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Book Remaking the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge

Download or read book Remaking the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge written by Karen Trapenberg Frick and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-14 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of TransportiCA’s September Book Club Award 2018 On 17 October 1989 one the largest earthquakes to occur in California since the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 struck Northern California. Damage was extensive, none more so than the partial collapse of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge’s eastern span, a vital link used by hundreds of thousands of Californians every day. The bridge was closed for a month for repairs and then reopened to traffic. But what ensued over the next 25 years is the extraordinary story that Karen Trapenberg Frick tells here. It is a cautionary tale to which any governing authority embarking on a megaproject should pay heed. She describes the process by which the bridge was eventually replaced as an exercise in shadowboxing which pitted the combined talents and shortcomings, partnerships and jealousies, ingenuity and obtuseness, generosity and parsimony of the State’s and the region’s leading elected officials, engineers, architects and other members of the governing elites against a collectively imagined future catastrophe of unknown proportions. In so doing she highlights three key questions: If safety was the reason to replace the bridge, why did it take almost 25 years to do so? How did an original estimate of $250 million in 1995 soar to $6.5 billion by 2014? And why was such a complex design chosen? Her final chapter – part epilogue, part reflection – provides recommendations to improve megaproject delivery and design.

Book Railtown

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ethan N. Elkind
  • Publisher : University of California Press
  • Release : 2014-01-22
  • ISBN : 0520278275
  • Pages : 314 pages

Download or read book Railtown written by Ethan N. Elkind and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2014-01-22 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city. Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision. Although Metro Rail is growing in ridership and political importance, with expansions in the pipeline, Elkind argues that local leaders will need to reform the rail planning and implementation process to avoid repeating past mistakes and to ensure that Metro Rail supports a burgeoning demand for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This engaging history of Metro Rail provides lessons for how the American car-dominated cities of today can reinvent themselves as thriving railtowns of tomorrow.

Book A People s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area

Download or read book A People s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area written by Rachel Brahinsky and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An alternative history and geography of the Bay Area that highlights sites of oppression, resistance, and transformation. A People’s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area looks beyond the mythologized image of San Francisco to the places where collective struggle has built the region. Countering romanticized commercial narratives about the Bay Area, geographers Rachel Brahinsky and Alexander Tarr highlight the cultural and economic landscape of indigenous resistance to colonial rule, radical interracial and cross-class organizing against housing discrimination and police violence, young people demanding economically and ecologically sustainable futures, and the often-unrecognized labor of farmworkers and everyday people. The book asks who had—and who has—the power to shape the geography of one of the most watched regions in the world. As Silicon Valley's wealth dramatically transforms the look and feel of every corner of the region, like bankers' wealth did in the past, what do we need to remember about the people and places that have made the Bay Area, with its rich political legacies? With over 100 sites that you can visit and learn from, this book demonstrates critical ways of reading the landscape itself for clues to these histories. A useful companion for travelers, educators, or longtime residents, this guide links multicultural streets and lush hills to suburban cul-de-sacs and wetlands, stretching from the North Bay to the South Bay, from the East Bay to San Francisco. Original maps help guide readers, and thematic tours offer starting points for creating your own routes through the region.

Book San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge Project

Download or read book San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge Project written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Road Taken

    Book Details:
  • Author : Henry Petroski
  • Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
  • Release : 2016-02-16
  • ISBN : 1632863618
  • Pages : 337 pages

Download or read book The Road Taken written by Henry Petroski and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A renowned historian and engineer explores the past, present, and future of America's crumbling infrastructure. Acclaimed engineer and historian Henry Petroski explores our core infrastructure from both historical and contemporary perspectives, explaining how essential their maintenance is to America's economic health. Petroski reveals the genesis of the many parts of America's highway system--our interstate numbering system, the centerline that divides roads, and such taken-for-granted objects as guardrails, stop signs, and traffic lights--all crucial to our national and local infrastructure. A compelling work of history, The Road Taken is also an urgent clarion call aimed at American citizens, politicians, and anyone with a vested interest in our economic well-being. Physical infrastructure in the United States is crumbling, and Petroski reveals the complex and challenging interplay between government and industry inherent in major infrastructure improvement. The road we take in the next decade toward rebuilding our aging infrastructure will in large part determine our future national prosperity.

