park city civil engineer

Thoughts on the Way to Truckee


  • A 12-inch diameter pipe conveys 6.3 times as much flow as a 6-inch pipe laid at the same slope

  • Roadside ditch erosion begins at longitudinal slopes (slope parallel to road) as flat as 3%, depending on soil type and vegetative cover

  • Just one fully loaded 53-foot flatbed trailer rolling I-80 westbound at 75 MPH will hold approximately 3.2 miles (16,896 LF) of 3-inch diameter SDR7 high density polyethylene pipe. And at 34,806 pounds (net), there’s plenty of room under the legal load limit (net plus tare) for the truck itself (tare)

  • Only 15,000 years ago, what is now Salt Lake City was under 800 feet of water (glacial Lake Bonneville). The lake covered 20,000 square miles (almost as big as West Virginia, or 24% the size of Utah). At that point in time, the earth had reached 99.999997% of its current age. Today, the plainly visible shoreline terraces are fascinating

  • Steel is 3.3 times heavier than cured concrete

  • Owning a water right in Utah does not mean you own the water...it means you own the right to use a specified amount of water each year. And if you don’t use it, you can lose it

  • Most clays are capable of holding more water than bank-run sand and gravel

  • Here’s to Herman Shea, former Professor of Civil Engineering at UMass-Lowell and MIT. Explaining why the parabola was the best choice for vertical curves, he brought a great sense of humor (deadpan delivery) and history to the classroom. Having played an integral role in the design of our nation’s first roadway that approached future interstate standards (Mass. State Route 128), he left us with a much deeper appreciation for the long and winding road, and what people are capable of when they simply apply themselves and work together

  • Speaking of applying oneself, the cartographer responsible for the image below lends new meaning to the term “focus”

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Civil Engineer's Wish List


  • That the minimum parking space width be 3 meters (9.84 feet)...no exceptions; and that the metric system be adopted worldwide, once and for all. Commercial jets running out of fuel mid-flight due to a conversion math error is not cool.

  • That one-way parking lot access isles, and their attendant traffic flow direction arrows, be eliminated; While we’re at it, that all STOP signs be removed from parking lot interiors

  • That the YIELD sign be utilized where appropriate

  • That any current or prospective owner of land invest in a boundary survey, said survey to be recorded at the local hall of records

  • That we dispense with the text descriptions of land boundaries entirely and require all property lines, easement limits, and other such geometric constructs to be depicted on a drawing, together with associated math and labels, prepared by a Licensed Professional Land Surveyor (PLS). Such drawing to be recorded, then referenced when said property is conveyed, or re-created (again by a licensed PLS) when said property is subdivided or adjusted at a later date

  • That silt fence barrier placement be well thought out, as opposed to embedded barriers being run on and over ridge lines, disturbing perfectly good vegetative cover in the process

  • Coal-fired power plants were a necessary stop-gap, but we’ve got to move on...now. There’s no such thing as “clean coal”. The technology already exists that will allow us to shut down all our CO2-belching coal plants in favor of clean energy. It’s called a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR). It’s nuclear power without the waste problem, and the process can be used to render harmless existing nuclear weapons and spent fuel in the bargain. While google-ing up LFTR, suggest you don your headphones and dial up “I Melt with You” by Modern English

  • CO2 sequestering below ground is a really shortsighted idea, as is sweeping crumbs under the rug. Is this how we prepare the path for our children’s children?

  • That residents voluntarily limit the size of their maintained lawn to that of their living room floor, or smaller. When left to their own devices, most kids love the woods and wild lands

  • That speed limits on county and local roads be set at the 85th percentile speed (speed under which 85% of the traffic will drive when no speed limit is posted), instead of the unsubstantiated low limits being set in the name of “safety”

  • That most concrete open channel conveyances (gutters, waterways) be designed and constructed to carry the low-flow rivulet, not the 10-year storm, thus adding appreciably to the life span of our automobile suspension systems, while allowing traffic to enter and exit roadways at a reasonable clip

  • That owners who will inherit roads and parking lots understand that paved surfaces are only as solid as the engineered foundation below, and that hiring the low bidder is almost always a mistake that will cost them dearly down the line