Following the assassination of Julius Ceasar, subsequent Roman emperors spearheaded the construction of many technological feats. These feats allowed Rome to expand its empire and improve the quality of life for all Romans. The Aqueducts were most responsible for the latter in that they made available a much needed commodity ensuring that Romans had a consistent supply of water for their daily use.

The Aqueducts typically consisted of a series of tunnels and masonry structures which brought fresh water to the many Roman cities and towns from a water source.  Great skill was needed to ensure a regular grade, so that the water would flow smoothly from its source without the flow damaging the walls of the channel.

This informative video provides an interesting historical account of the construction.

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Challenges

(click to enlarge)

This Seattle project is further complicated the varying type of soils, the depth of the groundwater not to mention the proposed width which will require machines wider that the kind presently available in the market.   A geotechnical report released by the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), shows that the clays present within much of the route are “sticky enough to potentially clog a machine.”  The report further warns of patches of gravels and quartz sand that are abrasive.

Costs

Despite the imminent challenges, WSDOT is proceeding with the project even setting a bold target date of November 2016 and a war chest totaling $3.1 billion.  A tunneling machine for the project is estimated to cost between $60 million and $80 million, out of a $1.1 billion tunnel contract, according to the state Department of Transportation (DOT). With contingencies and design costs, the tunnel is $1.96 billion, of a total $3.1 billion highway-corridor price that includes surface and elevated roads and ramps.

Bid proposals are due in late October.

The Hoover Dam Bypass | Back – Next | The Chanel Tunnel

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Attorneys representing 34 victims and surviving family members filed documents asking a judge to allow them to seek punitive damages in their case against URS Corp. The filing said the San Francisco-based engineering company deliberately disregarded the bridge victims’ safety.

The victims and families are already suing the company for actual damages. Under state law, the petition for punitive damages must be made later.

A spokesman for URS didn’t immediately respond to voice mail and e-mail messages. The company has said in the past that it was not involved in the design or building of the bridge or any later construction work, including the resurfacing being done when the bridge collapsed.

The Interstate 35W bridge buckled and fell into the Mississippi River during the evening rush hour on Aug. 1, 2007, killing 13 and injuring 145.

URS had a long-standing contract with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to evaluate the structural integrity of the 40-year-old bridge and recommend ways to shore it up. The company and state reached a $5 million settlement in March, with neither side admitting liability or fault for the collapse.

The victims’ claim says URS failed to determine the strength of plates called gussets that connected steel beams.
Victims’ attorney Richard Nygaard said URS also failed to follow guidelines for bridges set by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials when it evaluated the bridge. His filing says if those guidelines had been followed, URS would have had to tell state transportation officials to close the bridge immediately.  ”They cut corners all the way around,” Nygaard said.

A federal investigation concluded that the bridge collapsed because of the failure of undersized gusset plates stressed by construction materials, rush-hour traffic and modifications made to the bridge over the years. Hennepin County Judge Deborah Hedlund will hear the victims’ request on July 15.

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According to Dave Zanetell, the director of the bypass project for the Federal Highway Administration, the idea of a dam bypass was conceived in the 1960’s and will be completed by the end of the year. Zanetelli notes that just as the dam itself, “everything about this job is first of its kind, the biggest of its kind and unique in terms of challenge.”

The Chicago Spire | Back – Next | Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project in Seattle

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Starting April 22, 2010 the EPA’s new law aimed at lead safe work practices was put into effect. The owner of a home improvement or remodeling company will have to take a class and pass a test in order to be lead certified. Lead installers must also pass a certification test. Home buildings and child care facilities built before 1978 are at risk of containing lead paint. Lead based paint was used in more than 38 million homes until banned for residential use in 1978.

The problem with lead

Lead can affect children’s brains and developing nervous systems causing reduced IQ, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems. Lead also harms adults.

Dust is the most common culprit for human exposure to lead. People can also get lead in their bodies from lead in soil or paint chips. Lead dust is often invisible.

Projects that disturb lead based paint can create dust and endanger you. The law has specific practices to prevent the risk of lead exposure.

Dust is the main problem the way exposure to lead is found. Lead dust comes from deteriorating lead based paint and lead contaminated soil that is tracked into a home. Home renovation creates dust. Common renovations like sanding, cutting and demolition can create hazardous lead dust and chips .

