A second phase of coal-ash cleanup at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston, Tenn., fossil-fuel powerplant could take at least four more years and up to $741 million to complete, says an engineering and cost analysis done for the utility and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is overseeing the work. Released for comment on Jan. 18, the report covers new remediation options for what remains of more than 5.4 million cu yd of waste that leaked from a collapsed-site dredge cell in late 2008. Cleanup could total $1.2 billion. Knoxville, Tenn.-based TVA says the first phase of dredging in the
Even while survivors struggle through the grim process of removing bodies and debris left by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti on Jan. 12, relief organizations are mustering materials and skills to help Haitians rebuild their lives and economy. Photo: courtesy of GMI Prefabricated school unit is demonstration for proposed PET structural panels manufacturing plant in Haiti. Related Links: Haiti Quake Assessment is Small Step Toward Recovery Wrecked Port is No Barrier to Aid The World Economic Forum’s Disaster Relief Network is one group mobilizing aid to work on hospitals and orphanages in the villages of Duverger and Dandann,
After some bumps on the road to publication, the nation’s first code-intended commercial green building standard is available from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. Use of Standard 189.1, which covers site location, energy use, recycling, water efficiency, indoor air quality, materials, resources and a building’s impact on the atmosphere, should result in a “greener” building than use of ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA’s Standard 90.1-2007, says ASHRAE. ASHRAE, which developed 189.1 with the Illuminating Engineering Society and the U.S. Green Building Council, expects the new standard to be adopted into local building codes. Details about 189.1 are available at www.ashrae.org/greenstandard.
By the time they leave on Jan. 28, the 10 U.S. structural engineers sent to Haiti to assess the condition of buildings slightly damaged in the magnitude-7 earthquake will have done about 100 surveys. However, some 100,000 buildings still will need to be inspected so that the sound structures can be reoccupied, say local sources. Photo: Daniel O’neil, PADF High-end Oasis development, under construction, is undamaged, unlike an older completed building nearby (foreground). Photo: Eduardo Fierro, BFP Engineeers Inc. Light-metal roof of reinforcing-steel plant collapsed during the quake because it was not properly connected to the building’s reinforced-concrete columns. Related
Following a decade of study and debate, Nashville this month will begin clearing a 16-acre downtown site for the controversial $585-million Music City Convention Center. Photo: Music City Convention Center Authority Sweet song Music City Convention Center will inject more than $500 million into Nashville’s economy. A 1,000-room hotel to be located nearby would add another $300 million. The Nashville Metro Council voted 29-9 in January to approve the financing plan, despite questions about the city’s ability to pay off construction debt approaching $40 million a year. The 1.2-million-sq-ft convention center is scheduled to open in early 2013. The construction-management-at-risk
Five teams are seeking approval to bid a third link, estimated at $500 million, of an $8.7-billion rail line now under way between New Jersey and Manhattan. The contract, to be awarded next fall by project owners New Jersey Transit and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will involve building 14,600 feet of soft-ground tunnels that run 110 feet under the Hudson River. The project is set to be the nation’s largest public works transit job. There are some new names on the list of firms seeking contract prequalification that had not bid the project’s previous two
Florida’s transition to more efficient and clean energy production hit a speed bump last month when Juno Beach, Fla.-based FPL Group said it would immediately halt work on approved nuclear and modernization projects that collectively totaled as much as $20 billion. The sudden move came on the heels of the state Public Service Commission rejecting FPL’s requests for rate hikes totaling more than $1 billion. FPL Group Chairman and CEO Lew Hay cited the decision as evidence of a deteriorating regulatory climate in Florida that “is increasingly hostile to investment.” The largest projects are two additional nuclear units at the
Despite projections that it will take months to rebuild the primary, deep-draft port in Port au Prince, Haiti, construction and shipping industry representatives are confident they can pour loads of building materials and heavy equipment into the earthquake-damaged country. Photos: Seaboard Marine, a subsidiary of Seaboard Corp. (www.seaboardcorp.com), Merriam, Kansas. Haitian recovery efforts may hinge on shallow-draft ships like these unloading supplies. “The port being destroyed won’t be a hindrance to getting equipment in there, not if you have an experienced heavy lift operator who knows what they are doing,” says Jerry Nagel, CEO of U.S. operations for Rickmers-Linie, Hamburg,
State and federal regulators are closely monitoring conditions at the Trans Alaska Pipeline System following the discovery of a leak and a pair of shutdowns at Booster Pump Station 1. Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the pipeline operator, says engineers this week re-started the 800-mile pipeline for a second time since the leak was located in the basement of the facility January 8. + Image Image map: Courtesy of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. The leak happened near pumping station 1 (seen on map as PS1). “The leak was discovered by one of the personnel during routine surveillance of the system,” says
Funding will be the key to one of the largest dam removal projects in California history. State government officials and the California American Water Co. agreed on Jan. 11 to remove the 106-ft-tall San Clemente Dam on the Carmel River in Monterey County. The concrete arch dam, built in 1921, once provided drinking water to Monterey Peninsula residents, but its reservoir has since silted up 90%. In 1991, state dam inspectors also concluded the dam risked failure in a significant earthquake or flood event, which could release an estimated 2.5 million cu yds of sediment and more than 40 million