Amid political and environmental conflicts over Texas air quality, International Power announced on June 14 a long-awaited powerplant expansion in south Texas. Barring intercession by the courts, the Coleto Creek Unit Two project is expected to ramp up next year, creating more than 1,000 construction jobs by 2015, when it is scheduled to come online. Rendering: International Power To some, the Coleto powerplant means more power and jobs; however, to others—including the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club—it just means more dirty air. The $1.4-billion expansion project will add a 650-MW coal-burning powerplant to International Power’s existing Coleto Unit
Maintenance and compliance remain the primary drivers for environmental infrastructure projects in the U.S. However, although funding remains a challenge for many communities, sentiments about the sector’s prospects are, on the whole, upbeat. Photo: Arcadis More private firms are outsourcing site remediation oversight. Related Links: View More on Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 View Complete Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 with Data and Analysis “It looks stable and strengthening, even though there aren’t many opportunities for new facilities right now,” observes Dan Batrack, CEO of Pasadena, Calif.-based Tetra Tech, whose firm is designing a $564,000 disinfection facility at the Birmingham Wastewater Treatment
As scientists begin to assess the impact of the first tropical storm of the 2010 hurricane season on a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the fight to seal the leaking well and protect the coastline continues. Image Photo: Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory Tropical storms are a wild-card factor in predicting the behavior of the oil still gushing from the site of a deeptwater-well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, shown here in a satellite view taken on June 26. Scientists want to improve their predictions of oil-spill behavior when slicks are assailed by major storms like
The “greening” of U.S. colleges and universities is presenting opportunities for engineering and construction firms. Increasing numbers of schools that for decades have depended on coal-fired plants for steam and electricity are working to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by shifting to natural gas and biomass, says Kim Teplitzky, coal campaign coordinator for the Sierra Student Coalition, an adjunct of the Sierra Club. About 60 colleges and universities currently burn coal, she said, but several already are planning to switch to other, cleaner fuels. For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May announced that it plans to
Talk about "fast track." Applications for the next round of federal high-speed-rail grants, totaling more than $2.3 billion, are due by Aug. 6, and winners will be announced by Sept. 30, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation says. Related Links: FRA Guidance Document: Service Development Program FRA Guidance Document: Individual Project Funding Availability In announcing the timetable on June 28, DOT noted that the new grants include $2.1 billion for high-speed-rail corridor proposals and $245 million for specific construction projects within corridors. The new round's funding comes from DOT's fiscal 2010 appropriations. It follows the hotly competitive first round, in which
Before barging and lifting two halves of a 2,650-ton truss assembly for the superstructure of the $1.2 billion Huey P. Long Bridge widening, the contractor wanted to have a way to monitor how the steel was reacting to all of the jostling. MTI, a joint venture of Massman Construction Co., Kansas City, Mo., Traylor Bros. Inc., Evansville, Ind. and IHI Inc., New York, NY, hired Applied Geomechanics Inc. San Francisco to develop a monitoring system that would keep the contractor apprised of stresses to the truss in real time. “As they lift, think of two parallel pieces of paper,” says
Three Republican U.S. senators have introduced legislation that would temporarily allow foreign vessels to assist with the oil cleanup effort in the Gulf of Mexico. Related Links: Investigations Expand List Of BP’s Drill-Program Failures The senators are Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), George LeMieux (R-Fla.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas). The June 18th move comes in response to questions raised in Congress about whether the Jones Act, a maritime law dating back to the 1920s that permits only American ships and vessels to transport goods to and from U.S. ports, is impeding progress on the oil spill cleanup. Some lawmakers have called
On June 14, construction broke ground on the $328-million West County Connectors Project, which will link carpool lanes at a three-highway convergence in Orange County, Calif. Photo: Courtesy Of OCTA The design-bid-build project is one of the county’s largest construction jobs in a decade, say officials. A joint venture of the California Dept. of Transportation and the Orange County Transportation Authority is set to complete the job by mid-2014. The first project segment will connect the westbound to the northbound high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes and reconstruct a highway interchange and a bridge crossing. The second segment also will connect two HOV
To spectators, the 10-hour lift of a 528-ft-wide, 2,650-ton steel-truss-span assembly that is part of the Huey P. Long Bridge widening project may have seemed like watching paint dry, says John Brestin, project manager for consulting engineer HNTB Corp., Kansas City. “But when you think about the fact this was three years in planning—from concept to design to getting it up—it was more like the blink of an eye.” And after the successful June 19 lift, HNTB and the contractor, MTI, say they expect subsequent lifts will be several hours faster when the next span, over the Mississippi River’s main
Prefabricated segmental bridge designs not only help shave time and money off construction but also may perform well in seismically active regions, according to recent tests conducted by the University of Buffalo’s Dept. of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering and its Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research. As part of a Federal Highway Administration-funded project exploring the seismic response of Accelerated Bridge Construction systems, the engineering research team in May erected a half-scale, 60-ft-long, eight-segment, post-tensioned superstructure supported by 10-ft, 5-in.-tall hollow piers on 10 x 10-ft concrete foundation blocks. The blocks were mounted on twin shake tables at the