Monuments of the Millennium:

Civil Engineering Achievements Around

the World

Dr. Lisa Spainhour

Dept. of Civil and Environmental Eng.
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
 Civil Engineering Achievements
of the Millennium*
 Airport Design and  Skyscrapers
Development  Wastewater Treatment
 Dams  Water Supply and
 Interstate Highway Distribution
System  Water Transportation
 Long-Span Bridges
 Rail Transportation
 Sanitary Landfills

*As voted by ASCE members

 Civil Engineering Monuments of
the Millennium*
 Large-scale engineering projects, notable for
Complexity, innovative techniques, engineering
achievements
Benefit to public (health, safety, commerce, etc.)
 One “monument” selected to represent each
“achievement”

*As determined by ASCE

 Airport Design and Development
 Kansai International
Airport
In Osaka Bay, Japan
Opened Sept. 1994
25 mill. passengers/day
Functions 24 hours/day
without violating noise
regulations
 Dams
 Hoover Dam
Competed in 1935
Electricity for 1.3 million
Irrigation for 1.5 million
acres
Named Modern CE
Wonder of the World in
1955
 Interstate Highway System
 Established by President Modern
Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate
 42,800 miles of limited highway
access road
 Based on Pennsylvania
Turnpike (1940)
 Carries 20% of nation’s traffic
 Estimated to have saved $6
for every $1 spent

Capital Beltway, mid-1960’s

 Long-Span Bridges
 Golden Gate Bridge
Took 17 years to plan
and 4 years to build
Opened in 1937
Main span is 4200 ft.
Uses enough cable to
circle the earth 3 times
 Rail Transportation
 Eurotunnel Rail System
Three 5’-thick concrete
tunnels
Third tube for emergency
and maintenance vehicles
14’-wide double decker
trains carry cars & buses
Cold water pipes remove
friction heat from tracks
 Sanitary Landfills/Solid
Waste Disposal
 As countries urbanized,
rural waste disposal
practices led to problems
Odor
Rodents
Public health problems
 Sanitary landfills first
used in 1930’s or 1940’s
to dispose of waste
 Skyscrapers
 Empire State Building
Completed in 1931
Built in 1 year, 45 days
1250 feet tall
Tallest building in world for
more than 40 years
 In 1800’s, buildings mostly 16
stories or less
Bearing walls too thick
Lack of elevators, HVAC
systems
 Wastewater Treatment
 Chicago Wastewater
System
In 1885, a cholera/typhoid
epidemic kills 90,000 when
a storm washes sewage
into Lake Michigan
In 1900, engineers reverse
flow of Chicago river,
digging a 28 mile channel to
Des Plaines River
 Water Supply and Distribution
 California Water Project
A system of aqueducts,
dams, reservoirs, and plants
Meets water resources
needs of 2/3 of California’s
population
Includes 660 miles of open
canals & pipelines, 32
reservoirs, 17 pumping
plants, 3 generating plants
 Water Transportation
 Panama Canal
Began by French in 1875
Continued by US in 1890
Completed in 1914
50 miles long, from Atlantic
(NW) to Pacific (SE)
Takes 8-10 hours to traverse
Saves 8000 miles of travel
around South America
 Summary/Questions
 Do these monuments truly cover the millennium?
 What other “Achievements of the Millennium” would you
designate?
 What alternate “Monuments of the Millennium” would
you designate?
 Have CE’s introduced new problems with these
“solutions”? How are these being addressed?
 What would our world be like today without the
contributions of Civil Engineers?
 What future contributions will Civil Engineers make?