Engineers at District 2 of the Illinois Department of Transportation were busy preparing plans for a major project in the Quad cities area in Rock Island County of Northwestern Illinois. The project, an extension of the Milan Beltway, was to include a long and highly visible drainage channel. They sought out a vegetated solution for this project, and the ideal solution they found was with composite turf reinforcement mats (C-TRM) from Tensar North American Green. Read about the exemplary and cost-saving performance from this site.

Last October, professionals and partners of the HUESKER Group received the Milton Vargas Award. This award is an initiative of the Brazilian Magazine Fundações and Obras Geotécnicas that aims to recognize the work of professionals responsible for planning, design and implementation of large construction projects and whose works have already been mentioned prominently in the pages of the magazine. The awarding took place in São Paulo in the presence of hundreds of professional engineers representing the Brazilian geotechnical consultants and companies including the honourees, their friends and families.

Yamba is a small coastal community on the northern beaches of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. and is known as the "Jewel in the Crown" for Clarence Valley Council, a point which was reinforced when it won "The Best Town in Australia" in 2009. In early 2012, undermining in the southeast corner of Whiting Beach was exposing key infrastructure, including the footpath, road, stormwater pipe work and chamber, pressurized sewer and a car park. ELCOROCK® Geotextile Sand Containers were seen as an ideal solution to fit these criteria and were adopted after consultation with Geofabrics Australasia, Fisheries and Crown Land.

Did you know that Brandenton, Florida-based Engineered Coated Products (ECP) is a division of Intertape Polymer Group? Within ECP's diverse product offerings you'll find NovaThene AquaMaster™ for water containment and barrier membranes. ECP sells to many growing end user markets in Canada and the United States. Visit ECP's web site to learn more. Learn more here.;

Titan Environmental is sponsoring the 2013 "GeoSolutions for the Mining and Heavy Construction Industry" seminars throughout Canada. These gathering will address Roads, Embankments, Dams, Landfills, and Mining Caps. The specific agendas will also be shaped by the primary needs where the seminar sessions are taking place. The Western Canada sessions will take place January 21–25 with stops in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. The Eastern Canada sessions will take place January 28–February 1, with stops in Toronto, Greater Sudbury, Frederichton, Halifax, and St. John's. Stay current with seminar agendas and registration information via Titan's website. Learn more here.;

TRI Environmental, Inc. (TRI), a leading international geotechnical, geosynthetic and erosion control materials services company, has announced the hiring of Abigail Beck, a design and CQA engineer with considerable experience in geomembrane-lined containment facilities in waste management and mining. She also has extensive experience with liner integrity surveys (also known as leak location/detection), an increasingly important and required environmental protection service in containment facility construction. In her new position, Ms. Beck serves as a Senior Engineer and will introduce a new role to TRI as its Director of Liner Integrity Services. Learn more.

The International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) has published the third issue of its 2012 volume of newsletter. Issue 28.3 delivers 40+ pages of stories from around the world, summarizing events, detailing opportunities in geosynthetics, profiling society activities, and more. Key stories in this issue include a reboot of the "Educate the Educators" initiative, results from the IGS Elections (2012 - 2016 term), the members-only proceedings library online, and much more.

American Environmental Group Ltd. (AEG) has announced the promotion of John Beeman, a 25+ year veteran of the field, to Division Manager – Geosynthetics. Beeman's new responsibilities include estimating, project management, field operations, and business development. The Geosynthetic Division, staffed with over 300 experienced team members, is AEG's largest division and operates throughout the United States. John will continue to report to Carl Apicella, AEG's President, and will remain based in the Richfield, Ohio, corporate office.

Tensar International, the leader in geosynthetic soil reinforcement and stabilization, has completed a major investment in its Morrow, GA geogrid production plant. The facility's new extruder is now operating at full capacity, offering additional production capacity to help meet growing demand for Tensar® TriAx® Geogrids. The new extruder can run multiple resin types and allows the facility to run longer production campaigns. Significant growth of TriAx® Geogrid sales prompted the investment.

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.