Civil Notes

Musings of a young civil engineer working in NYC

[jkcivil]

Art museums find going free comes with a cost

Museums find they're scrambling to adapt their business models -- with mixed results.

[jkcivil]

[jkcivil]

Pre-Inca canals may solve Lima's water crisis

Restoring an ancient canal network could halve the Peruvian capital's water deficit at a fraction of a cost of building a desalination plant

[jkcivil]

This video inspired Rainworks. I couldn’t stop laughing!

[jkcivil]

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/43934/20150402/rainworks-street-art-appears-when-wet.htm

Rainworks is what Peregrine Church is calling the series of invisible street art pieces littering Seattle, that are invisible most of the time but appear out of nowhere once it starts to rain. Church achieves the effect using superhydrophobic coatings, a technology inspired by the waterproofing found on lotus leaves and the feet of geckos. Superhydrophobic coatings are materials that can make any surface completely water repellent. Church sprays concrete pavements around Seattle with a superhydrophobic spray called "Always Dry" using large stencils that he creates. 24 hours later the sections of the pavement sprayed are completely waterproof. When it starts to rain, the wet concrete pavement darkens in color but the sections covered in the coating remain light colored and dry, revealing Church's art. Each rainwork lasts about four months to a year, depending on the amount of foot traffic it has to endure.

Civil Engineering application: Can this be used for useful pavement markings on roads or sidewalks when it rains? Because there are issues of durability, could this be used for temporary applications?

Official site: http://rain.works/ 

How to Make a Rainwork

[urbanplannerholic]

First look at Oakland’s tech bait – the Sears building

[jkcivil]

Why Dump Treated Wastewater When You Could Make Beer With It?

See local news video coverage here: http://www.katu.com/news/local/Brewing-with-wastewater--291599091.html 

An Oregon company has developed a high-tech process for turning sewage into pure drinking water. Now it's asking the state for permission to give its recycled water to a group of home brewers.

Oregon rules allow recycled wastewater to be used for irrigation, industrial processes and groundwater recharge. They require additional approvals for human consumption to make sure all safety concerns are addressed. Avis Newell of DEQ says it's the first time the state has considered allowing people to drink treated wastewater.

Clean Water Services spokesman Mark Jockers said his company is the top provider of recycled water in Oregon. Its high-purity water treatment system turns sewage into water that meets or exceeds all drinking water standards.

The process includes three different treatment methods: ultra-filtration, which filters the water through very small pores; reverse osmosis, which passes the water through a membrane that blocks chemicals from passing through; and enhanced oxidation, which uses ultra-violet light and an oxidizing chemical to break down contaminants.

[jkcivil]

Why 40-Year-Old Tech is Still Running America's Air Traffic Control

Some interesting quotes from this article:

The upgraded system will go online this spring, five years late and $500m over budget. 

For the forseeable future, if you purchase Wi-Fi, you’re pretty much better off than the pilot. 

[mothernaturenetwork]

United States of the Environment We can’t all have the least pollution or the most organic farms, but each U.S. state is No. 1 in some ecological or public health ranking … and No. 50 in another.

[staff]

Move over, Reddit: Tumblr is the new front page of the Internet.

It’s the site that launched a thousand memes, including the dress—and it’s only getting started.

Holy cow. You guys are running the internet now. 

[jkcivil]

Who's Sprawling Now? Mixed Signals From the Market

Something very interesting is happening: companies are recognizing that today's workforce wants a more urban lifestyle, even in the suburbs....

The giant hospitality chain Marriott is planning to move its corporate headquarters away from a completely automobile-dependent campus in suburban Washington, DC. And they are looking for a more transit-oriented location, according to an article written earlier this month by Jonathan O'Donnell for The Washington Post. Marriott CEO Arne Sorensen said the company recognizes that, to attract young and talented workers, it must find a location that is more urban in feel

[plantedcity]

Sustainable Cities: The Hidden Costs of Sprawling, Car Dependent Communities vs. Compact, Walkable Communities (Infographic)

From Streetsblog:

How much more does it cost the public to build infrastructure and provide services for sprawling development compared to more compact neighborhoods? A lot more, according to this handy summary from the Canadian environmental think tank Sustainable Prosperity. … Researchers evaluated how much of a given type of infrastructure — like roads or water mains — is needed for each type of development, then calculated the associated capital and maintenance costs per capita. They also determined how factors like travel distances and population density affected the cost of services like fire fighting.

…

The most sprawling areas impose 3 times the annual cost per household as the most compact areas. For hard infrastructure like water, sewers, and roads, the high cost of sprawl is even more stark — “10 times the cost of other patterns” over the lifecycle of the investment, according to the authors.

Check out the rest of the article here.

Related: 

Here’s What Gas Would Have to Cost to Account for Health and Environmental Impacts (Climate Progress) 

[untappedny]

Photographs Inside the WTC Transportation Hub by Santiago Calatrava http://ift.tt/1Ax41dO

[jkcivil]

After Decades, La Guardia Airport May Allow Long-Haul Flights to Los Angeles, San Francisco

Regulators are considering lifting the decades-old restriction on flights longer than 1,500 miles from New York’s La Guardia Airport, a move that likely would trigger a scramble by airlines to launch lucrative new long-haul flights.

[jkcivil]

Drone footage reveals bird's-eye view of an icy Hudson River

This drone video reveals a frigid and icy Hudson River.

[mothernaturenetwork]

17 amazing green college campuses

Is yours on the list?

[designboom]

vincent laforet’s view of vegas makes sin city look like a motherboard

see more on designboom here