A permanent end to a seemingly endless torrent of oil gushing from a runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico appeared in sight in mid-July as BP successfully installed a sealing cap on the wellhead—a crucial step in shutting it down. The cap was bolted on even as a drilling crew was coming close to intersecting the well bore almost 13,000 ft below the seabed with one of two relief wells being drilled nearby. Their aim is to pierce the well bore and kill the well by choking it with drilling mud and cement. BP is owner of the Macondo
Following the July 8 decision by a U.S. appellate court in New Orleans to uphold a lower court’s ruling that lifted the Obama Administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior on July 12 said its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will issue narrower “suspensions” that will curtail most deepwater drilling activities through Nov. 30. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the new suspensions will apply to drilling operations that use subsea blowout or surface preventers on floating facilities. The suspensions allow for some limited deepwater drilling to continue, including emergency drilling related
Critics contend that the new emissions targets in a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule for sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides carried downwind from powerplants in 31 eastern states and the District of Columbia could be difficult to achieve, but environmental advocates say the new proposal will result in cleaner air. EPA says the proposed rule, which EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signed on July 6, would cut SO2 emissions by 2014 by 70% from 2005 levels and trim NOx emissions by 52%. Gina McCarthy, EPA’s assistant administrator for air and radiation, says the proposal is a “large and important step in
Causes and solutions prove elusive on an Oregon bridge project where two bents moved out of plumb during construction. The troubled was noticed in the winter on the $215 million U.S. 20: Pioneer Mountain-Eddyville highway near the Oregon coast. Joe Squire, project manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation, says that a lateral load from adjacent fill and sub-surface ground pressure may have caused the shifts in two of the 20 bents on the 10-bridge project. The project consists of a six-and-a-half mile section of new road that bypasses a 10-mile stretch of substandard highway. Six of the 10 bridges
In its latest hotly contested competition for federal aid, the Dept. of Transportation has awarded $293 million for 53 streetcar and bus projects around the country. Some of the funds will go for construction. Related Links: Complete list of winners The grants were in two categories: Six projects, including five streetcar lines, shared $130 million in Urban Circulator funds; and 47 projects divided $163 million in Bus and Bus Livability aid. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood, announcing the winners on July 8, said the grants are part of the Obama administration's community "livability" initiative, which links transportation planning and funding with
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a regulation that aims to cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions that are carried downwind from powerplants in 31 eastern states and the District of Columbia, posing harm in other parts of the country. EPA says that the proposed rule, which EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signed on July 6, would cut SO2 emissions by 2014 by 71% from 2005 levels and trim NOx emissions by 52%. McCarthy says the first phase of the reductions would take place in 2012, assuming that the rule becomes final in 2011. Gina McCarthy, EPA's assistant administrator for
Brazil is finalizing construction at its Foz do Chapec� hydroelectric plant. The last phase, a rockfill dam, was completed last April. The project used asphalt instead of clay as the main component of the sealing nucleus—a first in Brazil. The choice of this technique resulted from a number of advantages the contractors and owners of the project researched in Europe. Images Courtesy Of Volta Grande Consortium Contractor used an asphalt nucleus, instead of clay, for first time ever in Brazil. Images Courtesy Of Volta Grande Consortium Dam on Uruguay River will provide alternative route between the states of Santa Catarina
Marking the beginning of what India hopes will be an ongoing stream of public-private partnership deals, a consortium of Australia’s Leighton, the U.K.’s Balfour Beatty, France’s Vinci and the Hindustan Construction Co. submitted bids this month for the $1.2-billion concessionaire contract to build a 570-kilometer highway from Rajasthan to Gujarat. This road is the first of nine megaprojects conceived by the National Highways Authority of India. India has set a target for constructing 35,000 km of highways in the next five years under the National Highways Development Program. Out of the $60-billion investment, $40 billion is to come from the
When built, Brazil’s first high-speed railroad will speed commuters across the 530 kilometers between Rio de Janeiro and S�o Paulo in just one hour and 30 minutes. But the bidding process has been slowed due to a dispute over procurement rules between the government’s Agency of Land Transportation (ANTT) and the national Audit Court of Brazil (TCU), testing the patience of potential bidders. + Image Map: Brazilian Government Planned high-speed rail route might not be done in time for next World Cup. Aware of the increasing disillusionment among bidders for the line’s 40-year design-build-maintain-operate contact, the government and court appear
Construction has begun on a novel bascule road bridge that has a 19-meter-long, diagonally split opening span at Poole Harbour, England. Hochtief U.K. Ltd., Swindon, has some 20 months to complete the 140-m Twin Sails bridge under a $28-million contract. Rendering: Poole Council Unique design features overlapping box girders in lieu of a conventional bascule. The roughly 30-m-long opposing tapering steel-box-girder spans will pivot upward to allow boats to enter the harbor. When closed, the tip of each 1.5-m-deep span will cantilever over the opposite support by about 10 m. This arrangement overcomes the need for pins to connect a
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