Civil Engineering - Blog Posts
How Flood-Resistant Buildings Work
How Flood-Resistant Buildings Work
Picture this: you’ve just moved to a nice little cottage by the sea. You’ve got some beautiful views, and you’re literally steps away from the beach. It’s almost like a dream. And then a hurricane hits, and suddenly you’ve woken up from your dream as your little cottage is destroyed by a devastating cocktail of wind, rain, and flood. Instead of moving somewhere a bit further away from the coast,…
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The Ins and Outs of Coastal Engineering
Coastal engineering is a field of civil engineering that covers exactly what the name implies: coastlines and the protection of surrounding areas. As something that may commonly be overlooked, rising levels of water can directly affect our society in a number of harmful ways. Erosion, pollution of agricultural soil, and flooding can all be caused by ill-managed coastlines, thus amplifying the importance of coastal engineering.
This field covers a surprisingly broad spectrum, with areas including the maintenance and improvement of harbors, channels, and seawalls. The goal of this is to protect nearby structures or communities from possible floods, tsunamis, and even prevent oceanic pollution. All of these are extremely important considerations seeing as 39% of the United States’ population lives lives along a coastline of some sort. Though these homes may provide stunning scenery, they are prone to the hazardous effects of coastal weather, which can cause erosion of the ground around and underneath these structures. This is where coastal engineers step in to save the day. Seawalls and groynes are just two of many structures that can effectively prevent erosion, which form slopes that can block waves or bodies of water from reaching homes or impressionable parts of land.
A common natural disaster that has prompted civil engineers all over the world to rethink their approaches in prevention is flooding. As many remember, Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst examples of flooding in U.S. history. Levee walls designed to prevent rising waters from overspilling failed, leading to thousands of homes being pushed away from their foundations. The storm’s damage was catastrophic, easily breeching every levee the city had in place, forcing local coastal engineers to revamp their methods of flood prevention. Billions of dollars have been spent since to attempt to better protect the city, with stronger barriers and seawalls put in place all around.
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What We Can Learn from the Grenfell Tower Fire
A week ago, the 24-story apartment building Grenfell Tower in North Kensington of London caught fire after responders were called to deal with a small fridge fire, at which point it had already escalated and spread to the exterior of the building. After many hours of attempting to settle the blaze, which had spread extremely quickly, nearly every floor from the 4th up had suffered immense damage, and an estimated 79 lives were lost, with many still having not been found.
In the wake of this tragedy came controversy, as residents had reported safety concerns long before the fire took place. Aside from numerous maintenance failures, those living within the building only had one escape route in the event of fire, which was a single staircase down the center of the complex. Though it had been recently renovated, several residents still felt unsafe within the walls of Grenfell Tower, of which their voices went unheard. Moving forward, there are a number of factors we can take into consideration in order to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.
What has been surprising to many is the fact that Grenfell Tower was a high rise building. These are specifically designed to withstand fires, and properly contain them within the area in which started, should something spark. However, firefighters and professionals have stated that the materials used to refurbish the building were to blame. Developers used aluminum back in the 1970’s, which is highly combustible, and could be the main reason why the fire was able to spread so quickly.
As mentioned before, residents only had one escape route. This should have been an obvious concern for developers from the start. Being a high rise, in the event of a fire, elevators no longer become a safe option, so several escape routes should be added. These can include staircases throughout the building, and exterior fire escapes in the form of stairs or ladders.
Many residents who called local authorities were advised to stay in their homes, as they felt that was the safest option. However, Grenfell Tower was not divided up into many sections and areas, so being that it was essentially a tall, single-sectioned building, those who followed that advice may have perished. This stresses the importance of having buildings compartmentalized, and divided in order to allow residents to move to a different area, should leaving the building not be an option.
Some of the most crucial components that were missing from Grenfell Tower was a sprinkler system, and a central fire alarm. Many people within the building didn’t even know a fire had started on the fourth floor until the flames reached their windows. Once they did, there was no system within the tower to douse the flames. Being a 24-story building, fire hoses from the ground were only able to do so much, and only to the exterior.
The faulty design of Grenfell Tower has led to outrage all over England, especially among the families of the victims. Basic design necessities were ignored, and lives were lost because of it. The United Kingdom is currently looking into more detail as to why the tower failed as terrible as it did, and engineers and developers should use this as an example of what can happen when buildings are not constructed properly.
The Benefits of Civil Engineering Failures
Structural complications, disasters, and failures in general are inevitable in the world of engineering, and have occurred countless times since the development of the modern world. Though a failed project may seem like backtracking, there is perhaps no better field to benefit from the phrase “learn from your mistakes.”
When a building falls, a dam breaks, or a bridge deteriorates sooner than expected, the first step a successful civil engineer takes is going back and reviewing the blueprints, making note of any area where they may have miscalculated or misjudged. Looking back on some of the most infamous civil engineering failures throughout history, the projects that followed them almost always took note of why their precedents fizzled.
Most recently, The Oroville Dam in California experienced structural difficulties after going through heavy storms this past February. A hole in the dam opened up, causing water levels to rise tremendously. Almost 200,000 people were forced to leave their homes to avoid danger. However, thanks to the quick thinking of those in charge, the water levels were dropped before the storms hit in anticipation, leading to much lower levels of flooding.
What’s important to take away from this incident is the fact that much of our country’s structures are now outdated, most having been made in the early 20th century. Engineers now have the opportunity to take a step back and look at the main causes for the Oroville Dam’s failure. What materials can be used to repair and prevent the dam from experiencing another crisis? A question all will be asking, thus changing the way engineers look at dams in the future.
For example, in between the years of 1907 and 1916, the Quebec Bridge underwent several updates before finally being deemed safe. Upon its first completion, the bridge collapsed, killing 86 workers and calling for an overhaul. The second bridge, though much stronger, collapsed again, killing another 13. After their third attempt, engineers chose to use nickel alloy rather than steel, which proved to be the safest, most sound option.
Whenever a structure fails, whether it be a building, dam, or bridge for whatever reason, these should be taken as opportunities for innovation. The reasons for why they were unsuccessful give engineers the chance to reassess the structures, and potentially develop newer, safer means of maintaining their stability.