Although the Obama administration is not planning on releasing its fiscal 2013 budget proposal until Feb. 13, some details about the planned cuts to Dept. of Defense spending have been trickling out.Perhaps of most interest to construction and engineering firms, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said that the president will ask Congress to reinstate another round of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program.
The World Bank has approved a $189.35-million project to dredge about 3.4 million cubic meters of sediment out of about 15 different waterways in the flood management system in Jakarta. The bank’s board of executive directors on Jan. 17 approved a $139.64-million loan to support the project. The Indonesian central government and the Special Capital City district of Jakarta will contribute an additional $49.71 million. The Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative, a five-year project, will dredge approximately 67.5 kilometers of 11 key channel sections and 65 hectares of four retention basins in the provincial government’s flood management system. Further, about 42
The CH2M Hill Cos.-led team that was short-listed, but not chosen, for an estimated $2-billion contract to support U.S. Antarctica research has protested the National Science Foundation's selection process.
Emerging from the Mississippi River and Tributaries System's worst flood season in history, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its contractors are gearing up to deliver $802 million worth of repair and reconstruction—more than three times the MR&T's annual operating budget—while continuing to battle ongoing fall and winter floods as well.
The CH2M Hill Cos.-led team that was shortlisted, but not chosen, for an estimated $2-billion contract to support U.S. Antarctica research, is protesting the selection process by the National Science Foundation.
CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. Workers remove the east end of a highly contaminated tank in the 209-E Critical Mass Laboratory to provide access to two storage tanks as part of the facility's demolition. CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. Crews spent two months developing mockups, even fabricating non-contaminated replica tanks, to insure safe demolition of 11 large tanks formerly used in weapons production experiments. With radioactive contamination saturating the 209-East Critical Mass Laboratory at the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Hanford Nuclear Waste Site in southeast Washington, contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. needed new techniques to demolish the nearly 9,000-sq-ft
Related Links: Lawmakers, Restoration Task Force, Outline Priorities for Gulf Japan Eyes Milestone in Overcoming Nuclear Disaster "Nimble" is not a word often associated with the nuclear industry. But following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster on March 11, nuclear experts from multiple countries and companies flew to the aid of the Tokyo Electric Power Corp. to help bring its nuclear plant under control and evaluate and mitigate the damage.Babcock and Wilcox, Charlotte, N.C., provided a remotely operated vehicle to inspect the plant's damage. The Energy Dept.'s Idaho National Laboratories sent a robot designed to withstand high levels of radiation. Paris-based Areva
A decade after work began on the $12.2-billion waste treatment plant at the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Hanford site in southeastern Washington—set to be the world's largest to treat "mixed" nuclear and chemical wastes—the 65-acre "vit plant" complex still faces uncertainty in cost and design, despite completion of 85% of its engineering and more than 60% of its construction.The difficulty of designing the facilities needed to turn Hanford's 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive and chemical wastes into vitrified glass has DOE and its main contractor, Frederick, Md.-based Bechtel National, cautious as they stare down a 2013 design completion deadline
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is considering legislation that would direct the majority of penalties paid by those responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the Gulf Coast states. But some lawmakers, including committee Chairman John Mica, wonder if that approach is fair.The RESTORE Act, he said at a Dec. 6 hearing, "is crafted primarily to the benefit of the Gulf states that endured the primary damage." He added, "We want to be fair and equitable to all parties, including U.S. taxpayers."But the bill's chief sponsor, Steve Scalise (R-La.), countered, "It is critical to note that it is
Sue Bednarz Interior view of Portlands $464-million East Side Big Pipe project. For officials in Portland, Ore., the Big Pipe project is no longer a dream. The recently completed $1.4-billion, 20-year combined sewer overflow (CSO) control program was implemented in response to an Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality order to reduce significantly CSO events by December 2011. Thanks to large-diameter underground tunnels installed along the Columbia Slough and on both sides of the Willamette River, the city now meets the overflow frequency criteria set forth in 1991 by the DEQ. Annual CSO volume to the Columbia Slough and the Willamette