As its investigation continues into the deadly June 22 crash of two Metrorail cars in suburban Maryland near Washington, D.C., the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is urging the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to incorporate enhanced safety redundancy into its train control system as quickly as possible. The agency also called on the Federal Transit Administration to advise other transit agencies using similar automated controls to evaluate their systems for adequate safety redundancy. Metrorail's control system, which automatically regulates train speed and location, has come under scrutiny after a train traveling at high speed rear-ended a stopped train,
Next year’s World Cup soccer competition is providing powerful motivation on a major transportation project. Gautrain is an 80-kilometer rail line linking Johannesburg with Pretoria, with a spur leading to OR Tambo International Airport, which serves both cities. The route will tunnel underground for 15 km, cross 55 bridges and travel on viaducts for 10.5 km. It involves 6.7 million cubic meters of earthmoving, with a peak work force of 6,000. Phase one, the 20-km airport connector, is currently on target for its May 2010 deadline. It is structured as a public- private partnership, awarded to the Bombela Consortium, made
To break the routine of cost and schedule overruns in Canadian nuclear construction, the operator of North America’s largest nuclear powerplant hopes to combine U.S. nuclear project management expertise with Canadian engineering and construction skills in a company to target construction in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. It could be ready for business by next year. Photo: Bruce Power L.P. Sauger (center) is negotiating. The company is in “the formative stages,” says John Sauger, senior vice president for Bruce Power Ltd., Tiverton, Ontario. “The concept is a holding company, structured as a limited-liability partnership.” With managers from U.S. nuclear contractors
With an installed capacity of over 10,500 MW, India is currently the fifth-largest generator of wind power in the world. As it adds about 1,200 MW of wind capacity per year, the potential is far from depleted, but developers are faced with challenges in erecting the turbines in remote areas. Photo: Regen Wind Transporting large turbine blades to construction sites poses challenges. Unlike their Western counterparts, Indian developers often must find innovative means to transport large turbines through narrow, crowded roads to ill-equipped, hilly sites. “Non-availability of transport and cranes, lack of experienced manpower and infrastructure [lacking] such things as
The world’s first floating nuclear powerplant is currently under construction at a shipyard in St. Petersburg. It will be 144 m long and30 m wide and house two 35-MW reactors. It will supply power in remote areas. Upon completion in 2012, crews will tow the plant to the port of Vilyuchinsk on the Kamchatka peninsula, where it will supply power to a submarine base. Russia’s United Industrial Corp. (OPK) is building the FNPP at its Baltiiskii Zavod shipyard for owner Concern Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear utility. Russia has extensive experience with nuclear-propelled submarines and icebreakers, and the reactors on the
A new $308-million Dept. of Energy stimulus grant will advance a California clean coal full-scale demonstration project. The $2-billion Hydrogen Energy California (HECA) will feature Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology in Kern County. HECA will convert coal and petroleum coke (a byproduct of the refining process in the Los Angeles basin) and non-potable water into hydrogen and CO2. A methanol-based process will then separate the CO2 from the hydrogen. The hydrogen will be used to fuel a 390 MW power station. The CO2 will be piped to the Elk Hills Field oil reservoir where it will be injected for
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers has released for comment 18 proposed air-side control changes to its energy-use standard, ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1. The proposals are intended to move toward 30% energy-cost savings in buildings. Specific comments can be filed by either July 19 or Aug. 3. Details are available at www.ashrae.org.
A magnitude-7.5 quake, simulated by a shake table on July 14, proved performance-based seismic design is valid for a six-story, wood-frame residential building on a one-story steel frame. Damage was negligible, say investigators from Colorado State University and Simpson Strong-Tie. Photo: Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc. Related Links: Jumbo Quake Test Validates Design: Magnitude 7.5 Tembler Jolts Connections
An eye-catching project is taking shape in Baku. It features three curving towers ranging from 31 to 39 stories, rising from a podium with an extensive roof garden. The towers will be shield-shaped in cross section. One tower will house luxury apartments, another a hotel and the third, offices. The design by HOK is inspired by Azerbaijan’s tradition of fire worship. Baku is an active seismic zone. The excavation is seven stories deep and required a bored pile retaining wall and foundation piles up to 50 m long. Winds sometimes reach 120 km/hour, requiring tower cranes to be shut down.
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