Podcast: The Infrastructure Show

The Eagle P3 East Rail Line is a project that will provide train service from downtown Denver’s Union Station to Denver International Airport, 22.8 miles east of the City. The Eagle project also includes the 11.8 mile Gold Line, northwest of Denver and the segment of Northwest Rail Line to Westminster as well as a rail maintenance facility. It is funded by a public-private partnership between RTD, the Federal Transit Administration and several companies that formed the Denver Transit Partners Consortium. Work began on the project in August of 2010 and is estimated to be finished in early 2016. The hosts discuss this interesting project with Richard Clarke, Assistant General Manager of Capital Programs for the Regional Transportation District

This year is the 75th anniversary of the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge, the iconic suspension bridge that connects the City of San Francisco to Marin County. The 8,981-foot steel bridge – with a 4,200 foot main span – painted a distinctive dark orange, is one of the most photographed bridges in the world. While several engineers worked on the project, the Golden Gate Bridge District has given major credit for the design to Senior Engineer Charles Alton Ellis. While some younger bridges have deteriorated and been replaced, it is interesting to explore what it has taken to sustain and update this important bridge over its 75-year-life. The hosts discuss this topic with Ewa Bauer, Chief Engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge District.

Two thirds of the State of California’s fresh water needs are supplied by the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Northern California. Runoff flows into the delta from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Cascade Range, and the Pacific Coast Range. Until the 1800s, the delta flooded each year in the spring, but in the latter part of that century, levee construction was undertaken for flood control and to reclaim land for farming – which created one of the most productive agricultural areas in the nation. Today, there are about 1,100 miles of levees in the delta. Their condition is a major concern to the State of California, because a failure could result in catastrophic flooding of the agricultural area and disruption of water supply to other parts of the state. The hosts discuss the dilemma of how to ensure the safety of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta with Jeffrey Mount, Professor of Geology, at the University of California-Davis

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings are responsible for 40% of the country’s energy consumption, and 39% of the CO2 emissions. Therefore, buildings represent an important target for greenhouse gas reduction, and during the last decade the country has seen significant progress in that regard, from the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification system, to the Architecture 2030 Challenge, to CALGreen, the first mandatory statewide green building code in the nation. The ultimate goal is zero energy buildings – structures that make as much energy as they consume. The hosts discuss innovations in energy-efficient buildings and greenhouse gas reduction with Roger Frechette, President of PositivEnergy Practice, whose work focuses on sustainable engineering and building design.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.