Contractors on the centerpiece of San Francisco’s $4.6-billion upgrade of the Hetch Hetchy water system, a $215.3-million tunnel under San Francisco Bay that will replace the 1920s-era pipeline structure, were told to start work on April 1. Officials say the seismically enhanced structure and others planned will better protect the city water supply in an earthquake, such as the Southern California temblor on April 4. Photo: San Francisco Pulbic Utilities Commission Image shows underwater pipeline and tunnel, which will have new seismic protections. The five-mile-long tunnel will replace old structures with a 9-ft-dia welded steel pipeline bored as deep as
The Obama Administration’s decision to open up offshore oil and gas development in Southern and mid-Atlantic states, new areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean is drawing praise from oil and gas industry officials. They say the development could provide thousands of new jobs for contractors. On March 31, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said land in those offshore regions could be leased for oil and gas development beginning in 2012. He set two conditions: There must be interest from industry, and environmental benchmarks must be met. California and Florida’s east coast remains off limits. The administration
Plans to build a new, $50-million facility to recycle fly ash in southern Maryland for Atlanta-based Mirant could fall through if the Environmental Protection Agency designates the coal combustion by-product as a hazardous waste, says Mirant’s Misty Allen , the utility’s director of external affairs. Photo: The Sefa Group The proposed recycling facility would use a new technology that burns 100% of carbon from coal ash. Allen says Mirant filed an application on March 26 with the Maryland Public Service Commission to build a facility in Morgantown, Md., that would recycle up to 400,000 tons of coal ash per year.
Stating Florida must comply with the original 1992 consent decree to address Everglades pollution, U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno granted on March 31 the Miccosukee tribe’s motion to compel completion of a key reservoir. Since 2008, the work has stopped on the $700-million project in Palm Beach County; instead, state funds have been plowed into buying private sugar-growing land near Lake Okeechobee for a new restoration plan. Parties now are weighing the potential impact. Landowner U.S. Sugar Corp. says the ruling “does not preclude” the state’s continuing land purchase to meet the consent decree’s terms. Tribal officials and those
Argentina has completed a $314-million, 37.7-km natural-gas pipeline across the Strait of Magellan. The 24-in. (61-cm) undersea gas pipeline links Cabo Espiritu Santo in Tierra del Fuego province with Cabo Vírgenes in Santa Cruz province. Government officials say the new line, built by a consortium of Royal Boskalis Westminster and Allseas Group, will begin transporting 5.5 million cu m per day in June, with an additional 2 million cu m per day coming on line in early 2011. Previously, the gas fields in Argentina’s remote south only were connected to the mainland gas network via the San Martin pipeline, which
The good news for Chileans is that less than 1% of the 10,000 buildings three stories or taller, constructed since Chile’s 1985 earthquake, will have to be demolished as a consequence of the magnitude-8.8 Maule earthquake that struck on Feb. 27. The bad news is that the type of structural damage observed in many of the bearing-wall concrete frames of 12- to 26-story buildings is calling into question the effectiveness of Chile’s building code, which does not require confinement reinforcing steel for concrete members. A code change in the future is likely, say engineers who inspected the damaged areas. Of
As potential donors gather at the United Nations to assemble a fund to help rebuild earthquake-battered Haiti, the White House is asking Congress for additional spending to contribute to the reconstruction effort. Haiti is hoping to raise $3.9 billion at the March 31 donors’ meeting to cover the initial 18-month phase of what is certain to be a lengthy reconstruction. The estimated total rebuilding cost is $11.5 billion, the U.N. says. More than 220,000 were killed in the Jan. 12, magnitude-7 quake, and an estimated 2 million people are living in temporary shelter in Port-au-Prince or have moved away from
TransCanada Corp., based in Calgary, Alberta, received permission on March 11 from Canada’s Energy Board to build the 327-mile Canadian portion of the Keystone XL expansion pipeline, which will be the first pipeline to take Canadian crude oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The 36-inch pipeline will be 1,980 miles long, beginning in Hardisty, Alberta, and going through Saskatchewan, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and finally into Texas. The $1.66-billion pipeline will carry the equivalent of 1.1 million barrels per day. Applications for U.S. regulatory approvals are proceeding, and decisions are expected late this year. TransCanada says construction is
Despite the gloomy construction employment climate, one New Orleans contractor has established a new safety and craft training facility and will hire several hundred people to bring its workforce to 1,000 by summer. Photo: Angelle bergeron Pump house Forming has begun on the walls of the structure that will house the largest capacity pump station in the country. Related Links: Video: Blowin’ and Goin’: GIWW West Closure Complex Gulf IntraCoastal Constructors, a joint venture of Kiewit Corp, Omaha, Neb., and Traylor Bros. Inc., Evansville, Ind., is gearing up to deliver the $854.8-million Gulf Intracoastal Waterway West Closure Complex, designed by
Milwaukee is spending $100 million on a metropolitan flood-control project, hoping to avoid future flood damages that have cost that much since 1997. The centerpiece of the plan is a 17-ft-diameter, half-mile-long tunnel that will drain up to 3,405 cu ft per second of water from a flood-prone creek into a 315-million-gallon detention basin. Slide Show Photo: Mike Larson Tunnel diameter is more than 17 ft, designed to quickly channel stormwater to detention basin. When heavy rain causes nearby Underwood Creek to overflow, the new tunnel will drain the excess water to a 65-acre engineered detention basin that will slowly
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