Two, 550-ton sector gate leaves poised for installation next week in a $1.3-billion barrier being built to reduce risk of hurricane storm surge entering New Orleans’ vulnerable, eastern side, will plug a gaping hole in the city’s armor for the 2011 hurricane season. On May 17, Massman Construction Co., Kansas City, Mo., is scheduled to begin installing the two 75-ft-wide, 42-ft-tall sector gate leaves that will form the armored door to a 150-ft-wide navigable passage through the northern end of the 1.8-mile-long barrier, which is know as the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal-Lake Borgne Storm Surge Barrier. It is part of
Sometime this weekend, the Mississippi River’s flow at the Red River Landing in Louisiana is expected to reach 1.5 million cubic feet per second, the trigger for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to open the Morganza Floodway, which has the capacity to divert 600,000 cfs. By Angelle Bergeron Soldiers of Louisiana National Guards 769th Engineer Battalion place HESCO baskets in Morgan City, Louisiana, which is expected to receive flooding when the Morganza Floodway is opened this weekend. Operating the floodway could send 5 to +25 ft of floodwater across 3 million acres of farmlands and residences. But the Corps
Federal and state officials say they already have taken steps to address some of the concerns raised in a National Research Council report that was critical of a draft plan to protect fragile and endangered species in the California Bay-Delta while diverting water to the central and southern parts of the state. The draft plan, which was circulated in fall 2010, calls for the construction of a large structure—either a canal or two 33-ft-dia 37-mile twin-bore tunnels—to provide a reliable source of freshwater from areas north of the delta, where water is plentiful, to central and southern California. The plan
This month, Israel is set to open the first stage of a planned 2,000-acre urban park in Tel Aviv on the former site of what has been, for decades, the country's biggest environmental health hazard. Named for the late former prime minister, Ariel Sharon Park will be Israel's largest urban park when the $250-million project is completed in 2020. Rendering Courtesy Of Ariel Sharon Park Co. Israel’s biggest municipal dump is being transformed into the country’s largest urban park. Work on the public-private effort involves transforming the Hiriya landfill site and surrounding floodplain into a recreational site. It was built
Workers building the $409-million John James Audubon Bridge over the Mississippi River in Louisiana will have to complete construction with cars cruising by, after the contractor complied with a state request to open the bridge more than a month early to help the state cope with high river levels that shut down an alternative crossing. Photo By Wayne Marchand, Louisiana TIMED Managers Workers stand in the shadow of the podium and barricades as first traffic begins to move across the John James Audubon Bridge over the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The contractor opened the bridge more than a month early
A supplementary, $50 billion (¥4.015 trillion) budget passed by the Japanese Diet last week to aid regions damaged by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, will focus resources on quickly repairing roads and port facilities, debris removal and support for disaster survivors. A second, much larger supplementary budget is expected to follow for full-scale reconstruction later this summer, according to the Tokyo-based, English language newspaper, the Daily Yomiuri. By Tom Sawyer Supplementary budget passed this week by the Japanese Diet to fund disaster reconstruction and relief after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has $7.5 billion to support
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
A congressional budget deal on April 8 averted a shutdown of federal agencies, but some of the pact's roughly $38 billion in spending cuts fall on construction programs. The Transportation Dept.'s $2.5 billion in 2011 high-speed passenger rail funding was zeroed out. Lawmakers also rescinded $400 million in unobligated high-speed rail funds from 2010. Federal Transit Administration capital grants were sliced by $680 million. Other cuts include $997 million from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aid for state revolving funds that finance sewage-treatment and drinking-water projects. Some reductions will not result in cuts in construction projects. For example, appropriators list a
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