Identifying a Creative Solution

[Spooner]

Developing creative approaches to problem solving does not occur in a vacuum. You can greatly enhance your abilities in this area by seeing how others produce new and imaginative solutions to difficult problems. Completing the assignment below will get you started in this direction.

Identify a problem in your community that, in your opinion, has been solved in an innovative way. Complete the three questions below and be prepared to share your responses during introductions on the first day of the seminar.

1. Describe the problem.
2. Describe the solution.
3. What made this a creative or innovative solution?

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this is for some lame consulting training I have to go to next week. Only good thing is it's in Orlando on Disney's Boardwalk! Anyway, I figure I'd throw it out to the ATOT crowd since you all have such creative minds

Free :beer:s for good responses :gift:

 

[metalmania]

1. Dog poo everywhere on the sidewalk

2. Everyone in this community will get a free "boost-machine" just like jet engine. No need to walk on the sidewalk.

3. Pervert.

 

[Spooner]

Originally posted by: metalmania
1. Dog poo everywhere on the sidewalk
2. Everyone in this community will get a free "boost-machine" just like jet engine. No need to walk on the sidewalk.
3. Pervert.

you're not very well liked, are you?

 

[metalmania]

No, pepole like me.

 

[DurocShark]

Originally posted by: metalmania
No, pepole like me.

You sure that comma after "No" was supposed to be there?

 

[metalmania]

Ha, so what's your solution for dog poo?

 

[Spooner]

Ha, so what's your solution for dog poo?

Thread crap somewhere else, you worthless troll

 

[metalmania]

so what's the purpose of your post?

Originally posted by: Spooner

Ha, so what's your solution for dog poo?

Thread crap somewhere else, you worthless troll

 

[ClueLis]

1. My town is horribly boring.
2. I go to the city for my fun.
3. It sidesteps the whole part where I have to get the community together and otherwise piss them off.

 

[Spooner]

If anyone cares... this is what I used:

1. Describe the problem.

Having lived in Boston for over 6 years, it?s hard not to notice the engineering marvel that has overtaken our fair city and its roadways. The largest, most complex, and technologically challenging highway project in American history, understatedly nicknamed ?The Big Dig,? has been given the responsibility to solve Boston?s traffic problems to and from the city. The Big Dig has promised to keep the city open for business during more than a decade of construction. That means traffic must continue to flow, and in terms of the number of drivers affected, the biggest piece of that promise is keeping the elevated Central Artery in service and carrying its full load of more than 190,000 vehicles a day while the underground expressway is dug underneath.

2. Describe the solution.

Because not only did existing highways and roadways need to stay open during construction, but railways and subway systems as well, the Big Dig needed to find a way to dig a tunnel big enough for an interstate highway while trains passed just a few feet overhead. They did this with a process called ?jacking.? Instead of digging holes and having the above ground settle or crumble, utility pipes and such are commonly jacked under active roadways, simply being pushed through the soil. This process has never been done for something as large as a highway until the Big Dig. Tunnel boxes 80 feet wide and 40 feet high were built and literally pushed by hydraulic jacks under the railroad tracks. Once the jacking pit was built and the tunnel box formed inside, crews broke apart the head end of the concrete pit, scooped away about three feet of soil, pushed the tunnel box ahead, and repeated the procedure again and again. Unfortunately, to do this without stabilizing the soil would cause the tracks to settle, threatening rail operations, so the ground ahead of the tunnel boxes needed to be frozen. Once frozen, the soil was excavated without settling. Of course the freezing caused the ground to expand, but this movement was predicted and controlled so that the railbed was maintained safely. This jacking began in 1999 and was finished in February of 2001, and just recently opened to the public.

3. What made this a creative or innovative solution?

Since the crew used an existing method of tunneling material under active roadways, but did it on such a larger scale that has never been used before, it was an extremely creative extension of a tried and true method. Without using such thinking, the roadways and railways may not have been able to stay open, therefore disrupting the city on a much grander scale.