Eight pumps with a capacity totaling 13,920 cu ft per second were put through their paces on June 3, demonstrating that the $1-billion Gulf Intracoastal Waterway West Closure Complex near Harvey, La., is ready for operation this hurricane season. Photo By Angelle Bergeron Eight 5,400-hp diesels drive the pumps to remove stormwater when the gates must be closed to defend against a storm surge. Photo By Angelle Bergeron The 1,740-cfs pumps got a “wet test” June 3, running two at a time for 10 minutes each. The complex consists of operating gates, t-walls and levees that are designed to close
Photo: Strukton Groep N.V. / G. Dubbelman A joint venture of Dutch contractors Strukton Groep N.V., Utrecht and Van Oord N.V., Rotterdam, on 31 May lowered and inserted a 136-meter-long, 20,000-tonne sunken-tube tunnel element into a predredged trench under Amsterdam’s historic Central Station. Thousands of timber piles were replaced by new concrete foundations to make way for the new tunnel under the adjacent IJ River and through the station. The tunnel is part of the city’s new north-south metro, scheduled to open in 2017.
Alaska’s 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest will again be roadless, a U.S. district court in Anchorage has ruled. Environmental groups that filed suit say the decision blocks new logging roads and timber clear-cuts in the southeastern Alaska forest but does not rule out “other economic development,” such as small hydropower, transmission-line, mining or tourism projects.
The Mississippi River flood fight is keeping inspectors on the job around the clock, even as the bulge of highest water slides south. Contractors are fighting boils and seepage. Approximately 25 miles north of Vicksburg, Miss., crews performed emergency repairs on some 400 linear ft of mainline levee that sustained two slides on the land-side. USACE Inspectors look for slides, sand boils and other indications of structural compromise within the Mississippi River levee system. Observers first spotted the slides on May 16, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A Corps spokesperson says more such damage can be expected
The High Line is getting longer. The second section of the innovative elevated park, which is built on the roadbed of an old freight railroad on Manhattan’s West Side, is scheduled to open in June. Related Links: Rail Trestle-Turned-Park Doubling in Length Landscape Architecture Puts a New Spin On Natural Systems The High Line was built in the 1930s to serve the meatpacking and other industries. It passed directly through several industrial buildings, allowing firms to load and unload freight directly.The High Line’s design team consists of landscape architecture and urban design firm James Corner Field Operations (the project lead);
Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency plan move to forward with rule making procedures on a controversial new air quality standard, despite industry claims that the agency's data used to develop the rule is flawed. Related Links: Florida Pols Fight EPA Over Pending Water-Quality Rule EPA: New Rule Limits Mercury Emmissions From Cement Kilns Gina McCarthy, the EPA's assistant administrator for air and radiation, says the issues raised about the EPA's data will not cause any delays in moving forward with the Mercury and Air Toxic standards rule.In a May 18 letter to the Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), McCarthy
Municipal and plant officials continue to look for the cause of the May 16 collapse of a 100-ft wall at the wastewater treatment plant serving Binghamton and Johnson City, N.Y. The event triggered a 580,000-gal spill of partially treated wastewater into a local creek and the nearby Susquehanna River. Four of the plants 20 filtration cells were destroyed when the 15-ft tall, 18-in thick wall fell.A post-construction quality audit of the plant, issued in February by LMK Engineers LLC of Pottstown, Pa., found more than 150 deficiencies that it blamed on inadequate construction management.Design and configuration control during construction and
Prospects for carbon-free power is getting a double boost in Europe. France is about to procure an estimated $14-billion of offshore wind farms. And the U.K. is setting itself tough greenhouse gas targets, increasing its reliance on renewable and nuclear energy. Photo: Tudor Van Hampton For ENR A lack of federal legislation for renewable energy is holding back the market for wind power and green jobs, supporters say. Related Links: Offshore Support for Onshore Wind Booms, Busts Stunt Growth of Wind Power Three of France’s biggest engineering companies have formed an alliance to bid this month or next for a
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is using a variety of measures, including opening three massive river diversion features—the Bonnet Carré, Birds Point-New Madrid and Morganza floodways—to relieve pressure on the Mississippi River watershed. Graphic courtesy USACE Water spewed skyward at the rate of 10,000 cu ft per second on May 14 as the first vertical-lift gate was opened on the Morganza Floodway. It was the Corps' third big control measure in the flood fight and marked the first time that three main control structures on the lower Mississippi were opened at the same time.The Corps' first move was blasting
Engineers and emergency planners from northern California to British Columbia say the massive undersea quake and tsunami that recently assaulted Japan gives clear warning about the danger that lurks just off the Pacific coast like a mad dog sleeping by the bed: A 630-mile-long geologic feature that was identified in 1984 is believed to be very similar to the one that broke with such violence off the coast of Japan in March. Evidence of violent breaks in the featurecalled the Cascadia Subduction Zone, or CSZhas been found in sediment layers left by prehistoric tsunami. On April 25, 1992, a 7.2-Mw