2,617 articles
Union Canal (Scotland)
The Union Canal (Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal) is a 51 km lock-free contour canal from Lochrin Basin, Edinburgh, to the Falkirk Wheel; built 1818-1822 by Hugh Baird, closed in the 1960s, reopened in 2001.
Unisex public toilet
A unisex public toilet, also called a gender-neutral bathroom, is a public restroom for people of any sex or gender rather than for men or women.
Unit load method
The unit load method, or virtual work method, is a structural analysis technique for calculating the deflection or rotation at a chosen point of a structure.
Unit price contract
A unit price contract, also called an admeasurement or re-measurement contract, is a construction contract where the contractor is paid fixed unit rates for actual quantities of work completed.
United States Bureau of Reclamation
The United States Bureau of Reclamation, founded in 1902, is a federal agency managing water in 17 western states and operating Hoover Dam and Grand Coulee Dam.
United Utilities
United Utilities is a British water and wastewater company supplying around 7 million people across the North West of England, privatized from North West Water in 1989.
University Link tunnel
The University Link tunnel, also known as U Link, is a 3.15-mile pair of bored light rail tunnels in Seattle carrying Sound Transit trains from downtown to the University of Washington, opened in 2016.
University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Engineering
The University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Engineering, founded in 1907, is the oldest engineering school in the Philippines and offers six ABET-accredited BS programs.
Unmanned aerial vehicle photogrammetric survey
An unmanned aerial vehicle photogrammetric survey is a drone mapping method that flies planned patterns over a site and processes overlapping photographs into orthomosaics, point clouds, and digital elevation models.
Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket digestion
Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) digestion, invented by Gatze Lettinga in the Netherlands (1976, 1980), is a high-rate anaerobic wastewater treatment in which upward flow through self-granulating sludge (1–3 mm granules, 12–20 kg COD/m³·d) enables compact, low-cost treatment with methane recovery.
Uplift pressure
Uplift pressure is the upward water pressure that seeping water exerts within a dam and its foundation, a destabilizing force that dam stability analysis must include.
Upper Krishna Project
The Upper Krishna Project is a multi-stage irrigation and power project on the Krishna River in northern Karnataka, India, built around the Almatti and Narayanpur dams.
Upper Mississippi River 9-foot channel project
The Upper Mississippi River 9-foot channel project is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program, authorized in 1930, creating locks and dams for a 9-foot navigation channel.
Ura Fons
Ura Fons, the divinized spring Ura (Fontaine d'Eure near Uzès), supplied Roman Nemausus (Nîmes) via the Pont du Gard aqueduct; attested by the cultores Urae fontis altar (CIL XII 3076) and Pompeius Pandus's nymphaeum.
Urban flooding
Urban flooding is the inundation of land and property in built-up areas when intense rainfall, river overflow, or seawater overwhelms drainage; impermeable city surfaces speed runoff.
Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive
The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive is a European Union directive requiring Member States to collect and treat urban wastewater before discharge, adopted in 1991.
Utility locating survey
A utility locating survey is a field investigation that maps the position and depth of buried pipes and cables before excavation, using geophysical instruments and records.
Utility tunnel
A utility tunnel, also called a steam tunnel or utility corridor, is an underground passage housing utility lines like water pipes and power cables for maintenance without street excavation.
Vacuum consolidation
Vacuum consolidation, also called vacuum preloading, is a geotechnical method that uses vacuum applied beneath a sealed membrane to consolidate soft, saturated soils, in wide use since the 1980s.
Vacuum sewerage
Vacuum sewerage is a wastewater collection method that moves sewage through sealed pipes by air pressure, suited to flat terrain and high groundwater, first employed in Stockholm in 1959.
Vaison-la-Romaine Roman Bridge
Roman single-arch bridge (Pont romain) over the Ouvèze at Vaison-la-Romaine, Vaucluse, France, built late 1st century AD for Vasio Vocontiorum; classified monument historique 1840, survived 1616 and 1992 floods and a 1944 German demolition attempt, still in use.
Vajont Dam
The Vajont Dam, also known as the Vaiont Dam, is a disused 261.6 m arch dam in northern Italy, built 1956 to 1959 by SADE.
Van Oord
Van Oord, also known as Royal Van Oord, is a Dutch family-owned marine contractor in Rotterdam specializing in dredging, land reclamation, and offshore wind installation since 1868.
Variable-mode tunnel boring machine
A variable-mode tunnel boring machine is a single TBM that can be reconfigured to tunnel in more than one ground-support regime, such as open, EPB, and slurry modes.
Vasari Corridor
The Vasari Corridor (Corridoio Vasariano) is an elevated enclosed passageway in Florence, built in 1565 by Giorgio Vasari to connect the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti.
Vasco da Gama Bridge
The Vasco da Gama Bridge (Portuguese: Ponte Vasco da Gama) is a road bridge over the Tagus at Lisbon, opened in 1998 and among the longest in Europe.
Veolia
Veolia Environnement S.A., formerly Vivendi Environnement, is a French multinational company providing water, waste, and energy management services worldwide, formed in 1999 and renamed Veolia in 2003.
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, once called the Staten Island Bridge, is a double-deck suspension bridge in New York City connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island, opened in 1964.
Versailles wedding hall disaster
Versailles wedding hall disaster: 24 May 2001 collapse of a Pal-Kal dance floor in Talpiot, Jerusalem, killing 23 and injuring over 350; Zeiler inquiry, convictions of owners and engineers, NIS 120m compensation.
Vertical curve
A vertical curve is a parabolic transition connecting two road grades of different slope, taking crest form arcing over a hill or sag form arcing down like a bowl.