The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hopes to use water diversion structures to push water out of sensitive wetland areas and keep away oil that has been drawing near shore since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. In essence, the Corps is investigating if the rains behind the Nashville flood could help save the Louisiana Coast from the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The unprecedented oil spill is subject to rough winds and tidal flows. Faced with these complications, Chuck Shadie, the Mississippi Valley Division head of
Project managers are struggling with how to remove “Rainier,” a tunnel-boring machine that is stuck 330 ft underground since last year. Until the rig is moved, the area’s $1.8-billion Brightwater treatment plant can’t be finished. + Image Source: King County Original contractor and owner parted ways after TBM bogged down. The parties are negotiating a claim while a replacement team drills ahead. Related Links: Seattle Membrane Plant Treats to Higher Levels “As of May 1, we have no way to remove it and are still working on a plan,” says Gunars Sreibers, project manager with King County, Wash. The tunnel,
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on May 4 unveiled a draft rule to regulate coal ash, for the first time, under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The proposal would require coal-fired powerplants to retrofit existing impoundments, which typically store ash in liquid form, with composite liners. It also would provide strong incentives to eventually close surface impoundments and shift to dry storage in landfills, EPA says. The new scrutiny follows a 2008 collapse of a Tennessee impoundment that spread ash over a 300-sq-mile area of land and water. Environmentalists claim contaminants in coal ash, such as mercury and arsenic,
The Environmental Protection Agency on May 4 unveiled a draft rule to regulate for the first time coal ash under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Under the proposal, coal plants would be required to retrofit existing impoundments, which typically store the ash in liquid form, with composite liners. The proposal also would provide strong incentives for utilities to eventually close the surface impoundments and shift to dry storage in landfills, EPA says. The potential regulation of coal ash has been highly anticipated by environmental groups, who say that contaminants in coal ash—such as mercury cadmium and arsenic—can leach
In April, floods and mudslides killed 249 people in Rio de Janeiro and the outlying metropolitan area, according to fire department officials. Even in a country accustomed to heavy rainfall, flash floods and mudslides, the loss of life was unprecendented, according to Brazilian reports. Photo: O Empreiteiro Slides claimed lives and property in areas where officials ignored illegal construction for years. Niterói city had the highest toll: 164 dead, many of whom were killede in slides. Forty-eight bodies have been recovered. In Niterói's Morro do Bumba district, houses were built illegally on top of a garbage dump that was supposed
Photo: Luetta Callaway Southern Nevada’s Water Authority recently unveiled its newest megamachine: a $25-million custom-made hybrid tunneling-boring machine that operates in both the open and closed positions, meaning the drill face is pressurized for more efficient ground and water control. It took Schwanau, Germany-based Herrenknecht AG 17 months to design and manufacture the 1,500-ton, 600-ft-long TBM, which is being used as part of the third raw-water intake tunnel project at Lake Mead. The additional straw is needed since lake levels have dipped 110 ft since 2000, leaving it at half capacity. In March 2008, SNWA awarded a $447-million design-build contract
The U.S Army Corps unveiled a $1.7-billion, 10-year plan this week to restore the ailing Anacostia River in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to health. U.S. officials brief public on river cleanup. The plan, two years in the making, identifies 3,000 projects to help restore the severely polluted river and watershed spanning 176 sq miles of land through a combination of stormwater controls, stream restoration, wetland creation and restoration, fish blockage removal, reforestation and controlling trash and chemical contamination “Now we can begin even more aggressive action to clean up the Anacostia River,” said U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
A massive,1.7-million-cu-yd, deep-soil-mixing project is powering up in eastern New Orleans, and veterans of the technique say it’s probably the largest such project ever undertaken. Photo: Angelle Bergeron At 1.7 million cu yd, deep-soil-mixing job nearly triples the volume of Boston’s Big Dig. var so = new FlashObject("http://natalie.feedroom.com/construction/natoneclip/Player.swf","Player", "300", "169", "8", "#FFFFFF");so.addVariable("skin", "natoneclip");so.addVariable("site", "construction");so.addVariable("fr_story", "bf145635c641e16b70fe8531bcc9d0476f7d3458&rf");so.addVariable("hostURL", document.location.href);so.addParam("quality", "high");so.addParam("allowFullScreen", "true");so.addParam("menu", "false");so.write("flashcontent"); Joint-venture partners Archer Western Contractors, Atlanta, Ga., and Alberici Enterprises, Overland, Mo., are strengthening a levee maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers so it can be increased in height to +28 ft from its current +17 ft without widening
As invisible as the global recession, dust from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano cast a cloud over the April 19 opening of Bauma in Munich. The triennial construction-equipment show was expected to draw over 500,000 people. Photo: Bauma Eighty of Bauma’s 3,150 booths were left unattended when the show opened. With the city’s international airport shut, prospective visitors joined hundreds of thousands of Europeans left stranded. Creating engine-stalling dust, the April 14 volcanic eruption triggered halts to a reported 75% of European commercial flights, with total bans in Britain and elsewhere. What should have been a two-hour flight for Nigel Chell, communications
The legal battle over the U.S. Energy Dept.’s nuclear-waste storage program took a turn on April 14, when the agency halted closure of Nevada’s Yucca Mountain repository following a legal challenge by Washington state. Its suit challenges the order’s legality and includes a request to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw the facility’s application. The state says DOE lacks authority to terminate Yucca Mountain, claiming the move hikes risks at federal nuclear-waste sites, including Hanford in eastern Washington. An appeals court in Washington, D.C., ordered DOE to halt layoffs of repository staff and work by contractors until after May
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