With the rapid advance of work on a surge barrier on New Orleans� eastern flank, the city has substantially more protection against storm surge than it had just a year ago. Photo: Angelle Bergeron/ENR Vic Zillmer, USACE resident project manager atop the surge barrier stretching away toward its land tie-in to Chalmette levees. Photo: Angelle Bergeron/ENR New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu saluted the Corps for being �on task and on time� with the project and for building levees �better than before.� Left to right behind are Col. Robert Sinkler, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers� Hurricane Protection Office
A proposal to build “sand booms” to help keep the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from fouling Louisiana wetlands may help jump-start long-dreamed-of schemes to re-nourish Louisiana’s barrier islands. Photo courtesy of Baggerwereld.com Van Oord’s 9-year-old hopper dredge Rotterdam has a 21,500 cubic meter capacity and can dredge in waters as deep as 60 m, and up to 120 m, with extensions. Van Oord has 100 vessels worldwide and claims its fleet is three times the size of the entire U.S. dredging fleet. Related Links: Oil-Spill Battlefront Spreads From Gulf to Washington, D.C. Setting Oil Spill Liability Limit:
While natural disasters may be inevitable, disastrous consequences are not, if policy-makers, designers and builders plan successfully. This theme was explored on May 12 at a one-day workshop in Washington, D.C., convened by the National Building Museum, which is laying the groundwork for a major exhibition in fall 2011 to examine how communities can improve planning to resist the consequences of natural disasters. Event planners looked for guidance from the museum’s Industry Council for the Built Environment, comprising about 60 owners and association representatives. BLUMENAUR “Disasters don’t have to be unmitigated disasters,” said U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenaur (D- Ore.), vice
Is $10 billion too much legal exposure for oil spills? While Obama administration officials work to encourage Congress to bolster the resources available for the oil disaster response and recovery efforts, one proposal that included a measure to raise the liability cap for oil companies, as the President also favors, has already taken a beating on the Senate floor. But Jeff Liebman, acting deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget says the administration should still find opportunities and a bill that can be used to attach its proposals to. Related Links: Oil-Spill Battlefront Spreads From Gulf to Washington,
The rig owner is claiming progress on capping a deepsea well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but, as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said on May 17, “We are nowhere close to the finish line. This disaster will not be over for Louisiana until our water and our shores are completely clean and our wildlife, our communities and our coastal industries are 100% restored.” + Image Illustration: Deepwater Horizon Recovery Team BP says it is managing to capture about 20% of the oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well by inserting a new drill tube into the fallen
An ambitious project to bore a tunnel through the Continental Divide in the Andes of northern Peru has stalled after a powerful rock-burst severely damaged the tunnel-boring machine drilling the underground passage. Los Olmos tunnel workers dig out TBM damaged by shifting rock in April. Related Links: Odebrecht Pushes forward With Next Phase of Peruvian Irrigation Project On April 29, a large rock-burst struck the $14-million, 5-meter-dia, unshielded Robbins gripper TBM, damaging a cylinder connecting one of the grippers to the machine. Two workers suffered minor injuries when the operating cabin was partially crushed around them. Officials with Odebrecht Perú
As the works to complete the dam and tunnel that will divert water across the Andean Continental Divide in northern Peru struggle toward completion, the Brazilian company handling the job� is already preparing for the next phase of the project. La Concesionaria Trasvase Olmos S.A., a business entity created solely for the project by general contract Odebrecht Peru, is seeking the 20-year contract that will divert the waters from the Los Olmos project to irrigate 38,000 hectacres on the arid Pacific coast. On May 11, Peruvian President Alan Garcia signed the document clearing the way for the regional government of
Vast amounts of low-level radioactive waste could be transported to a new West Texas disposal site if a two-state commission, largely appointed by Gov. Rick Perry (R), allows it to accept waste shipments from 36 or more states. The Texas Low-Level Waste Disposal Compact Commission, one of several U.S. compacts set up to encourage state collaboration on low-level waste disposal, consists of six Texas members and two from Vermont to govern disposal in those states. Their waste, now sent to Utah, would be disposed at the Texas site, likely by next spring. The panel could also decide as early as
BP is fighting battles on multiple fronts. It’s battling the oil gushing out of the well after the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drill rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Related Links: Oil-Spill Battlefront Spreads From Gulf to Washington, D.C. Setting Oil Spill Liability Limit: Is $10 Billiion Too High? Resentment Flares Against Dutch Proposal To Mobilize Huge Dredging Fleet in Gulf It’s fighting what it claims is misinformation about the oil spill’s extent and environmental impacts. And in the latest skirmish, BP is defending itself against claims that its engineering documentation may have led to the blast
While a variety of groups from utilities to environmental organizations are clamoring for a climate-change bill that can pass the Senate, construction industry sources say prospects for the bill—rolled out on May 12 by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I- Conn.)—look slim. They unveiled the 987-page American Power Act without the support of Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who had worked with Kerry and Lieberman for several months to craft a bipartisan bill but who in recent weeks dropped out of the discussions. Photo: AP/Wideworld “We’re closer than ever,” says Sen. John Kerry (at podium) with Sen. Joe Lieberman (right).
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