Book Historic House Museums in the United States and the United Kingdom

Download or read book Historic House Museums in the United States and the United Kingdom written by Linda Young and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-12-13 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historic House Museums in the United States and the United Kingdom: A History addresses the phenomenon of historic houses as a distinct species of museum. Everyone understands the special nature of an art museum, a national museum, or a science museum, but “house museum” nearly always requires clarification. In the United States the term is almost synonymous with historic preservation; in the United Kingdom, it is simply unfamiliar, the very idea being conflated with stately homes and the National Trust. By analyzing the motivation of the founders, and subsequent keepers, of house museums, Linda Young identifies a typology that casts light on what house museums were intended to represent and their significance (or lack thereof) today. This book examines: • heroes’ houses: once inhabited by great persons (e.g., Shakespeare’s birthplace, Washington’s Mount Vernon); • artwork houses: national identity as specially visible in house design, style, and technique (e.g., Frank Lloyd Wright houses, Modernist houses); • collectors’ houses: a microcosm of collecting in situ domesticu, subsequently presented to the nation as the exemplars of taste (e.g., Sir John Soane’s Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum); • English country houses: the palaces of the aristocracy, maintained thanks to primogeniture but threatened with redundancy and rescued as museums to be touted as the peak of English national culture; English country houses: the palaces of the aristocracy, maintained for centuries thanks to primogeniture but threatened by redundancy and strangely rescued as museums, now touted as the peak of English national culture; • Everyman/woman’s social history houses: the modern, demotic response to elite houses, presented as social history but tinged with generic ancestor veneration (e.g., tenement house museums in Glasgow and New York).

Book Geology of the San Francisco Bay Region

Download or read book Geology of the San Francisco Bay Region written by Doris Sloan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2006-06-27 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "You can't really know the place where you live until you know the shapes and origins of the land around you. To feel truly at home in the Bay Area, read Doris Sloan's intriguing stories of this region's spectacular, quirky landscapes."—Hal Gilliam, author of Weather of the San Francisco Bay Region "This is a fascinating look at some of the world's most complex and engaging geology. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in an understanding of the beautiful landscape and dynamic geology of the Bay Area."—Mel Erskine, geological consultant "This accessible summary of San Francisco Bay Area geology is particularly timely. We are living in an age where we must deal with our impact on our environment and the impact of the environment on us. Earthquake hazards, and to a lesser extent landslide hazards, are well known, but the public also needs to be aware of other important engineering and environmental impacts and geologic resources. This book will allow Bay Area residents to make more intelligent decisions about the geological issues affecting their lives."—John Wakabayashi, geological consultant

Book Cable Supported Bridges

Download or read book Cable Supported Bridges written by Niels J. Gimsing and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-12-30 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fourteen years on from its last edition, Cable Supported Bridges: Concept and Design, Third Edition, has been significantly updated with new material and brand new imagery throughout. Since the appearance of the second edition, the focus on the dynamic response of cable supported bridges has increased, and this development is recognised with two new chapters, covering bridge aerodynamics and other dynamic topics such as pedestrian-induced vibrations and bridge monitoring. This book concentrates on the synthesis of cable supported bridges, suspension as well as cable stayed, covering both design and construction aspects. The emphasis is on the conceptual design phase where the main features of the bridge will be determined. Based on comparative analyses with relatively simple mathematical expressions, the different structural forms are quantified and preliminary optimization demonstrated. This provides a first estimate on dimensions of the main load carrying elements to give in an initial input for mathematical computer models used in the detailed design phase. Key features: Describes evolution and trends within the design and construction of cable supported bridges Describes the response of structures to dynamic actions that have attracted growing attention in recent years Highlights features of the different structural components and their interaction in the entire structural system Presents simple mathematical expressions to give a first estimate on dimensions of the load carrying elements to be used in an initial computer input This comprehensive coverage of the design and construction of cable supported bridges provides an invaluable, tried and tested resource for academics and engineers.

