Geocell, grid, and reinforced-soil in restoring eroded steep slopes

April 1, 2007  |  Case Studies

By Stan Boyle and Kathy Robertson Abstract In October 2003, stormwater overflows from an intense, short-duration storm eroded approximately 20,000 yds.3 of soil from the bottom and side slopes of a ravine between the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and a subdivision near Tacoma, Wash. The erosion ruptured two…
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Textiles, grids help build Seattle park

April 1, 2007  |  Case Studies

Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park is a visionary architectural achievement that blends building and site design, including a strollable park on Seattle’s steep waterfront. A visitor’s journey proceeds down a continuously sloping, 2,200-ft.-long Z-path, revealing artwork along the way. For the a…
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New geogrid aiding ancient monument

April 1, 2007  |  Case Studies

Nearly 5,000 years old, a monument known today as the Shunet el-Zebib is the only surviving example of a series of monumental cultic buildings built by Egypt’s earliest kings. Over the centuries, it has been ravaged by the elements, attacked by animals and insects, and structurally compromised by …
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Point State Park renovation to preserve Fort Pitt ‘bastion’

April 1, 2007  |  Case Studies

Following a plan supported by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the state’s Department of Natural Resources is resuming renovation work at the Fort Pitt tracery in Pittsburgh’s Point State Park as part of a $7.1 million improvement project. In the area known as the “Music Bast…
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Horses and the land: Geosynthetics help to improve riding trails

February 1, 2007  |  Case Studies

Professor worries animal that helped tame America labelled as enviro outcast. By Tom Lollis Clemson University professor Gene Wood has two great passions—horses and the land. He hopes the two are never separated because of a dispute over natural resources. “The horse is burned into the A…
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Five-year CalTrans freeway project is nearing completion in San Diego

February 1, 2007  |  Case Studies

From the 2006 International Achievement Awards for Geosynthetic Projects Introduction In an effort to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety conditions in northern San Diego, the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) is adding lanes and creating a truck bypass at the Interstate 5/…
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Massive mining evaporation ponds constructed in Chilean desert

February 1, 2007  |  Case Studies

The Salar de Atacama in Chile is the site of the largest PVC geomembrane installation in the world—more than 16 million m2 utilized in mining operations since 1996. By Dominic Berube,1 Patrick Diebel,2 Andre Rollin,3 and Timothy D. Stark4 The largest PVC geomembrane installation in the world i…
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Mountain route flowing now

February 1, 2007  |  Case Studies

Traffic on Highway 330 through California’s San Bernardino Mountains returned to near normal last fall after CalTrans reopened the route to motorists following three months of detours and closures. The route between Highland and Running Springs had been closed off and on while a $7.5 million slope…
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Pinning milfoil to the mat

February 1, 2007  |  Case Studies

The latest effort to foil further growth of milfoil on a pond in Litchfield, Maine, has taken the form of layers of black, geotextile mats. A diver has placed the mats like carpet on the bottom of Upper Pleasant Pond in an area where a group of variable-leaf water milfoil plants was already marked o…
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Floating cover system used for evaporation and algae control at Australian winery pond

October 1, 2006  |  Case Studies

Problem: An Australian vineyard was experiencing significant evaporation loss, as well as algae growth, from an on-site irrigation pond. To address the situation, a floating cover system for the pond was designed and installed at the vineyard in the Barossa wine region northeast of Adelaide in the s…
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