“The President is alive but has nowhere to live.” That was U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s stark assessment of Haitian President Rene Preval’s situation Thursday and it applied to hundreds of thousands of Haitians who had survived the quake but faced immediate problems of surviving. Government buildings in Haiti were severely damaged and the nation’s infrastructure, never solid, was in tatters. “There is no communications system,” said Clinton. “We are attempting to help set up a communications capability for the government." AP Photo/Francois Mori A person's leg hangs from of a building that collapsed during the earthquake in Port-au-Prince,
Many transportation experts say federal and state transportation departments need to radically change how they fund and deliver projects, with an emphasis on performance measures, private involvement and design-build. A number of federal and state officials are calling for a “major reform” in how federally funded transportation projects are assessed and delivered and how their own departments are organized. “The time is right to move to a performance-based program,” says Jeffrey Paniati, executive director of the Federal Highway Administration. “We need to focus less on the process and more on the outcome” of projects, he says. Paniati was part of
The British government this month awarded exclusive development rights for nine offshore wind farms. The combined potential 32,000-MW capacity of the awarded zones would increase the country’s wind-energy generation by nearly 47 times today’s installed capacity of 688 MW, although development is expected to play out over two decades. + Image Map: Crown Estate Offshore Wind Zones Industry appetite for offshore wind led The Crown Estate, which is responsible for coastal waters, to raise the scope of the nine sites from the 25,000 MW originally proposed, says a spokesman. East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd., a Spanish-Swedish joint venture, won the
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new standard for ground-level ozone, if enacted, would be the most stringent ever proposed. The measure would cost industry billions of dollars to reach compliance, by the agency’s own estimates. The proposal, signed on Jan. 6, would 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 also proposes a “secondary” standard to protect plants and trees. EPA estimates it will cost between $19 billion and $90 billion to implement the proposal. In 2008, the Bush administration revised the
The U.S. Dept. of Energy on Jan. 11 sponsored $187 million for the next five years to advance fuel efficiency for passenger vehicles and heavy-duty trucks, which account for nearly a third of the nation’s energy use. The $375-million program includes $100 million in stimulus funds. The work is expected to result in so-called SuperTrucks and passenger vehicles that consume less energy using hybrid drivetrains and other methods. According to DOE, such technologies could eventually save 100 million gallons of gasoline and diesel per day and cut carbon emissions 20% by 2030.
As rescuers in Haiti struggled to locate victims of a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the island at 4:53 p.m. on Jan 12, the U.S. government and construction industry mobilized to assist. Photo: AP Photo/Jorge Cruz Hillside homes affected by quake in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, Jan. 13 Photo: AP Photo/Jorge Cruz A man gestures behind a person trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince Wednesday. Related Links: BLOG: Can you help in Haiti? Let us know U.S. engineers familiar with the Caribbean also speculated that impoverished Haiti and its structures may have existed in a seismic
There is at least one superlative associated with the world’s tallest structure that few know about: The 828-meter Burj Dubai, renamed Burj Khalifa on its opening day, Jan. 4, is likely the most monitored skyscraper in the world, from its foundation to the top of its pinnacle. Data collected from the building’s permanent sensors will be used to refine design and construction methods for future supertall towers, say sources. + Image Photo: Emaar Properties Taipei 101, by 320 meters Photo: Emaar Properties Burj Khalifa, formerly called the Burj Dubai, dwarfs the world’s next-tallest building The burj’s lead contractor, Samsung C&T
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,
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