The Infrastructure Show's Episodes
With Host Professor Joseph Schofer, Director of the Northwestern University Infrastructure Technology Institute, and Co-Host Tom Herman.
Click on the link below the description to begin streaming the podcast. To subscribe to The Infrastructure Show podcasts or find in iTunes, see the clicks at the top of the page.
Photographer: Jason Grocholski
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High speed rail – the importance of realistically evaluating costs, benefits
Posted April 27, 2012, Length: 24:06
An Infrastructure Show podcast in October of 2009 discussed high-speed-rail efforts in the Midwest. High-speed-rail plans are still in the news – with considerable activity and controversy coming from California – and funds for high speed rail in the President’s transportation budget. Plenty of uncertainty remains in the HSR arena, about future ridership, costs, and finance. It’s timely to explore these issues once again. What are the issues and what might the future hold for high speed rail in America? Professor Schofer and Tom talk about these issues as decisions are being made in Washington, California, and other places across the country.
Photo courtesy of the Engineered Arresting Systems Corporation (ESCO)
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EMAS – simple, effective technology improves airport runway safety
Posted March 30, 2012, Length: 23:14
The Federal Aviation Administration began conducting research in the 1990s to determine how to ensure maximum safety at airports where the full runway safety area cannot be obtained. Working in concert with the University of Dayton, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the Engineered Arresting Systems Corporation (ESCO) of Logan Township, NJ, a new technology emerged to safely arrest overrunning aircraft. The engineered material arresting system – or EMAS – uses crushable concrete placed at the end of a runway to stop an aircraft that overruns the runway. The tires of the aircraft sink into the lightweight concrete and the aircraft is decelerated as it rolls through the material. Currently, EMAS is installed at 42 U.S. airports. The hosts discuss this EMAS technology with James White, Deputy Director, Airport Safety and Standards at the FAA.
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Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project
Posted February 28, 2012, Length: 25:20
Alaskan Way is a street along Seattle’s waterfront, above which is the elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct. This double-deck roadway, completed in 1959, was damaged in the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, as was the nearby Elliott Bay Seawall. Emergency repairs were undertaken by the State of Washington, but for the long-term, the State, King County and the City of Seattle agreed that the viaduct had reached the end of its useful life and needed to be replaced. Instead of building a new viaduct, it is being replaced with a bored tunnel beneath downtown, in a massive public infrastructure project. The hosts discuss this project with Linea Laird of the Washington State Department of Transportation, who is Administrator of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program.
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Alternative fuels – an overview of U.S. progress
Posted January 31, 2012, Length: 26:46
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, transportation accounts for about two thirds of the United State’s oil consumption, and one third of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. As with the green buildings movement, the emerging clean vehicles movement is bringing together players from across all sectors – industry, government, and citizens – with a goal of reducing the use of polluting fuels by cars and trucks. Alternative fuels and new types of propulsion systems, including battery-electrics, are among the solutions being pursued to help reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions as well as our dependence on petroleum fuels. The hosts discuss alternative fuels with Patrick Davis, Director of the Vehicle Technologies Program at the U.S. Department of Energy.
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Challenging inspections — how one company performs hands-on evaluations of difficult-to-access structures
Posted December 28, 2011, Length: 25:32
The 5.8 magnitude earthquake that shook the Washington, D.C. area on Aug. 23 caused some damage to the Washington Monument, including façade cracks, that required it to be temporarily closed to the public for inspection. Sent to evaluate the damage were engineers and architects from the firm of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, whose inspections required them to rappel down the sides of the 555-foot monument. While this would have been an out-of-the-ordinary job for many companies, for Wiss, Janney, Elstner, it wasn’t unique, since WJE is known throughout the world for its ability to handle challenging inspections and construction problem-solving. Since its founding in the 1950s, the Northbrook, IL-headquartered company has investigated, tested and repaired more than 75,000 projects, of all types, many of which were just as difficult to access as the exterior of the Washington Monument. The hosts discuss some of these challenging and very interesting inspections with Bruce Kaskel, a Principal of Wiss, Janney, Elstner.
