In a settlement with federal agencies, BP Exploration Alaska Inc. has agreed to pay a $25-million civil penalty for two crude-oil spills in 2006 from its pipelines on Alaska's North Slope, the U.S. Justice Dept. says. Related Links: BP Closes Prudhoe Over Corroded Pipes House Lawmakers Slam BP for Alaska Pipeline Maintenance The settlement was spelled out in a consent decree filed on May 3 in federal district court in Alaska. Under the settlement, BP Alaska also will put in place a pipeline-integrity program, including regular inspections. The estimated cost of the program is $60 million. BP said in a
Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Dept. of Energy research complex and former atomic-weapons development center in New Mexico, has settled a three-year-old lawsuit with environmental groups that alleged contaminated stormwater runoff at more than 100 sites on its 36-sq-mile campus. The laboratory did not admit to fault but has agreed to spend $80 million on stormwater control upgrades, including construction of berms, rock dams, weirs and detention ponds. The 2008 lawsuit by eight community groups and two individuals alleges that Los Alamos violated the federal Clean Water Act by allowing elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and chlorine, among
The Japanese and American engineers stood atop a tsunami “refuge hill” near Sendai, Japan, and looked across an endless, muddy landscape of structures wrecked by the March 11 tsunami. One of the investigators stretched a long measuring pole into a surviving tree. Its branches apparently had been broken by a massive stone monument—commemorating a previous tsunami of 77 years ago—that was launched from its hilltop pedestal by the latest tsunami. “Three meters,” he said, indicating how much higher the water must have been than the hill. “About 10 feet.” The 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami that devastated northeast Honshu Island left
Rendering Courtesy Triple Five; Image AP Redesign of New Jersey mall (Top) would replace much-criticized structure now in limbo. New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie (R) and Canadian developer Triple Five said on May 3 that the firm will spend $1.5 billion to renovate and expand the unfinished and unopened Xanadu mall in the Meadowlands near Manhattan, renaming it American Dream Meadowlands. Makeover of the 2.4-million-sq-ft structure will include a recladding of its multicolor exterior, which Christie had dubbed the state's “ugliest” building. The state is finalizing details on a $200-million loan to the project, to be repaid by sales tax
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has sent a final notice to New Jersey, directing the state to repay $271 million in federal funds for a $9.1-billion commuter-rail tunnel project that its governor, Chris Christie, (R) canceled last October. Related Links: Blurry Tunnel Vision Huge N.J.-N.Y. Commuter Link Halted 30 Days for Cost Review The Access to the Region's Core (ARC), conceived before Christie took office in January 2010, was to be a nine-mile-long commuter rail link running under the Hudson River, from Secaucus, N.J., to midtown Manhattan. In a final decision issued on April 29, U.S. DOT's Federal Transit Administration
It's too early to say whether the Japanese will need their version of Chernobyl's $1.4-billion, 29,000-tonne steelwork safe enclosure to clear away their nuclear ruins.
Construction on Chile's largest hydroelectric initiative, the 2,750-MW HidroAysén project, is awaiting final approval by the country's environmental agency, which is expected to respond by next month.
Construction of the first-ever railway line in the oil-producing African nation of Chad is set to start next year. The former French colony signed a $7-billion contract with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. in mid-March. Map: Justin Reynolds The new, 1,344-km-long rail line will link landlocked Chad to Cameroon and Sudan. The new, 1,344-kilometer-long railway will link landlocked Chad to its neighbor to the west, Cameroon, and its neighbor to the east, Sudan. The route is expected to facilitate access to the international markets. CCECC President Yuan Li told reporters in N'Djamena during the signing of the construction deal
The Spanish firm Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA, ranked 13th on ENR's list of the top global contractors, has won a $1.72-billion contract in partnership with Algeria's ETRHB Haddad to build a 66-kilometer rail line in Algeria. The line will connect the city of Tlemcen, the western terminus of the country's rail network, with the town of Akkid Abbas on the Moroccan border. Map: Justin Reynolds The contract was awarded by the Algerian government through the Agence National d'Etudes et Suivi de Realisations des Investissements Ferroviaires, or ANESRIF, an agency created in 2005 to improve the country's railway system.
Preliminary analysis of a ceiling light fixture that fell into moving traffic in early February at Boston's Big Dig tunnel system suggests the fixture shows signs of severe corrosion caused by salt from snow and ice treatment. Related Links: Corrosion's High Cost: Rust Never Sleeps Performed by West Boylston, Mass.-based Massachusetts Materials Research, the analysis indicates the fixture failed because of severe corrosion to the aluminum wire way at the locations where the light assembly was attached with stainless-steel clips, according to a Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation report released on April 13. The incident caused no injuries and no property
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