Dovetailing with the U.S. Dept. of Transportation announcement that 24 states were vying for the $2.4 billion in high-speed-rail funds rejected by Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), public transit advocates on April 6 released a report contending that high-speed and intercity passenger rail projects will stimulate construction, manufacturing-sector and long-term job growth. Rendering: Courtesy of California High-speed Rail Authority Report says rapid rail boosts the economy and creates jobs. According to the report, for each $1 billion invested in HSR projects, 24,000 jobs would be created. Kevin McFall, senior vice president with Stacy and Witbeck Inc., Alameda, Calif., a general
As drivers travel down Route 6 through Mansfield, Pa., they quickly realize something has changed about the rural town. Trailers for energy companies are popping up like mushrooms, and traffic has become increasingly snarled as trucks carrying material to and from natural-gas drilling sites share the road with local cars. It's not quite a boomtown, but it is certainly changing, and the transformative agent over the past two years has been the discovery of an estimated 500 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas locked in the Marcellus Shale Formation some 5,000 to 8,000 feet below the earth's surface. The
As Tokyo Electric Power Co. continues to battle the problems at its Fukushima Daiichi powerplant—on April 11 it reported another hydrogen explosion at Unit 1—the firm and the country are beginning to prepare for cleanup and reconstruction. At a World Economic Forum on Global Risks, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that the regions hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami will be rebuilt as early as possible to withstand natural disaster. “We will create ecotowns that are fully equipped with district heating, utilizing plant matter and biomass from the region and cultivating features of communities that thoroughly
Fishermen's Energy, a Cape May, N.J.-based offshore wind energy developer, said April 6 that it has received permits from New Jersey regulators to build a six-turbine, 24-MW wind farm off the Atlantic City coast. Daniel Cohen, president of the firm, says the pilot project “will be the catalyst needed to jump-start” the state's offshore wind industry. A spokeswoman says the firm has received two coastal permits and a water quality certificate and is expecting Clean Water Act approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in May. Transmission line installation is set to begin in December, with the pilot project
TerrAqua Resource Management's (TARM) new treatment facility in Williamsport, Pa., for wastewater generated from hydrofracking, well development and production was the first of its kind in Pennsylvania and required the firm, a subsidiary of Williamsport, Pa.-based Larson Design Group, to obtain a special “beneficial re-use permit” from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection. < Photo: Courtesy of TARM The custom facility contains 96 “frac” tanks to store and keep separate the watercoming from different clients. Related Links: Drilling for Treasure LDG principal Marty Muggleton says TARM saw a need that local sanitary authorities had trouble meeting and stepped in with
The U.S. government will formally examine potential failure points of blowout preventers following a four-month-long forensic examination by a Norwegian firm into the failed device on BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in an April 5 conference call. Image: Courtesy of Det Norske Veritass Forensics firm Det Norske Veritas showed that pressure buckled a 5½-in.-dia steel pipe, pushing it off-center and preventing the Macondo well�s blowout preventer from working. Following the well's April 2010 blowout, its blowout preventer (BOP) failed to stop the flow of oil and gas. The report, by Oslo-based Det
As New Orleans' complex $14.6-billion storm-surge risk reduction system—which was federally funded, designed and constructed—races toward substantial completion, local stakeholders now are asking if the federal government will help them maintain it. Photo: Courtesy Of USACE New Complex drives largest interior drainage pump house in the world. The facility is new to the system, as is the O&M bill. Photo: Courtesy Of USACE Complex sector gates on federal waterways are built under emergency provisions that will leave locals footing the O&M bill. Related Links: New Orleans Flood Defenses Detailed With Operations and Maintenance In Mind The U.S. Army Corps of
Image: Courtesy of Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center PCL Construction Services, the pending owner's representative for the $383-million Orlando Performing Arts Center, is reviewing Balfour Beatty's construction management contract and subcontractor bids in an effort to cut costs. The first phase of the venue designed by Barton Myers Associates is estimated at $202 million, or $17 million more than is available. The PCL report is due May 9.
While the replacement of Seattle's aging Alaskan Way Viaduct plods toward a definite construction start date, long-needed improvements are well on the road to completion on another of the city's critical elevated structures. PCL Construction Services Inc., Seattle, has completed 257 drilled shafts for columns that will support the widening of the 3,000-ft-long Spokane Street Viaduct. One of Seattle's five busiest roads, the viaduct carries up to 70,000 vehicles a day between Interstate 5 and the West Seattle Bridge and serves as a primary truck route for the Port of Seattle and the Harbor Island industrial area. The $72-million project
Funds originally planned for a multi-billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River instead will go to New Jersey road rehabilitation projects, as proposed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R). At a Board of Commissioners meeting on March 29, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey authorized $1.8 billion to fund New Jersey road and bridge projects, none of which are owned or operated by the port authority. The money had been slated as part of the agency's contribution to the Hudson River tunnel, which Christie cancelled last October. Construction began on the Access to the Region's Core
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