The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced on Aug. 2 that it plans to delay construction of the $1-billion Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford until fall 2018 or as late as summer 2020.It plans to purchase the required land and obtain permits before putting out a bid for design and construction to avoid loss of time and money—which happened to a commuter-rail project completed south of Boston in 2007. A day after the announcement, the city of Somerville circulated a petition stating that a four-year delay was unacceptable and demanded an accurate timeline for the project. It noted, “The
The Dept. of Energy on August 5 finalized a $967-million loan guarantee to Agua Caliente Solar LLC for a 290-MW solar facility being built in Yuma, Ariz., by NRG Solar, Princeton, N.J.The Agua Caliente solar project will deploy fault ride-through and dynamic voltage regulation, technologies that are new to photovoltaic solar powerplants and which are expected to improve the reliability and predictability of the electricity supplied to the electricity grid.
Image courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture Kingdom Tower, under design by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, with structural engineer Thornton Tomasetti, would enclose 530,000 sq m. The skyscraper is expected to cost $1.2 billion. If a Middle East prince has his way, Saudi Arabia will someday be home to the world's tallest building. Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz recently unveiled a scheme for a 5.3-sq-kilometer city north of Jeddah that would include a mixed-use supertower designed to reach more 1 km above the desert floor.Kingdom Tower, under design by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, with
Photo by Angelle Bergeron for ENR Disputed project would replace temporary system of canal gate closures and pumps. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not comply with statutory and regulatory requirements in its award last April of a $675-million design-build contract for flood control upgrades in New Orleans, the U.S. Government Accountability Office ruled Aug. 4 in a bid protest decision.The Corps did not comment on the decision or provide details on how it will respond.GAO upheld protests by two losing bidders:PCCP Constructors, a Fort Worth-based joint venture of Kiewit Corp., Traylor Bros. Inc, and M.R. Pittman Group; and
The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District has agreed to spend $4.7 billion to make extensive improvements in its sewer systems and treatment plants over the next 23 years as part of a settlement with the federal government, the State of Missouri, and the Missouri Coalition of the Environment Foundation.In the settlement announced August 5, MSD will be required to install a variety of pollution controls, including building three large storage tunnels ranging from approximately two miles to nine miles in length, and to expand capacity at two treatment plants.MSD says it has already spent $2.3 billion over the past two
The Mississippi River & Tributaries flood control system fought like a champ through the record-breaking floods of 2011. Now it has an estimated $2 billion worth of scars to prove it.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t have the money to fix the MR&T system, but it already has identified 2,534 locations that need attention, at least 160 of which it says would not be able to withstand another flood.In an effort to rally the kind of broad support that was behind the genesis of the Corps’ MR&T Project, which was created after the disastrous floods of 1927, on Aug.12
Six years after South Korean steelmaker Pohang Iron and Steel Co. signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orissa government for India’s largest foreign direct-investment project, the $12 billion mega-venture remains a non-starter.The integrated steel project is mired in opposing political agendas, environmental conflicts and the country’s biggest issue: land acquisition by the government and ongoing protests by local residents who contend the land for the project was taken not for public use but for a private company.A memorandum of understanding on the 12-million-tons-per-annum integrated steel-plant-and-port project, signed in 2005, reportedly expired last year.Orissa steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty recently
Image courtesy Brazil's National Agency of Terrestrial Transport A proposed high-speed rail line received no bids. A $21.3-billion high-speed-rail project in Brazil has been delayed for a third time after no offers were presented at auction this month. Government officials say they will now modify the proposal in hopes of attracting bidders in a new auction later this year.The Trem de Alta Velocidade Rio-São Paulo, or TAV, will provide a direct link between two of the country’s largest metropolitan areas. The 510- kilometer line would extend from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo and terminate at the city of Campinas.
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