Recommendations for Home Remodelers

1. Pass the EPA Lead Safe Cerfitifcation Test.
2. Contain the work area so dust and debris do not escape; cover floors and furniture that cannot be moved.
3. Seal off doors and heating and cooling system vents.
4. Try to minimize dust by using water to mist areas before sanding, scraping, or scoring paint. Separate components and make sure to pry and pull apart components instead of breaking them. It will generate less dust than the alternatives.
5. Do not operate an open flame ( burning or torching, sanding, grinding, planning, needle gunning, or blasting ) without a shroud and HEPA vacuum attachment.
6. Do not use a heat gun at temperatures greater than 1100F, as it creates greater dust and debris.
7. The law specifies cleaning up with very special methods. The work area must be cleaned daily using a HEPA vacuum to rid the dust followed by wet mopping with plenty of rinse water.
8. At the conclusion of the job. a dust swipe is needed to determine using an EPA kit to determine if the lead is gone.

Follow these steps to ensure the safety of your home improvement clients and to avoid steep fines for breaking the law.

Alco Products Co serves the Washington DC Area and has offices in Bethesda and McLean, VA.

Contact zkreisman@aol.com with any additional questions regarding lead renovation and repairing.

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I find it rather odd that a company, whose sole business is in oil exploration, appears unable to contain a disaster they should have anticipated for. I recognize the complicated nature of regular fluid dynamics, let alone the type involving high pressure underwater pipes; however, I also recognize that BP must have been aware of the imminent dangers posed by the extreme form of oil collection. As engineers, we are constantly taught to create effective technologies, always considering the safety of people and the impact to the environment. Unfortunately, BP has failed terribly in both these endeavors.

The Genesis of the disaster

Every time these kinds of disasters occur, I always worry that corporate greed coupled with willful disregard of reasonable safety practices in favor of quick not-well-thought-out-money-saving solutions might have had something to do with the problem. And again I was right. According to a Congressional investigative report and news accounts, BP officials

overruled contractors to take a faster and cheaper, but far riskier, course in the hours before the explosion. A BP investigator admitted making a “fundamental mistake” by not taking precautions when supervisors on the rig saw that dangerous amounts of high-pressure gas were entering the well, according to a preliminary report from the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. That gas ultimately shot out of the well and blew up. Source: USA Today

Mike Williams

CBS’s highly-rated 60 minutes show recently profiled the oil spill in their hour-long program. The show provides an account of events from the perspective of one of the survivors, Mike Williams, who was the Chief Electronics Technician aboard the Deepwater Horizon on the fateful April 20 night.

Several months before Williams was faced with the unfortunate choice of having to jump 300 feet to save his life, Transoceon had celebrated the completion of the deepest oil well in the history of oil wells.  However, this well did not posses the gusher qualities required by BP and was therefore abandoned.   The crew, with $25 million down the well, embarked on another quest for black gold. This time BP requested that they hasten the pace.  According to Williams , this was the beginning of “a series of mishaps” that led to the catastrophe.

On the night of April 20, everything went wrong. A surge of oil and natural gas came up through the well and exploded on the deck of the rig. The blast and fire killed 11 rig workers, and sunk the Deepwater Horizon.

In the weeks that have followed BP has not been able to contain the flow from the underwater pipe.  The company has made several attempts to contain the flow, sometimes using seemingly rudimentary techniques.

Summary

In a cruel twist of fate, BP now appears to be a situation similar to that of Mark Williams after he jumped off the Deepwater Horizon. Uncertain of what the future holds, you just keep swimming blindly hoping for once that you will make to out of the oily mess, all the while contemplating the likely scenario of the oil igniting, effectively altering the rest of your life.

All the best BP.

Join us again as we discuss:

1. possible solutions;
2. comical analysis of the approaches used by BP;  and
3. lessons learned from this disaster.

Subscribe to our feed to receive future articles and updates directly to your email.

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In my years of having to listen to these varying responses, I have realized that the basis of a good question is one that shows interest in the company while still leaving ample opportunities for discussions. Any questions whose responses can be found on the company’s website should be off the table unless you are soliciting a clarification or offering a correction. I highly recommend that you never attempt the latter.

So what is a good question? Well, it basically depends on the position you are interviewing for and how the interview has gone thus far. Ordinarily, you will get the opportunity to ask questions after you have been interviewed; so, if your interview has been sour up to this point, this will be the only chance you get to redeem yourself. On the contrary, if you feel that you have had a good interview, then you have to maintain this perception.

