+ Image Source: South Florida Water Management District Many projects are planned to restore the Indian River Lagoon, but the C-44 reservoir system is the first. Related Links: Everglades Progress Report Shows Modest Improvements Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan Protecting one of the biologically most diverse estuary systems in the continental U.S. is the goal of a Florida project now in the earliest stage of development. On Aug. 14, Shoreline Foundation Inc., West Park, Fla., won the contract to construct the C-44 system discharge for the C-44 reservoir and stormwater treatment area in Martin County, Fla., a major component of the
Photo Courtesy of J.D. Eckman Crews jacked the deck a quarter inch off its piers prior to realigning the structure. Related Links: DelDOT Making Fast-Track Repairs to Closed I-495 Christina River Bridge ENR Video Interview with DelDOT Chief Engineer Robert McCleary After 11 weeks of fast-track repairs, the Delaware Dept. of Transportation's emergency design and construction team reopened northbound lanes of the I-495 bridge in Wilmington on Aug. 23. The work allowed both sides of the 4,800-ft-long structure to be fully operational in time for the expected crush of Labor Day weekend traffic.The 40-year-old concrete-deck-on-steel-beam bridge, which typically carries about
Photo courtesy of TDOT Tanker collision on I-65 in Tennessee killed the driver of the truck and melted beams on two overpass bridges, causing one to be demolished and severely damaging the other. Related Links: Fast-Track Replacement Planned For Collapsed Skagit River Bridge Caltrans Scrambles To Fix Fire-Damaged Maze Fast Construction is underway on a replacement span over Interstate 65, near Franklin, Tenn., after a severe fire from a tanker-truck collision early on Aug. 15 destroyed a pair of bridges.With about 62,000 vehicles daily on I-65 and 11,000 on the state Route 248 crossing, traffic in that area shut down
Related Links: As Hong Kong-Macau Tunnel Progresses, Denmark Floats a Record Breaker Longest Sunken-Tube Tunnel Planned For Contractors and Their Advisers, A Sinking Feeling Is Good in Busan Chinese engineers had never built an immersed tunnel on the open sea, let alone one that, upon completion, would be the world's longest, at a total length of 6.7 kilometers, and one of the deepest, at almost 45 meters, under China's Pearl River Delta.The idea of directly linking the economic powerhouses of Hong Kong and Macau—shortening the three-hour drive to about a half hour—had floated around for almost 20 years. But it's
Photo by Tony Illia for ENR Flaking antimicrobial coating, which was possibly misapplied, has required project rework and a delay. Related Links: New Perch Being Readied for McCarran's Air Traffic Controllers McCarran Prepped for $2.4B Terminal 3 Grand Opening The nation's second-tallest federal air-traffic control tower, under construction at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, faces at least a one-year delay after an antimicrobial coating, which may have been improperly applied, flaked off from ductwork and became airborne. Project participants are staying mum about the problem and its origin, but legal observers speculate that corrective repairs could be expensive and
Related Links: Further Information on Standard 189.1 The International Code Council's Green Model Code Five building industry groups have agreed to collaborate on the development of green building codes, standards and rating systems.Officials say the proliferation of different green building tools has caused unnecessary fragmentation and some confusion in the industry. To address that problem, the groups have agreed to consolidate some of the myriad tools into one document.The organizations that signed the agreement are ASHRAE, the International Code Council (ICC), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the U.S. Green Building
Photo by AP Wideworld Early damage estimates top $1 billion from a magnitude-6.0 quake that struck Napa, Calif., on Aug. 24. Nearly 100 residential and commercial buildings have been condemned in Napa County due to structural damage, mostly to unreinforced masonry buildings. However, engineers are investigating why some recently reinforced buildings also sustained damage.Emergency rooms treated more than 200 patients, mostly for minor injuries, but there were no fatalities. Around 90 broken water mains are being repaired, and some roadways buckled, but all of the area's bridges remain safe, according to Caltrans. Dozens of minor aftershocks continue to rock Napa's
The Tennessee Valley Authority this week plans to begin pouring the concrete foundation for a 12,000 sq ft building that the designer is calling a “finger of God build.”The reinforced concrete building is meant to withstand a 10,000-year earthquake. “We hope we don’t see it tested, but if it is we hope it stays,” says Robert Feiel, project engineer for Mesa Associates, Knoxville.The diverse and flexible coping capability building, or FLEX, was developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from the lessons learned in nuclear plant safety as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011. It provides an
Photo Courtesy of MESA Associates The NRC is requiring containment structure for Watt's Bar reactor before licensure. The Tennessee Valley Authority was set to begin pouring the concrete foundation in late August for a 12,000-sq-ft reactor containment structure at its Brown's Ferry nuclear powerplant in Alabama that is being designed to withstand a 10,000-year earthquake and 300-mph winds. Specifications for the building, known as FLEX, were developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from lessons learned after the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan."It's an entirely new layer of protection to be used for a beyond-design flood, earthquake or tornado," says
Photo Courtesy of Bentley Systems The integrated analyzer runs grillage, or line-girder analysis, and then performs comprehensive design code checks and load ratings based on results. Analysis in 3D is expected in a later release. Related Links: Bentley LEAP Bridge Steel Bentley LEAP Bridge Enterprise V81 Bentley Systems Inc. has produced new software for the design, analysis, load rating and 3D modeling of "everyday" steel bridges. It complements another Bentley product for designing similar bridges in concrete. One early user of the new tool for steel says her firm already has used the pair to create a bridge proposal using
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