Related Links: Quick Flood Repairs Earn Contractors a Bonus The Missouri River flooding closed railroads as well as highways last summer, but U.S. railroad companies stayed a step ahead of the floodwaters, building levees and elevating tracks to keep their trains running.Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railroad raised track in Kansas and Missouri major floods within the past two decades, but the 2011 flood was so severe that they were again forced to elevate roadbeds.“Due to major roadbed work after the 1993 flood and additional work after the 2007 flood our track did not require any additional raising,” said
Courtesy of NRC Pilgrim 1 unit in Plymouth, Mass., is a likely candidate for seismic upgrade and vent-hardening measures. As the U.S. nuclear industry has begun to understand what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, it is ramping up to harden plants here to ensure that they would withstand a one-two punch similar to what struck the Japanese nuclear plants.In October, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a prioritized list of recommendations for analysis and improvements at U.S. plants. The first tier of those recommendations are to be implemented "without delay."In July, an
Courtesy Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd and NDA Dounreay site, once the core of U.K. nuclear-power research, will be decommissioned. AU.K.-U.S. team has begun final negotiations with British officials to assume ownership and cleanup management of a defunct nuclear research site in Scotland, which would be Britain's second-largest decommissioning project. The team, selected on Nov. 23, is set to take over the Dounreay site in April if it can show how at least $780 million and six years can be cut from the current cleanup effort, which now may cost $4 billion and last until 2038.On Nov. 23, the U.K. Nuclear
The critics have called it "the bridge to nowhere." It has gone through over a decade of delays and setbacks. But the 1,722-ft-long, 295-ft-tall Galena Creek Bridge, one of the costliest, most controversial projects in Nevada's history, is finally nearing completion.Crossing a small creek in a rocky, rural patch of northern Nevada about 20 miles southwest of Reno, it will be both the country's longest cathedral-arch bridge and the linchpin of a $600-million Interstate 580 extension between Reno and Carson City.The 8.5-mile-long, six-lane freeway bypasses a busy, accident-prone stretch of U.S. Highway 395—which runs through Pleasant Valley, a small, unincorporated
Courtesy of Capital Beltway Express LLC Virginia's $2.1-billion Capitol Beltway Express is near its midway point. Public-private partnerships are gaining an extra boost in the United States as cash-strapped states increasingly grapple with how to address critical public-works infrastructure needs amid dwindling public funds. And the U.S. could learn a thing or two about P3 deals from its northern neighbor.That's the consensus of construction professionals with mature experience in P3 delivery systems who gathered at a recent related conference in Washington, D.C. Canada is widely seen as a decade ahead of the U.S. in P3 delivery of major highway and
PHOTO COURTESY OF GO BUILD ALABAMA Go National Alabamas image initiative, supported by CURT, is nearing adoption in two more states. What's top of mind for one of the biggest construction project owners in the U.S.? Attendees at the Construction Users Roundtable national conference, held in Chandler, Ariz., on Nov. 7-9, got insight into Intel's strategy to execute $3.5 billion worth of construction in 2011.Tim G. Hendry, Intel's procurement and fabrication vice president, said the challenge for the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer is to keep its four-year lead over competitors. "With speed comes challenges," he said. Intel is experiencing "steeper,
Why are industry best practices underused, and how can associations collaborate to increase their implementation?A web-based framework should be developed in which groups can share best practices as well as promote opportunities to improve, suggests the National Construction Forum, a group of 15 associations and eight universities, convened by the National Academy of Construction in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16-17.The forum's goal is to create a national voice on major industry issues by integrating and leveraging the efforts of key organizations."The idea is to start small but to grow to include every industry organization," said James G. Slaughter, president of
MAP COURTESY OF SONOMA-MARIN AREA RAIL TRANSIT North of San Francisco, the North Bay's first commuter rail line is inching toward construction. Meandering through the hilly suburbs of Marin County and the farms and vineyards of Sonoma County, the new rail line is designed to relieve pressure from the jam-packed 101 Freeway, providing a less stressful ride for North Bay commuters. As the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit system moves ahead, other California rail projects—such as the $100-billion San Francisco-toAnaheim high-speed rail line—are hitting some speed bumps.Seed MoneyLast month, the Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission released $33.1 million to the Sonoma-Marin
At a Nov. 17 congressional hearing characterized by partisan rancor, Energy Secretary Steven Chu disputed Republican allegations that politics played a role in his decision to approve a loan guarantee to Solyndra, the now bankrupt solar firm.E-mails obtained and released by Republican committee members suggest that there was some disagreement within the administration about the economic viability of Solyndra, and some have alleged that the White House pressured the Dept. of Energy to take Herculean steps to save the foundering company, which filed for bankruptcy late this summer.ChuThe decision to offer the $535-million loan guarantee "absolutely … was made only
The Keystone XL pipeline is shovel- ready and an alternative route through Nebraska could be approved within six to nine months, TransCanada's President and CEO Russ Girling told investors on Nov. 16.
RSS
