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INFRASTRUCTURES * USA - New Research to Probe Future Systems
Washington,DC,USA -The National Science Foundation -2 Oct 2008: -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) has announced the awarding of funding to make complex, interdependent infrastructure systems more resilient and sustainable... One area of interest is how electric vehicles can be used to benefit the electric power grid. In addition to drawing electricity from the grid, electric vehicles could be used to supply stored energy to the grid. New research could allow these vehicles to play a part in stabilizing the electric power grid during a catastrophe and in managing fluctuations in electricity...
* Plastic Bridge in Huron County May Be Path to the Future
Toledo,OH,USA -The Toledo Blade, by David Patch -6 Oct 2008: -- A 17-foot-long bridge carrying Ridge Road over a Huron River tributary in North Fairfield, Ohio, has become a test case for a new type of road bridge that is made of fiberglass-reinforced plastic rather than steel or concrete... Douglas Nims, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Toledo, and some of his students will be taking readings from sensors built into the structure, which was installed as a replacement for a previous bridge in September... "Salt eats the deck. What could [it] eat on a plastic bridge? What could rust?" says Joseph Kovach, the Huron County engineer, who received a $155,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration for installing and studying the hand-built structure. The bridge's $73,000 price tag was somewhat higher than that of a similarly sized concrete or steel-beam structure, but it is expected to be much more long-lasting, and the price would likely come down if the components can be made in bulk... Kovach and Nims have speculated that the portability and speed of installation of the modular plastic bridge could make it ideal for military engineers. The bridge incorporates panels made by Kansas Structural Composites, which tested a sample panel before installation and found that it could take a maximum load 10 times stronger than expected... (Photo: Wires for the instrumentation connected to the bridge on Ridge Road in Fairfield Township hang beneath the new structure)
* Warm Mix: Green Is Cool
USA - Associated Construction Publications, by Daniel C. Brown -1 Oct 2008: -- European countries are using technologies that appear to allow a reduction in the temperatures at which asphalt mixes are produced and placed. These technologies have been labeled Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA). The immediate benefit to producing WMA is the reduction in energy consumption required by burning fuels to heat traditional hot mix asphalt (HMA) to temperatures in excess of 300° F at the production plant. Warm-mix asphalt technology is generating enormous amounts of interest nationwide, thanks to its green nature, its relatively low production temperatures, its ability to cut fuel consumption and stack gas emissions, and other benefits. One contractor that has made use of warm-mix asphalt is Tilcon New Jersey, which paved a quarry road in Wharton, N.J., viewed by attendees including county and municipal engineers, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials, and New Jersey Turnpike engineers... Warm mix has also been used at an American Public Works Association street construction demo in San Antonio and another demo on roadways in Yellowstone National Park, and there is accelerated performance testing going on near Watsonville, Calif., using the University of California-Davis' Heavy Vehicle Simulator on behalf of Caltrans. In Franklin, Tenn., the state Department of Transportation and LoJac Enterprises applied four different warm mixes along a portion of Hillsboro Pike near Nashville...
* Roundabouts Reduce Crashes and Congestion
Washington,DC,USA -Innovator (Vol. 2, No. 8)/FHWA -1 Sept 2008: -- Statistics show that roundabouts boost safety and curb congestion. There are eight vehicle-to-vehicle conflict points in a one-lane roundabout, compared to 32 in a standard four-leg intersection. Roundabouts also encourage reduced traffic speeds, giving drivers increased time to avoid crashes and lowering the severity of accidents that do take place. Because traffic is constantly moving, roundabouts boost traffic capacity by around 20 percent over traditional intersections, which limits traffic lines and delays caused by traffic lights and stop signs... An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study in 2000 concluded that roundabouts can reduce the number of overall accidents by 39 percent, injury-producing accidents by 76 percent and deadly accidents by 90 percent. A 2002 study by the Maryland State Highway Administration of 15 sites where conventional intersections were replaced by roundabouts revealed that the total collision rate was reduced by 60 percent and the injury collision rate dropped 82 percent...
Labels: infrastructures
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