Tensar Wins Two Awards
The TriAx geogrid from Tensar has won a Gold Medal at the Brno International Building Fair in the Czech Republic and at Autostrada 2008 in Kiecle, Poland. Out of the 800 exhibiting companies and eight award winners at Autostrada, TriAx was the only geosynthetic product to receive recognition within road construction and took home the coveted 'Product & Technology' category award.
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GeoAfrica 2009 in the News
Word is starting to get out about GeoAfrica 2009. The event will be held in Cape Town, South Africa 2-4 September 2009. This will be the first conference to be held under the auspices of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) in the region. The first call has been issued. Updates are forthcoming. Keep an eye on geosynthetica.net and the IGS' South African chapter website for more.
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Promotions at Randall-Reilly
Randall-Reilly Publishing, parent company of the magazines Better Roads and Aggregates Manager, have announced two promotions. Tina Grady Barbaccia has become executive editor of Better Roads magazine and Kerry Clines has been promoted to senior editor on Aggregates Manager. Geosynthetica congratulates them on their promotions and looks forward to working with them in their new positions.
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Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Standard
ASTM International's Committee D13 on Textiles is working on a new standard to help fiber-reinforced concrete production. The Work Item from Subcommittee D13.58 (Yarns and Fibers) is titled "Specification for Polyolefin Chopped Strands for Use in Concrete" and is designated WK18377. It will provide manufacturers of chopped strands intended for concrete application with uniformity in their testing and some minimal specifications to insure suitable quality to the market.
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Geogrids in Virginia
Construction magazine has published an update on the Virginia Department of Transportation's Newport News road-widening project. The project is entering its Phase III, which includes the installation of geotextiles and, in some places, geogrids to strengthen the silty and blue marle clay soils that characterize the peninsula.
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The Business of Brownfields
Ontario has made significant changes in recent years in its regulatory approach to redeveloping Brownfields. The field of redevelopment represents an important growth area for hundreds of companies and thousands of clients. Marcia Wallace, Ontario's Brownfields Coordinator, will speak on June 25 at an Ontario Environment Industry Association (ONEIA) Environmental Business Opportunity Breakfast (EBOB) event.
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Long-Term Mining Boom
World prices for precious and semi-precious metals have vaulted in the past few years, and this spike in demand has helped fuel tremendous growth in the mining industry. But while prices have somewhat stabilized, growth will continue. Australia forecasts a 70% rise in employment (90,000 new jobs) in mining through 2020 in the mining sector. And these projects will also require environmental controls, which is where geosynthetics enter in.
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Geosynthetics 2009 Deadline Extended
Geosynthetics 2009, the next chapter in the international, biennial Geosynthetics series, will be held in Salt Lake City 25-27 February 2009. Beth Wistrcill of IFAI has released information regarding an extension to the abstracts and proposals submission deadline. It is now 30 June 2008. Read the release here.
Ann Arbor Turns to Geogrids
A sensitive 1.3-mile stretch of road in Ann Arbor is to be closed today. The winding road is surrounded by woods and wetlands. To improve its safety and condition, crews will begin a two year rebuilding project that will use a geogrid wrap on the base. Geogrids allow not only a reduction in the amount of gravel needed in the base but minimize the need for crews to disturb the road shoulders.
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YGEC 2008 Registration
Over on the Geosynthetics Interest Group of South Africa's (GIGSA) website, they've posted the registration call for the Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference (YGEC) 2008. The conference theme is "Geotechnics - 2010 and Beyond." It will be held 20-22 August 2008 in Hillcrest, Natal, South Africa. For more information, download the registration PDF.
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Corps Pushes on Levee
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) wants to raise the St. Charles Parish levee from 13 ft to 18 ft. The design change was revealed this week, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. A 30-day comment period has begun. Design issues are available on the Corps regional website.
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TenCate Announces 1Q Earning
Dutch-based Royal TenCate announced its 1Q 2008 earnings late Tuesday, April 29. The company's net was up 22% over the previous year's 1Q, but it missed analysts' expectations. Still, the full-year EPS forecast seems strong. US-based TenCate Geosynthetics is part of Royal TenCate's global network.