Courtesy of HistoricBridges.org
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The Wells Street Bridge — a look at the upcoming rehabilitation of a historic Chicago bridge
Posted November 21, 2011, Length: 19:57
Chicago and Cook County, IL have the largest number of movable bridges in the world, a number of which are also historic. One such bridge is the Wells Street Bridge, a lift, or bascule, bridge over the Chicago River, which was built in 1922. The double-deck steel bridge, in downtown Chicago adjacent to the Merchandise Mart, carries vehicle and pedestrian traffic on the lower level and on its upper level carries the Chicago Transit Authority’s Brown and Purple Line trains to and from the Chicago Loop. The bridge opens to allow taller boat traffic to pass in certain seasons of the year. In September of 2012, the Chicago Department of Transportation plans to begin a major rehabilitation of the Wells Street Bridge. The hosts discuss this interesting project with Daniel Burke, Chief Bridge Engineer for the Chicago Department of Transportation.
Courtesy of Des Moines Register
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Improvements needed in U.S. floodplain management
Posted October 28, 2011, Length: 27:25
In 1993, following the Great Flood in the Midwest along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, a White House committee was formed to assess the causes of the flood and make recommendations for improved floodplain management in the future. Lead by Gerald Galloway, a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the committee’s report advocated stricter land-use regulations, increased investments in flood insurance, and better coordination of flood management between federal, state, tribal and local governments. This spring, as the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers once again experienced severe flooding, the question many people were asking was “Why is this flooding happening again? Didn’t we make improvements after the Great Flood?” To answer that question, the hosts talk to the man most qualified to address it – Gerald Galloway, now a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland.
No. 3 reactor building, Source: TEPCO
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The Fukushima I accident, and its implications for nuclear plant design
Posted September 28, 2011, Length: 23:56
The March 11, 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan caused massive loss of life and property destruction on the northern coast and islands. In that same hard-hit vicinity, on the coast, is located the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, which was flooded by the tsunami, and suffered a loss of backup power that led to a major emergency. A month later, on April 11, the Fukushima accident was classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale – the same level assigned to the Chernobyl accident in Russia in 1986. The hosts discuss the Fukushima I accident, and its implications for nuclear plant design, with Elmer Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University. A frequent consultant to Argonne and Los Alamos National Laboratories, Dr. Lewis is author of the books Nuclear Power Reactor Safety and Fundamentals of Nuclear Reactor Physics.
Solar panels on roof of General Motors’ Baltimore, MD plant.
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Assessing Electric Productivity in the U.S.
Posted August 29, 2011, Length: 25:09
The U.S. wastes a lot of energy, but in fact energy efficiency has been improving significantly in recent decades. However, this progress is not uniform – electric productivity in some states is markedly better than others. The details of this inconsistency, and the reasons for it, are examined in the report Assessing the Electric Productivity Gap and the U.S. Efficiency Opportunity – by the Rocky Mountain Institute, an independent, nonprofit organization in Colorado, dedicated to research in many areas relating to energy efficiency. The hosts discuss this report with one of its authors, Mathias Bell.
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The quest for transportation data – knowing how people travel is key to infrastructure management, but how can this data be collected?
Posted July 25, 2011, Length: 22:31
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” is a commonly heard engineer’s truism. Yet many engineers who work in U.S. transportation unfortunately are faced with this dilemma on a regular basis. That is, they’re tasked with planning and managing infrastructure projects without having the detailed transportation data they need to make fully informed decisions. In this podcast, Professor Schofer shares with Tom the results of transportation and travel data studies he’s been involved with as part of a Transportation Research Board committee. The goal is to find ways to collect data on how people travel – whether by car, bus, train, truck, cycle or on foot; where they travel – the routes and localities; when they travel – what days, times of day; how often they travel; and why they travel. The challenge is to collect this information in ways that will be most accurate, but without seeming to intrude on people’s privacy.