Thus said, here are some of the questions I have been able to collect over the years which I personally found to be well thought-out and adequately open-ended.

General questions regardless of the position

1. What skills and attributes do the people who do well in the company have?
2. What do you like best about working at this company?
3. What results are expected in this position?
4. What specific problems are you hoping to solve during the first six months?
5. What happened to the person who had this job before?
6. What is your philosophy regarding on-the-job growth and development?
7. What are your goals for the department?
8. What do people seem to like most/least about working here?
9. Would it be possible to meet the people who work in the department?
10. Do you encourage participation in community or professional activities?
11. Do you have a management development or internal training program?
12. What are the company’s plans for growth in the next five years?
13. How does the company intend to remain competitive?

Management type of positions

1. What do you see as the three most important capabilities of the person you will hire for this position?
2. What do you see as the primary challenges to building more business or capturing more marketshare?
3. What was the last person’s success in this (territory/region/position)? What would you see as being the capability you’d most like to improve with the new hire?
4. What is your vision for the (region/territory)?
5. How does the performance of this role play into the bigger goal or plan for the company?
6. How are you perceived in the marketplace?
7. In reviewing your current sales staff, what would you say are the key qualities that are common to your top producers, as I’m going to model myself after the best people in your company?
8. I’m also interested in career pathing–logically, is there a next step that would be in progression from this role? (National/Major Accounts? Management?)
9. How many people would I be supervising? How long have they been with the company, and what are their backgrounds?
10. What type of support and tools are provided in this role? Leads? Contact mgmt software? Sales support? Laptop computer?
11. How would you define the company’s unique selling proposition?
12. Historically, what has been the primary concern or logjam in closing a sale on your product?

Project Engineer (Entry level)

1. What design programs/software does your company use, i.e. Microstation, AutoCAD?
2. Assume I’m the selected hire–let’s fast forward 90 days: Give me a taste of what a typical week will be for me in this position?
3. Can you describe your organizational culture?
4. What are the major responsibilities of this position?
5. What are the greatest challenges facing the person in this position?
6. Is there a job description? May I see it?
7. Can you tell me why this position is open?
8. How often has it been filled in the past 5 or 10 years?
9. What are your immediate goals and priorities for this position?
10. What did you like most about the person who previously held this position?
11. What would you like to see the person who fills this position do differently?
12. What qualifications would you expect the successful candidate to possess?

Risky questions to ask

The following questions are termed as risky because the outcome is entirely dependent on the translation by the interviewer. You should use these questions if you have a high degree of confidence that you are one of the preferred candidates. Before you use any of these, we urge to carefully consider the potential reward vs. the risk.

1. Why are you looking at external candidates for this position, instead of promoting from within?
2. How would you describe your management style?
3. What do you see as my strengths/weaknesses for this position?
4. What kind of support does this position receive in terms of people and finances?
5. Do you have a lot of turnover?
6. How much freedom would I have to determine my work objectives and deadlines?
7. How would my performance be measured and how is successful performance usually rewarded?
8. What career progression do you see for someone in this position? Do you normally promote from within?

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3. Give constant feedback

Give constant feeback

4. Expect Resistance

According to Jordan Kaplan, an associate managerial science professor at Long Island University-Brooklyn in New York, “Generation Y is much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management still popular in much of today’s workforce.”  Kaplan further adds that this generation has “grown up questioning their parents” so it not totally unexpected that they would question their employers as well.

5. Take Them Seriously

Another common complaint registered by Generation Y is that they are not taken seriously in the workplace. While this perception is common in most inter-generation interaction, it seems to have more profound effect on the subject generation.  What happens in most work places is that elder co-workers give the impression that the younger generation has nothing to offer them.  In such a case a Gen Y’s performance might slip and possibly lead to a job change as a result.

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This video explores  the cutting edge technology being used in today’s futuristic theme park rides. Some of the featured attractions include, the Niagra’s Fury, X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Fahrenheit at Hersheypark, and Toy Story Midway Mania at Disneyland & Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

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The Sutong Bridge, which spans the Yangtze River in China’s Jiangsu province, is the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge. With a main span measuring 1,088 meters, it is the first cable-stayed bridge with a span that passes the 1,000 meter mark. The bridge also has two side-spans that are 300 meters, as well as four smaller cable spans.

