Making the U.S. energy-independent and overhauling outmoded transportation infrastructure are the two key engineering challenges to be faced in the next decade, say nearly 60% of 323 design-firm CEOs in a survey released on Aug. 30 by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), Washington, D.C. Fewer respondents noted needed upgrades of infrastructure for water-wastewater treatment and flood control, cyber-security, sustainable building and electrical grids as challenges through 2020. Responding CEOs were among 2,000 leaders of ACEC member companies contacted for the survey. More than 80% of the respondents say they run companies with 200 or fewer employees. Almost 30%
Hoping to attract cargo traffic from an expanded Panama Canal in 2014, the Port of Miami is taking steps to refurbish a dormant 4.4-mile rail corridor linking the port with the Hialeah Intermodal Railyard, operated by the Florida East Coast Railroad. The Port, FECR and the Florida Dept. of Transportation are collaborating on the $46.9-million project, which is still contingent on receiving a $28-million so-called TIGER grant (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. If approved, the two-year project would restore a one-track rail link that has been out of service for several years, due
A new isolated bearing system designed to preserve the alignment of critical bridge structures while saving millions in construction costs may make its debut on a high-speed-rail project in Turkey. It has been proposed for California’s planned high-speed-rail system as well. Photo: Courtesy of EPS A new isolation system, tested successfully in California this spring, may be used on two Turkish bridges. CCCI Consortium—a design-build partnership of the China Railway Construction Corp., the China National Machinery Import & Export Corp., Istanbul-based Cengiz Insaat and Ankara-based IC Ictas Insaat—plans to include a segmental displaced control isolation system manufactured by Vallejo, Calif.-based
The state-owned rail companies of Botswana and Mozambique are preparing to build an estimated $7-billion transport project that would include one of Africa’s longest railways and a deepwater port on the Indian Ocean, south of Maputo. A recent agreement between the two governments calls for the scheme to include private financing, but backing has not yet been secured. Photo: Wikipedia The Beira port facility in Mozambique would be supported by a new deepwater port to handle larger ships. Photo: Courtesy of CFM Congestion at the port and railway complex at Maputo, Mozambique, will be alleviated by a new rail system.
A Houston company has completed construction of a pair of power-generation barges that, when installed later this year in Venezuela, will become the world’s largest floating power-generation facility. Photo: Courtesy Walker Marine Inc. Floating powerplants will move from Signal International Shipyard in Orange, Texas, to Venezuela in September. Waller Marine Inc. completed work on the two $125-million vessels, Margarita I and Josefa Rufina I, earlier this month at the Signal International Shipyard in Orange, Texas. Each barge boasts a single GE 7FA turbine generator and is capable of producing 171-MW. When installed in a prepared basin at Tacoa, Venezuela, near
Boise, Idaho-based U.S. Geothermal Inc. announced on Aug. 30 that it has signed a contract with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), McLean, Va., for engineering, procurement and construction for the first phase of a new geothermal powerplant at San Emidio in northwest Nevada. The design-build work will be done by a subsidiary of the Benham Cos. LLC, a unit of SAIC. The first phase of the project, set to cost $27 million and be completed by the end of 2011, will generate between 8 MW and 9 MW of power. A second phase, to cost $170 million, will add an
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ $14.6-billion drive to bring New Orleans’ hurricane defenses to 100-year levels of protection by June 2011 could fundamentally change the way U.S. civil-works projects are funded and delivered, project leaders say. + Image + Image The Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System, or HSDRRS, is the largest civil-works construction program in Corps history. It was launched in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Already, on the fifth anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and with a year’s construction yet to go, the works now in place provide
Civil engineers and other researchers working under a $90,000 National Science Foundation grant are studying the Great Inca Road of South America for clues to help modern society build roads, bridges and other infrastructure that last longer and have a less harmful impact on the environment.
Many pavilion designers at Expo 2010 Shanghai, the World’s Fair currently under way in China, interpret its “Better City, Better Life” theme as a call for sustainable buildings. The Peru Pavilion is covered in “green” bamboo and clay, while the Japan Pavilion collects light, air and water in its “eco tubes.” But the developers of the Finland Pavilion interpret “sustainable” not only in terms of the materials and systems used in its construction, but also as an integrated process that begins in building information modeling and continues through adaptive reuse. Image: Courtesy Tekla Software Kirnu, Finnish for “giant’s kettle,” evokes
Photo: Courtesy of SOM The $450-million China World Trade Tower in Beijing’s Central Business District, which opened on Aug. 30, has become the city’s tallest structure at 330 meters. The 81-story high-rise will have 36,421 sq meters of mixed-use space and is LEED Gold registered, says its designer, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), Chicago. The project’s energy and conservation strategy includes crystalline walls layered with “fritted glass” and “metal fins” that serve as “vertical sunshades” and maximize daylighting for the building’s interior, says the firm. The tower’s structural engineer was Ove Arup & Partners, HK Ltd.; its mechanical-electrical engineers