Subsidies and federal energy policies get most of the headlines, but with the increasing size of wind turbines and the scale of wind farms, few sites can be developed without soil reinforcement technologies. Geosynthetics provide the stable base for construction works and long-term access on wind energy sites. On-shore wind turbine hub heights increasingly crest 100m, and some are approaching...

The mid-June BW Expo 2017 brought thousands of civil and environmental engineering professionals to São Paulo, where they encountered a first: a Geosynthetics Pavilion. Geosynthetica’s Brazil-market publication organized the pavilion to introduce the materials and some key companies to the gathering. The BW Expo focused on sustainability in water, waste, air, and energy. It was co-located with the Construction Expo 2017...

Imagine IM opened Australia’s first commercial-scale graphene manufacturing plant in 2016. The company, working with Geofabrics Australasia, has helped developed the world’s first graphene-enhanced geotextile. A graphene-based materials conference, dedicated to smart technologies, will be held August 17 at Swinburne University (Australia) and explore manufacturing opportunities. What has been learned in the geosynthetics field will provide participants an exemplary story. The...

How do we create a more water-centric infrastructure? That’s a question LimnoTech senior engineer Dr. Daniel Medina, P.E., D.WRE addresses in his work. Low impact development strategies are very important to his work. It’s trickier than just saying “use LID,” though. Inequalities between cities and countries make is harder for some infrastructure strategies to get adopted. Priorities are different...

“The utilization of alternative final cover systems is an area of growing interest among landfill owners who want to avoid the problems that are associated with traditional final cover systems,” writes the Solid Waste Association of North America. “The acceptance of state regulators of these alternative systems is a key issue in their future consideration and deployment.” In a new...

Waterways are dynamic environments. Strong hydraulic engineering solutions are needed to create resilient infrastructures that minimize environmental impact, control costs, and provide long-term performance. On July 14, Maccaferri will host  an exclusive breakfast seminar (7:30 am – 11:00 am) in Gaithersburg, Maryland focused on the application and design of hydraulic solutions. The seminar is free and worth 3 PDHs. The...

The biennial Global Waste Management Symposium (GWMS) offers international, comprehensive, critical content and research. The 2018 edition of the Global Waste Management Symposium will be held 11 - 14 February 2018 in Indian Wells, California. The organizers have extended the deadline for receipt of abstracts to July 10. GLOBAL WASTE MANAGEMENT SYMPOSIUM TOPICS Enhanced Landfill Temperature Leachate / Condensate Management Landfill Gas /...

The recent increase in discussion on finer points to geomembrane installations (e.g., managing geomembrane wrinkling) has us revisiting stories on other significant points regarding geomembrane system performance. Here, we look at an article authored by Andrew Plowman (Varicore) about the importance of proper drainage and venting design and how it impacts the integrity of geosynthetic containment systems. - Chris...

Geotechnical engineering requires a lot of waiting. You wait on calls, test results, the weather. You wait on a construction activity to finish, on software to complete extremely complex models, on site assessments to be signed off on. You wait in labs and airports, on calls, in lobbies. So what to do with all that waiting? Sometimes, you let...

Dr. Ming Zhu, P.E. has distinguished himself over the past decade in the geotechnical field through work with a major private consulting firm and through serving major bodies such as ASCE’s Geosynthetics Committee and the Transportation Research Board’s Geo-Environmental Committee. Now, he’s taking on an even bigger role: Director of Engineering for Watershed Geo. In his new position, Dr. Ming...