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ARTBA testifies to House committee against century-old rule ‘stifling’ innovation in transportation
September 7th, 2018
A 1916 rule enacted by President Woodrow Wilson’s administration is curbing 21st-century transportation innovations that could improve safety and quality on the nation’s major roadways, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) said in Sept. 5 testimony submitted to the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee. At issue is 23 CFR 635.411, a 102-year-old federal […]
Idaho Transportation Department receives largest grant in its history
September 5th, 2018
The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) received $90.24 million in infrastructure grants in August, the largest grant ITD had ever received. It will be used to ease congestion on Interstate 84 in Nampa, Idaho, part of a larger project along I-84 corridor between Boise and Caldwell. “The project is expected to Improve safety by significantly reducing serious […]
FAA to award $616.9 million in infrastructure grants to airports
August 29th, 2018
U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced on Aug. 24 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will award $616.9 million in airport infrastructure grants, as part of the total $3.18 billion in Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funding for airports across the United States. “The department has been investing heavily in our nation’s airport […]
Appeals court orders EPA revisions to 2015 coal ash final rule
August 27th, 2018
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a decision Aug. 21 holding that the first-ever federal safeguards set by the Obama administration for coal ash dumps do not sufficiently protect communities and the environment from pollution from coal combustion residual (coal ash) waste. The court’s decision sided with public interest groups by […]
Geocomposite lamination strength ASTM test method: Time for an update
August 1st, 2018
Recent project experience that included continuous peel testing across the roll width of geocomposite materials has shed light on the issue of peel strength between geotextiles and geonets that are heat-bonded together. The variability of peel strength across a roll width is found to be much greater than expected, with the typical standard deviation often […]
Case studies using EPS geofoam for mining and energy
August 1st, 2018
The complexities of the built environment continually challenge the limits of engineering and construction. For infrastructure built-in areas with settlement-prone soils or other hazardous geological conditions, assembling a team of experts to plan for challenges is essential. Industries like mining, oil and gas, and utilities must often bore through earth and rock to build tunnels, […]
The GMA Techline answers all
August 1st, 2018
UV Weathering of Geotextiles Q: My firm is providing construction quality assurance services for a landfill cell expansion. We are having an issue with our contractor and are going to be in a position of having 8 ounces/square yard (271 g/m2) of nonwoven geotextile exposed for a period of time, which exceeds the seven-day limit […]
Safe storage of mining waste focus of report
August 1st, 2018
In December 2017, the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and GRID-Arendal, an organization that supports environmentally sustainable development in partnership with UN Environment and other collaborators, published “Mine Tailings Storage: Safety Is No Accident.” The report recommends mining companies adopt simple steps to reduce environmental destruction and death by changing the way they store […]
Deploying a geosynthetic mattress ballast layer at an ore-processing site
August 1st, 2018
New applications of geosynthetics are being found that form from overlaps of existing functions, such as protection, separation, filtration and drainage. One new geosynthetic product, the geosynthetic mattress ballast layer (GBL), was first implemented for an ore-processing waste facility protection application in 2015. The GBL is a geotextile containment system that provides a tubular component […]
Testing a new method for mining-waste storage using polymer-enhanced geosynthetic clay liners
July 31st, 2018
Geosynthetic clay liners (GCL) and polymer-modified geosynthetic clay liners (PMG) are gaining favor for use in industrial waste disposal and ore-processing applications (Athanassopoulos et al. 2015, Donovan et al. 2016a, Donovan et al. 2016b). The GCL or PMG can be a component of a composite liner system that will allow for increased performance (relative to […]