New Orleans 2005; source: U.S. Coast Guard
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Avoiding disasters – how planning and wise spending can achieve effective prevention
Posted June 28, 2011, Length: 30:42
When a natural hazard, like an earthquake, strikes one country and causes great damage and loss of life, while another country, struck by a similar earthquake, is nearly unscathed, the difference often can be traced to preventive measures. Joining the hosts is Apurva Sanghi, Senior Economist at the World Bank, the team leader for the important book released last November by the World Bank and United Nations, Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters: the Economics of Effective Prevention. The natural hazards referred to in the title are earthquakes, droughts, floods and storms. The unnatural disasters are damages and death that follow in their wake, because of human action, or lack of action. The authors examine how governments can spend wisely to achieve effective prevention.
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Philadelphia’s green infrastructure – a model for enlightened water resource management
Posted May 25, 2011, Length: 31:55
Over the past 20 years, “green infrastructure” has evolved into a sophisticated concept that cities and towns across the U.S. are beginning to use. That is, they examine ways to manage water, wastewater, energy and air quality with natural solutions like trees and plants, as well as a variety of man-made green products. Perhaps no city in the U.S. can surpass the City of Philadelphia’s embrace of green infrastructure. Their billion dollar project involves planting 300,000 trees, creating rain gardens and new wetlands, the installation of permeable pavement, green roofs, and more. In fact, their example is becoming a model for enlightened urban water resource management worldwide. The hosts discuss green strategies for storm water management with Glen Abrams, the Manager of the Philadelphia Water Department’s Office of Watersheds Planning and Strategic Policy.
The Gatun Locks
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The Panama Canal – a historic project still vital to world transportation
Posted April 28, 2011, Length: 32:59
The Panama Canal, begun in 1879 by the French and ultimately completed by the United States between 1904 and 1914, is a 48-mile-long ship canal that crosses the country of Panama, allowing ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is a key component of the global logistics system, carrying about 15,000 ships each year – the one-millionth ship transited the Canal in October, 2010. Professor Schofer, just returned from a trip through the Canal, discusses with Tom the history of the canal and the ambitious expansion program currently underway – scheduled to deliver larger locks and deeper channels by 2014.
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The Dulles Airport Metrorail Project – overview of an important new transit link
Posted March 30, 2011, Length: 33:57
Rail transit connections between airports and city centers have become increasingly common and heavily used around the world in recent decades. A particularly high-profile link is now being constructed in the Washington, D.C. area – a 23-mile extension of the existing Metrorail system, which will connect East Falls Church, VA to Washington Dulles International Airport. It will serve the major employment areas of Tysons Corner, Reston, and Herndon, VA, and will connect into the 106-mile Washington Metro network to provide accessibility across the region. The hosts talk about this important venture with Sam Carnaggio, Project Director for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, who is leading the extension project.
Photo courtesy of Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Structural failures of infrastructure projects
Posted February 25, 2011, Length: 36:15
In the month of August, 2005 and again in August, 2007, the United States experienced major infrastructure failures – in New Orleans and Minneapolis – that stunned the country with their traumatic loss of life, and drew the attention of the world. The causes of the failures were many: inadequate maintenance and inspection, vulnerable design, construction issues, as well as unexpected changes in loadings that exceeded the margin of safety. How common are structural failures of civil infrastructure? And what can we learn from them? The hosts discuss this important topic with Henry Petroski, a Professor in the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University in Durham, NC, where he specializes in failure analysis.
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Bus rapid transit systems
Posted January 27, 2011, Length: 31:22
Imagine a bus that travels in its own dedicated lane at the speed of a subway train, dramatically faster than conventional buses; a bus that brings high-speed transit to areas of the city where subways don’t run; and the costs of which are far below those of rail rapid transit. Although this sounds “too good to be true”, this is one instance where a too-good-to-be-true idea has proven realistic, workable, and highly beneficial – both abroad and in the U.S. The hosts discuss this topic with Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, and co-editor of the book “Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide”.
Photo of smart pig courtesy of Pacific L.A. Marine Terminal LLC
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Gas and oil pipeline safety in the U.S.
Posted December 27, 2010, Length: 26:58
There are about 2.3 million miles of natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines in the U.S. This pipeline infrastructure is overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation, whose sub-department, the Pipeline Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA), is the main regulatory authority. The agency only has about 100 federal inspectors nationwide. The Pipeline Safety Law provides for Federal authority for regulation of interstate pipeline facilities, and a cooperative Federal/state gas and hazardous liquid pipeline safety program, where certifying state agencies could assume responsibility for intrastate pipelines. The hosts discuss this topic of pipeline safety with Cesar de Leon, former head of the Office of Pipeline Safety (now PHMSA), currently a pipeline safety engineering consultant.
