We interviewed Garry Horvitz, Vice President and geotechnical engineer at Hart Crowser for his perspective on how the engineering world has changed since the coronavirus arrived and what the future holds. Here are excerpts from that conversation. The Coronavirus is Hastening a Continuing Trend I’ve noticed over time that, from an engineering getting-work-done perspective, there […]
March 25, 2020 To all our clients, teammates, and friends: Like all of you Hart Crowser is adapting almost daily to the changing COVID-19 conditions and directives from health officials and local and national leaders. We have taken the following steps: All staff with the capability of working from home have that option. Most are […]
The new Industrial Stormwater General Permit (ISGP) sampling requirements for Washington State became effective on January 1, 2020. The ISGP’s goal is to improve stormwater quality (and reduce pollutants in runoff) through management of stormwater at industrial sites. The ISGP originates from a combination of federal (the Clean Water Act) and Washington state (Water Pollution […]
Changes associated with the 2018 International Building Code (2018 IBC) are coming soon to Washington State. This will affect all buildings that are submitted for permit after June 30, 2020. No Three-Month Grace Period in Seattle Typically there has been a three-month grace period in Seattle between the code change date and enforcement. This allowed […]
Balancing Ecological and Industrial Needs The Snohomish River mouth in Puget Sound is a busy place. Bald eagles, seabirds, salmon, seals, and the occasional whale frequent this area year-round. The area is also a hub of industry with vessels large and small coming and going from the Port of Everett’s International Seaport and recreational marinas, […]
Pier Reconfiguration—A Seismic Focus Local ports must evolve to meet industry needs, or ships and jobs will simply go elsewhere. The Northwest Seaport Alliance (the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle) needed to accommodate some of the largest shipping vessels in the world. A 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) Ultra-Large Container Ship is longer than two […]
As we reported in a recent post, adventure is a way of life for Hart Crowser staff. In January 2018, Geologist Kaelan Hendrickson also proved this by kayaking 226 miles through the Grand Canyon. He triumphed over numerous rapids, scrambled through side canyons, and endured winter conditions on the eleven-day trip. His goal: see and […]
Two Odd Facts Odd fact one: America’s national forests are not entirely public. They often contain “inholdings,” pockets of private land surrounded by public land. Some 180,000 acres of inholdings are within federal wilderness areas. Odd fact two: Even in places so remote you can’t get there from here, there is a potential of environmental […]
On Wednesday, June 27, the Honolulu staff each dedicated a vacation day to volunteer with Hui Ko‘olaupoko (HOK) at He‘eia, O‘ahu. HOK is a non-profit watershed management group established in 2007 to work with communities to improve water quality through ecosystem restoration and storm water management, focusing specifically in the Ko‘olaupoko region on windward O‘ahu. […]
Removing Fish Barriers In 1969, a burning river helped draw attention to the polluted state of many United States waterways. Since then, much progress has been made to clean them up, allowing wildlife to thrive in habitats that were once dead. It’s only more recently that attention has migrated (pun intended) to fish passage problems. […]