Practical Engineering

Keeping the famous San Antonio River Walk working by replacing some huge floodgates. It's a pretty interesting challenge to replace them without draining the whole river in the process.

A look at some of the most impressive flood control projects on Earth Do the Dutch really have the rest of the world outclassed when it comes to waterworks?

Doing it this way - by making the plumbing junctions into access points - just provides a lot of flexibility while also standardizing the system so anyone involved - whether it's a contractor building one or a crew doing maintenance - knows what to expect.

I don’t think there’s a better example in history where all the various factors of a technical problem converged into a singular solution in this way. I love cable-stayed bridges. Happy Valentine's Day!

On the surface, this seems like a silly problem, almost elementary. It’s just dirt! But I want to show you why it’s a slow-moving catastrophe with implications that span the globe.

The wild story of Washington Bridge in Providence, Rhode Island.  Just like engineers design structures to be ductile, to fail with grace and warning, we want and need projects like this to happen in an orderly fashion. We should be able to recognize when replacement is necessary, plan ahead for the project, do a good job informing the public, and execute the job on a timeline that doesn’t require panic, chaos, and emergency contracts. The Washington Bridge is a perfect case study in why that’s so important.

Just about every year, the news reports that someone was buried when a hole they dug collapsed on top of them. Understanding some of the sneaky behaviors of beach sand can help you delight in the primitive joy of digging a big hole without putting your life at risk in the process.

There are enormous benefits to be had using nuclear materials in many areas of science, engineering, and medicine. But there are enormous costs as well, many of which we might not be aware of if we don’t make it a habit to read obscure government investigation reports.

The story of mine subsidence is the story of so many things in engineering - addressing the difficulties we used to just ignore. This is a real issue that causes real damages today, but it’s also an issue that a lot of people put a great deal of thought, effort, and ultimately resources into so that we can strike a balance between protection against damage to property and the environment and obtaining the resources that we all depend on.

How immersed tube tunnels are built.

A peek behind the curtain of the Illium Works of the Federal Apparatus Corporation.

Nearly all sewage in major cities is treated before being released to the environment. But many places are recognizing the value of treated effluent and finding ways to put it to beneficial use.

How sloshes quash wobbles in skyscrapers.

An engineering tour of Washington's floating concrete highways There aren’t that many permanent floating bridges around the globe, but they're full of creative solutions and unexpected stories.

A structural comparison of gravity and arch dams There aren’t that many places where it makes sense, but when you compare the options for holding a reservoir back in a narrow canyon valley, arches make a pretty compelling case.

The saga of Auburn Dam and Foresthill Bridge Auburn Dam left a lot of scars, both on the physical landscape and the political one. But it also left this bridge that became more than just an out-of-place oddity. In a sense, it’s become a monument to the end of an era in US major public works projects, and, hopefully, a tribute to the caution and care that will shape the next one.

The fascinating engineering of bubble curtains. You know I love heavy construction. The bigger and louder the machinery, the better. But I think that anything we can do to limit the effect we have on the other things we share this world with is a win, especially when it’s something as clever and creative as blowing bubbles.

A few of my thoughts about the recent tragedy in central Texas. I don't have any good answers to any of this, but I think it's worth discussing nonetheless. My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were affected by this flood.

Guyed masts have some seemingly bizarre structural characteristics that make them possible, including the sometimes unusual bases that seem to defy logic.

All the things I love about Niagara Falls! The same thing that makes it impressive for tourists (the big drop) makes it valuable for power and a major challenge for shipping. And out of that comes all kinds of fascinating infrastructure.

The challenge of cure time. Concrete is a material that embodies both a sprint and a marathon.

Some of the hidden details behind this very cool piece of infrastructure. The Falkirk Wheel didn’t just reconnect two canals. It reconnected people with the idea that infrastructure can be both useful and pretty cool.

A visit to the wave lab at shows that there’s a lot we still don’t understand about hurricanes and their effects on buildings. Engineering is a balancing act; we need structures that are both strong and safe, but also affordable, easy to occupy, and maybe even architecturally pleasing. Using knowledge gained from tests like this helps us get a clearer definition of the edges of the problem we’re solving.