Photo of Ductal high-performance concrete project courtesy of Lafarge Ciment.
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New materials for infrastructure projects
Posted November 23, 2010, Length: 26:51
Throughout history, materials used for infrastructure and transportation-related projects have followed a continuous course of development and change – from the first use of concrete in bridges by the Romans, to the first steel bridge, the Eads Bridge, built in 1874, and more recently to railroad bridges made of recycled plastic, something we discussed in a recent Infrastructure Show podcast. The hosts discuss this topic of new materials with one of the country’s top experts on the topic – architect Blaine Brownell, an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Architecture, College of Design, and the author of the acclaimed book Transmaterials, which includes information on hundreds of innovative new materials for architecture. He also leads the design and research firm Transstudio.
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Privately owned dams
Posted October 25, 2010, Length: 28:22
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, there are currently more than 85,000 dams in the U.S. Surprisingly, the majority of these dams are privately owned – the Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates that fraction number at 65%. These private dams are under state regulation, but many state dam offices lack adequate operating funds, and as well, states differ widely regarding their safety standards. The publicized failures of two private dams this year – the 300-year-old Freetown, Massachusetts dam in March and the Lake Delhi dam in Iowa in July – have brought attention to the safety of privately owned dams. Just how safe are they? And who is responsible when they fail? The hosts discuss this topic with David Gutierrez of the California Department of Water Resources. He is Acting Chief in the Division of Dam Safety, and also is the current President of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.
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State of good repair for the MTA
Posted September 27, 2010, Length: 23:09
The target condition for physical infrastructure on mass transit facilities in the United States is called the state of good repair, or SGR. The concept of the state of good repair is used to help gauge current and future needs for repairing and renewing buses, rail cars, bridges, and track. Based on analyses conducted by U.S. public transit systems, mandated by the U.S. Federal Transit Administration, many facilities have not met this mark, in large measure because of insufficient funding. The challenge faced by transit operators today, particularly managers of the oldest systems in the country, is to meet, or come close to that target with available resources. The hosts discuss this important topic with Christopher Boylan, Deputy Executive Director, Corporate and Community Affairs for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who will discuss the SGR challenges involved in managing the MTA.
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Valuing the infrastructure – a look at America’s inland waterways
Posted August 25, 2010, Length: 20:20
The inland waterway system of the United States, operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, includes 12,000 miles of commercially navigable rivers, canals and other waterways, and 240 locks. This system, which includes the Mississippi, Ohio, Columbia-Snake River systems and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, allows barges to transport cargo among 21 states. For bulk cargoes, barges are not only more fuel efficient than trucks and trains, but have fewer societal impacts as well. Yet, perhaps because the waterways are a rather hidden infrastructure, making the case for increased funding can be a challenge. How do we go about placing a value on this essential part of the infrastructure, and communicating this value to the public and decision-makers? The hosts discuss this topic with Bruce Lambert, Executive Director of the Institute for Trade and Transportation Studies, a multistate research institute – an economist whose prior position was as Senior Economist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Institute of Water Resources.
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Earthquakes and structures in the U.S.
Posted August 2, 2010, Length: 22:48
Two major earthquakes happening within a month of each other in early 2010 galvanized the world’s attention. Highly publicized was the role that building codes played in the differing losses of life in the two events, in Haiti and Chile. What are the implications of a mega-quake for buildings and other structures in the U.S.? Some people looking for the next “Big One” in this country are predicting the San Andreas Fault in California, others the Cascadia Fault near the Pacific Northwest or the New Madrid Fault in the Midwest. The hosts talks about this important topic with Dr. Sharon Wood, Civil Engineering Professor and Department Chair at the University of Texas-Austin.
