Posts Categorized: General

ASCE Releases the 2021 Infrastructure Report Card

Posted by Ashley Beyer & filed under General.

infrastructure

The grades are in, and they’re not great. On Wednesday, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released their quadrennial Infrastructure Report Card. America’s infrastructure earned an overall grade of C-minus. While this is a minor improvement over 2017’s Infrastructure Report card, which revealed a dismal grade of D-plus, there’s still a lot of work to be done. The report card assigns grades to 17 categories of American infrastructure. A staggering 11 out of these 17 categories received a grade in the “D” range, including Roads, Stormwater, Dams, and Levees. This means that the civil engineers who evaluated these categories determined that the infrastructure is “poor, at risk.” According to the report card, this means, “The infrastructure is in poor to fair condition and mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life. A large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration. Condition and capacity are of serious concern with strong risk of failure.” These systems are critical to the overall health and wellbeing of our communities, and vital to commerce and economic stability at local, regional, and national levels. Solutions to Improve America’s Infrastructure Grade The ASCE identifies three major factors when exploring how to… Read more »

Presto Geosystems Announces New Series of Professional Development Courses

Posted by Ashley Beyer & filed under General.

We are pleased to announce that Presto Geosystems will continue to offer regular online learning opportunities throughout 2021. Our webinars will explore soil stabilization and stormwater solutions for the civil, industrial, stormwater, and construction industries. The series will also include webinars that address improving resilience in industries including landfills, rail, mining, and ports. PDH credit is available for Presto Geosystems webinars. We will kick off our new series, Geosystems University: Professional Development Courses on Tuesday, Jan. 12 with “Repair & Reduce Slope Erosion with the GEOWEB 3D Confinement System.” Business Development Specialist Jose Pablo George, M.S. will provide an overview of the GEOWEB geocells and how the system works to protect earthen slopes against erosive forces. For an up-to-date schedule of professional development courses, please visit prestogeo.com/webcasts. New courses will be added on a monthly basis, so check back often to secure your virtual seat.

Great American Outdoors Act Provides Billions of Dollars for Overdue Repairs and Maintenance of U.S. National Parks

Posted by Ashley Beyer & filed under General, GEOWEB Geocells for Unpaved Roads & Pavement Reinforcement, GEOWEB Geocells Soil Stabilization System, Grass Pavers for Porous Paving (GEOBLOCK), Gravel Pavers for Permeable Pavements (GEOPAVE), Porous Pavements.

Congress recently passed the most significant piece of land conservation legislation in a generation. The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA)—a rare bipartisan effort—will provide full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually and will put $9.5 billion over the next five years toward the deferred maintenance backlog on public lands. The GAOA provides $6.5 billion specifically for the 419 national park units. President Trump signed the bill into law on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. Increased Use and Lack of Funding Caused Maintenance Backlog This piece of legislation will have a historical impact on National Parks in the United States. The number of visitors to national parks has increased by 50% since 1980, but budgets have remained virtually flat. This imbalance has contributed to a $12 billion backlog of repairs to access roads, trails, campgrounds, monuments, and other parks infrastructure. Parks and recreational trails have recently become even more popular due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With limited indoor entertainment options, people have rediscovered their love for the outdoors. As this trend continues, our national parks must be equipped with the infrastructure necessary to sustain them in the long term. The Importance of Green Infrastructure & Low… Read more »

Build a Stronger Foundation for Infrastructure Projects with 3D Soil Confinement

Posted by Ashley Beyer & filed under General, GEOWEB Geocells for Unpaved Roads & Pavement Reinforcement.

It’s no secret that America’s infrastructure is desperately in need of investment. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the country’s infrastructure an overall grade of D-plus in its 2017 Infrastructure Report Card—dangerously close to an outright failing grade. The ASCE estimates that the U.S. will need to spend nearly $4.5 trillion by 2025 to fix the country’s roads, bridges, dams, and other infrastructure. Our nation’s roads and bridges—commonly referred to as the “backbone” of the U.S. transportation system—received grades of D and C-plus, respectively. These transportation systems are deteriorating due to advancing age, increasing use, and inadequate funding. This degradation leads to a significant cost to users in terms of time, money, and safety. There are over 4 million miles of road in the United States, and the cost to maintain these roadways can vary greatly by state. Several factors determine maintenance costs, including the type of pavement surface, its current condition, its geographical location, average precipitation, number of annual freeze/thaw cycles, and frequency of use. Three-Dimensional Geocells Provide Solutions to Aging Infrastructure The long-term performance of infrastructure construction projects depends on the strength of the underlying soil. Through an interconnected honeycomb-like network, 3D geocells confine and stabilize… Read more »

Keep Projects Moving Forward With Our Free Design Tools and Project Evaluations

Posted by Ashley Beyer & filed under General.