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TenCate To Report Results
Royal Ten Cate N.V.'s first quarter results are expected to continue the strong trend seen in the fourth quarter and boosted by recent acquisitions, although some analysts said there was low visibility on how the company performed this quarter. The North American geosynthetics market remains difficult, however, reports Thomson Financial.
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Summer (Construction) Begins
In Arlington, Massachusetts, the summer road projects are already underway. Geogrid reinforcement is being installed in key stretches of pavement, vapor barriers are being installed near contaminated soils, and significant drainage improvements are being made. It's a situation soon to be seen all over the United States.
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GeoAmericas Free Papers
geosynthetica's Lara Costa has posted a wrap-up and abstracts from GeoAmericas 2008. These pages deliver conference images, a summary of events and links to free papers from the event (courtesy of IFAI, publisher of the full conference proceedings). Check out Lara's review and the significant conference papers posted here for free. See the links to those pages on the abstracts page. Full proceedings may be acquired from the IFAI Bookstore.
USACE Supports Geosynthetic Use
The latest release on geosynthetics from the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) reports on the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) support for geosynthetic performance in levee construction and reinforcement. Read the full release here.
UAE Project
Some of the world's most impressive construction is occurring in the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) is progressing on an extensive project to create tourism and high-end residential islands. The $3 billion project will conclude in 2020. Until then, pieces of it will be phased in. Gulf News reports that TenCate Geosynthetics has been key to the development of retaining walls at some of the project's resorts.
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Road Project in WV
The city of Charleston, West Virginia allocated on Monday $612,000 for stabilizing a key stretch of road and riverbank in danger of collapsing. The money matches a $1 million federal grant from the US Army Corps of Engineers. New geotextile and riprap will be placed. The Corps has suggested more money may be available so long as the city can meet the 65/35 matching scheme.
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USACE: Levees Better
In the wake of a report that suggested the geosynthetic reinforcement added to certain levees in the New Orleans region wasn't long enough, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has issued comments in defense of the current design. Officials are taking the new analysis into consideration, though; and if the new model and the Corps' long-term modeling approach lead to a similar conclusion, officials maintain that the appropriate length corrections will be made.
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Responsible Development
Residents in Rochester, Minnesota's Manorwood development are paying dearly for buying homes with a view. Mudslides have taken out yards, patios, small retaining walls, and, most importantly, safety. New proposals involve reinforcing the area with soil nails or a more highly engineering retaining wall with geogrid support. Who will pay for the repairs remains to be seen.
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EC and Katrina-Recovery Awards
Mississippi is doling out money from its $5.4 billion Hurricane Katrina recovery fund. The Brookhaven community, for example, has received $665,000 for erosion control. The city will offer a $100,000 match. The Daily Leader's story, via Zwire, includes a breakdown of other recent awards in the state for shoreline repair, road construction, erosion control and much more.
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Not Enough Geo in NOLA?
The US Army Corps of Engineers is moving forth on awarding New Orleans levee repair contracts ahead of a 2011 deadline for upgrades--despite a new analysis that suggests rotational failure is still a risk. The new analysis found that geosynthetic support may be 20 feet short of what's needed to prevent a 100-year-storm event rotational failure. But experts point out that no earthen levee has ever failed in the manner the new, geometry-based computer model suggests.
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ACE Earns NTPEP Approval
ACE Geosynthetics has received its final report from the National Transportation Product Evaluation Program (NTPEP). This approval allows ACE geogrids to be incorporated into the specifications of many key infrastructure projects, including work for state departments of transporation (DOTs). It marks another significant step in the company's growth. Last year, it opened offices in Houston and Atlanta. Congratulations to ACE on this latest achievement.
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Road Work Needed Now
The residents of Scio Township, Michigan are demanding road repairs. An important stretch of road is unpaved and runs through swampy land. The result is an at-times inaccessible, soggy mess. Geosynthetic separation and stabilization is being considered, as is the significantly more expensive proposal to dig out the road below its base and redo it with new aggregate.
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Access Roads for Wind Farms
The UK publication Building has published an article about the challenges of Europe's largest onshore wind farm--and the problem isn't wind. It's building 90km of access roads on peat and other tricky soils at 22-sq-mile site. The solution is a combination of geotextiles and geogrids for separation and reinforcement. It's precisely the approach being adopted everywhere that windfarms are being constructed, and for good reason: it works.
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