Showing posts with label partnerships. Show all posts
New pile driving design about to make waves
Posted by Unknown in environment, environmental research, marine construction, marine pile construction, partnerships, piles, Port of Commencement Bay, research, underwater pile driving, University of Washington on Thursday, January 29, 2015
By Ann Briggs
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| Field testing of the new double-wall pile design. (Photo courtesy of the University of Washington) |
Piles are long poles or tubes driven into the seabed to provide the foundation support for ferry terminals, docks, bridges and other structures. The noise created by hammering the piles into the seabed floor is easily carried underwater and can harm, and even kill, sensitive marine wildlife. As a result of those impacts, strict regulations on marine construction projects make them expensive and challenging to complete.
Our team of researchers, and environmental, construction and ferry engineers has worked with scientists to study the detrimental effects of underwater pile driving on marine environments for years. In 2008, the team invited both the construction industry and the academic fields to come up with a quieter pile design solution.
UW's Mechanical Engineering department submitted a winning proposal for a new pile design technology. With our research-funding support, UW engineers and graduate students studied the mechanics of why pile driving is so loud, how the sound is transmitted underwater and how to reduce that sound. With this knowledge, they created a double-wall pile design that confines the installation noise within the pile itself.
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| Mechanical Engineering PhD Candidate Tim Dardis reviews the fabricated double-wall pile for field testing at Commencement Bay in October. (Photo courtesy of the University of Washington) |
With ongoing development of this innovative project, interest has spread and multiple agencies have now joined us, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with monitoring assistance from the National Marine Fisheries Service. This summer, full-scale field testing of this new design will be conducted in coordination with the Port of Tacoma at Commencement Bay.
We anxiously await the test results, which have the potential to reduce marine construction costs and protect the environment, not just in Washington state, but in waterways around the world.
For more information on this project and other research benefits, contact WSDOT Research Director Rhonda Brooks.
WSDOT helps to get the lights back on
Posted by Unknown in partnerships, puget sound snow, winter, wsdot on Tuesday, January 24, 2012
To make sure the lights and heat come back on as quickly as possible, our Olympia-area maintenance road crews are out with utility crews, working traffic control for Puget Sound Energy and others repairing downed power lines.
Monday, the crews were working on the tree-lined back roads of south Thurston County between Olympia and Centralia. These were hard hit with snow and ice last week and when branches fell, they took with them power lines on roads like State Route 121 near Millersylvania State Park and SR 507 between Tenino and Centralia, plus many city and county roads.So what does a flagger or pilot car have to do with getting the lights on? Holding that stop/slow sign or leading traffic through the same 1/4-mile route over and over may not seem to help get power back on, but it’s those vital tasks that allow utility crews up in that bucket truck get their job done faster and safer, and make sure drivers get around those crews and back home.
Where, hopefully, the heat will be on soon. 
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