The need for sewers in 19th-century Baltimore was abundantly clear to those who endured the “2,000-horse-power smell” of the city's harbor. There, streams of human waste, trash, and industrial runoff converged and stewed under the summer sun, breeding deadly typhoid fever. City code required indoor toilets, but it was up to individual property owners to build cesspools, cisterns, or gutters. These emptied into an unfortunate stream called the Jones Falls; its polluted course ran from the wealthier to the poorer areas of town and finally into the harbor. An 1890 news story claimed that harbor steamboat passengers “were known actually to faint from the effects of the vile smell.” Baltimore was one of the last major American cities to build a public sewer system. 

The Dean Family recently hosted an Open House for their new dry pack monoslope cow barn and new deep-pit gable cattle finishing barn. 

Maurer-Stutz helped with the design and permitting of this project.

Congratulations and we wish you continued success with your endeavors.

How thick should I pour my floor? Do I need reinforcing? Which type of reinforcement is best? How much load can I put on it? Will my fork truck crack it? Do I really need joints in my floor? Should I install a polyethylene vapor barrier or vapor retarder underneath the whole slab? What about insulation? Do I need rock underneath? And how much do all these things matter?

Our very own Terry Feldmann, PE, along with Alan Schambach, PE, from FBi Buildings Inc., discuss this topic in the new issue of Frame Building News as published by the Construction Magazine Network. 

President Barack Obama signed the Grassroots Rural and Small Community Water Systems Assistance Act, S. 611, into law last month, making it easier for small, rural communities to get assistance in maintaining drinking water quality. 

When it comes to land ownership, someone has to draw the line. You can’t just decide to put your picket fence wherever you’d like. It’s the job of land surveyors to define legal property boundaries on large and small scales, both in urban environments and remote wilderness.