November 13, 2019
Expansion: it’s a win for communities when roads reach out and connect people to business, resources and formerly rural areas. But another form of expansion—soil that expands when water is added and shrinks when it dries out—can thwart this progress by making it hard to economically build and maintain long-lasting roads. “Expansive soil” is in …
October 1, 2019
By Brian Maggi, Christopher D. P. Baxter, Aaron Bradshaw, Annette Grilli and Naser Al Naser The devastating effects of recent hurricanes and nor’easters highlight the need to improve the resilience of coastal communities. There is a trend toward implementing “soft” engineering solutions such as dunes reinforced with geotextile sand containers (GSCs) or coastal bluffs stabilized …
By Jeff A. Segar The Mormon Butte site is in the Little Missouri National Grassland in the Badlands region of western North Dakota (Figure 1). Constructed in 1985 and leased through the U.S. Forest Service, the pad elevation was created by cutting into the side of the butte and depositing the spoils at a 1H:1V …
By Joe Royer, Kurt Chirbas and Ziad Mazboudi The City of Laguna Niguel in Orange County, Calif., has its origins in the Rancho Niguel Mexican land grant, acquired in 1959 by the Laguna Niguel Corp. to develop one of California’s first master-planned communities, which has become predominantly a bedroom community. The city encompasses a total …
By Anna M. Saindon Coal ash pond closures often face unique challenges due to location, available borrow soils and construction constraints. These challenges can lead to alternative methods of closure to comply with Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle D and coal combustion residuals (CCR) regulations. This article summarizes the construction of the first …
September 30, 2019
By Laura Carbone, Ole Syllwasschy and Lilma Schimmel In the past, the Soviet-German stock company Wismut carried out an intensive uranium mining operation resulting in a large amount of polluted tailings containing daughter nuclides of uranium (Koß 1997) that were released into industrial sediment ponds (named IAA). The tailings “Pond 4” was built in 1957 …
August 1, 2019
By Paul C. O’Malley, José L. Urrutia and Don DiGuilio The two projects (confidential client) are industrial sites consisting of coal ash and by-product sludge located in the southeastern United States. The projects included 70 and 67 acres (28 and 27 ha) in closure areas, and the waste source consisted of industrial sludge with a …
By John Heap and Chris Kelsey The active site work for the Palos Verdes Reservoir’s substantial update began in late 2016, advanced primarily throughout 2018 and concluded in the second quarter of 2019 with the filling of the reservoir. The project was immense for everyone involved, and with that has come the expected excitement, challenges …
Moderated by Robert M. Koerner, George R. Koerner and Y. “Grace” Hsuan A geotextile for unpaved driveway/road? Q: Is there any point in using a 150 g/m2 (4.4 oz/yd2) nonwoven geotextile in building an unpaved gravel driveway or gravel road? If so, what should be the most important characteristics of the fabric and what are …
By Stephan Fourmont, Pascal Saunier and Toraj Ghofrani Landfill gas (LFG) is produced during the decomposition of putrescible material in landfills. Often referred to as biogas, LFG is a source of odors and fugitive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. LFG is typically 40%–60% methane, which is 25 times more potent to affect climate change than carbon …