Related Links: Council's Draft Initial Comprehensive Plan List of Authorized but not Yet Started Projects The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council approved a draft plan to restore the Gulf Coast's ecosystem and economy. While the Aug. 28 vote in New Orleans is a step toward selecting and funding construction and other projects to restore the gulf's battered shorelines and economy, it could be at least a year before any new projects break ground, according to the Dept. of Commerce.Congress established the council under the RESTORE Act, a law enacted in July 2012 that requires 80% of Clean Water Act (CWA)
Related Links: American Insitute of Architects The American Institute of Architects and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Advanced Urbanism, in collaboration with the Clinton Global Initiative and others, are expanding into urban-health design as never before. AIA recently launched a 10-year research project aimed at developing model methods to alter the urban environment in ways that would improve physical well-being.The goal of "Decade of Design: Health and Urbanism" is to focus attention on health through research, community planning and community engagement. The aim is to "better understand the link between health factors and city form," says Alan M.
Related Links: Israel Railway projects Tight Timetable and Historic Site Test Bridge Approach in Israel Israel Railways has resumed work on the country's two longest tunnels nearly three weeks after finding a 60-centimeter deviation from the planned route of the Tel Aviv-to-Jerusalem high-speed-rail line.The cause of the deviation in the twin 11.6-kilometer tunnels is still under investigation by Israel Railways, Israeli contractor Shapir Civil and Marine Engineering Ltd. and the Italian operator of the project's tunnel-boring machines."The solution ... involved a realignment of the TBM and will not have any impact on the route or project timetable," says Dror Sofro,
Danya Cebus Ltd. Construction of new 800-meter Motsa Bridge spans near Jerusalem will allow access to historic sites below. Archaeological excavations are under way of ancient military camps at project site. Related Links: Danya Cebus Ltd. website Website of Finley Engineering Group A major archeological site underneath and a tight timetable forced engineers to improvise solutions on a key bridge project that is part of the $800-million upgrade of Israel's main highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.Work on the two 800-meter-long precast spans on the Motsa Bridge along Highway 1 began in late August, part of a major rehabilitation and
RZD The work involved laying and ballasting the rail line, rebuilding a bridge and installing signalling gear. The northeast corner of North Korea, adjacent to China and Russia, is showing incipient signs of development. The Rason Special Economic Zone, where foreign investment is permitted, includes an ice-free port and offers potential as a trans-shipment point. China needs greater access to the sea to assist in moving cargo out of its landlocked northeast provinces. China leases one pier at Rason’s port to ship coal to southeast China and has offered to lease two additional piers. But Rason’s electricity grid is antiquated,
Related Links: Video of Panama Canal gates arriving ACP reports on expansion progress Crews this month wheeled ashore the first four of sixteen gates—each the size of a 10-story building—for the Panama Canal’s new locks, a major milestone for the $5.2-billion project. Mounted on self-propelled motorized wheel transporters, each of the 3,100-ton gates was off-loaded onto a temporary dock on the Atlantic side of the waterway, not far from the new locks that will be their permanent home.The gates, costing about $548 million to fabricate and install, are the centerpiece of the enormous third set of locks that is being
Related Links: U.S. Dept. of Energy Energy Information Administration The U.S. Dept. of Energy recently announced a dozen research grants, valued at about $12 million in total, to develop energy-efficient building technologies as well as open-source energy-efficiency software for both residential and commercial buildings. The projects will receive approximately $11 million from DOE and another $1 million in private funding.Commercial and residential buildings use nearly 40% of the total energy consumed in the U.S. each year and produce more than 40% of the nation's carbon pollution, says DOE. According to the Energy Information Administration, about 48% of energy consumption in
Related Links: Sustainable Performance Institute HUD Construction professionals have through Oct. 11 to provide the Sustainable Performance Institute with comments on the content of the draft of SPI's Green Firm Certification Program version 3.0.SPI certification is intended to validate the capability of architects, engineers and construction firms to deliver “consistent, high-quality sustainability services and confirms that marketing claims are true,” says the non-profit group. The latest version is presented as a simplified set of evaluation criteria for organizational sustainability. These criteria include vision, planning and implementation, project delivery, infrastructure, collaboration and partnering, and outcomes and metrics. The certification program also uses
Built in 1972, the Inga I dam in the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not operate at capacity due to lack of maintenance. At this dam site and at a newer one, replacement of aging turbines has been on hold for a decade due to a lack of financing. Related Links: The World Bank-Africa region The Democratic Republic of the Congo has launched a new initiative to fast-track construction of the delayed $12-billion Inga III hydropower project on Africa's Congo River despite skepticism that the project may never be implemented.The World Bank, however, appears more supportive of a new
Somalian militants attacked the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu in late July, but the country remains committed to transportation projects there. Turkish development firms are building a new $10-million airport terminal in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Construction by three Turkish firms of a new $10-million airport terminal in Somalia and a 23-kilometer road connecting it to the capital city, Mogadishu, will continue to completion despite a deadly late-July embassy attack by a militant group linked to al-Qaeda.The July 27 attack on the Turkish embassy building in Mogadishu, which left one Turkish guard dead and three others seriously injured, has injected some uncertainty
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