Category Archives: Engineering
A friend sent me a link to a recent WRAL article posted yesterday about a fatal collision in Cary on Sunday, February 12th1. Tragically, both passengers in a left-turning vehicle died when the driver crossed the path of another vehicle. This is terrible and my condolences go out to those affected by the incident. I also feel for safety engineers everywhere who feel the emptiness of failure at each reported fatality2, especially the highway safety professionals who work in this jurisdiction. However, … Continue reading
Twin Cities, MN I had a few spare weeks recently, and decided to go on a cross-country trek to visit some friends. I also took the opportunity to take in some civil engineering landmarks along the way. First stop was Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. Had a great time visiting my college buddy Garrett, now a grad student at U of M. We passed by the Civil Engineering building on campus, a building residing almost completely underground. For it’s unique design it … Continue reading
Those who know me know I like to create, and cooking is a fantastic hobby I’ve picked up. There’s always something new to learn. It’s art. It’s expression. And best of all, you can eat it. But like all things, if you do it, do it right. Cook like you mean it. Go big or go home. And recently I’ve learned that the culinary arts, or at least the kitchen responsibilities involved therein, have a lot in common with the … Continue reading
The times they are a-changing. A new survey on IT professionals and executives by Forrester Research shows that Mac users are HEROs, or “highly empowered and resourceful operatives”. Where once the research group stood by the recommendation to not support Apple devices in the enterprise arena, they now see that many of the brightest and best insist on using Macs. “Most of the Macs today,” writes Johnson, “are being freewheeled into the office by executives, top sales reps, and other … Continue reading
So it seems there were a few damages from the Virginia earthquake earlier this week. The biggest damages on the news? The National Cathedral and the Washington Monument. The Washington Monument suffered some cracking at the very top and has since been closed indefinitely to the public until damages can be assessed. As for the National Cathedral, gargoyles, spires, buttresses, and walls cracked, shifted, or fell and shattered. Other homes and businesses near the epicenter were damaged as well. While … Continue reading
A very unusual earthquake struck Mineral, Virginia this afternoon at about 1:51pm EDT. I was sitting at my desk at work when it struck, and felt it here in Raleigh, North Carolina. At first we didn’t know what it was, or if it was related to nearby construction in the area, but most at the office felt it. Intense! This will be my first earthquake. Here is a link to the quake at the USGS website. It was more like … Continue reading
Hot on the heals of budget deals, deficit raising, and spending cuts in Washington comes a report from the American Society of Civil Engineers saying that our failing infrastructure will impact the US Gross Domestic Product by 2.7 trillion dollars by 2040. All due to funding gaps between what we use and what we actually pay to maintain. This will cause 400,000 lost jobs, lower incomes, lower spending, and lower exports, worsening the US trade position. Transportation is quite possibly … Continue reading
Left turns are terrible. When they aren’t extremely hazardous for drivers, they cause significant delays for other movements in the intersection because of dedicated left turn phases. Engineers have been plagued with this problem for years and have come up with many solutions, but usually the public doesn’t want anything to do with them. Even when they work exceptionally well, the Jughandle, the Michigan Left, and the all-powerful SPUI (single point urban interchange) all took time to introduce to the … Continue reading
A new transportation bill is going to decide how the United States spends money on transportation for the next six years. Unfortunately, those to whom this legislation has the most impact have the smallest voice. According to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights report “Where We Need to Go: A Civil Rights Roadmap for Transportation Equity“, most funds only cover highways and very little public transportation. Millions of poor and working-class people are cut off from being able to … Continue reading
Someone shared this video with me recently and I wanted to post it. It’s a video showing numerous contained demolition experiments for graduate student projects at the NC State Constructed Facilities Laboratory. I worked in this lab in the summer of 2006 on many graduate theses, and at least one of these experiments I recognized from actually standing nearby when the beam exploded. Others I recognize from projects I worked on, but I may not have been present for, such … Continue reading
