Rendering Courtesy of Israel Airports Authority New international airport will be built in Israel's southern Arava Desert to better serve the growing Red Sea resort city of Eilat. Related Links: Israel Moves Forward on Port Expansion and Bridgebuilding Israel Seeks Global Bidders for Major Transportation Projects Israel's first commercial greenfield airport since its independence in 1948 is sited in the Arava Desert, 18 kilometers north of the resort of Eilat, to replace an existing facility that doesn't handle jumbo jets or international traffic.The Israel Airports Authority will prequalify international construction teams late this month for the $450-million turnkey project in
Photo Courtesy of Mississippi Power Consultant's report says that even though Mississippi Power's Kemper County project footprint is large, work spaces are tight and schedule delays could be exacerbated by stacking of trades. Related Links: Mississippi Power Replaces KBR and Yates on Big Coal-Gas Project Coal Power for Mississippi, But $2.9-Billion Cost Cap Set Union labor is helping Mississippi Power and its Southern Co. Services affiliate get the utility's troubled Kemper County integrated gasification combined-cycle project back on track. In its earlier stages, the now $4-billion-plus Kemper project was being built almost entirely by contractors with non-union workforces.But as the
Map Courtesy of the Delta Stewardship Council Related Links: New Bay Delta Plan Calls for $13-Billion Tunnel UCLA Researchers Return to Delta for New Levee Shake Test The cost of California Gov. Jerry Brown's Bay Delta Conservation Plan, or BDCP, will top $24.5 billion, according to a report released by the state on May 29.When first proposed, the plan was estimated to cost $4 billion, then raised to $14 billion.The state's BDCP report addresses the controversial project's issues of cost, funding and the need for new water intakes and tunnels to restore habitats in the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta area,
Related Links: Timber Tower Research Project Softwood Lumber Board Arup San Francisco The U.S. is lagging Europe, Canada and Australia in the massive-timber tall-building movement—heating up because renewable, low-carbon-footprint timber is the most sustainable structural material. A feasibility study released last week for a 42-story concrete-jointed mass-timber frame—considered supertall in a world in which the tallest timber building is only 105 ft—could begin to change all that by stirring up interest in tall timber structures in the U.S. and even providing grist for the mill for supertall timber towers elsewhere.Under the Timber Tower Research Project, a team from the Chicago
Related Links: Information on ASHRAE's bEQ program NYC Building Energy Reprt Called a Step Toward Saving Energy An energy labeling program, which allows commercial building owners to get a better sense of how efficiently their buildings operate, has expanded to include an "As Designed" label.The program, called Building Energy Quotient (bEQ) and originally developed as a pilot program in 2010 by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), now has two labels that building owners can obtain: an As Designed label, which rates the building's potential energy use under standardized conditions, independent of the building's occupancy and
Photo Courtesy of TxDOT One of 12 precast tied-arch bridge segments sits on self-propelled transporters rolling to its final destination over the Trinity River. Designers envisioned a mix of efficiency and architecture. Related Links: Youtube Homepage of 7th Street Bridge 7th Street Bridge Fact Sheet (PDF) Rolling and rising methodically into place over the next month, 12 arches are forming what Texas Dept. of Transportation officials believe will be the world's first precast-concrete network-arch bridge. The novel design's ultimate goal is to alleviate congestion in the Fort Worth corridor. The new West 7th Street Bridge posed big post-tensioning and placement
Photo and Rendering Courtesy of WSDOT Officials are scrambling to replace part of a bridge that collapsed after an oversized-load truck struck it. Carrying Interstate 5 in northern Washington state, the bridge is one of thousands that lack redundancy in their critical members. Fast-track construction methods will be used for both temporary and permanent fixes to restore Washington state's main north-south connector, from Seattle to Canada, after the May 23 collapse of an Interstate 5 bridge span into the Skagit River.Washington State Dept. of Transportation officials took less than 72 hours to announce that a temporary structure will be in
Related Links: With Lessons Learned on Two Restarts, Third Time's a Charm The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will decide late next month whether to lift or extend a rare "red-level" safety finding—in place since 2011—at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Athens, Ala., after a 24-in.-dia valve in a cooling system failed to open in one unit. The malfunction could have impeded unit core-cooling in a fire. The ruling follows a multi-phase NRC inspection, the latest part occurring last month, that has identified safety problems and spurred corrective actions at the site by the owner, Tennessee Valley Authority.The 2011 NRC
Photo Courtesy of FEMA Plaza Tower Elementary School, which was reduced to rubble after an EF-5 tornado raked Moore, Okla., did not have a safe room. Seven children died. Some argue that safe rooms are too costly. Related Links: Joplin Rebuilding Stymied by Dispute Over Wage Rates Tuscaloosa Grapples With Reconstruction From April Twister's Wreckage As emergency workers address the aftermath of an EF-5 tornado that struck Moore, Okla., on May 20, lawmakers and industry members are grappling with whether regions vulnerable to EF-4 and EF-5 events should require safe rooms in schools and other non-residential facilities.The Moore tornado, which
Courtesy of the NYC Dept. of City Planning Map shows low-lying areas (dark blue) that would be affected by proposed New York City zoning-code changes intended to facilitate flood-resilient construction. Related Links: Designers Call for a More-Coordinated Effort to Improve New York City's Flood Resistance Interested parties have until mid-July to review proposed zoning changes to facilitate flood-resilient construction in designated flood zones in New York City. The City Planning Commission, which released the proposed zoning text amendment on May 20, will refer the proposals to 41 community boards—all of which contain flood zones—and all five borough presidents and borough
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