Tag: Flood Control

Culverts: The Essential Infrastructure You Never Knew You Needed

By Dan Sydow, PE The so-called “atmospheric rivers” that have dropped massive volumes of rain upon California this winter are calling renewed attention to the importance of adequate flood control infrastructure across the United States. About the Expert: Dan Sydow, PE, is Structural Engineering Group Manager of Ayres’ Midwest Transportation division. He has designed hundreds… Read More »

Structures, Strategies for Dealing With Floods

“Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head,” B.J. Thomas famously sang in the hit song from the 1969 classic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” The song, written by Burt Bacharach and Hall David, may have aimed to evoke fond memories of romantic strolls during gentle April showers. But when rain (or any other form… Read More »

Lots of Water over the Dam: Bakken Wraps up 41-Year Career

The year was 1973, and the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.9% and growing. Newly minted civil engineers like Jim Bakken were working wherever they could; for Jim, a fall 1972 graduate, that meant continuing the job he had his junior and senior years at the University of Minnesota – working as a janitor at 3M… Read More »