Even though corrosion causes substantial damage to U.S. infrastructure every year, “corrosion is not well understood,” says Ted Greene, professor of mechanical engineering at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston. Related Links: MassDOT Study Blames Salt For Big Dig's Fallen Light Fixture Receiving support from NACE International—originally known as the National Association of Corrosion Engineers—a Federal Highway Administration study on the direct costs associated with metallic corrosion in nearly every U.S. industry sector suggested the total annual estimated direct cost in the U.S. is $276 billion, about 3.1% of the nation's GDP. When indirect costs are included, that total is
Al Maktoum International Airport, located in Jebel Ali, Dubai, is the largest greenfield airport project currently under construction in the world. By 2013, it is expected to handle more freight—up to 12 million tonnes per year—than any other cargo airport in the world. The first of the airport's five 2.8-mile-long runways opened in June 2010, and the first of 16 cargo terminals has been completed. Expected to open next year, a passenger terminal capable of handling seven million passengers annually is now complete and undergoing testing. Two additional passenger terminals are in the design stage. Three cargo carriers are now
While Japan struggles to stabilize its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, engineers in Ukraine are only now starting construction of a new enclosure for Chernobyl's fourth reactor, almost exactly 25 years after it exploded and caused immense human and environmental damage in the region and globally. It's too early to say whether the Japanese will need their version of Chernobyl's $1.4-billion, 29,000-tonne steelwork safe enclosure to clear away their nuclear ruins. But the hard lessons learned in the development of Ukraine's $2.2-billion shelter implementation plan following the April, 26, 1986, disaster could give Japan's cleanup a running start. Chernobyl's shelter implementation
Construction on Chile's largest hydroelectric initiative, the 2,750-MW HidroAysén project, is awaiting final approval by the country's environmental agency, who is expected to respond by next month. HidroAysén—a joint venture between Chilean power utilities Empresa Nacional de Electricidad SA and Colbun SA—submitted its environmental impact assessment on April 15. A decision by the Chilean government on the environmental license for the project is expected in May. HidroAysén involves construction of five powerplants with an installed capacity of 2,750 MW; the project is located on the Baker and Pascua rivers in the Aysén region of Chile. Transporting the power from Patagonia
Reliance Power Ltd. has selected Black & Veatch to design the Samalkot, India, powerplant. The 2,500-MW plant will be located in Andhra Pradesh state, about 400 miles north of Chennai. The plant will comprise three power blocks, each consisting of two 9FA General Electric natural-gas combustion turbines, two heat-recovery steam generators and one steam turbine. Each block will have a capacity of 833MW. The plant will be fueled primarily by local natural-gas reserves. The plant will be built by Reliance Infrastructure, a subsidiary of the Reliance Group, as is Reliance Power Ltd. Construction is expected to be completed in 2012.
Five weeks into the Fukushima nuclear powerplant crisis, Tokyo Electric Power Co. on April 17 announced a road map leading to a cold shutdown that will minimize radioactive emissions and allow emergency evacuations around the plant to be lifted. The six- to nine-month plan calls for building new cooling systems as well as enclosures for four damaged reactors while limiting worker exposure to high radiation. “[The work is] very challenging because of the radiation levels,” says Jacopo Buongiorno, a nuclear engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., who is following the crisis. The nine-month schedule, he believes, “is
The value of the U.S. solar power market soared last year as several states, including New Jersey, significantly boosted installed capacity, according to a recent study by the Solar Energy Industries Association and market research firm GTM Research. Federal, state and, in some cases, local incentive programs and funding initiatives helped raise total year-over-year market value 67%, to $6 billion, the study shows. Market news was healthy nationwide as 16 states each installed more than 10 MW of photovoltaics, up from four in 2007. New Jersey, however, already has surpassed that amount and ranks second nationwide, trailing only California in
MARTELLY Fifteen months after an earthquake devastated Haiti's capital, the country's newly elected president, Michel Martelly, says he recognizes that he and his nation face a major rebuilding task. Speaking after an April 20 meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, D.C., Martelly said, through an interpreter, “Clearly, I have huge challenges in front of me, but I intend to meet them.” He added, “The reconstruction process is despairingly slow.” Martelly, a former entertainer, said that 1.7 million Haitians “still live under tents” and that, unless more people are vaccinated against cholera, the epidemic could widen with the
Constructing any major hospital is a challenge, but building a 320-bed state-of-the-art teaching hospital for $16 million in the highlands of Haiti is fraught with difficulties. Yet the aid group Partners in Health (PIH) is doing just that, using funds that come not from the government or the United Nations but from donations collected by the Boston-based group, which has worked for 23 years to boost the capacity of Haiti's public health sector. The materials, services and cash contributions are coming from private companies and organizations, especially from companies in the U.S. construction sector.The hospital, which will have six operating
The State Dept. is pushing ahead with plans to embrace “design excellence” in its embassy construction program, using some elements for a new U.S. embassy in London, now in design, and fleshing out details through a series of documents that will spell out specific Design Excellence program guidelines. Photo: U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations / Timothy Hursley The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations used some Design Excellence elements as it planned and built an embassy in Beijing that was completed in 2008. Image: U.S. Dept. of State/Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations For the new U.S.
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