Recent content by Bobber1

And if they search your computer, my experience is that they cart it away and you may not see it for weeks to months. Can you do without for this long? What if you stored everything on a "cloud" service? Then they could search your records without taking the computer.

A 150 lb man standing on a 3.5" long piece of 2x4 exerts a soil bearing pressure of 1.76 ksf. Just to get a feel for what you've got.

When I was a project manager, my problem was a huge department of engineers "wasting" budget on my project. I had a very large engineering aid working for me. I would send him around to "interview" the engineers when they charged to my job. It was just enough of an intimidation that people no...

Agree with Lobsta. With detached wingwalls, I usually detail some kind of deep architectural reveal so the wingwall movement relative to the abutment wall is not visibly apparant.

In Southern California, CMU construction is very common. We conservatively use 1500 psi for most work but have no problem with up to 3250 psi when necessary. We always talk with CMU suppliers when going to the higher strengths. Today, just about all masonry in SoCal requires special...

Before I answer this, how many credits will I receive?

Right now we're designing a tower foundation using micro piles because of the extreme uplift.

I through-bolt whenever I can to avoid Appendix D entirely.

I suggest designing it as a solid surface if there is any likelyhood that someone may erect a sign or similar on it.

An older engineer in our office asked me last week to check his hand prepared moment distribution analysis of a frame. I used the computer and his values were accurate to one decimal.

Never mind the Manual, when are they going to publish the errata.

If the bridge is not experiencing live load during the repairs, the stress in the beam is likely to be low relative to the allowable stress of the beam with full dead and live load.

I have moved heavy machinery using air bearings. Pick an air bearing that is large enough to distribute the load. The nice thing is you can control the loads to your floor system by varying the air pressure.

I recommend considering possible future use. Seems people always decide there's too much breeze or sunshine coming through this thing, lets cover it with something. I saw a baseball backstop fence blow over after a big advertizing banner was installed on it.

If they are A325 or A490 bolts and they have loosened, I don't believe you can pretension them because they have likely lost their required factory applied coating. They will have to be replaced with new bolts in sealed containers if they are to be pretensioned.