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Recycled plastic bridges - innovative Virginia project showcases environmentally friendly material
Posted June 22, 2010, Length: 19:20
Corrosion of steel bridges, and of reinforcing steel in concrete bridges, is a major cause of bridge deterioration. The search for a wonder material that bears heavy loads, yet won’t corrode, has been a dream of infrastructure engineers for many years. And now perhaps such a material’s time has come. Recycled structural plastic composite – or RSPC – has been tested since the 1990s, beginning with railroad ties. More recently RSPC is being used in bridges of increasing size. This material is made of recycled plastics, such as milk containers and car bumpers, which might otherwise end up in landfills. The hosts talk with Vijay Chandra of Parsons Brinkerhoff, the principal in charge of the design of two RSPC rail bridges in Ft. Eustis, VA. They discuss the project – the largest bridges built to date of RSPC, to support the heaviest loads (120-ton locomotives used by the U.S. Army) – and also the potential for the use of this environmentally friendly material in future infrastructure projects.
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Financing America’s infrastructure
Posted May 26, 2010, Length: 13:34
To sustain America’s infrastructure in the decades ahead, the critical issue is financing. This segment differs from the usual format in that there is no guest; instead the hosts discuss financing issues and options that have been touched on in some of the past podcasts. Each year the gap between U.S. infrastructure needs and available resources has been increasing. Where will the money come from to keep the system together, maintain it, sustain the quality of service and condition, and extend its life? The hosts discuss pricing highway use, raising transit fares, increasing fuel, sales, and other taxes, and other options for paying for infrastructure. They touch on the issue of fairness to low-income citizens, and dilemmas caused by political pressure. In many developed countries, citizens are willing to pay higher taxes and fees for their infrastructure. But Americans commonly expect we should get more for less. The hosts discuss how we can achieve the long-term thinking needed to address critical infrastructure funding.
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Bicycle transportation in the U.S.
Posted April 28, 2010, Length: 28:30
The pedal-driven, human-powered vehicle we know as the bicycle was invented in the 19th century. In many parts of the world today, bicycles are the main means of transport, and throughout the world they are important for use as recreational vehicles. Bicycles provide an economical, energy-efficient, low-emissions means of transporting people and cargo. For almost a century, however, the automobile has dominated non-motorized travel in developed countries. The bicycle has been regaining popularity in developed countries because of its appeal as a soft, energy-efficient mode of travel, and because of the exercise value it brings. Yet integrating bicycle traffic with automobile traffic involves a complex mix of city planning and road planning and design. European countries have been making significant advances in bicycle transportation over several decades, and now the U.S. is starting to catch up, with progress of its own. The hosts discuss this interesting topic with Gabe Rousseau, Manager of the Federal Highway Administration’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program.
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America's power infrastructure
Posted March 24, 2010, Length: 25:26
The topic of this podcast is America’s power infrastructure — the power plants and transmission lines that make up the electric grid. Seventy years ago, in 1940, only 10% of energy in this country was used to produce electricity. Growing population and rapidly changing technologies have pushed this percentage to 40%, and the percentage is rising. While the country has been steadily adding electrical generation capacity, a key problem is that the transmission network in many areas of the country is outdated and can’t handle the peak demand for electricity. The hosts talk with Mark McGranaghan, Director-Distribution Research, for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
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Storm risk reduction projects in New Orleans – a look at the IHNC surge barrier
Posted February 24, 2010, Length: 26:06
In 2006, following the damage done by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Congress authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin a number of projects designed to reduce the risk to the New Orleans metropolitan area from a 100-year storm. One of the largest projects in the plan is the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lake Borgne Surge Reduction Project – or IHNC Surge Barrier for short. It is the largest surge barrier of its kind in the world, stretching about 2 miles across the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Mississippi River Outlet. Its purpose is to reduce the risk of storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Borgne, protecting some of the most vulnerable areas in the region, including New Orleans East, New Orleans Metro, the 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish. It is the largest design/build civil works project that the Corps has ever built, estimated to cost about $1.3 billion. The hosts talk with Rick Kendrick, Chief of Program Execution for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Hurricane Protection Office in New Orleans, which is overseeing approximately $5.9 billion of risk reduction construction projects in Southeast Louisiana, including the IHNC Surge Barrier.
