Not every paper gets the attention it deserves at a conference, and when technical issues take center stage a paper about the practice is typically one of those that is overlooked. That is deeply unfortunate, of course, because how we enter and develop within our practice ultimately determines what we can achieve on the technical side. Robert Mackey, P.E.'s...

“The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” is one of 12 stories in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 publication The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story, now in the public domain and distributed here via a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, stands out for us for a few reasons. Within the Holmes stories, it’s one of only a handful in which...

From the GAP 2019 transportation conference proceedings: In "Design and Construction of Bases and Subbases for Concrete Pavement Performance," Shreenath Rao, Hesham Abdualla, and Thomas Yu, P.E. use a mix of data and case studies to show the impact that the base/subbase has on increasing or decreasing the overall concrete pavement performance. The case studies included in this paper...

One of the lights of geosynthetics engineering and standards development, Tim Bauters, has passed away. He was just 47. Bauters, who most recently served as Director of Engineering at California-based Slurry Waste Solutions, was snowboarding alone in an area of Mt. Hood, Oregon. When he did not return home from the weekend outing, his family contacted the sheriff’s office in...

The upgrade of Delegat's Marlborough Winery wastewater treatment plant included a new 15 mega litre covered anaerobic lagoon for buffer storage of untreated winery wastewater, and a 15 mega litre uncovered storage lagoon for treated winery wastewater. Viking Containment performed the work. Read about it here.

From the GAP 2019 transportation engineering conference: Danniel Rodriguez, Jose Garibay, and Soheil Nazarian from the Center for Transportation Infrastructure Systems (University of Texas – El Paso) examine asphalt-stabilized bases. ASBs provide structural underlayment to hot mix asphalt (HMA) surface course. An asphalt-treated base is generally composed of lower quality material than the HMA and also adheres to less...

The use of geosynthetics in mining operations grows annually, as mining companies focus on the technical and economic advantages of geosynthetics. These materials have enabled more efficient barriers, stronger access roads, space-saving and safety-enhancing retaining structures, and much more. Kent von Maubeuge and Raquel Ribera summarizing the use geosynthetics in mining. This publication is part of Geosynthetica's GeoAmericas series....

Geosynthetica’s Manufacturing & Innovation Series continues with AGRU CleanSeam™, a simple concept but a unique solution to further improve geomembrane installation quality. A LEADING EDGE Certain geomembrane types must be seamed entirely in the field. It’s also not uncommon that even very large, prefabricated geomembrane arrangements require field seaming. When panel welding takes place outside of the controlled environment of a...

While nosing around in Geosynthetica's archives, we happened upon an interesting photo (dated 2004) of Ian Peggs conducting a liner integrity survey while suspended from a crane. Though liner integrity surveys are common, the conditions in which they must be conducted vary wildly. We asked Dr. Peggs if he might offer a few notes about this particular situation. Here's what he shared with us. Read more.

The saying goes that “hindsight is 20/20.” The year 2020, however, is shaping up to be one of significant foresight. Solmax’s new website is a great example. The redesign adds efficiency and advanced functionality to the site to meet the information and specification needs of all Solmax customers, the company notes, from engineers to installers and business development specialists. It’s not...