Bournemouth, a seacoast town in southern England, craved the wave; it’s a surfing destination and tourist draw. To improve wave quality, prevent beach erosion and increase marine habitat, Bournemouth’s beachfront revitalization plan included Europe’s first artificial reef, completed in October by Amalgamate Solutions and Research (ASR) Ltd., Venice Beach, Calif., and Raglan, New Zealand, a [...]

Living downwind of a wastewater treatment plant or settling pond can be a fragrant experience. Natural bacteria break down sewage, but before they finish the job, neighbors often cry “Foul!” Geomembrane Technologies Inc. (GTI), a Canadian company that custom designs and fabricates cover systems, recently installed covers for two 65-foot-diameter wastewater settling tanks near Columbus, [...]

When Valley National Bank chose a busy intersection of Manalapan Township, N.J., for its new branch, it envisaged an attention-grabbing building—and equally arresting landscaping. Dramatic grade changes on the property required high, good-looking retaining walls. To reinforce soils behind the 12-foot segmented wall, the construction team chose geotextiles from Strata Systems Inc., Cumming, Ga., a [...]

Geosynthetic technologies have emerged as a major tool in the battle against shoreline erosion, and TenCate Geosynthetics, Almelo, The Netherlands, has given the sturdy textiles a new form. The Geotube® system involves filling very large tubular textile containers with local sand or sludge to hold unstable banks in place. Shoreline stabilization frequently is accomplished with [...]