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Going green – Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport’s sustainable success story
Posted January 26, 2010, Length: 22:16
Hear the impressive story of how Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport has become one of the country’s model green airports. DFW, the third busiest airport in the world in terms of aircraft movements and the seventh busiest in terms of passenger traffic, covers more than 29.2 square miles and supports more than 300,000 jobs. In 2008, DFW launched an airport-wide Sustainability Policy and Program, as part of the airport’s strategic plan. The key elements of the Sustainability Initiative to date include: environmental management, energy efficiency and renewable energy, waste minimization and recycling, wildlife management, safety management, emergency response, asset development, and a clean vehicle fleet program. The hosts talk with Jim Crites, DFW Executive Vice President of Operations, about these notable green achievements.
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The role of forensic engineering in failure investigation and prevention
Posted December 24, 2009, Length: 21:43
Whenever a high-visibility infrastructure failure occurs, the main question everyone wants to know is: why? Was it a design error? A failure of materials? A result of human error? It is the job of the forensic engineer to investigate all the myriad of factors that might have led to a failure. Such investigations often are lengthy, and costly. But they are essential, to prevent recurrence of similar failures. The hosts talk with Dr. David Corr, Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, about this topic, with a focus on two significant infrastructure disasters: the collapse of the Mianus River Bridge on Interstate 95 in Connecticut in 1983, and the 2006 failure of ceiling panels in the Fort Point Tunnel – a part of the Big Dig in Boston. Also included are details on the Marcy Bridge Collapse, which occurred in 2002 in Upstate New York.
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The 91 Express Lanes: a model for congestion pricing
Posted November 25, 2009, Length: 18:57
The 91 Express Lanes is a 10-mile road located in Orange County, California. Opened in 1995, it was the first privately financed toll road built in the U.S. since the 1940s. It was also unique in that it was the first fully automated toll project in the world, and also marked this country’s first application of congestion pricing, in which tolls increase at times of busiest road use, and decrease during less travelled hours, with high-occupancy vehicles paying discounted tolls. As with any project that was a first of its kind, the 91 Express Lanes have proved to be a learning experience, and they have been studied by transportation professionals around the world. The hosts discuss this topic with Chris Norby, Member of the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Board of Directors, and Orange County Supervisor, 4th District.
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High-speed rail: current proposals for the Midwest
Posted October 27, 2009, Length: 19:59
High-speed rail refers to passenger train service operating at an average speed of 124 mph or higher. Most European countries have extensive high-speed rail networks, as do Japan and China. The United States currently has no high-speed rail service. Although technically Amtrak’s Acela Express is a high-speed train, which does in fact briefly reach 150 miles per hour on some routes, its average speed is significantly less – for example, 80 miles per hour between New York City and Washington, D.C. High-speed trains have had real success abroad, but are market conditions in the U.S. suitable for this technology? The hosts talk with Rick Harnish, Executive Director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, about this topic, mainly focusing on the Midwest states.
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The Bayonne Bridge – a challenge for container shipping
Posted September 22, 2009, Length: 12:48
The Bayonne Bridge, completed in 1931, connects Bayonne, NJ and Staten Island, NY. The world’s fourth longest steel arch bridge, it stands 151 feet above the Kill van Kull tidal strait. It is this 151 foot height above mean water level that presents the problem for container ships travelling to reach the container terminals at Staten Island and Port Newark. Some container ships today are too high to pass under the bridge, but this problem will become worse when the Panama Canal expansion is completed, and the next generation of larger container ships, called “Post-Panamax” vessels, will be afloat. The hosts talk with Frank McDonough, President of the New York Shipping Association, about the challenge the Bayonne Bridge presents to New York and New Jersey shipping, and the options that have been discussed to address the bridge’s height problem.
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Municipal water leakage, and how the City of Chicago addresses the challenge of stopping leaks
Posted August 25, 2009, Length: 27:09
Inadvertent water loss – leakage – within water distribution networks is an infrastructure problem that exists throughout the country and around the world. The hosts talk with Bill Bresnahan, 1st Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Water Management about the causes of leakage and how the City of Chicago addresses the challenge of stopping leaks. Chicago draws water from Lake Michigan via two intake cribs and processes it through the two largest water treatment plants of their kind in the world. The Department of Water Management’s 12 pumping stations send the water through more than 4,200 miles of distribution mains. These stations have a combined pumping capacity of some 2.1 billion gallons daily, and they distribute water to 2.9 million customers in the City and 2.5 million others in the nearby suburbs.
