By Geo Products – Ecopetrol, one of the principal petroleum companies in Latin America, has been expanding its reach deeper into the forests of Colombia. Drilling exploratory wells in remote locations such as the Putumayo basin concurs with a very aggressive growth strategy. The area around Orito is an extremely dense, undulating forest with poor soils and wet subgrades,...

CLASSIFIED: Seeking Employment. Charles Hall, an executive with 20+ years of experience and strong performance, is seeking a new position. His experience includes significant sales growth and marketing and business development leadership in the geosynthetics field. Most recently, he worked with Fiberweb, helping deliver strong growth ahead of the company’s acquisition by PGI. The acquisition, however, made a number...

The official website of the ACE Geosynthetics EcoPark has been online since October 2014. Users can explore the park virtually and learn about geosynthetics. Applications profiled on the website include reinforced soil structures (RSS) with six facing systems, nine shoreline protection solutions, and three erosion control approaches. The ACE Geosynthetics EcoPark also includes pavements and other geosynthetic applications. Detailed...

Layfield Environmental Containment is pleased to announce the employment of Mr. Alex Gersch as Business Development Manager based out of Adelaide, South Australia. Alex brings a wealth of experience in geosynthetics engineering, construction and project management.  He will be responsible for promoting Layfield Environmental Containment's products and services, including our high performance flexible geomembranes, floating cover technology, and specialty...

One of the behind-the-scenes luminaries of geosynthetics has passed. Dr. Joseph Scott Thornton, Jr. died peacefully at his home on 23 November 2014 in Austin, Texas at the age of 78. Scott, as he preferred simply to be known even in professional endeavors, is survived by sons Joseph Scott Thornton III, Christopher Pearson Thornton, and Chris' wife Tiffany, as...

The long-running, renowned television news magazine 60 Minutes broadcast a report on American infrastructure on its 23 November 2014 episode. It has received a fair amount of attention for the more dire facts it shared with the public (but which are not all too surprising to the engineering community). WATCH "Falling Apart: America's Crumbling Infrastructure" and related extras The story notes how...

Layfield has commissioned the world's largest combined geotextile sewing and geomembrane welding production line. With this line, dubbed the GeoFab 5X, Layfield has significantly scaled up its plant conversion capabilities to tackle the world’s largest and most demanding projects. Brian Fraser, Vice President of Layfield Environmental Containment says, "The GeoFab 5X is a game changer in terms of scale. It can...

ATLANTA – Nov. 24, 2014 – Tensar International, the global leader in geosynthetic construction technology, recently appointed Mike Lawrence as Executive Vice President of the Americas. Lawrence will spearhead strategic leadership support in the United States, Canada and Latin American regions and drive growth in these emerging markets. "We are proud to have Mike join our Tensar team in this...

By Bruno Pedroni and Chris Kelsey - Four years ago, the International Large Commission on Dams (ICOLD) released a bulletin that described 265 large dam structures with geomembranes. Geosynthetics companies and engineers have, since the report’s release, increased their communication with the dam engineering sector to further promote the roles that geosynthetics play in dam construction, operation, and performance. These...

Geosynthetics International, which has become one of the most respected geotechnical engineering journals in the world, is finally making its first nine volumes (1994 - 2002) available for online access. Dr. Richard J. Bathurst announced on the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) website in a November 20 posting that the IGS and the journal's publisher, Thomas Telford, had come to...