Photo Courtesy of SMBMS A new dam and bridge will preserve an island encompassing a historic abbey off the coast of France. Photo Courtesy of SMBMS Related Links: Mont St. Michel Official Site Perched on a rock off France's northern coast and resembling a castle out of a fairy tale, the Benedictine abbey of Mont Saint-Michel is receiving modern-day engineering reinforcements against encroaching salt marshes. The $270-million project, including a new river dam and an unobtrusive steelwork bridge to replace a nineteenth-century causeway, aims to mitigate environmental harm rendered by decades of siltation.Located on a UNESCO World Heritage site, the
The ASCE released a promotional video for the 2013 infrastructure report card. The American Society of Civil Engineers' latest evaluation of the condition of U.S. infrastructure shows improvement, but not by much.
Photo Courtesy of WSDOT The 57.3-ft-dia "Bertha" is currently the world's largest tunneling machine. Now being shipped to Seattle in segments, she will begin excavation for the new state Route 99 this summer. Related Links: Here Comes Bertha Alaska Way Viaduct Proceeds Despite Mayor's Opposition When the 57.5-ft-dia earth-pressure-balance tunnel-boring-machine called Bertha reaches Seattle from Japan next month, it will make its debut at a 400-ft-long, 80-ft-wide and 80-ft-deep launch pit that crews have been toiling on for months. The 6,700-ton, 326-ft-long tunneler's arrival will be a key milestone in the $3.1-billion, 12-project program to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.The
Photo Courtesy of South Carolina Electric and Gas Continuous pour at V.C. Summer plant was three days ahead of similar effort at Vogtle. Related Links: Vogtle Suppliers Continue to Miss the Mark for Quality Control Vogtle Nuclear Plant Owners Seek Budget Hike, Extend Schedule On March 11, two years after the meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, crews at South Carolina Gas and Electric's V.C. Summer Unit 2 marked a more auspicious milestone: the first concrete pour at a U.S. nuclear powerplant in 30 years.Three days later, crews at Southern Nuclear's Vogtle Unit 3 in Georgia completed another pour.
Related Links: $2.1B United Nations Renovation Complicated by Working Within Operational Campus United Nations Architectural Record: Revival of an Icon It's not always easy to be a copycat. The team that recently replaced the curtain wall of Manhattan's United Nations Secretariat Building knows that from experience.At first, the mandate from the U.N. sounded simple enough: replicate the wall so it would look exactly as it did in 1950, when the 39-story office tower opened.The original wall was designed by a team that included the Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier. The recent project, completed last June, "was basically a chance to work
Related Links: Enhancing Performance of UN Secretariat Building Curtain Wall Was No Easy Task United Nations Architectural Record: Revival of an Icon The United Nations executives leading the $2.1-billion renovation of the U.N. headquarters on Manhattan's far East Side are known for commanding military-style control over the high-profile, closely scrutinized project. The approach seems to be working.The project's leaders, charged with overhauling 2.5 million sq ft of space within an active 17-acre campus, have about one year to go on the six-year project. To date, though the work is 12% over budget, they have managed to keep a low profile
Related Links: ASCE 2013 infrastructure report card Infrastructure Facing $1.1-Trillion Funding Gap in 2020, ASCE Says The latest infrastructure “report card” from the American Society of Civil Engineers shows small improvements in the overall condition of America’s infrastructure.The report card, released on March 19 in a digital format, showed that the state of infrastructure in six sectors,—drinking water, wastewater, solid waste, roads, bridges and rail—improved slightly. Those improvements brought the overall grade to a D+, up from a D four years ago.The grades in 2013 range from a high of B- for solid-waste infrastructure to a low of D- for
AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade Indian laborers use machinery to dig at a construction site in Mumbai. India's economic growth slowed to a 5.3% annual rate in last year's first quarter, the lowest in nine years. Meanwhile, inflation has averaged 9.2% a year since the start of 2010. Related Links: Growth in India's Infrastructure Markets Projected Amid PPP Slowdown, India Turns to Cash Contracts Corruption, regulatory bottlenecks and other hurdles have slowed down the pace of infrastructure development in India. Having just released their current budget, however, lawmakers in India are making a strong effort to reach out to investors to help
Photo Courtesy of Culligan International Related Links: International Desalination Association website Israeli Firm Awarded Contract at Record Size Desal Plant in California Desalination of seawater and brackish water is gaining a foothold in Africa as the continent seeks to increase freshwater not only to meet the demand from a surging population but also to replenish the diminishing supply caused by climate change. Several countries in Africa, especially in the northern and southern regions, have embarked on new desalination projects in recent years.Various international providers of water-desalination solutions are turning to the African market for investment opportunities, including the construction of
Photo courtesy of Ministry of Transport and Communications The first phase will include nine freight yards along the rail network, which will extend from Sohar to Duqm, the two largest yards with ports. Related Links: International Contractors Grab Oman Transport Work Oman, Egypt Lead Middle Eastern Push To Upgrade Airports Oman has released a tender for the preliminary-design consulting-engineer contract for the first phase of the Oman national railway network.The bid package, issued under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, is for nine freight yards, which will be key junctions along the initial 1,061-kilometer length of the rail network. The
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