Hydro-Quebec broke ground last month for its Romaine Complex, a $6.5-billion hydropower project comprising four rockfill dams on the Romaine River, ranging in height from 34 m to 114 m and generating a total of 1,550 MW. The first powerplant will be commissioned in 2014, with final completion scheduled for 2020. The workforce is expected to peak at 2,000 between 2012 and 2016. The river is 500 miles east of Quebec City and flows into the Saint Lawrence River.
The board of Tampa Bay Water has approved staff recommendations for an estimated $125-million repair program for the agency’s four-year-old, 15.5-billion-gallon C.W. “Bill” Young Regional Reservoir. The earthen structure, which cost roughly $140 million to build, has been experiencing significant cracking since late 2006. Image + Source: Tampa Bay Water Cracking problem seems to be centered in erosion-control system, officials say. The authority also is moving ahead with a lawsuit against the three lead members of the project’s design and construction team: designer HDR, Omaha; contractor Barnard Construction Co., Bozeman, Mont.; and construction manager Construction Dynamics Group, Columbia, Md. The
Under an extremely tight deadline mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New York City is building its first-ever water filtration plant, which, once operational in 2012, will end a long, costly and often controversial saga that began nearly two decades ago. Slide Show Photo: New York Daily News / Howard Simmons Once crews have a section of the foundation set, they go vertical, resulting in a tiered site that is at base slab in some areas and roof level in others. Originally estimated at $992 million, the now $2.8-billion Croton Water Filtration Plant entailed more than 10 years of
Energy Northwest is gingerly wading back into the waters of nuclear energy. The Richland, Wash.-based not-for-profit “joint operating agency,” which supplies electricity at cost to its 25-member public utilities in Washington state, is the renamed Washington Public Supply System, which made history in 1983 with the largest municipal-bond default ever when it walked away from $2.25 billion in bonds issued to construct five nuclear powerplants. The agency now is cautiously polling its customer utilities about their interest in a new nuclear plant to come online between 2017 and 2020. The utility is considering a plant composed of six 45-MW light-water
Demolition began on June 1 at one of the largest-ever dam-removal projects in the U.S. Since 1921, the Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue River near Grants Pass, Ore., has provided irrigation, but at a cost to the coho salmon that spawn in the river. A consent decree in 2000 capped a decade of legal fights and set the stage for the demolition. Photo: Slayden Construction Group Removal will open 500 miles of river for spawning. The 39-ft-high, 500-ft-long concrete-buttress dam was built in 1921 by the Grants Pass Irrigation District for irrigation only and provides no electricity or flood
As hurricane season dawnedon June 1, Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure Group, Baton Rouge, headed into production mode on construction of a $695-million, 2-mile-long, gated storm-surge barrier to help protect the southeast flank of New Orleans. By midsummer, more than 100 cranes and supply barges will be engaged. Under contract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Shaw is using a 500-ton crane to set and drive 66-inch-dia, 144-ft-long concrete spun-cast cylinder piles to form the vertical face of the surge-barrier wall. By June 4, a second crane of the same type is scheduled to join in. Shaw expects to drive
A vital storm surge barrier for New Orleans has entered a critical and busy phase. By mid-summer, more than 100 cranes and supply barges will be positioned to work on the more than $695-million, two-mile long, Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lake Borgne Surge Barrier project being constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans. Slide Show Photo: Angelle Bergeron The first of two 500-ton cranes on the job sets the 144-ft cylinder piles, which sink 65 to 70 ft into the bottom under their own 96-ton weight before driving starts. Related Links: New Surge Barrier Project Launched
The $13.5 billion in stimulus dollars for water projects announced in February could be just the start of a robust funding stream that will keep contractors busy in California for years to come. More than $441 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money will go to California wastewater and drinking water projects through the existing Environmental Protection Agency/California Water Board Clean Water and Drinking Water revolving fund grant programs. News of the influx of funding without the usual 20% match requirement brought a flood of projects to the state Water Board for consideration. Since the beginning of the year,
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has rejected a protest, from a team led by Parsons Corp., of a $3.3-billion, six-year nuclear-waste cleanup contract for the U.S. Energy Dept.’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., awarded in December to a team led by the Washington division of URS Corp. GAO declined to explain the rationale for its decision until its opinion is redacted. Parsons would not give a reason for the protest.
A federal judge in New Orleans ruled on March 20 that a civil lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers brought by homeowners who suffered flood damage in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 can proceed. The suit claims the Corps is liable for levee failures along the Mississippi River to Gulf Outlet, a navigation channel. The Corps has immunity from claims arising from flood-control failures but does not have the same protection with respect to navigation infrastructure. Judge Stanwood J. Duval Jr. said “substantial questions” have been raised. Damages could reach $100 billion.
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