Plans to build a new, $50-million facility to recycle fly ash in southern Maryland for Atlanta-based Mirant could fall through if the Environmental Protection Agency designates the coal combustion by-product as a hazardous waste, says Mirant’s Misty Allen , the utility’s director of external affairs. Photo: The Sefa Group The proposed recycling facility would use a new technology that burns 100% of carbon from coal ash. Allen says Mirant filed an application on March 26 with the Maryland Public Service Commission to build a facility in Morgantown, Md., that would recycle up to 400,000 tons of coal ash per year.
Stating Florida must comply with the original 1992 consent decree to address Everglades pollution, U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno granted on March 31 the Miccosukee tribe’s motion to compel completion of a key reservoir. Since 2008, the work has stopped on the $700-million project in Palm Beach County; instead, state funds have been plowed into buying private sugar-growing land near Lake Okeechobee for a new restoration plan. Parties now are weighing the potential impact. Landowner U.S. Sugar Corp. says the ruling “does not preclude” the state’s continuing land purchase to meet the consent decree’s terms. Tribal officials and those
Vancouver, B.C.’s planned $458-million renovation of BC Place, the province’s largest stadium, already has paid dividends. Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming announced in March it would lease the property adjacent to build a $450-million entertainment complex, complete with a 24-hour casino, five restaurants and two hotels. Operations are set to start in 2013. Photo: Paragon Gaming An entertainment complex will abut BC Place by 2013, according to Paragon Gaming’s plan. The 76,000-sq-meter fabric cover at BC Place—the largest air-supported roof in the world—will soon become the world’s largest cable-supported retractable roof. Work starts this month with a winterization program. The 27-year-old
Photo: Arup Group A 115-m-tall looping latticework of tubular steel has been chosen to be the landmark for London’s 2012 Olympic Park. Standing 22 m taller than the Statue of Liberty, the “ArcelorMittal Orbit” will provide a high-level viewing platform between the main stadium and the Aquatics Centre. Funded substantially by steelmaker ArcelorMittal, the $29-million structure is the creation of London-based artist Anish Kapoor, who worked with Cecil Balmond, director of the Advanced Geometry Unit at Arup Group, London.
Getting energy-efficient design into school construction can be tough, but the Gen7 modular-classroom building from American Modular Systems, Manteca, Calif., fits many of the latest energy-efficiency advances into one package, bringing the cutting edge of green technologies to modular school construction. Photo: American Modular Systems Gen7 modular classrooms are showcases of sustainable technologies. Introduced at the Green California Schools Summit 2009 in Pasadena, Calif., in December, Gen7 is being touted as a “grid-neutral” modular-classroom solution for California school districts. “Gen7 is a loaded model, with every possible option,” says Tony Sarich, vice president of operations for AMS. “It’s not the
Contractors on the centerpiece of San Francisco’s $4.6-billion improvement to the Hetch Hetchy Water System were given notice to proceed on April 1. The five-mile subterranean Bay Division Water Delivery Tunnel planned for under the San Francisco Bay will replace two 1920s and 1930s era pipelines with one 9-ft-dia welded steel pipeline bored as deep as 100 ft under the bay’s floor. The new tunnel will be more secure in an earthquake and a tunnel-boring machine will minimize environmental damage. A joint venture of Michels Corp., Brownsville, Wis., Jay Dee Contractors, Inc., Livonia, Mich., and Frank Coluccio Construction Co., Seattle,
The Obama Administration’s decision to open up offshore oil and gas development in the Middle and Southern Atlantic states, new areas of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean is winning praise from oil and gas industry officials. They say the development could provide thousands of new jobs for contractors in those regions. On March 31, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said land in those offshore regions could be leased for oil and gas development beginning in 2012 if there is interest from industry and if development can be done in an environmentally responsible manner. Development off California’s coast
The government is widening a whistle-blower probe into the safety of northern Nevada’s 8.5-mile-long Interstate 580 extension between Reno and Carson City, following the discovery of a hairline crack in one of its bridges. Photo: Nevada DOT Authorities are probing a hairline crack on the record-setting cathedral-arch bridge in Nevada. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on March 24 directed U.S. Dept. of Transportation Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel to expand his investigation of the project’s final leg to include the 1,722-ft-long, 295-ft-tall Galena Creek Bridge. It will be North America’s longest cathedral-arch bridge when completed in fall 2011. Dickinson,
With the fourth and last 10,000-tonne concrete element sunk, the U.K.’s new, 1.5-km-long River Tyne Tunnel crossed a major milestone late last month, but a missed dredging window, imposed to protect salmon migration, will cost a delay of two months. Photo: New Tyne Tunnel. Four sunken tube elements were built in dry dock by the contractor. Photo: New Tyne Tunnel. All four sunken tube segments have been floated into place on the Tyne River. Related Links: Tyne Tunnel Sunk Work now focuses on the final connections between the four 400-m-long concrete elements of the sunken tube tunnel (STT) near Newcastle.
Municipalities and ports in northern Germany and across Denmark have started competing to host construction sites for the planned 19-km fixed crossing across the strait, Fehmarn Belt, between the two countries. Construction lasting six years is forecast to cost up to $7.3 billion. About three years before sitework is scheduled to start, the Copenhagen-based state company managing the project, Femern A/S, has published requirements for production and construction sites. Final site choices will be made by the companies that will handle three large contracts for the project. Though a bridge is the expected form of crossing, Femern A/S is still
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