free design tools

There’s no denying that life looks a lot different than it did a month or two ago. Most of us have been affected by COVID-19 in some way. While the degree to which we are feeling these effects varies by person, population, industry, etc., this situation has changed the way we all live and do business. Those who are able to work remotely are adjusting to a new normal. With schools closed indefinitely, many of us are now simultaneously trying to manage workloads while homeschooling and meal prepping. People in many industries are working tirelessly on the frontlines ensuring that we have access to essential goods and services, and we are incredibly thankful for them. Learn From Home and Earn PDH Credit With shelter-in-place orders still in effect for many regions, we will continue to evaluate how we can better serve our partners in the engineering and construction industries. Over the past month, we have increased our offerings of live webcasts to stay connected and provide colleagues and customers with a direct line to our engineering team. We will continue to offer these webcasts, as well as customized virtual technical presentations for your engineering staff. Free Design Support and Tools As we begin to… Read more »

FHWA Repeals its Proprietary Product Rule, Allows Geosystems’ Products to be Specified

Posted by Katie Bocskor & filed under General.

By: William G. Handlos, P.E. Design engineers received good news on September 23, 2019, when the Federal Highway Administration repealed 23 CFR 635.411(a)-(e). Colloquially known as the “Proprietary Product Rule”, the long-standing provision made it difficult to use patented or proprietary products or technologies in federally funded projects, unless they first received a seldom-granted Public Interest Finding or classified the project as experimental. Specialty engineered and innovative systems, such as the GEOWEB® soil stabilization (geocells) lineup of products have at times been difficult to specify because there is simply nothing quite like it in the marketplace. While other geocell manufacturers exist, the Geosystems products have patented innovations making it unique in the products’ ability to perform far better than other “or equal” systems. Now, engineers will no longer be constrained to the lowest common denominator offerings from the marketplace and instead can use technically advanced materials that reduce costs, speed construction and save money. According to Federal Highway Administrator Nicole R. Nason, “This final rule promotes innovation by empowering states to choose which state-of-the-art materials, tools, and products best meet their needs for the construction and upkeep of America’s transportation infrastructure.”       GEOWEB® — Most Complete Multicomponent Geocellular… Read more »

The Integration of Pervious & Impervious Pavements to Address Green Infrastructure Needs

Posted by Katie Bocskor & filed under General, Grass Pavers for Porous Paving (GEOBLOCK), Gravel Pavers for Permeable Pavements (GEOPAVE), Porous Pavements.

Written by: Samantha Justice, P.E. Green infrastructure incentive programs have become commonplace for new construction and redevelopment regulations. Five of the most common incentives include: Development incentives such as expedited permitting, decreased fees, zoning upgrades, and stormwater requirement reductions. Grants. Rebates and installation financing. Awards and recognition programs. Stormwater fee discounts. A subset of green infrastructure, stormwater management usually includes the consideration of pervious/porous pavements. Traditional asphalt and concrete parking lot surfaces create significant stormwater runoff, and many municipalities do not allow them in expansion or new build situations. When the entire parking area is constructed using a porous pavement system, stormwater concerns are greatly reduced. Depending on the type chosen, pavements that return rainwater to the aquifer nearly eliminate stormwater runoff and reduce sheet flow and point load erosion problems at the pavement edges. They also reduce the need for additional stormwater infrastructure to convey the water away from the area. Integrating porous pavement systems with asphalt and concrete surfaces can reduce such failures and reduce or eliminate the need for stormwater conveyance channels, pipes, and swales. As a result, downstream stormwater pipe systems see less silt and water, which requires less maintenance and less capital expenditure for upsizing stormwater pipes…. Read more »

Railroad ballast performance improvement using GEOWEB® Geocells

Posted by Katie Bocskor & filed under General.

Each year railroads must allocate a significant portion of their capital and maintenance budget toward the creation and upkeep of high-quality ballast layers. Enduring, well-designed ballast is quite literally the foundation on which a successful rail line operates. With ballooning rail traffic carrying heavier loads than ever, GEOWEB cellular confinement (geocell) effectively takes the pressure off critical ballast systems. Oregon State University (OSU) recently performed state-of-the-art, three-dimensional dynamic Finite Element modeling to analyze the reinforcing benefit of GEOWEB geocells in railway applications. Completed in cooperation with the University of Kansas (KU), who simultaneously performed a testing program of Geocell-reinforced ballast placed over weak subgrade. The digital modeling results were reinforced by the laboratory tests and showed a significant decrease in settlement of the railway ballast when GEOWEB confinement was used. Using the GEOWEB system not only decreased settlement but also reduced pressure on point-to-point aggregate load transfer contact. This resulted in less damage to ballast aggregate particles leading to less progressive deformation and longer maintenance frequencies of the entire ballast embankment. In short, more cycles mean less track down-time for maintenance. The research results were clear. The benefits of applying GEOWEB Geocell confinement for reinforcement of real ballast over weak… Read more »