Book Decision making on Mega projects

Download or read book Decision making on Mega projects written by Hugo Priemus and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It will be useful for those experienced and senior professionals who are charged with authorizing and controlling projects. Recommended. P.F. Rad, Choice Building on the seminal work of Bent Flyvbjerg, this book is a collection of expert contributions that will prove essential to anyone wanting to understand why mega-projects go wrong and how they can be made to work better. Professor Sir Peter Hall, University College London, UK This book offers a refreshing and fascinating look at mega-projects from the perspective of public evaluation and planning. With the changing role of the public sector in planning and implementing large-scale projects and a subsequent strong emergence of private public modes of operation, mega-projects have become a problematic phenomenon. This volume is a major source of information and reference. It provides the reader with unique insights and caveats in mega-projects planning. Peter Nijkamp, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands This book enlarges the understanding of decision-making on mega-projects and suggest recommendations for a more effective, efficient and democratic approach. Authors from different scientific disciplines address various aspects of the decision-making process, such as management characteristics and cost benefit analysis, planning and innovation and competition and institutions. The subject matter is highly diverse, but certain questions remain at the forefront. For example, how do we deal with protracted preparation processes, how do we tackle risks and uncertainties, and how can we best divide the risks and responsibilities among the private and public players throughout the different phases of the project? Presenting a state-of-the-art overview, based on experiences and visions of authors from Europe and North America, this unique book will be of interest to practitioners of large-scale project management, politicians, public officials and private organisations involved in mega-project decision-making. It will also appeal to researchers, consultants and students dealing with substantial engineering projects, complex systems, project management and transport infrastructure.

Book International Handbook on Mega Projects

Download or read book International Handbook on Mega Projects written by Hugo Priemus and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2013-11-29 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing crucial background information for those who want to understand decision-making processes on large transport infrastructure projects, this fascinating Handbook will prove an important source of information for academics, researchers and stude

Book High Steel

Download or read book High Steel written by Richard Dillon and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The construction of the Golden Gate and the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridges caught the imagination of the world, and they continue to inspire awe even today. >High Steel records the history of these magnificent bridges and their development. The bridges were designed to serve transportation needs while being flexible enough to withstand major earthquakes, but their architectural triumph is that they also enhance the beauty of their natural surroundings. >High Steel is a tribute to and record of the magnitude of that accomplishment.

Book Secret Stairs  East Bay

Download or read book Secret Stairs East Bay written by Charles Fleming and published by Santa Monica Press. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revised and Updated in September 2020! The hills of the East Bay contain one of the finest and densest urban hiking environments in the state of California—more than 400 paved pathways and public staircases lattice up and down the slopes of Berkeley and Oakland alone. Rising high above the city centers, with towering views of the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, and San Francisco itself, these elegant civic walking trails—many of them shaded in oaks and redwoods, and many unknown even to local residents—present a unique landscape for both the casual walker and dedicated hiker. Charles Fleming, the Southern California author whose bestselling 2010 walking guide Secret Stairs turned the hidden public staircases of Los Angeles into popular hiking trails, now turns his eyes northward. For Secret Stairs: East Bay, Fleming has designed more than 30 individual hiking loops. Linking multiple staircases into one-to two-hour self-guided strolls, these urban treks will delight the tourist, newly arrived Berkeley undergraduate, and veteran Bay Area resident alike. The circular walks, each calibrated by length, difficulty, and duration—and each accompanied by a detailed, easy-to-follow map—are sprinkled with fascinating facts about the historic staircases, the historic homes around them, and the famous Bay Area characters who gave them their names. Walk the walks of Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and John Muir! Climb Berkeley’s massive Fred Herbert and Tamalpais Paths, hike Easter Way, and summit Sunset Trail! Mount Oakland’s Oakmore stairs, then tackle the hills of Upper Rockridge and Crocker Highlands via the public staircases. And do it all within easy walking distance from BART or bus stops, free parking, and excellent Bay Area cafés.

Book The Loma Prieta  California  Earthquake of October 17  1989  Highway Systems

Download or read book The Loma Prieta California Earthquake of October 17 1989 Highway Systems written by Mark Yashinsky and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Official Negligence

Download or read book Official Negligence written by Lou Cannon and published by Crown. This book was released on 1997 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Rodney King and the riots changed Los Angeles and the LAPD.