Sutong Bridge in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, China

The bridge provides a vital link between the cities of Suzhou and Nantong in Jiangsu province. It dramatically reduces the journey between Suzhou and Nantong — which used to require a four-hour ferry trip — to just an hour.

In addition to its record-setting length, the bridge’s construction included a number of significant achievements. Its two pylon foundations — each founded on 131 piles, were the largest ever attempted, and, the 300-meter bridge pylons were the tallest ever constructed. Additionally, the 577-meter-long stayed cables were the longest ever manufactured.

Established in 1960, the OCEA program recognizes projects from around the world for their contributions to the well-being of people and communities, their resourcefulness in planning and design challenges, and their innovative use of materials and techniques. The other finalists were:

• The Arrowhead Tunnels Project — Inland Feeder Program, San Bernardino, Calif.
• The Concordia University Wisconsin Lakeshore Environmental Enhancement and Education Project, Mequon, Wis.
• The Sound Transit Central Link Light Rail: Section 710 Beacon Hill Station and Tunnels, Seattle, Wash.
• The Utah State Capitol Seismic Base Isolation and Restoration, Salt Lake City, Utah

Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 144,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society. For more information, visit www.asce.org.
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Now as the elder members of this generation are slowly being integrated into meaningful positions within the engineering workforce, it is a good idea to understand what it is that defines them and what to expect from them.

Peer-oriented

One obvious fact we should highlight is that the Millennials grew up in a time during which the internet caused great change in how people communicate and exchange information. As a result, this generation continues to question traditional ways of doing things by constantly pushing for more connectivity and use of web-based applications. The fact that this is also the generation that popularized social networking sites like Facebook, embraced instant messaging, and replaced phone calls with texts may explain why this generation is known for being peer-oriented and expecting instant gratification.

Socially conscious

If you look at the events that have shaped this generation you will agree with the assessment that the generation is socially conscious and has a deep sense of entitlement.  This so because so many technological advancements have occurred within their lifetime which allowed for more connectivity and social collaboration. Much recently this generation was directly affected by the chaotic downtown in the economy which saw many of them jobless or unable to find jobs right after college. The fact that they were not in control of the situation might further cement their social-conscious attitudes by building a desire to never let a similar situation occur.

The next ‘Greatest Generation’

The 2008 election of a young, charismatic, social-conscious president is one of the events that shaped the beliefs of this generation. According to Kurt Andersen’s book Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America, many among the Millennial Generation view the 2008 election of Barack Obama as uniquely theirs, and he writes about this generational consensus building as being more healthy and useful than the counterculture protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s, going as far to say that if Millennials can

keep their sense of entitlement in check, they might just turn out to be the next Greatest Generation.

How do deal with them in the workforce

There are presently more than 32 million Millennials in the workforce and most likely some of them are in your company’s payroll. This guide points out some of the key traits that define this generation and presents simple strategies on dealing with this generation in the workplace while also leveraging them to maximize their potential.

1. Provide guidance

Provide challenges but also provide the structure to back it up. This means breaking down goals into steps, as well as offering any necessary resources and information needed to meet the challenge. You might consider mentoring Millennials in groups, because they work so well in team situations. That way they can act as each others resources or peer mentors.

2. Set Expectations

Many engineering employers consulted during the research for this article shared with us that their Gen Y employees constantly get distracted by spending too much time researching for more information, usually at the expense of losing sight of the task at hand. From this we gathered that, while you can trust them to do quality work; you just have to check on them now and again. Turning them loose could put you behind schedule or frustrate both of you. Setting expectations should include a short list of what you want done, a time line and the most important part to them — why you want it done.

Next – 3. Provide constant feedback – 4. Expect Resistance – 5. Take them seriously

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We humbly realize that each engineer has their own list remarkable engineers. We have therefore decided to showcase different engineers on a regular basis in an attempt to highlight the contributions of those who preceded us.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a British engineer most remembered for his construction of a network of tunnels, bridges and viaducts for the Great Western Railway, which was at the time was the longest and the largest railroad.

Isambard is also the only engineer to have mastered all areas of engineering having achieved many ‘firsts’ in major engineering categories that existed in the era of steam and iron. Long before the Chanel Tunnel, Brunel was the first to build a tunnel under a navigable river.

Brunel’s greatest achievement was his last ship which was able to travel under power more than 10 times as far as anything had ever traveled before – a feat some have argued is the 19th century equivalent of going to the moon.

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