Photo by Getty Images Utilities are scrambling to adapt to the effects of drought and flooding. Related Links: New Climate Cycle Marked by Storms, Floods & Drought EPA's Climate Change National Water Program Strategy Clearing Out Superstorm's Soggy Mess Drought, wildfires and extreme weather events like Superstorm Sandy are pushing water utilities to find ways to cope with the effects of climate change, industry sources say."We can argue about whether or not [these events] are actually being caused by climate change, but the fact of the matter is, we have some extreme events happening to our water environment," says Matt
Photo By Getty Images The Atlantic Ocean topped a Winthrop, Mass., seawall during a massive, slowing-moving snowstorm that hit the Northeast in February 2013. Related Links: Extreme Weather Pushes Water Utilities to Adapt Pipelines, Powerplants and Refineries All at Risk Transportation Officials Seek Storm-Surge Solutions 58 Big-City Mayors Focus on Reducing Building Energy Use New York Ponders Plan For Next Storm Engineers Focus On Big Delta Threats Subway tunnels built for normal weather conditions are flooded by a superstorm; roads constructed for historic temperature means are buckling under extreme heat; levees built for one-in-100-year storms are tested every few years
Photo by AP Wideworld Electrical distribution systems are vulnerable to violent winds and ice storms. Often, utilities respond by reconstructing their power lines underground. Related Links: New Climate Cycle Marked by Storms, Floods & Drought Storm Surge Switches Grid to 'Off' Smarter Grids Finding Limits The threat of climate change, a rising sea level and increased storm surge are not news to those who work in Port Fourchon. There, at the southern tip of Louisiana, the oil and gas companies that serve 18% of the oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico know what to do when hurricanes
Photo by AP Wideworld A flurry of pending reports are expected to address the issues of sustainability and resiliency in transportation infrastructure. Related Links: New Climate Cycle Marked by Storms, Floods & Drought Louisiana Officials' Goal Is Hurricane Resistant Bridge From cold-ironing at port harbors and beehive programs at airports to porous pavements, recycled asphalt aggregate and "green roads" rating systems, the transportation industry's efforts to address climate change have been growing over the last decade. But Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the devastation of Superstorm Sandy last fall have increased the sense of urgency about responding to severe weather
Related Links: Repairs Under Way on Highway Closed by Landslide in the Smoky Mountains Phillips & Jordan Inc. of Robbinsville, N.C., won the contract Feb. 20 and started immediately to replace the 200-ft section of US 441 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that was wiped out by a landslide.First comes an access road to the bottom of the site and removing 27,000 cu yds of excavation, then filling the football-field-size slide area with 40,000 cu yds of crushed stone that will be “sandwiched” in 1.5-ft layers between layers of geogrid, said Dudley Orr, vice president of Phillips &
Photo courtesy of Karl Tuplin/BAS Responsive to moving ice, hydraulic legs on skis allow the modules for the British Antarctic Survey's latest Halley station to be raised and towed across the Brunt Ice Shelf. Related Links: Discovering Antarctica Website Halley Research Station Website Building the British Antarctic Survey's newly commissioned research station in one of the remotest, coldest spots on earth was every bit as tough as it sounds.A short, nine-week construction season, bitter weather and tortuous supply lines were always on the daily management agenda. An unwelcome surprise arrived when cracks appeared in the first module of the Halley
The Ohio Dept. of Transportation has selected three design and construction teams that will vie to design, construct and partially finance a $330-million vehicular bridge in Cleveland, marking the first public-private partnership ODOT has undertaken since receiving authorization in 2011.Teams selected to submit proposals for one of two replacements for the I-90 Inner Belt span include Kokosing Construction Co., with designer Michael Baker Jr. Inc.; Walsh Construction, with designer URS Corp.; and Trumbull Corp., The Great Lakes Construction Co. and The Ruhlin Co., with designer HDR Engineering Inc.ODOT plans to select a team for the bridge, an east-bound span, by
Related Links: India's Deepest Offshore Platform To Boost Oil Supply Mixed Reaction to Offshore Oil And Gas Development Delay Capital costs for a newly sanctioned oil field under development 200 miles off the coast of Newfoundland have ballooned to nearly three times the original cost estimate. But despite the $14-billion price tag for the Hebron offshore drilling project, which includes construction of a gravity-based drilling platform, senior project manager and ExxonMobil Vice President Geoff Parker says official project sanction "marks a significant milestone" for Hebron."Construction … has already begun at the Bull Arm fabrication site," Parker said in a press
Related Links: EPA's Contaminant Candidate List page EPA's page on Chromium in drinking water Pushed by public health concerns and pressure from environmental advocates, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to move forward in 2013 with more stringent regulations related to inorganic and organic contaminants in drinking water. Those regulations likely will drive engineering and construction projects at municipal drinking-water plants, industry sources say."I think what the future holds is a lot of additional treatment to deal with regulations we see on the horizon," says Tim Worley, executive director of the American Water Works Association's (AWWA) California-Nevada region, which held
Related Links: Israel To Tackle First Major Industrial Pollution Cleanup Website of EnGlobe Corp. In a competition that drew international bids for a first-of-its-kind project in Israel, two government ministries have picked Canada’s EnGlobe Corp. for a $55-million cleanup of the Kishon River, a dumping ground for untreated industrial and municipal wastes for decades.Last month, the company, based in Quebec City, Quebec, won the global tender that was issued jointly by the country's Environmental Protection Ministry and the Kishon River and Drainage Authority. EnGlobe, which specializes in bio-remediation approaches, beat out about 20 companies from North America and Europe that
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