Author: ayres

Common Sense Keeps Dam Break Models in Line

By Ellen Faulkner, PE Dam safety studies often involve the use of numerical models to assess the flooding that could occur from a theoretical failure of the dam. These models provide useful information, but also abundant opportunity for frustration, excessive analysis costs, and misleading results. In my 30 years of working with the HEC-RAS model… Read More »

Downtown Planning Reinvigorates Urban Cores

By Matt Ashby In the era of strip malls, big box retailers, and suburbia, countless communities across the country are struggling to keep their downtowns thriving. As stores and restaurants locate around many city and town perimeters, the communities’ urban cores are being neglected. However, thanks to the efforts of a nationwide Main Street Movement,… Read More »

Building Bridges without Tangling Traffic

By Dave Pantzlaff, PE Quite often in our world of designing bridges for clients, we come across situations where we cannot simply close the road, take out or rehabilitate the existing bridge, and provide a detour for the public while the bridge is under construction. Maybe the bridge is on a dead-end road, providing the… Read More »