EHRA completed preliminary engineering, phase one environmental site assessment and schematic development for the widening of Northpark Dr. between US 59 and Woodland Hills Dr. EHRA also provided program management, drainage analysis and design, traffic engineering, environmental documentation and schematic design for the roadway, as well as grade separation at the Loop 494/UPRR railroad crossing.
EHRA conducted traffic operations and access management studies for the Northpark Dr. corridor. This corridor is approximately 2.2 miles long and has major signalized and unsignalized intersections and driveways that access various subdivisions and industrial developments. These studies laid the groundwork for the widening of Northpark Dr. from a four-lane boulevard cross-section to a six-lane boulevard complete street. The new street design includes low impact development drainage, conventional drainage, a grade separation at the UPRR crossing with mechanically stabilized earth retaining walls, two at-grade crossings for bi-directional frontage access, reconstruction of two concrete bridges over a diversion channel, intersection improvements, a roadway-adjacent multiuse path and traffic signal improvements.
Drainage analysis and design included hydrologic and hydraulic studies of both existing and proposed conditions to demonstrate that proposed project components would not adversely affect the 100-year floodplain in the area. The roadway and traffic designs contained horizontal and vertical alignments, cross-sections, plan and profile, sidewalk and bicycle accommodations, intersection layouts, traffic control plans and signing and pavement markings.
As the program management firm, EHRA coordinated with TxDOT, UPRR, the City of Houston Council District E, COH Planning and Development Department, COH Public Works and Engineering Department, Montgomery County, Harris County, HCFCD and area residents throughout the project.
EHRA completed a site-specific planning and visioning study for the proposed 470-acre San Jacinto Boulevard District (SJBD) in Baytown, Texas.
EHRA assisted with the district creation of Montgomery County Municipal Utility District No. 126 to accommodate a ±329 acre master planned community located in northern Montgomery County in the City of Conroe, south of League Line Road, west of Longmire Road, and adjacent to Lake Conroe.
EHRA offered its Landscape Architectural services to complete a Parks and Trails Master Plan for the District.
Facilities requiring expansion were also common wall construction, and the EHRA team converted the facilities into aerobic digesters and sludge thickeners.
Someday we won't need curtains or blinds on our windows, and we will be able to block out light -- or let it in -- with just the press of a button. At least that's what Keith Goossen, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Delaware, hopes. Goossen and Daniel Wolfe, who earned a doctoral degree from UD last year, developed panels that can switch between allowing light in and blocking it out. This "smart glass" technology could be utilized in eco-friendly windows, windshields, roof panes and building envelopes, absorbing light and heat in the winter and reflecting it away in the summer. Although Goossen isn't the first scientist to make smart glass, his team's invention is about one-tenth the price of other versions. It is also more transparent in its transparent state and more reflective in its reflective state than competitors, he said.
The principles behind this smart glass technology are surprisingly simple. It starts with two sheets of plastic separated by a thin cavity. The plastic contains tiny cube-shaped structures that make the material retroreflective, meaning that it bounces light back to its source, like a bicycle reflector does. Then the chamber is filled with a fluid called methyl salicylate -- an inexpensive wintergreen extract that happens to be the active ingredient in some over-the-counter pain relief creams. This liquid has optical properties, or interaction with visible light, that match the optical properties of the retroreflective plastic. When combined, the light can pass through, and the system becomes transparent. This is called refractive index matching. Goossen's smart glass system can switch from transparent to reflective a thousand times without degrading, as shown in a paper published late last year in the journal Optics Express Goossen uses 3-D printing to make his prototypes, but this technology could eventually be manufactured at a high volume and low cost using injection molding. He is now testing his system over a wide range of temperatures to see how it performs, especially as it approaches temperatures that could cause the fluid within to freeze, which will be between 3 and 16 degrees Fahrenheit, depending upon the eventual fluid that is used. Commercialization may eventually follow.
Source: Science Daily, University of Delaware