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The Heartland Corridor Project
Posted July 30, 2009, Length: 29:19
The hosts talk with James Carter Jr., Chief Engineer for Bridges and Structures with the Norfolk Southern Corporation, about the impressive Heartland Corridor Project. The Heartland Corridor Project is a collaboration between the Norfolk Southern Railroad and state and federal governments, intended to improve rail service between the Port of Norfolk and places in the Midwest. Among other elements of the project, it will provide a more direct routing for double-stacked container trains between Norfolk, Virginia and western Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio, as far as Columbus. The project was begun in 2007, with completion anticipated in 2010. Included in the podcast is information on tunnel modification, intermodal terminals, double-stacked trains and freight, and funding.
The Wenchuan Earthquake, and a discussion of earthquakes triggered by dams and reservoirs
Posted June 26, 2009, Length: 25:58
Two earthquake and dam experts from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL — Dr. Seth Stein, William Deering Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Dr. Charles Dowding, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering — talk with the hosts about the magnitude 7.99 Wenchuan Earthquake that occurred in China on May 12, 2008, and the possibility that this earthquake was triggered by the operations of the nearby Zipingpu dam and its reservoir. They expand the discussion to include other examples of suspected dam/reservoir-triggered earthquakes, offering their thoughts on the benefits and risks of dam locations, and the ability of structures to withstand ground movement.
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The aftermath of the Oakland, CA I-580 ramp collapse — focus on advanced technologies
Posted May 26, 2009, Length: 25:33
Tom Taylor, Branch Chief of Surveys Coordination/New Technologies for Caltrans District 4, talks with the hosts about the advanced survey technologies used in rebuilding the I-580 ramp in Oakland, CA, totally destroyed in a tanker fire on April 29, 2007. This ramp is a critical element of the Bay Area freeway network. It was rebuilt in only 26 days in an extremely fast-track project that used innovative contracting methods and relied on extensive use of advanced measurement technologies. These included aerial photography and photogrammetry, laser scanning, and the use of advanced survey instruments for field measurement of the damage and exact position and dimensions of the remaining structure — thus defining the gap that needed to be filled by the replacement ramp.
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New I-35W bridge in Minneapolis
Posted April 21, 2009, Length: 22:59
Interviewed is Linda Figg, whose company, Figg Bridge Engineers of Tallahassee, FL, designed the new Minneapolis I-35W Bridge to replace the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge that collapsed on Aug. 1, 2007. The new bridge opened on September 18, 2008. Linda discusses this fast-track project, features of the new bridge, and lessons learned from the bridge failure and replacement.
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Introduction; ASCE Report Card
Posted March 25, 2009, Length: 28:40
The hosts introduce this series of podcasts with a definition of the infrastructure and a discussion of why it is important to us. They talk about trends in infrastructure characteristics and condition and consider why the infrastructure has been so much in the news recently. Then they move on to an assessment of the nation’s infrastructure, talking with Casey Dinges of the American Society of Civil Engineers about his organization’s Infrastructure Report Card. This broad assessment of our infrastructure is prepared by the ASCE every 5 years. It grades the condition of our bridges, dams, roads, rail systems, inland waterways, and 10 more systems. Casey describes the most recent Report Card, released in January of 2009.
Links
The following links contain information related to the above interviews.
Natural Hazards, Unnatural Disasters
Panama Canal (I) (Photo)
Panama Canal (II) (Photo)
The Dulles Airport Metrorail Project
I-580 Ramp (scroll down to "Project Data")
Descriptions of photos at top of page, from left to right:
Bayonne Bridge, from Bayonne, NJ to Staten Island, NY;
the Tom Moreland Interchange in Atlanta, GA;
Dworshak Dam, in Clearwater County, ID;
a transmission substation in Orem, UT.
All photos courtesy of Wikipedia.