When U.S. engineer John Frank Stevens arrived in Panama in July 1905 to take over the American effort to construct the Panama Canal, he was appalled. The endeavor to build the transoceanic waterway already was a year old and had consumed more than $128 million. “I found no organization…no answerable head who might delegate authority…no cooperation existing between what might charitably be called the departments,” Stevens wrote, as reported in David McCullough’s watershed book “The Path Between the Seas.” Slide Show Photo: ACP Current Panama Canal facilities are a tight fit for ships. Related Links: Panama Canal Third Lane Expansion
The U.S. Energy Dept. is soon to give Chicago-based energy services provider Exelon Corp. "reasonable assurance" of a $50-million agency loan guarantee to spur construction of what would be the nation�s largest urban solar powerplant, says an Exelon spokesman. Development of the 10-MW photovoltaic facility at a former industrial site on Chicago�s South Side, to be finished by the end of 2009, is contingent on receiving the loan guarantee for 80% of its $60-million cost, says the spokesman. Exelon and its partner, San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower, have begun clearing the 39-acre brownfield site where the plant would be built. SunPower
Water infrastructure projects would get a boost under legislation to reauthorize the clean water and drinking water state revolving funds at $38.5 billion over five years. The proposal passed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on May 14. The bill, which was approved with bipartisan support, would increase the clean water SRF to $20 billion over five years and the drinking water SRF to $14.7 billion over five years. A comparable bill passed the House on March 5, although the House bill only provides funds for the clean water SRF and does not address drinking water. Construction industry groups
A California county judge on May 6 ruled that two landowners cannot block access to their property to prevent engineers from studying possible routes for a 600-ft-wide and possibly 50-mile-long canal to help move water from northern sources to Southern California users. About half the owners of 125 parcels have denied access. The ruling in Contra Costa County that said two of them cannot stop the state from collecting biological and geological data on their farms—a ruling sought by state Attorney General Jerry Brown—is the first in the matter. Access requests for another 388 parcels are planned. +Image Map: Nancy
Responding to nearly a year’s worth of media speculation that the May 12, 2008, earthquake in China’s Sichuan province might have been triggered by the weight of a recently impounded reservoir, an international team of dam experts has returned from China reporting that such an hypothesis “is very unlikely.” Photo: International Commission On Large Dams Zipingpu Dam, reservoir not quake source. The magnitude 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake devastated vast areas of the province located in the foothills east of the Tibetan Plateau and killed an estimated 70,000 people. The epicenter was 17 kilometers from concrete-faced rockfill Zipingpu Dam. The dam is
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on May 8 that it would distribute $111.9 million in grants bolstered by funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help communities clean up Brownfield sites. The grants include $37.3 million from the Recovery Act and $74.6 million from the EPA Brownfields general program. The grants will help to assess, clean up and redevelop abandoned, contaminated Brownfields—sites where expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant. The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002 expanded the definition
The U.S. Green Building Council and the Green Building Certification Institute have released an improved version of the green-building rating system, which standardizes language across all categories and overhauls the LEED-accredited professional system, turning it into a tiered program. The current release includes LEED 2009, LEED Online Version 3 and a new certification process based on ISO standards. It also updates all the LEED categories at once, including those for new construction, schools, core and shell, commercial interiors and existing buildings. LEED Online V3, the implementation tool, has been retooled to be faster, more responsive and stable. USGBC has seen
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started staged award of a $500-million-plus contract for construction of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway West Closure Complex in southeast Louisiana. It is expected to be the largest and most complex piece of the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System. Included are extensive flood-wall systems, a 20,000-cu-ft-per-second pump station and two sector gates of about 225 ft and 75 ft in width, all built next to a federally designated “nationally significant” wetland, says Kevin Wagner, Corps senior project manager. On April 17 Gulf Intracoastal Constructors, New Orleans, a joint venture
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have released a draft plan for the restoration of the Hudson-Raritan Estuary that they hope will lead to a more coordinated effort to remediate the heavily polluted area. Released on April 14, the two-volume Comprehensive Restoration Plan (CRP) provides a framework for restoring the estuary. Corps officials say the plan represents a consensus view of how the estuary—roughly defined as the waters and wetlands within a 25-mile radius of the Statue of Liberty—should be restored. Sources say the plan, the result of a 1999
The Interior Dept. is maintaining its aggressive pace in committing economic-stimulus funds for construction and maintenance projects around the country. Interior’s National Park Service on April 22 released a $750-million list of projects to be funded under the stimulus measure, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The roster contains 766 projects, including work on a wide range of buildings, monuments, trails and water and sewer lines. Plan includes $30.5 million for repairs to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar followed up the park news on April 25 by rolling out the $500-million stimulus plan for the Bureau
RSS
