Related Links: Tensioning Eases Stress on a 13-Story Sustainability Showcase TMG Partners Tipping Mar Plant Construction Co. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Earthquake Protection Systems In a back-to-the-future scenario, the structural engineer for the seismic retrofit of a 1962 steel moment-resisting frame in earthquake-prone San Francisco fashioned the office building's high-tech lateral system after an ancient Japanese pagoda. The building's 14-story pivoting spine—equivalent to a pagoda's wooden "shinbashira"—turned into a $4-million-plus silver lining to a recession-related hiatus for the $110-million gut renovation and expansion of 680 Folsom Street.Instead of a tree trunk pivoting in a well in the ground, the ultra-modern
Rendering Courtesy of SOM Plan for brownfield site along Lake Michigan calls for 700 buildings. Related Links: Chicago Lakeside Development Argonne National Laboratory Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Computer scientists are teaming up with planners, developers and big data tools to inform decisions about megadevelopments. The goal of one fledgling effort is to develop a prototype computational framework that would be instrumental in planning the infrastructure for the future 600-acre Chicago Lakeside Development, a minicity sited on a former U.S. Steel complex on Lake Michigan, 10 miles south of downtown."Planners don't want to rely on intuition or hope. They want to
Related Links: Engineers Puzzle Over Cause, Fixes for Sagging Wisconsin Bridge Leo Frigo I-43 bridge sinks another half inch; emergency funds approved The I-43 bridge in Green Bay, Wis., has a 2-ft-plus sag because pier pilings buckled from corrosion, state investigators say. Meanwhile, findings from monitoring equipment installed on the Leo Frigo Bridge show that Pier 22, which settled 2 ft on Sept. 25, settled another half-inch on Oct. 3. Supported by 100-ft-deep H-pilings, the pier is not the only one showing corrosion, says Tom Buchholz, the investigation team's leader."We also went to the adjacent piers—Pier 21, Pier 23, Pier
Related Links: U.K. Launches $52-Billion Rail Plan CH2M Hill Tapped To Advise On $26.5-Billion Line in England Speculation is rising that political forces in Great Britain may thwart initial funding for the country's ambitious HS2 high-speed-rail program, now budgeted at more than $80 billion. The Labour Party's shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, questioned whether the money might be better spent on other projects. But U.K. Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander told a civil engineers' transportation conference in London on Sept. 25 that the current government intended to push the project forward and that it was "absolute folly to neglect its long-term
Photos Courtesy of WisDOT Motorists are being rerouted to other roadways, while investigators use sensors to inspect the pilings on the bridge. The Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge on Interstate 43 in Green Bay, Wis., is closed indefinitely after a pier settled early on Sept. 25, causing a more than 20-in. sag across the four-lane roadway.State and federal structural and geotechnical experts have been joined by consultants from Michael Baker Jr. Inc. and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. to examine the bridge and develop a plan of action.No one has determined the cause of the settling, any estimated time for repairs
Related Links: Blog from lead attorney representing environmental groups on the case Information on NACWA's motion to intervene in the case The U.S. District Court in eastern Louisiana has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to determine within six months whether to set new limits on nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that is causing large algae blooms throughout the Mississippi River basin, the Gulf of Mexico and other waters in the U.S.A decision by the EPA to set numeric limits in states with tributaries that feed into the Mississippi River basin or the Gulf of Mexico that currently do not have
Related Links: Climate Change's Effects on Our Energy: An Interactive Map Price Tag for Repairs and Reconstruction from Colorado Floods Tops $1.3B Water Sector Takes the Brunt of Changing Weather President Obama's Speech on Climate Change at Georgetown University (Video) If governments and businesses ignored the realities of climate change on Port Fourchon, a spit of land on Louisiana's coast, the results could be disastrous.The port services as much as 90% of the Gulf of Mexico's offshore oil industry, and when it isn't operational, at least a fifth of the nation's domestic oil supply is blocked from delivery. Without work
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants CB&I to enact measures to improve the workplace culture related to quality control at a Lake Charles, La., plant supplying wall modules to nuclear-power projects in Georgia and South Carolina.
Photo Courtesy of Verengo Solar installation companies are forming alliances with electricity retailers. Related Links: Solar Sees Growth But Clouds Loom California Plant To Double U.S. Solar Thermal Power Production Two years after a boom in multi-megawatt, utility-scale solar photovoltaic projects in the U.S., utilities, solar developers and contractors are gearing up for new sector growth. This time, they have their eyes on smaller but mass-volume rooftop solar installations for residential, commercial, industrial and institutional buildings.While some commercial, industrial and institutional rooftop projects are relatively large—ranging from 50 kW to 5 MW in capacity—the real volume part of the business
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