Innovative Engineering in Colorado
Denver Art Museum’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building
More than 2,700 tons of steel, 9,000 titanium panels and groundbreaking construction techniques are just a few of the forces that combined to make the Denver Art Museum’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building a reality. The 146,000-square-foot expansion was designed by architect Daniel Libeskind and features cantilevered walls and hundreds of unique angles that create unparalleled spatial experiences. An engineering tour de force, the building was created in the virtual world using sophisticated technology that solved potential construction issues months before ground was broken. Each of the massive steel beams of framework was then set in place using satellite coordinates that allowed positioning within a fraction of an inch. Without this new technology, the Hamilton Building would have been nearly impossible to erect. The Hamilton Building, opening on October 7, 2006, is as much a work of art as the hundreds of objects it will house.
Denver International Airport
In September 1989, site preparation and construction began on annexed land in northeast Denver for one of the largest public works projects in U.S. history. Denver International Airport, with three concourses and a 1.5 million-square-foot terminal building, took shape over the course of five and a half years. One hundred ten million cubic yards of earth were moved for airport construction; 2.9 million cubic yards of concrete went into the six runways and associated taxiways. The terminal’s distinctive translucent roof, comprising 375,000 square feet of fiberglass material, was suspended from 34 masts and supported by 10 miles of cable. When DIA opened in 1995, it became a virtual city, situated within 53 square miles, employing approximately 30,000 people and handling more than 1,300 flights a day.
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
The City of Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre is known worldwide for its star-studded concert roster, perfect natural acoustics and incomparable ambience. Red Rocks Amphitheatre’s 9,450 seats are flanked on either side by striking 400-foot-high natural red sandstone formations. Architect Burnham Hoyt designed the seating, stage and amenities while emphasizing the natural beauty of Red Rocks, but the original creator of this majestic natural wonder was truly Mother Nature. For more information, visit www.redrocksonline.com.
Xcel Energy’s Windsource® Program
Xcel Energy (ranked by the American Wind Energy Association as the largest purchaser of wind energy in the nation) gets the wind power it sells as Windsource® from two wind generation facilities or “farms” in Colorado. Xcel Energy’s Ponnequin Wind Facility is the first commercial wind farm in Colorado, located just south of the Wyoming border and east of I-25. The wind farm currently has 44 turbines that can generate up to 31 megawatts of electricity. One megawatt of wind power can serve the entire electricity needs of more than 30 customers. In addition, Xcel Energy purchases approximately 30 megawatts of wind power (33 wind turbines) from a wind farm located near Peetz, Colorado, just south of the Nebraska border.
Rocky Flats Cleanup Project
Rocky Flats, located 16 miles from Denver, was one of the nation’s largest nuclear weapons facilities. Through a joint-venture, CH2M HILL decommissioned and closed this site, turning what was once a plutonium trigger facility into a wildlife refuge. The project removed more than 21 tons of weapons- usable nuclear material and decontaminated and demolished 800 structures, developing and demonstrating many new cleanup strategies and technologies in the process. It is considered to be among the very largest and most complex environmental projects in U.S. history.
Lockheed Martin Space Engineering
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, one of the major operating units of Lockheed Martin Corporation, is headquartered in Littleton, Colorado, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and has called Colorado home since 1956. Space Systems designs, develops, tests, manufactures and operates a variety of advanced technology systems for military, civil and commercial customers. Chief products include a full range of space launch systems, including Atlas launch vehicles built in Jefferson County, ground systems, fleet ballistic missiles and missile defense systems, advanced space observatories, and remote sensing and communications satellites for commercial and government customers. For more than 40 years, Space Systems has designed and built many of the interplanetary spacecraft for NASA including Viking, Mars Global Surveyor, Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Stardust and Genesis. In addition, Space Systems engineers and scientists have been involved with missions to every planet in the solar system including the latest one, New Horizons, launched in January 2006 for a nine-year trip to Pluto.
Georgetown Loop Railroad
The Georgetown Loop Railroad was one of Colorado’s first visitor attractions. Completed in 1884, this spectacular stretch of narrow-gauge railroad was considered an engineering marvel for its time. The mining towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume lie two miles apart in a steep narrow mountain canyon. To connect them, the railroad’s builders designed a “corkscrew” route that traveled twice that distance, slowly gaining more than 600 feet in elevation. It included horseshoe curves, grades of up to 4 percent, and four bridges across Clear Creek, including the massive Devil’s Gate High Bridge that rises 100 feet above the canyon floor.
Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway
Founded in 1889, this railway features “cog wheels” to help the locomotives climb to the top of Pikes Peak. Conventional railroads use the friction of wheels upon the rails to provide locomotive power. The cog railroad engineers used gears or cog wheels, meshed into a special rack rail. The rack rail is mounted in the middle of the outer rails. The system helps the trains climb much steeper grades than a standard adhesion railroad. The Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway uses the Abt rack system and climbs at a 25 percent grade.
Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
The 125-year-old railroad is famous for its vintage steam locomotives and its narrow-gauge track. The line was constructed to haul silver and gold ore from the San Juan Mountains, but passengers soon realized it was the view that was truly precious. Narrow-gauge track, which is laid at three feet between the rails (instead of the 4-foot, 8 1⁄2 -inch standard-gauge rail) was chosen for several reasons. It was capable of making sharper curves, which made it more suitable for the mountainous terrain found in this part of Colorado. The rail weighed about 30 pounds a yard, one half of standard gauge, which made it lower in cost. The Denver & Rio Grande was also able to operate lighter, less expensive equipment on its narrow-gauge lines. And, the lighter rail also made it possible to install the tracks more quickly.
I-70 Through Glenwood Canyon
In 1992, the final link of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon was completed. The project has been hailed as an engineering marvel because of the care taken to incorporate the interstate improvements into the fragile canyon environment while leaving as much of the flora and fauna intact. Construction of three tunnels, 15 miles of retaining walls and 40 viaducts and bridges comprised a challenging but very rewarding project. The Glenwood Canyon project required 30 million points of structural steel, 30 million pounds of reinforcing steel and 400,000 cubic yards of concrete weighing 1.62 billion pounds.
Millennium Bridge in Denver
One of the greatest hurdles architectural engineers faced in creating this beautiful bridge in LoDo was developing a clear span across 125 feet of railroad track while keeping the vertical elevation gain at less than 30 feet. They decided to develop a unique “cable stayed” solution using a tall mast to hang the deck. The mast was placed on the city side of the bridge visible from downtown. The cables to both the bridge deck and grade were arrayed from there. To make the structure as thin as possible a steel frame that derives its stiffness from tension applied to the thin structure of the deck was conceived. This “post-tensioning” was achieved by installing beams with engineered sag, then using the mast as a lever to pull up the deck with the cables into a shallow bow while the opposite end of the bridge is held down by two steel rods. Concrete was then applied pushing down the deck and applying tension to the cables. The combination of tension in the cables and the rods form a thin, stiff and stable deck assembly. The Denver Millennium Bridge was the first cable stayed bridge in the world to use this post-tensioned structural concept.
Royal Gorge Bridge
Hanging 1,053 feet above the Arkansas River, the Royal Gorge Bridge is the world’s highest suspension bridge, and is considered a legendary feat of engineering. Construction began June 5, 1929, and was completed in six months time with no fatalities or serious injury with approximately 80 crew members headed by engineer George Cole. The bridge is 1,260 feet in length, 18 feet wide, with the main span 880 feet. The towers are 150 feet high and there are 2,100 strands of No. 9 galvanized wire in each cable which weighs 300 tons. There are 1,000 tons of steel in the floor of the bridge, and approximately 1,300 wooden planks from end to end. It would cost in excess of $15 million to replace the bridge.
Colorado-Big Thompson Project
The Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) Project is the largest and most complex transmountain water diversion project in Colorado. Built from 1938 to 1957, the C-BT Project collects and transports Colorado River water through the 13-mile Alva B. Adams Tunnel beneath the Continental Divide to reservoirs on Colorado’s eastern slope for agricultural, municipal and industrial needs. Jointly operated and maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the C-BT Project includes 12 reservoirs, three pumping plants, six hydro-power plants, 35 miles of tunnels, 95 miles of canals, and 700 miles of electrical transmission lines. The Adams Tunnel was finished in 1947 and is the nation’s longest tunnel for irrigation water. The C-BT Project annually delivers more than 69 billion gallons of water and generates more than 670 million kilowatt hours of electricity.
Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station
Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station serves as the central collection and coordination center for a worldwide system of sensors designed to provide early warning of any air, missile or space threat to North America. CMAFS is staffed by members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and the Canadian military. The facility was constructed between 1961 and 1966. During its construction, approximately 5.1 acres of granite were removed to make “a city within a mountain.” Cheyenne Mountain has its own police force and fire department, workout center, cafeteria, medical and dental clinics, barber shop and convenience store. It hosts elements of four commands: the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), US Northern Command (NORTHCOM), US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) and US Air Force Space Command (SPACECOM).
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Engineer It! was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and was created and is circulated by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland, Oregon.
