Photo Courtesy of MESA Associates The NRC is requiring containment structure for Watt's Bar reactor before licensure. The Tennessee Valley Authority was set to begin pouring the concrete foundation in late August for a 12,000-sq-ft reactor containment structure at its Brown's Ferry nuclear powerplant in Alabama that is being designed to withstand a 10,000-year earthquake and 300-mph winds. Specifications for the building, known as FLEX, were developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from lessons learned after the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan."It's an entirely new layer of protection to be used for a beyond-design flood, earthquake or tornado," says
Photo Courtesy of Bentley Systems The integrated analyzer runs grillage, or line-girder analysis, and then performs comprehensive design code checks and load ratings based on results. Analysis in 3D is expected in a later release. Related Links: Bentley LEAP Bridge Steel Bentley LEAP Bridge Enterprise V81 Bentley Systems Inc. has produced new software for the design, analysis, load rating and 3D modeling of "everyday" steel bridges. It complements another Bentley product for designing similar bridges in concrete. One early user of the new tool for steel says her firm already has used the pair to create a bridge proposal using
Related Links: Boomlet Prompts Oil Shipper's Plan To Increase Its Capacity Booming U.S. Energy Market Spurs Pipeline Net Expansion Canexus Corp., says it will start Canada’s first pipeline-connected crude oil rail terminal before the end of August, but the Calgary-based chemical manufacturing company and terminal operator is already considering the sale of the Bruderheim, Alberta, facility.Design issues, construction cost escalations and schedule delays related to expansion efforts at Bruderheim have depressed Canexus’ balance sheet and share price—even as demand for more Alberta crude shipping capacity is climbing.In 2012 Canexus pegged Bruderheim's construction costs at $125 million, but recent estimates have
Related Links: U.S. DOT announcement of TIFIA loan Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority 5/30/2014 financial update for Silver Line FHWA list of TIFIA loan applications and status (updated 8/14/2014) Financing for the $2.8-billion second leg of a northern Virginia rail transit line to run to Washington Dulles International Airport and beyond has taken a step forward with the closing of a $1.3-billion federal loan.The U.S. Dept of Transportation said on Aug. 20 that it had closed a $1.28-billion Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), which operates Dulles and Ronald Reagan Washington National
Photo by Johanna Knapschaefer/ENR Walsh Construction rescue team, from left: Steve Mendonca, Jeff Trider and Mark Chaisson. Photo by Johanna Knapschaefer/ENR Whittier Bridge construction site in Massachusetts became stage for a rescue. Related Links: Chilean Miner Rescue Effort Aided by Yankee Ingenuity Rescue Took Teamwork, But Ultimately It Was Up To One Man Swift communication and the heroic action of three Walsh Construction workers likely saved the lives of two kayakers who got trapped beneath the Whittier Bridge construction site in Newburyport, Mass., in floodwaters with strong currents following torrential rain.At 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 7, Jeff Trider, a pile-driving
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons SS Ancon makes the first-ever transit through the Panama Canal in 1914. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Construction of the original canal. Related Links: Exclusive Interview With Owner Dramatic Digs Mark Panama Canal Expansion Global Talent Converges On Panama Canal Panama Canal Holds Visions Of New Growth Four International Teams Vie For Panama Canal Locks Job Its expansion will be over a year late, but nothing could delay the Panama Canal’s 100th birthday. Opened opened to world trade on August 15, 1914, with the passage of SS Ancon, the 80-kilometer waterway has registered over 1,055,000 transits
Photo courtesy of Kelly Huston, Office of the Governor, California State lawmakers circle around California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who signed water infrastructure legislation that state voters will consider on the November ballot. Related Links: Information on AB 1471 Natural Resources Defense Council report on water supply solutions to drought in California Construction and engineering groups are upbeat about a $7.5-billion water bond measure on the California ballot in November.“We see nothing but good coming from the water bond, driven in large part by the years of neglect of our water system” in California, says Tom Holsman, CEO of the
Related Links: NZTA official project website Port Of Miami Tunnel Features Big Challenges Marked by the use of an independent self-propelled culvert gantry, New Zealand's largest-ever highway project passed the halfway mark on the first drive in Auckland. The first of parallel 2.4-kilometer-long tunnel bores, when completed this fall, will mark a major milestone for the $1.2-billion Waterview Connection, the last section of a Western Ring Route.The milestone follows a brief hiatus and successful completion of essential maintenance work on the earth-pressure tunnel-boring machine (TBM), nicknamed Alice, in May. The Herrenknecht machine, manufactured at the company’s facility in China, cost
Related Links: Information on Power Africa initiative White House fact sheet on new additional commitments and goals Africa’s electric-power infrastructure is set to receive an enormous boost over the next four years, thanks to new government and public-sector commitments of nearly $14 billion announced at a recent summit of African and U.S. officials in Washington, D.C.The summit, held Aug. 4-6, drew some 50 African heads of state, ministers and business executives, who met with President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, congressional leaders and other officials to discuss partnerships with government and nongovernmental organizations.A key development was Obama's Aug. 5
Related Links: Greens Niinist calls for govt to reconsider Rosatom for nuclear plant Russia Moving To Expand Global Nuclear Power Market Share More scrutiny from the European Parliament and tighter economic sanctions imposed against Russia for its role in Ukraine’s civil war could threaten the international construction portfolio of state-owned nuclear power firm Rosatom, which the company says will reach $100 billion in 2014. Finnish political leaders have called to stop an $8.4-billion nuclear power project in northern Finland, in which Rosatom has a 34% ownership stake. As the project waits to receive final approval from Finland’s Parliament in September,
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