Author Archives: Mike Roselli
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 as the experiment on adding FRP (fiber reinforced polymer) strips to steel beams to increase their strength.
Enjoy the video. The music is fantastic.
Two weeks ago, an unfortunate collision occurred at a railroad grade crossing in Maine. Reuters reports that a dump truck was hit by an Amtrak train and the driver was fatally wounded. Four passengers aboard the train were injured as well. Terrible. At-grade railroad crossings are some of the most dangerous intersections we have on our road system and they should be avoided whenever possible. Fortunately, many public agencies are fully aware of hazards associated with them and are taking steps to fix them. Here is a list of policies in the United States associated with at-grade crossings, published by the Federal Highway Administration. If you live in North Carolina, rest assured that NCDOT can and will use its power to remove, abandon, close, or regulate all railroad grade crossings. That is, if politicians don’t try to stop the sensibilities of the engineers there.
You might also be interested to know that railroad companies are also very aware of these hazards. CSX, for example, is “firmly opposed” to at-grade crossings and supports policies in place by the USDOT and state agencies to limit their use. You can read more about their leadership in this area on their website.
It’s a shame to see collisions on train tracks. Look both ways when you have to cross tracks and don’t, under any circumstances, try to “beat” the train or drive around protective barriers. It’s not worth it.
Not exactly recent news, but exciting none the less. As an avid OS X user and fan of all Apple products, I’m very excited to see AutoCAD coming back to Mac. While a lot of designers can find their software made for Mac OS X, most engineering software is very hard to come by outside of Windows. Has anyone tested it out yet? I’m eager to hear of its intuitiveness. Along side the software, Autodesk is releasing a free mobile app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Now we just need TransCAD on here and we’ll be all set. I’ll start holding my breath.
I was reading this News & Observer article today about the new roundabout on Hillsborough St in Raleigh, NC. Raleigh Police have cataloged more than 40 collisions at a new roundabout installation at it seems at least a few people have some ruffled feathers.
At first this number seems high, but it’s important to remember a few key thoughts about the safety, design and installation of new traffic patterns. Continue reading
For my Highway Safety graduate level course at NC State, I conducted a field study at the intersection of Glenwood Ave and Peace St in Raleigh, NC. The study evaluated the current status of field conditions, conflicts, previous collision reports, and recommended a few counter measures that might reduce conflicts at the intersection.
I’m really enjoying the class. If you’re interested in reading the study, I’ve attached it to this post.
Not a very intriguing post, but a funny one anyway. Projects across the US are stalled to finish because of a shortage in line-marking paint. That’s kind of funny, right? Link: Shortage of paint for highway stripes
I was browsing TED earlier today (Technology, Engineering, Design), and found a few things I wanted to share. The first being a completely new road sign concept and I find it fascinating! It’s called the “Take Turns” sign, and unfortunately, due to the semantics of the English language, it may confuse you at first.
It doesn’t want you to “turn”, but to alternate vehicles when needed. Envisioned by venture capitalist Gary Lauder, the concept is half stop sign, half yield sign. When there are no cars on an adjacent side street you can drive freely, but if there are vehicles on the side street, all vehicles must stop and alternate, a la four way stop.
Perfect for scenarios where roundabouts would work but don’t fit! Continue reading
This morning I attended a virtual workshop seminar hosted by the ITE entitled “Traffic Demand Forecasting”. Focused on local modeling and surveys taken by transportation engineers, the workshop was very informative on what models and tools are currently being used and their effectiveness.
One piece of information that I thought was especially useful was the detailed focus of the “4-Step Method”. We all learned it in school: Generation, Distribution, Mode Choice (split), and Assignment. But it never occurred to me that one can obtain a pretty good (and quick) estimate by eliminating Mode Choice completely in an area with little public transportation. Ehem, paging North Carolina.
Another thing that didn’t occur to me was the concept of “blind spots” in traffic analysis. Sure it may seem easy to assign average annual daily traffic to a specific route, but route directness never seems to come up (how direct a route really is). Or how about sidewalk completeness. These are things that are hard to factor and difficult to anticipate.
Very informative seminar overall. Thanks ITE!
If you’re a member of the ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers), you should be pretty hyped about the upcoming Technical Conference and Exhibit in Savannah, GA that starts on March 14th. Because I can’t make it, I was very excited to find out that two of the seminars will be broadcast live over the web.
One seminar focuses on labor laws impacting consultants and the other explores local travel demand modeling and sustainability. If you’re a member, click here to register for one or both of the seminars.
Oh the joys of Gantt Charts. I’ve done them by hand. A lot of them. And then I used Excel for a while, which was tolerable. I even learned how to schedule in Primavera and Microsoft Project, both of which worked very well. But when I was in school, the most practical and friendly method I found for use on a team project was Google Spreadsheets.
Yes, Google Spreadsheets. It’s great on a student budget because it’s free. Google Docs became the location of your files, and if you can connect to the internet and login, you have access to your project. But by far the best feature of the Google Docs Suite was the collaboration element. With the ability to have multiple contributors editing at the same time, this was how we scheduled and estimated construction projects. It just worked. Flawlessly.
Now, out of stage left comes Tom’s Planner. It seems someone had the idea and initiative to take the concept behind online document collaboration and craft it into a sophisticated planning app like MS Project or Primavera.
More information on the app can be found at Tomsplanner.com. The details on pricing are few and far between, but I can definitely see Microsoft watching this very closely. Who knows, maybe Google will decide to buy it. After all, they’re just about buying everything right now.
Via LifeHacker