Through most of the past decade, rising demand for electricity in the U.S. led utilities and independent power companies to plan, design and build scores of new powerplants. Photo: Courtesy of International Power Zachry is part of a consortium designing, equipping and building a 650-MW coal plant in Texas. Related Links: Environment: Treatment-Facility Work, Cleanups Bolster Sector General Building: Firms Find Little Respite From Weak Economy Manufacturing/Telecommunications: Tough Market Requires Top-Notch Players Petroleum: Projects Cancelled in Uncertain Climate Transportation: Dearth of Funds Keeps Sector in Doldrums The Top 400 Contractors List With an anemic economic recovery and a focus on
There was both bad and good news for petroleum contractors this summer. The bad news was a pall of uncertainty currently shrouding petro markets as major oil-spill disasters—Gulf of Mexico rig explosions and a Michigan pipeline leak so far this year—ratcheted up scrutiny, opposition, delays and cancellations of new projects. But if there is good news for petro contractors, it is the fact that America’s monstrous thirst for oil remains unabated, and contractors know it’s only a matter of time before the carbon-based infrastructure market comes roaring back to life. Photo: Courtesy of SAIC SAIC has three contracts for hydrocracker
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its contractors are setting a record for achieving the fastest gain in consolidation and strength on earthen levees—a mere 60 to 90 days, compared with 10 to 11 years—by using an intricate design that layers a sand blanket, geotextile fabrics, rock and wick drains to evacuate moisture from marshy soils. “Something of this major import, of this scope, is rare, and we are using unique and unusual means to achieve those goals,” says Al Naomi, program manager, URS Corp., San Francisco. URS performed geotechnical design and developed plans and specifications for the levee
America’s aging infrastructure—which, in 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated would require $2.2 trillion over a five-year period—continues to provide work for environmental contractors through American Recovery and Reinvestment funding. Photo:Courtesey of PCL Utilities are still retrofitting aging facilities, like the South Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant. Related Links: General Building: Firms Find Little Respite From Weak Economy Manufacturing/Telecommunications: Tough Market Requires Top-Notch Players Petroleum: Projects Cancelled in Uncertain Climate Power: Federal Policy Drives New Power Projects Transportation: Dearth of Funds Keeps Sector in Doldrums The Top 400 Contractors List Specifically, contractors are finding work in assuring the safety
BP’s Macondo well is no longer a threat to the Gulf of Mexico, retired-U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Sept. 4 after the blowout preventer was removed from the top of the well without the release of any additional oil. The BOP was shipped to a government facility in Louisiana for analysis. BP says it will still finish a relief well as an extra measure of safety later this month. Meanwhile, BP announced it would provide results of its investigation into the April 20 accident on the Deepwater Horizon on Sept. 8. An oil industry response task force Sept.
Photo: AP/WideWorld Seismic experts credit the development and enforcement of seismic provisions of national building codes with dramatically reducing the impact of the most damaging earthquake to hit New Zealand in nearly 70 years. The magnitude-7.1 temblor that struck Christchurch, the second- largest city, at 4:36 a.m. on Sept. 4 caused no significant damage to major buildings. Low-rise unreinforced masonry buildings, not engineered to resist quakes, sustained the most extensive damage. Water and sewer lines bedded in soft alluvium were stressed and pipe-joint displacement occurred, disrupting service. By nightfall, two-thirds of the city had water.
An inadvertent meeting of the minds during planning for a 484,000-sq-ft hospital in Dayton, Ohio, turned into an effort that has propelled multitrade prefabrication of hospital components to a new level. In the most ambitious U.S. implementation of the strategy, the construction manager estimates that prefabbing the 178 identical patient rooms and 120 overhead corridor utility racks sliced more than two months from construction and 1% to 2% off the cost of the $152-million building, which is 90% complete. The first effort is seen as just a beginning. “I want to change the design of hospitals with this process,” says
Enforcement of seismic provisions in the nation's building codes is credited with dramatically reducing the impact of the most damaging earthquake to hit New Zealand for nearly 70 years. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand's second largest city, at 4.36 a.m. on Sept. 4, causing extensive damage to unreinforced masonry buildings, not engineered to resist sesimic loads, but no significant damage to major buildings. Investment in seismic retrofits appears to have saved some of Christchurch's most important historic buildings, including the Anglican Cathedral in the city's center and the Catholic Basilica. The major message from the earthquake is
Work is under way on a $571-million upgrade to a mountainous, five-mile stretch of Interstate 90 - Washington’s busiest east-west connector. Located miles from Seattle, the scenic highway, which is part of Snoqualmie Pass, weaves through the Cascade Range. The Washington State Dept. of Transportation’s comprehensive plan calls for widening the road from four lanes to six, repaving it with freeze- and thaw-resistant concrete, straightening curves, stabilizing rock slopes, and adding a chain-up area and 1,200-ft.-long snowshed. Moreover, WSDOT will add or replace four bridges and build four new ones bridges and culverts in an effort to improve fish and
Barnard Construction Co. , Bozeman, Mont., won a $26.9-million contract from the National Park Service to remove the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Elwha River in Washington State’s Olympic National Park. The firm’s bid was $13 million less than the engineer’s estimate. Site construction is set to start in September, with actual dismantling a year later. “With award of this contract, we begin the countdown to the largest dam removal and one of the largest restoration projects in U.S. history,” says Karen Gustin, park superintendent. The contract includes removal of the 108-ft-high Elwha Dam, completed in 1913, and