A two-million-gallon water tank in Rochester, N.H., that last month lost half its contents to a steady leak will stay off-line while an accident probe continues, municipal officials say.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must pay more attention to flood control, update its data-gathering technology and procedures, and improve its collaboration and communication efforts.
Manchester Water Works Sinkhole trapped car on exposed gas line after 110-year-old water main burst. Vehicle and driver were rescued. The town of Manchester, N.H., has been replacing about two miles of aging water pipeline annually in recent years, but municpal crews could not complete their task before a 12-in.-dia water main dating back to 1901 burst. The rupture on Dec. 13 created a street sinkhole that was perilous for one driver.“A cap blew off the back of a cross on the water main,” before water gushed up on the left side of the subcompact, trapping it on a live
Related Links: Portland, Ore.'s Big Pipe Winds Up 20-Year Program To Control Overflows The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has reached a Clean Water Act settlement with the federal government to upgrade its combined sewer system.Under the consent decree, announced on Dec. 14, the MWRD will complete a tunnel and reservoir plan to increase its capacity to handle stormwater and address combined sewer overflows.The project, which involves building two reservoirs with a combined storage capacity of 18 billion gallons, will be completed in stages in 2015, 2017 and 2029.According to the MWRD, the district already has spent about
Related Links: U.S. Stimulus Causing Rebound in Water Project Spending The overdue bill for water systems is reaching alarming size, with economic consequences that will weigh on U.S. businesses for years to come.An economic analysis on unmet public water and wastewater system needs commissioned by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) paints a grim future for the U.S. economy. The costs associated with unreliable delivery and inadequate treatment, the analysis shows, will combine to cut the nation’s gross domestic product by as much as $416 billion over the next decade if current spending levels remain unchanged.Failure to Act: The
Mexico City’s wastewater system is undergoing major surgery, with work under way on a large tunnel and a wastewater treatment plant as well as several pumping stations.The Valley of Mexico, which contains 21.4 million residents across 2,020 sq kilometers, is an enclosed valley with no natural outlet for water to flow. It contains the lakebeds of five extinct lakes.Overextraction of groundwater has been causing the land on which the city rests to sink for decades. Currently, the rate of sinking is between five and 40 centimeters per year. The existing system of tunnels and pumps, which carry sewage and stormwater
Following bid protests by losers of a $675-million flood control project in New Orleans that were upheld by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Army Corps of Engineers is seeking new bids from the contract’s original five short-listed teams. Some observers termed the move to re-procure the project as highly unusual and bidders are not saying how they will proceed.The move to re-bid will now push contract award for the Permanent Canal Closures and Pump stations (PCCP) to April 2012 and final project completion to October 2015, almost a year later than originally anticipated.The design-build contract was awarded in April
Now that the floodwaters of spring and summer have receded, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified 93 critical areas of damage in the Mississippi River and tributaries (MR&T) system that won’t survive another flood without great risk to life. But the Corps only has the money to fix the top 10.The top 10 projects on the Corps' list would cost $75.8 million. The agency released those and an additional $704 million worth of critical projects to a meeting of the Interagency Recovery Task Force in New Orleans October 20. The Corps formed the IRTF to work with federal
Photo courtesy of Barnard Construction Crews working from a barge began removing portions from the middle section of Glines Canyon dam on Sept. 15 Contractors have started chipping away on the Glines Canyon Dam in Port Angeles, Wash., one of two dams on the Elwha River that are scheduled for removal as part of the largest project of its kind in the U.S. The 210-ft-high Glines Canyon dam and the 108-ft-high Elwha Dam are the two highest dams ever to be removed in the U.S. The project includes the removal of 24 million cu yd of sediment and debris and
Image courtesy Tampa Bay Water Just six years after opening its 15.5-billion-gallon reservoir, Tampa Bay Water recently awarded a $162-million contract to Kiewit Infrastructure Group South to repair and expand the cracking facility. Related Links: Settlement Between HDR and Tampa Bay Water Hits Snag Tampa Bay Water Opts for Kiewit's $162M Fix for Cracking Reservoir A month after an invalid vote that provided "conditional approval" of a $30-million settlement with HDR Engineering over cracks in its six-year-old reservoir, on Oct. 17 the board of directors of Tampa Bay Water voted unanimously to reject the deal and proceed with its pending
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