A California contractor was awarded one of the largest U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contracts for a $5-million irrigation project in the National Elk Refuge near Jackson, Wyo. Yerba Buena Engineering and Construction, Inc., a San Francisco-based minority-owned small business, will install more than five miles of irrigation pipe in the 25,000-acre park to replace what Fish and Wildlife Service Spokesman Michael Mascari called “pioneer-era canals.” Five miles of buried polyethylene pipe will replace open canals from pioneer days. Yerba Buena proposed using polyethylene pipe and small sprinklers. The raw materials are more expensive than
Facing unpredictably tough ground conditions, tunneling crews have worked all out this year to get Belfast’s $195-million, 9.4-kilometer-long stormwater storage tunnel system operational before Christmas. With work largely done, Northern Ireland Water (NIW) aims to recruit soon a design firm to handle its second deep-tunnel sewer project, likely to be just as tough to implement. Slide Show Photo: Northern Ireland Water Belfast CSO system has 19 shafts up to 10 m in diameter. The shafts and tunnels will be able to hold 85,000 cu m of wastewater. Photo: Northern Ireland Water Five heavy-duty pumps can lift 16 cu m of
A Pacific Northwest dam removal project, said by its owner, the National Park Service, to be the largest of its type in the U.S., is one step closer to beginning after the recent completion of a new water treatment plant in Port Angeles, Wash. NPS officials expect contractors to proceed with dismantling Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Olympic Peninsula in 2012. Photo: National Park Service. Demolition and removal is to start in 2012. Congress approved removal of both Elwha River impoundments in 1993. Demolition was scheduled for 2009, until rising costs for the $308-million project delayed the start
The anticipated costs to contractors to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule addressing stormwater runoff on construction sites outweigh any benefits to water quality, say industry representatives. Critics charge the new rule, published in the Dec. 1 issue of the Federal Register and which will go into effect on Feb. 1, 2010, imposes new costs and burdens on builders while doing little to address water quality. EPA and environmental advocates say the new rule, required under a 2006 court order, will help reduce pollution from construction sites into the nation’s rivers and streams. The final rule requires
The Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans District expects on Dec. 4 to open a 30-day public comment period on plans to construct an Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC) Seabrook Floodgate Structure, consisting of a sector gate and two vertical lift gates in New Orleans. The new structure would tie into the Lake Pontchartrain levee system and operate in tandem with the IHNC Lake Borgne Surge Barrier, now under construction, to reduce the risk of storm damage. Comments will be taken on an Individual Environmental Report, which investigates alternative alignments and designs, potential impacts, construction methods and details.
A federal court judge in New Orleans who found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers liable for damages claimed by five residents of an area inundated during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 limits the area to which his decision applies. But Judge Standwood R. Duval Jr. also blasts the Corps for putting lives and property at risk for decades by failing to properly operate and maintain a navigational channel it built between 1956 and 1968 below New Orleans. He further faults the Corps for failing to comply with the National Environmental Protection Act of 1969 for reporting on environmental degradation caused
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is to blame for massive flooding in two areas New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and is liable for damages sought by five plaintiffs living there, a federal court judge in New Orleans ruled Nov. 18. Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Corps’ negligence led to breach in flood protection during Hurricane Katrina, court ruled. Related Links: Text of the Ruling The court ruled earlier that while the Corps was exempt by law from claims for damages caused by failures of flood control structures, it was not exempt from claims for damages caused
The government of Ecuador last month signed a contract with Chinese contractor Sinohydro to build a hydroelectric project. The Coca Codo Sinclaire Dam will be located on the upper Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon, about 75 miles east of Quito. It will generate 1,500 MW and is expected to cost $2 billion. Fifteen percent of the financing will be provided by the Ecuadorean government, and the remaining 85% will be a loan from China’s Export-Import Bank. When completed, the project will be the largest dam built outside China by a Chinese firm. Construction is expected to take five
The California legislature last week approved a series of bills designed to address water issues facing the state, including an $11.4-billion bond that will leverage another $30 billion if passed by voters next November. The $40-billion plan targets the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta and its system of levees. It includes the creation of a new seven-member oversight body, the Delta Stewardship Council, to develop a comprehensive delta management plan by Jan. 1, 2012; the establishing of a groundwater monitoring program; reporting requirements for water diversions and imposition of civil liabilities and penalties for false statements; and a requirement for the state
Another behemoth civil works project is taking shape in New Orleans as construction of the $1 billion Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) West Closure Complex project rapidly advances. Since receiving the notice to proceed August 4, Gulf Intracoastal Constructors, a joint venture of Omaha-based Kiewit Corp. and Traylor Bros. Inc. of Evansville, Ind., has been working round-the-clock. GIC has already cleared and grubbed most of the 200-acre site, built 4,000 ft of roadway, and excavated 150,000 cu yd of dirt. Photo: Angelle Bergeron Gulf Intracoastal Constructors is driving 1,375, 137 ft-long steel pipe piles for the foundation of the pump station
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