A California contractor was awarded one of the largest U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contracts for a $5-million irrigation project in the National Elk Refuge near Jackson, Wyo. Yerba Buena Engineering and Construction, Inc., a San Francisco-based minority-owned small business, will install more than five miles of irrigation pipe in the 25,000-acre park to replace what Fish and Wildlife Service Spokesman Michael Mascari called “pioneer-era canals.” Five miles of buried polyethylene pipe will replace open canals from pioneer days. Yerba Buena proposed using polyethylene pipe and small sprinklers. The raw materials are more expensive than
A new law went into effect on Jan. 1 in Washington, D.C. requiring building owners to begin measuring the energy use of new and existing commercial buildings using the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool. The law, approved and signed in 2008, is the first in the nation to require building owners to publicly disclose their energy ratings to prospective tenants and buyers. Building owners must begin revealing their energy ratings beginning on Jan. 1, 2012. You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” says Cliff Majersik, executive director of the Institute for Market Transformation, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Jan. 7 proposed tougher standards for ground-level ozone, saying that the stricter requirements will protect public safety and health. The new standards, if enacted, would replace the standards set by the previous administration and would be the strictest ever proposed. EPA says it is proposing to set the “primary” standard, which protects public health, at a level of between 0.060 parts per million and 0.070 ppm measured over eight hours. EPA is also proposing that a separate “secondary” standard be set within the range of 7-15 ppm to protect plants and trees. In 2008,
The Padma Bridge, which at 6.1 km will be Bangladesh’s longest bridge when completed, will cross the Padma River 50 km south of Dhaka, the capital. The bridge’s two-level superstructure will carry four lanes of traffic on the upper level, with a rail line and gas transmission line below. The project also includes 13.8 km of approach roads. The bridge is being designed by the New Zealand office of Maunsell AECOM, with support from the firm’s Hong Kong office. Design is expected to be completed by December 2010, with construction commencing in 2011 and lasting about three and a half
A contractor last month completed relocation of a 1,800-ft-long flood-prone stretch of state Route 12 on Hatteras Island, N.C., but a longer-term plan to elevate other parts of the highway faces potential delays. RPC Contracting Inc., Kitty Hawk, N.C., began work in late November on a $439,600 lump-sum contract to shift the 1,800-ft stretch of roadway 23 ft to the west, placing it at the edge of the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation’s right-of-way through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Construction was completed by Dec. 11, after which the contractor would have faced liquidated damages of $5,000 per day.
Spanish construction logos are among the first to be seen by visitors to the Irish Republic as they drive into Dublin from the city’s airport. A blend of funding, design and construction expertise has secured for the Spanish a large and growing slice of Ireland’s infrastructure market. Photo: W.S. Atkins PLC. A major redesign eases construction at Dublin’s N3-M50 interchange. Related Links: Dublin Beltway's PPP Upgrade Crossing the airport road is a roughly $360-million project to upgrade the M50 toll road, sweeping around the west of Dublin. Spanish firms control 85% of the consortium that is widening 23 kilometers of
Construction is scheduled to start this year on what will be the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in the U.S., linking St. Louis and western Illinois over the Mississippi River by 2014. The scope, limited bids and challenges of the Interstate 70 project caused the winning bid to exceed engineering estimates by almost $40 million. Image: MoDOT New St. Louis-Illinois crossing will be challenging but potentially rewarding for the contractor. On Dec. 30, the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission (MHTC) awarded the $229.5-million contract to a joint venture of Massman Construction, Kansas City, Mo.; Traylor Brothers Inc., Evansville, Ind.; and Alberici Constructors
Managers of London’s Crossrail railroad have chosen the final five of 24 design teams for the estimated $26-billion project, said to be Europe’s largest infrastructure job. Last month, Crossrail Ltd., short-listed five international consortiums to compete for the two main tunnel contracts, extending 18.1 km, with awards due by June. Preparatory work on the tunnels’ western portals, at Royal Oak, is due to start this month. The 118-km east-west railroad will include 21 km of twin, 6.2-m dia. tunnels under the city. All schedules could change after the government elections, which must be held before June. The opposition Conservative Party,
Photo: DHV Group Vietnam bridge initiative will allow much larger vessels to travel the Mekong River. Vietnam’s ministry of transport, public works and water management has launched a four-year, $100-million project to improve navigation along 250 km of the Mekong River, a key transportation corridor. Netherlands-based DHV Group has won a contract covering design and management, and construction is due to start in a year. Work on 18 existing and new bridges, as well as a lock, will allow 600-tonne vessels to ply the river, about 20 times bigger than those now in use.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Jan. 4 he would meet with stakeholders on the future of the planned $1-billion Cape Wind wind farm in Nantucket Sound after the National Park Service ruled that its planned site is eligible for listing as a national historic site because of cultural significance to two local Native American tribes. The project, located off the Massachusetts coast, would be the country’s first offshore wind farm. It would involve construction of 130 turbines, each 440 ft high, and other structures. Environmentalists and other opponents claim the project, being developed by Cape Wind Associates LLC,