McMahon & Mann News
Corrosion of steel supports
Ken Fishman has been selected as the lead investigator under a contract with the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), which is studying corrosion resistance of metallic earth reinforcing products used in highway construction and slope control. NCHRP is affiliated with the National Academy of Science, and the team is assessing the reliability of metal loss modeling. Ken is a nationally known authority on the subject.
Stabilizing slope
The geology around Letchworth State Park is notably irregular, yet it came as a surprise when hikers reported the disappearance of trees on the west side of the Genesee River. The slope had given way, creating a huge crater, and trees had fallen and the road had been seriously undermined. Park officials retained McMahon & Mann to find a solution. The hole was filled with shotcrete and the slope anchored by the insertion of steel tendons.
Dam evaluation
In Silver Creek, Chautauqua County, there was worry about the stability of an earthen dam at a reservoir which for years had been the holding area for the village's water supply. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation cited concerns about the dam and the village hired McMahon & Mann to conduct tests and investigate the status of the dam.
On the Road
McMahon & Mann is frequently called upon to design and manage projects far from its base of operations in Buffalo, New York. Among current assignments:
Designing mooring cells near Cincinnati
Marathon Oil Inc., expanding its storage terminal capacity in North Bend, Ohio, downstream from Cincinnati, retained McMahon & Mann to design mooring cells offshore in the Ohio River. Barges laden with oil will be able to be moored to the cells, connect to pipelines, and pump their cargo into storage tanks on shore. The firm handled a similar project for Marathon in Tonawanda, New York, and, based on that work, was asked to handle the Ohio project.
At the podium
McMahon & Mann partners and associates are frequently invited as experts to speak before various professional groups on geotechnical topics. Among recent appearances:
- Two conferences of the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) invited partners from McMahon & Mann to present papers. Ken Fishman spoke at the annual DFI geotechnical seminar in Berlin, Connecticut, co-sponsored by the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers, and Don McMahon delivered a paper at the DFI annual meeting in Washington.
- Todd Swackhamer discussed "Remediation of a Creeping Slope" at the 6th Annual Technical Forum, Geohazards in Transportation in the Appalachian Region. Todd was accompanied by James R. Zimmerman of the Norfolk & Southern Railroad, the firm which retained McMahon & Mann to stabilize a slope near Letchworth State Park in Western New York.
- Don McMahon and Mike Mann discussed "The Recommended Approach to Subsurface Characterization" at the Bridge Foundation Workshop sponsored by the Association for Bridge Construction & Design (ABCD) at Rochester Institute of Technology.
- At an international bridge conference sponsored by the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania, Ken Fishman participated in a symposium on the seismic design and retrofitting of bridges. The symposium was organized by the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering & Research (MCEER).
- The New York State Association of County Highway Superintendents, meeting in Saratoga Springs, invited Ken Fishman, Don McMahon and Mike Mann, who made a presentation entitled "Landslides: Investigation & Mitigation."