Images Courtesy of HUD Rebuild by Design The Manhattan plan (above) is for a defense that would double as a linear park. The Meadowlands scheme would protect several towns. If all goes well, the biggest winners in a competition to spark ideas for protecting coastal areas in the wake of 2012's Superstorm Sandy may be the cities of the world. The most ambitious of the six winning schemes of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development's "Rebuild by Design" competition calls for landscaped storm-surge protection that doubles as parkland along Manhattan's edge in New York City. The scheme's designer
Related Links: Megaproject Starts Propel $16.7B of Work in Calif., Hawaii Wolffkran Plans Towering U.S. Comeback, Including at 181 Fremont In earthquake-prone San Francisco, crews are digging the city's deepest foundation piles for an 802-ft-tall office-residential tower that is on course to be the city's second-tallest structure, if only temporarily. The 55-story 181 Fremont tower, sited on land reclaimed from the San Francisco Bay after the 1906 earthquake, will be founded on 42 piers that plunge an average of 255 ft—with the deepest down 264 ft—to bedrock.Because of the tight site, which is less than 140 ft square and bordered
Image Courtesy of Deepwater Horizon Study Group The blowout preventer's blind shear ram, intended as a fail-safe component, instead sliced through pipe and triggered oil spill. Related Links: U.S. Chemical Safety Board: Macondo Blowout and Explosion CSB Video: BOP Failure Scenario U.S. CSB Report: Explosion and Fire at the Macondo Well: Volume 1 U.S. CSB Report: Explosion and Fire at the Macondo Well: Volume 2 A new Deepwater Horizon disaster report, released on June 5, found that the blowout preventer (BOP), designed to shut off the flow of oil and gas from the Macondo well, "failed to seal the well
Photo Coutesy Grant County Public Utility district Crew bores pilot hole in preparation for steel-strand tendons that will be anchored in bedrock. Related Links: Varied Approaches Wring New Power from Waters Feds OK Redesign To Boost Migrating Salmon Survival Early this year, workers at the Wanapum Dam in central Washington state discovered that a 50-year-old mathematical error, made during dam design, had caused a 65-ft-long fracture.The 8,367-ft-long Wanapum Dam, six miles downstream of Vantage, Wash., generates 1,092 MW of power.On Feb. 24, a hydroelectric mechanic walking the small road on the dam's spillway deck noticed a bowed curb, says Thomas
Related Links: Transportation's Next Chapter: Maintenance, Mobility, Money P3s Fuel Construction of Lone Star Lanes Continuing its trend of building managed toll lanes with private-sector partners, the Texas Dept. of Transportation has "conditionally" awarded a team led by Kiewit Corp. an $847-million, 3.5-year design-build contract to expand and upgrade State Highway 183, also known as the Airport Freeway, in Dallas.The award is "not set in stone," says Ryan LaFontaine, a TxDOT spokesperson. "There is a period where we'll go work with them to make sure their promises match what we require. Also, public hearings will be held. The process will
Related Links: Automation, Weather Will Influence Future Airport Designs Frustrated Airport Officials Call Out Feds, Airlines Knoxville's airport rents out land to office complexes, car dealers and the U.S. Postal Service. Huntsville International Airport receives revenue from a golf course and cotton farmers. And several other airports, especially the one in Albuquerque, are seeing increasing savings and tax credits from solar panels.American non-hub airports increasingly are turning to non-aeronautical budget enhancers as they face uncertainty in shaping long-term capital plans. "Non-aeronautical revenue represents a good opportunity for architects, engineers, contractors and investors to participate in the changing aviation environment," says
Photo Courtesy of T-Engineering-Ceneva Final tranche from Turkish bankers will underwrite the country's third Bosporus Strait span. Related Links: Turkey Still Seeks Bids for Bosporus Crossing Byzantine Port, Botched Buildings With construction of Turkey's third Bosporus bridge about 25% done, its consortium has secured $2.3 billion of Turkish bank loans to complete the build-own-operate deal's project financing. The roughly 2.2-km-long bridge will cross the Black Sea mouth of the Bosporus waterway between Garipçe and Poyrazköy about 35 km north of Istanbul. Work began early last year and should end in 2016. Bankers finalized the final piece of funding on May
Photo courtesy SRS Watch The $7.7-billion MIxed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project has experienced a nearly $3-billion increase in construction costs, and is estimated to be three years behind its original schedule. Related Links: DOE Audit Report: Cost and Schedule of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site Senate Appropriators Question Pause in MOX Project Construction, Operational Challenges Endanger $7.7B MOX Project The federal agency overseeing the $7.7-billion Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in Aiken, S.C., violated a "basic principle" when it approved the plutonium disposal facility for construction despite its "immature" design, according to a U.S.
Photo courtesy Duke Energy Image courtesy Duke Energy A diagram of the coal-ash basin at the Dan River powerplant, where the spill occurred. Related Links: With Coal Ash Leak Plugged, Focus Turns to Remediation Subpoenas Issued in Dan River Coal Ash Spill Concrete Firm Exec Tells N.C. Legislature That Industry Wants to Buy Coal Ash Duke Energy's efforts to remove a portion of an estimated 39,000 tons of coal ash spilled in February into the Dan River could signal the start of new responsibilities for North Carolina utilities in managing waste from coal-fired powerplants.Duke signed an "enforceable" agreement with the
Photo by AP Wide World A proposed EPA rule calls for a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030. States would be responsible for implementing plans by June 2016. Related Links: EPA Sets Ambitious Goal to Cut Existing Powerplants' CO2 Emissions Text of EPA Proposal (June 2) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing powerplants, calling for a 30% reduction below 2005 levels by 2030. EPA says the proposed rule, which it released on June 2, could lead to upgrades at fossil-fuel-fired powerplants and has the potential to
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