has established four Centres of Excellence targeted at key industrial textile sectors. They are designated as Nonwovens, Sportetch, Indutech and Composites. Geotextiles are among the materials the country hopes to significantly increase its production and utilization of. The Ministry spoke of the Centres at the inaugural Conference on Technical Textiles, which focused on the health and infrastructure sectors. The event was organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Coimbatore. Learn more here.;

US Congressional spending is being reined in, particularly in regards to special earmarked spending requests from states. This unfortunately includes plenty of military construction and erosion control measures. The new scrutiny is the result of public discontent over lawmakers leveraging their votes with earmarked initiatives. Learn more here.;

A growing interest in oil and gas exploration and extraction in Pennsylvania has led to increased road erosion, sediment runoff and cloudy streams. Conservation districts and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) cite the erosion to unpaved roads caused by heavy mining vehicles (in excess of the unpaved road design strength). Separation geotextile use is being planned for some future road constructions and repair to support the oil and gas traffic. Learn more here.;

In a joint effort HUESKER Synthetic, INORA and NEOSTRAIN have documented the outstanding technical solution for sinkhole reinforcement as well as the detection and monitoring of deformations of the new constructed motorway A1 near Katowice, Poland. The solution was presented in the paper "Fully automated system for monitoring of deformations and settlements of embankment body of motorway A1" and presented at the 16th Polish Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering held in Breslau, Poland in September 2012. The technical Committee of the Conference thanked the authors and awarded the paper for its high level of innovation and quality.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is making information publicly available from electric utilities on the management of coal combustion residuals contained in surface impoundments and similar management units. Following the coal ash spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority facility in Kingston, Tenn., EPA requested the information from electric utilities to inform an assessment of the structural integrity of the surface impoundments. The responses from electric utilities cover 584 units from 219 facilities.

The Indian geotextile industry continues to grow, as Vertex Spinning Ltd. has announced a venture into geotextiles for general civil engineering and transporation. India, though, remains a country in which the word "geotextile" is used interchangably for geosynthetics and biodegradable, natural fiber erosion control products. The company's exact offerings are still in need of detail and data. Learn more here.;

Levees in the New Orleans area are being decertified at the moment. Faced with an estimated need of $100 billion to properly fix the region's levee system and prevent another disaster such as the failures that occurred during 2004's Hurricane Katrina. Decertification will affect zoning and property issues. The US Army Corp of Engineers has made repair proposals, but those plans are contingent upon significant funding increases necessary to take on responsibility for the larger system and correct it. Learn more here.;

Conwed Plastics has announced that it is returning to its historical headquarters at 2810 Weeks Ave SE, Minneapolis MN 55414. Renovations of the old facility are underway, and as...

The Geosynthetics Interest Group of South Africa (GIGSA) seeks nominations for its next committee. The current terms end 10 Novembe 2010 during the annual general meeting of GIGSA, which is the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) South Africa chapter. GIGSA seeks 10 new member nominees before 8 October 2010. If more than 10 nominees are accepted, an online election will be held. Read more.

This summer, EPA replaced a 43,000-square-foot section of the parking lot at its Edison facility with three different types of permeable pavement and planted several rain gardens with varying vegetation for the study. Over the next decade, EPA will evaluate the effectiveness of each pavement type and the rain gardens in removing pollutants from stormwater, and how they help water filter back into the ground. The parking lot will be functional during the study to accurately evaluate how the different types of pavement handle traffic and vehicle-related pollution like leaking oil.

Ian Peggs of I-CORP INTERNATIONAL continues Geosynthetica's planned series of primers on geoelectric leak location technology--how it's used with geosynthetic barrier systems, relevant applications, affiliated issues from the field, and more. In this second article, Dr. Peggs addresses essential design criteria for making an installation surveyable.

In March, the first Geo-Frontiers in 6 years will take place in Dallas, Texas (March 13-16), bringing together the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), North American Geosynthetics Society (NAGS), the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) Geo-Institute, the Geosynthetic Institute (GSI), and the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), which manages the biennial Geosynthetics conference series. Immediately following this important gathering, TRI/Environmental will host two days of liner integrity survey training at its Austin, Texas campus (March 17-18).

In 2003, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) rejected more costly solutions to fix the coal-ash landfill at TVA's power plant in Kingston, Tennessee. These solutions would have included the types of walls and containment liners used in other waste facilities but which are not required in most states for fly ash. After rejecting options that cost up to $25 million, the TVA installed trenches and other drainage mechanisms in an attempt to relieve the water pressure. Last month, the walls burst and flooded 300 acres of land with contaminated coal ash. Learn more here.;

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Redondo Beach, California, celebrate the groundbreaking of the Alta Vista Park Diversion and Reuse Project, which will protect coastal waters from urban stormwater runoff -- the number one cause of coastal water pollution in Southern California -- and use collected rainwater for park irrigation. The $2.2 million project is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Learn more.

On its YouTube channel, Geofabrics has published a video detailing the advantages of the Megaflo® subsoil drainage system. The rigid, high-flow velocity panel drain is utilized in improving roadway...

Wall Herald Corporation has agreed to pay approximately $20 million for past and future cleanup costs incurred by the federal government at the Monitor Devices Superfund site in Wall Township, N.J., according to a settlement filed today in federal court in Trenton, N.J., the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.