Courtesy National Park Service Repair crews at work on a section of U.S. 441 washed out by a January slide. Related Links: Contractor Nails Interstate Repair Job After Landslide in East Tennessee Plagued Oregon Job Will Be Redesigned Work crews have begun removing debris, stabilizing the hillside and building an access road to start repairs on U.S. 441 between Gatlinburg, Tenn., and Cherokee, N.C., where a landslide Jan. 15 took out a 200-ft section of road.APAC-Atlantic, Harrison Division, of Knoxville started work Jan. 28 and is expected to complete it “in a few weeks,” according to National Park Service officials.
Courtesy BNFL Sellafield complex has some 200 building scheduled for decommissioning. Related Links: URS-Led Team Assumes Control Of U.K.s Sellafield Nuclear Site Owner Separates From Building Team Fees paid by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to the U.S.-led consortium managing decommissioning the U.K.'s giant Sellafield nuclear facility is not “a good deal” for British taxpayers, claims a new report by the influential parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. The average cost charged last year by the Nuclear Management Partners consortium for 16 executives reached $1.1 million with the highest earner costing the NDA $1.9 million. Nuclear Management Partners is effectively winding down remaining operations
Photo Courtesy of Duke Energy Duke Energy is planning to place its Crystal River nuclear plant in a "safe-storage configuration" until final decommissioning, which will take place in 40 to 60 years. Related Links: Cost and Schedule Explosion for Florida Nuclear Plant Repairs Crystal River Plant Fix Central to Duke CEO Ouster Florida, Progress Energy Reach Fix Plan for Crystal River Utility Duke Energy announced on Feb. 5 that it is canceling previous plans to repair its broken Crystal River nuclear plant in Citrus County, Fla. Instead, it will build a new natural-gas powerplant elsewhere in the state to replace
ASHRAE and the United Nations Environment Programme have renewed their joint global effort to help reduce the amount of pollutants released into the atmosphere by buildings. One big goal of the so-called third biennial work plan is the sustainable phase-out of ozone- depleting substances in refrigerant and air conditioning systems, says the Atlanta-based ASHRAE, formerly known as the American Society of Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.Another aim of the joint effort, created under a global cooperation agreement signed in 2007, is to create an international advisory team to assist developing countries in their efforts to institute and/or update relevant codes
Related Links: Airports Council International-North America report Congress Clears Long-Delayed FAA Bill (ENR 2/12/12) Airports in the U.S. need $71.3 billion over five years to expand, rebuild and upgrade terminals, runways and other infrastructure, an Airports Council International-North America, or ACI-NA, survey says. Released on Jan. 29, the report says that while large and medium hubs have funds secured or expected for 65% of capital needs, small hubs have 81% of funds committed or expected.The total is down 11% from ACI-NA's 2011 survey, but the group says the average $14.3 billion a year outpaces income from federal Airport Improvement Program
Image Courtesy of California High Speed Rail Authority Construction of California's high-speed-rail line will begin on a 30-mile section running from Madera to Fresno. Related Links: Calif. High-Speed Rail Backers Push 'System Blend' Innovation, Policy Baby Steps Cheered a Frustrated U.S. Transportation Industry in 2012 California's High-Speed Rail Authority selected Wong-Harris as the project and construction manager for the first 30-mile section of a high-speed-rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The joint-venture contract for PGH Wong Engineering, San Francisco, and Concord, Calif.-based Harris & Associates, is worth up to $34.9 million."It's an important step forward for the project,"
The 1,485-ft-long steel arch bridge, with a 505-ft-long main span, forms a crucial crossroad: it carries eight lanes of Interstate 95 across the Harlem River, linking, with a swirling medley of eight ramps, the Cross Bronx Expressway with other key arteries, such as the George Washington Bridge and the Major Deegan Expressway, or Interstate 87.
Photo Courtesy of Omega Morgan A 3,400-ton truss bridge slid onto a beam setup and traveled in an arc at a painstaking pace to avoid hitting nearby homes. Photo Courtesy of Omega Morgan Related Links: Vermont Bridge Slides Into Future A Bridge Slips And Slides Into Place Cleveland Crossing's Smooth Slide Massive Truss Rolls Into Place About eight inches per push—that is how the 3,400-ton Sellwood Bridge moved forward on Jan. 19 in Portland, Ore. The owner, Multnomah County, moved the 87-year-old, 1,100-ft-long steel truss 66 ft to the north using the span as a detour bridge, while a joint
Courtesy of Kinder Morgan Canada Expanded pipeline diameter and parallel lines would enable Kinder Morgan to add more than a half-million barrels per day from Alberta to terminals along the Pacific coast. Related Links: $20-Billion Investment Will Move Oil-Sands Crude South California Fire Marshall Fines Kinder Morgan $500,000 in Walnut Creek Blast New, long-term contracts with oil- producing companies have prompted Kinder Morgan Canada to expand its proposed twinning of its 714-mile Trans Mountain pipeline between Alberta and Burnaby, British Columbia, and increase by nearly seven times the number of tankers it serves at the port of Vancouver. Company President
Related Links: EPA page on ELG rule, with settlement agreement New EPA Stormwater Permit Omits Numeric Turbidity Limit The National Association of Home Builders, the Utility Water Act Group, the Wisconsin Builders Association and the Environmental Protection Agency have reached a settlement in the industry groups' long-running lawsuit over the agency's 2009 rules to control the discharge of pollutants from construction sites. The agreement should allow contractors to breathe a collective sigh of relief, construction officials say.In December 2009, under court order, the agency finalized effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs) for the construction and development industry to establish the minimum technology
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