By any measure, San Francisco's effort to seismically upgrade its water supply is big. The $4.765-billion Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) includes 83 separate projects spread throughout the Bay Area and beyond.
Photo Coutesy Grant County Public Utility district Crew bores pilot hole in preparation for steel-strand tendons that will be anchored in bedrock. Related Links: Varied Approaches Wring New Power from Waters Feds OK Redesign To Boost Migrating Salmon Survival Early this year, workers at the Wanapum Dam in central Washington state discovered that a 50-year-old mathematical error, made during dam design, had caused a 65-ft-long fracture.The 8,367-ft-long Wanapum Dam, six miles downstream of Vantage, Wash., generates 1,092 MW of power.On Feb. 24, a hydroelectric mechanic walking the small road on the dam's spillway deck noticed a bowed curb, says Thomas
Related Links: Bidding for $1.6B Miami-Dade Sewer-Repairs Contract Gets Messy In Miami-Dade Sewers Dispute, CH2M Hill's Claims Didn't Add Up for Inspector General After months of delay from protests by both bidders and subsequent investigations into the numerous claims, Miami-Dade County on May 20 awarded the program and construction-management contract for a $1.6-billion, federally mandated sewer-system repair project to AECOM Technical Services. The award came nearly 11 months after AECOM and sole competitor CH2M Hill submitted their proposals—and more than eight months after the county first moved to hire CH2M Hill.The claims and counterclaims started when AECOM alleged CH2M Hill
Blue Plains Eyes Plan to Further Green its CSO Program The first major section of a 13.2-mile network of tunnels designed to help manage Washington, D.C.’s combined sewer overflows (CSOs) is taking shape
Related Links: D.C. Water Undertakes Three Major Environmental Projects DC Water Fact Sheet on Biosolids Project The District of Columbia's water and sewer authority is coming close to finalizing work on its $470-million biosolids project. George Hawkins, DC Water's general manager, says the 90%-complete project should be up and running by late summer or early fall.The system will convert wastewater sludge from the Blue Plains advanced wastewater treatment facility, which currently treats approximately 370 million gallons a day of wastewater, into a Class-A biosolid using thermal hydrolysis. The process is a proven technology in Europe but has never been used
Photo Courtesy of Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation The controversial Gibe III dam is nearly 75% complete. Related Links: Gibe III project website Sean Avery's original study Construction of the $2-billion Gibe III dam in Ethiopia could have harmful effects on one of Africa’s largest lakes, according to a study commissioned by the African Development Bank.But in a March interview with London’s Guardian newspaper, the Ethiopian ambassador disputed the study’s conclusions.The report says filling the dam’s 16.26-cu-kilometer reservoir would require massive removals of water from River Omo, which feeds Lake Turkana, Africa’s fourth-largest lake, in neighboring Kenya.The storage volume is equivalent
Related Links: Description of early outline of the Marmay Railway project, circa 1860 Article on opposition to the $7 billion Canal Istanbul Turkey is going through an intensive infrastructure buildup, with the majority of funds going toward ports, bridges and tunnels as well as a massive artificial waterway.Following the growth of the past decade, which saw the number of the country's ports double, some of the biggest infrastructure projects are still in the planning stages.Despite the unrest of recent months, Turkey still has high ambitions for continued growth. The country has grown, from 2003 to 2012, at an average annual
Strike disruptions on a water project in South Africa, contracted to global infrastructure development firm Aveng Group, will push back the job's completion for yet another three months. Previously, the project was delayed for a year.Aveng Group subsidiary Grinaker LTA has said the labor disruptions related to worker pensions and benefits at the Mokolo Crocodile Water Augmentation Project contributed to a $9-million drop in company profits for the six months that ended last December.The project, which is being implemented by South Africa-owned Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, entails the phased construction of two main bulk raw-water transfer systems as well as associated
Related Links: Duke Energy's Dan River page NCDENR page on spill The two stormwater pipes that caused the early February release of as much as 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River in North Carolina have been plugged.But while damage to the downstream environment is still being assessed, the event appears certain to have far-reaching effects for the utility that owns the site and the state agency that regulates it.In the weeks since the leak was first discovered on Feb. 2 at a former Eden, N.C., coal-fired powerplant owned by Charlotte-based Duke Energy, the U.S. Attorney's Office in
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