Shotcrete Design Guidelines Design guidelines to avoid, minimise and improve the appearance of shotcrete

The use of shotcrete has recently come under scrutiny. Although it is cost effective and useful, when used in its natural, untreated state, it is visually intrusive, particularly in highly sensitive urban or rural areas. Due to its poor visual qualities there is often a call to restrict its use. However, this is not possible as it is a valuable engineering technique, useful for stabilising and providing structural support for problematic slopes. This has unnecessarily caused a difference of opinion within road design teams because if considered at the outset, in the route selection and concept design stages, designers and engineers can agree on a common goal to avoid the need for slope stabilisation for visual as well as cost and maintenance reasons. Therefore this document addresses the need to consider unstable slopes early on in the road development process and sets down a strategy and recommendations to avoid or minimise the eventual need for shotcrete. However it also recognises that there will be circumstances where shotcrete is inevitably required and addresses the real practical problem of what is an acceptable appearance.

Noise wall design guideline Design guidelines to improve the appearance of noise walls in NSW

This guideline was developed from an RTA research and development project to investigate noise wall design in NSW, Australia and overseas. It is not the intention of this document to encourage or deter the use of noise walls. Its primary purpose is to improve the urban design of noise walls by highlighting the main design problems, providing examples of good noise wall outcomes and setting down guidelines to achieve similar outcomes. Photographs have been included. Some are examples of good noise wall design and some are examples of poor design. Many simply illustrate a point or design principle and should not be seen as a criticism of the noise wall and the efforts of the teams that were responsible. For quick reference a summary of the Design guidelines is included at the beginning of Section 5, page 33. It is recommended that this summary is read with reference to the rest of the document. The photographs selected are not representative of the full range of design possibilities. Each site has its own constraints and each design team its own talents. The range of possible outcomes is broad. The key message of this document is that the right process must be adopted, and the appearance of the wall and its relationship to its context must be adequately considered. This document complements the RTA Environmental Noise Management Manual.

Bridge Aesthetics Design guidelines to improve the appearance of bridges in NSW

The purpose of these guidelines is to help design teams produce bridges of aesthetic value. In addition, these guidelines will also help the RTA and its advisors set down unequivocal aesthetic outcomes so that consultants and contractors are made aware of RTA requirements and can focus on innovation in achieving those requirements. The document is not intended for special iconic landmark bridges such as the Anzac Bridge which have their own design champions, but rather the more common road bridges which are an abundant and highly visible element of NSW highways. A number of photographs of NSW bridges have been included. It is not the intention to critically evaluate these bridges but to use the images as lessons for future bridge design. There are always exceptions to design rules and it is not the intention to provide a formula for good design.

AASHTO Guide Specifications for LRFD Seismic Bridge Design

The AASHTO Guide Specifications for LRFD Seismic Bridge Design is established in accordance with the NCHRP 20-07/Task 193 Task 6 Report. Task 6 contains five (5) Sections corresponding to Tasks 1 to 5 as follows:
SECTION 1 includes a review of the pertinent documents and information that were available.
SECTION 2 presents the justification for the 1000- year return period (which is approximately equivalent to a 7% probability of exceedance in 75 years) as
recommended for the seismic design of highway bridges.
SECTION 3 includes a description of how the “no analysis” zone is expanded and how this expansion is incorporated into the displacement based approach.
SECTION 4 describes the two alternative approaches available for the design of highway bridges with steel superstructures and concludes with a recommendation to use a force based approach for steel superstructures.
SECTION 5 describes the recommended procedure for liquefaction design to be used for highway bridges. This aspect of the design is influenced by the recommended design event and the no analysis zone covered in Tasks 2 and 3, respectively. The recommendations proposed are made taking into account the outcome of these two tasks for Seismic Design
Category D. The following recommendations are documented:
Task 2
1. Adopt the 7% in 75 years design event for development of a design spectrum.
2. Ensure sufficient conservatism (1.5 safety factor) for minimum support length requirement. This conservatism is needed to enable to use the reserve capacity of hinging mechanism of the bridge system. This conservatism shall be embedded in the specifications to address unseating vulnerability. At a minimum it is recommended to embed this safety factor for sites outside of California.
3. Partition Seismic Design Categories (SDC’s) into four categories and proceed with the development of analytical bounds using the 7% in 75 years design event.

BS 5493:1977+A2 Code of practice for Protective coating of iron and steel structures against corrosion

This code classifies recommended methods of protection against corrosion of iron and steel structures exposed to environments commonly encountered. It describes the various methods in detail and gives guidance on how to specify a chosen protective system, how to ensure its correct application, and how it should be maintained. The code does not include specific recommendations for ships, vehicles, offshore platforms, specialized chemical equipment, or cladding materials; nor does it include detailed recommendations for plastics
coatings or cement-mortar linings. For some situations, weathering steel may be an alternative to ordinary structural steel with applied coatings. No detailed recommendations on the use of weathering steels are given in this code and when their use is contemplated, advice should be sought from the steel industry.

Components and Systems: Modular Construction Design, Structure, New Technologies

Construction systems reduced to the smallest possible number of identical elements have long been used by architects to build structures as well as dismantle and change them as quickly, efficiently, and economically as possible. Think of the architecture of the nomads, the Crystal Palace designed by the architect John Paxton for the London World s Fair of 1851, or the modern construction systems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in steel, concrete, and wood. Coupled with modern digital planning and production methods, modular precast construction systems that are adaptable for many combinations and capable of being combined with one other will play an increasingly important role in architecture in the future. The volume Components and Systems offers an in-depth and clearly organized presentation of the various types of precast building components from semifinished products to building with components, open and closed systems, and skeleton and panel construction all the way to spatial cell constructions. The systems are accompanied by detailed drawings and color photographs. Discussions of transporting and assembling the various systems round off the topic and make this book an indispensable practical companion.

Advances in Environmental Geotechnics: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Geoenvironmental Engineering in Hangzhou, China, September 8-10, 2009

The International Symposium on Geoenvironmental Engineering (ISGE 2009) was held on September 8-10, 2009 in Hangzhou, China. ISGE 2009 was organized by MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, Chinese Institution of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (CISMGE), and Chinese Chapter of International Geosynthetics Society (CCIGS), under the auspices of ISSMGE TC5, sponsored by K. C. Wong Education Foundation, and National Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as Zhejiang University Zeng Guo-Xi Lecture Fund.
Issues associated with Environmental Geotechnics continue to be a major preoccupation for governments, public and private organizations and the general community worldwide. The Chinese Government has been putting great effort on environmental issues including sanitary disposal of solid waste, reuse of industrial wastes, remediation of contaminated land, prevention of groundwater contamination, environmental risk assessment, ecological techniques, etc. China also has much to share on the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities for environmental geotechnics with other countries, especially the developing countries.