Swedish home-furnishings giant IKEA officially powered up its Brooklyn, N.Y., store’s rooftop solar system this spring after several delays, including a mid-construction switch of its main contractor. Photo: By Esther D'amico Store-top installation enables four different types of photovoltaic panels to be evaluated. The store is one of four worldwide participating in a $11.7-million pilot program IKEA established in 2009 with Loughborough University, Leicestershire, U.K., and the now-defunct contractor Perpetual Energy Ltd., Knutsford, U.K., to monitor and evaluate performance of photovoltaic systems. While the systems at each of the four sites are operational, their monitoring capabilities are as yet limited
Photo: Strukton Groep N.V. / G. Dubbelman A joint venture of Dutch contractors Strukton Groep N.V., Utrecht and Van Oord N.V., Rotterdam, on 31 May lowered and inserted a 136-meter-long, 20,000-tonne sunken-tube tunnel element into a predredged trench under Amsterdam’s historic Central Station. Thousands of timber piles were replaced by new concrete foundations to make way for the new tunnel under the adjacent IJ River and through the station. The tunnel is part of the city’s new north-south metro, scheduled to open in 2017.
A controversial new cable show is thrusting America’s crumbling infrastructure into the spotlight. The debate stems not from the show’s content but from the engineering qualifications of its host, who criticizes others’ engineering and maintenance decisions in the name of public advocacy. Photo: By Tudor Van Hampton For ENR The history Channel’s “Inspector America” cites the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis as one example of the country’s infrastructure crisis. Some say the show and its host are sensationalizing the truth. “Inspector America” debuted on Sunday, April 17 on the History Channel. The cable program examines roadways, dams, tunnels, levees, bridges
Officials with the Florida Dept. of Transportation and the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority on May 25 announced an agreement to move forward with construction of the Wekiva Parkway, a 27-mile-long toll road estimated to cost $1.8 billion. The parkway would provide the last component of a beltway around the Orlando metro. The long-planned project has languished due to a lack of available funds. OOCEA and Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, a division of FDOT, are still determining their respective commitments to the project but announced September 2011 as a goal for starting design work. Construction could start by late 2012 and is
Leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee—two Democrats and two Republicans—have taken the first major action this year toward passing a long-delayed multiyear surface transportation bill. Industry officials welcomed the May 25 announcement that the four lawmakers had agreed on a framework for a $339.2-billion highway-transit measure that could stretch to as long as six years. But the plan is a long way from getting enacted. The senators haven’t lined up firm sources for all the funding, and a not-yet-introduced House version may well come in far south of $339 billion. Construction officials praised the milestone proposal, announced
In May, the U.S. Energy Dept. approved plans by Cheniere Energy Partners, Houston, to expand its Sabine Pass Liquefied Natural Gas terminal to export domestically produced LNG to any country in which trade is permissible. Cheniere is planning to spend about $2 billion to expand the terminal. The owner will add equipment to clean up the gas from domestic pipelines and cool it to 260ºF. The company has scheduled construction to begin next year and selected San Francisco-based Bechtel as contractor. DOE will allow Cheniere to export up to 800 billion cu ft a year.
Alaska’s 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest will again be roadless, a U.S. district court in Anchorage has ruled. Environmental groups that filed suit say the decision blocks new logging roads and timber clear-cuts in the southeastern Alaska forest but does not rule out “other economic development,” such as small hydropower, transmission-line, mining or tourism projects.
Spring is in the air for two firms selected to construct a new spring training and western headquarters facility for the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team in Mesa, Ariz. Populous, Kansas City, Mo., beat out nine competing firms to win the design contract, while Hunt Construction Group, Scottsdale, Ariz., bested eight others for the general contractor job. Photo: Baseball Image Courtesy City Of Mesa Conceptual drawings show possible layouts for the Cubs’ new spring home. Photo: Baseball Image Courtesy City Of Mesa The project will be built as a construction manager-at-risk project. “It’s a complex project, and we want
Image: Courtesy SFOMA Norwegian architect Sn�hetta released its preliminary design for the 225,000-sq-ft expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. General contractor Webcor Builders will face the challenge of a compact urban site, currently a maze of alleyways, that is 335 ft long but only 98 ft wide. The project includes a public promenade with an entrance to the wing, which will sit behind the Mario Botta-designed original that opened in 1995. A more detailed design, executed in partnership with the local EHDD Architecture, is scheduled for completion by the end of the year. Construction completion is set
The Mississippi River flood fight is keeping inspectors on the job around the clock, even as the bulge of highest water slides south. Contractors are fighting boils and seepage. Approximately 25 miles north of Vicksburg, Miss., crews performed emergency repairs on some 400 linear ft of mainline levee that sustained two slides on the land-side. USACE Inspectors look for slides, sand boils and other indications of structural compromise within the Mississippi River levee system. Observers first spotted the slides on May 16, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A Corps spokesperson says more such damage can be expected
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