An official road-building rating system similar to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for buildings may be coming soon. While the Federal Highway Administration prepares to select a team to create national guidelines, the University of Washington and engineering firm CH2M Hill have already compiled a comprehensive system called Greenroads. Source: ACP Greenroads Category Weights: Shows the distribution of voluntary credit points in each of the categories. The performance metrics system, officially unveiled this month at the annual Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C., outlines minimum requirements to qualify as a green roadway, including noise mitigation, storm-water management
Las Vegas Monorail Co., private owner of a $650-million, 4.2-mile automated rail line connecting eight Las Vegas Strip resorts and the convention center, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on January 13, one month after an announced $500-million expansion to McCarran International Airport. The dual-line system began operation on July 15, 2004. Granite Construction Co. Inc., Watsonville, Calif., and Bombardier built the monorail under a $354-million, fixed-price contract. Estimated to carry 40,000 passengers a day, the monorail ran into trouble when, on Sept. 1, a 20-in., 60-lb rubber steering tire broke off during transit. Officials replaced the wheel assemblies and
The Panama Canal Authority is planning a permanent road connecting North and South American land masses on the canal’s Atlantic side. Source: ACP In the next few weeks, officials with the agency, known by its Spanish acronym ACP, plan to award a feasibility contract for possible alternatives for a permanent vehicular crossing at the Gatun Locks near Colon. Preliminary plans call for either a bridge or tunnel. Currently, traffic must use a small road that runs directly in front of the locks. The arrangement requires that the only road crossing at that end of the canal must be closed when
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation is changing the criteria it uses to evaluate which new transit projects it will fund. Industry officials say the shift is likely to give a boost to streetcar and urban light-rail projects in the competition for federal money, but other options, such as bus rapid transit, will still be in the game. Photo: Trimet Observers say future urban light-rail projects, such as the existing system (above) in Portland, Ore., and streetcar-line proposals will benefit from DOT’s policy shift on new transit starts. In unveiling the shift on Jan. 13, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said the
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a $35,000 civil penalty against the Babcock & Wilcox Facility in Lynchburg, Va., claiming the facilities staff failed to declare an alert emergency classification in a timely manner as required by their emergency plan. On July 15, 2009, the firm “failed to declare an emergency for more than two hours after they discovered a band-saw-cooling reservoir did not have the proper criticality controls,” says NRC. While the event posed no threat outside the facility, “the results could have been significant under different circumstances,” says NRC.
Two years ago, Haiti hosted the first-ever disaster-reduction meeting, which was attended by more than 120 representatives of 21 nations of the greater Caribbean and 18 regional and international organizations. The November 2007 conference in Saint-Marc, called the “High-Level Conference on Disaster Reduction of the Association of Caribbean States,” produced a 27-point action plan for disaster reduction, which included a plea to make disaster-risk reduction a national priority. Related Links: Haiti Quake Recovery Planners Wait in Wings “Costly investments in infrastructure built in hazardous areas need to be protected, while the time needed for disaster recovery needs to be reduced,”
The leaders of the U.S. earthquake response effort in Haiti say they expect it will be “several weeks” before the effort shifts from a first-response life- support mission to planning for recovery, but when it comes, that phase “will involve all the military and civilian subject-matter experts.” Slide Show Photo: AP/Wideworld An excavator clears rubble of the Electricite de Haiti building in Port-au-Prince. Image: Unosat/Meti&NASA 2009 Density of post-quake bridge, road blockages in Port-au-prince on Jan. 13, 2010 Related Links: Quake Was Too Much for Recent Disaster-Reduction Efforts But a week after the Jan. 12 quake, the answer to how
A preliminary damage assessment map for major buildings and infrastructure in Port-au-Prince is now available from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research's Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNITAR/UNOSAT). Photo: Eduardo Fierro, BFP Engineers Inc. Collapsed two-, or possibly three-story reinforced concretebuilding in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Sites marked as "No Visual Damage" may have major structural damage not identifiable in the imagery. Damage there is likely underestimated. The same goes for road and bridge damage, says the group. Of 110 selected sites, 58 or 53% are visibly damaged or destroyed. Of these, 88% are government buildings; 60% are churches, 50% are
Florida is looking to the private sector to bankroll high-speed rail. The state’s proposal for federal funding anticipates that private-sector funding would cover all operations and maintenance expenses for a planned line between Orlando and Tampa. State transportation planners aren’t committing any state funding to the system for the foreseeable future. Despite widespread enthusiasm for the project, the president of the Florida Transportation Builders Association is worried about high-speed rail’s long-term impact on state transportation funding, especially since the state has no dedicated funding source for a rail system. “There doesn’t appear to be any recognition at all of the
Damage from landslides is common in Haiti. In Port-au-Prince, there is widespread destruction of nonductile concrete structures. Many rubble or unreinforced masonry walls failed. The E-in-plan Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince still has much of the first floor intact, with windows unbroken, but there is total collapse above the first floor. There is very light reinforcing evident in failed columns near the entry. At the port, there is a collapsed pier and cranes, and several buildings are under water. Extensive lateral spreading and liquefaction is evident. These and numerous other on-site observations on damage from Haiti’s magnitude 7 earthqauke are from