The Panama Canal Authority has opened the bidding process for the last of four dry-excavation contracts for the waterway’s third-lane expansion. The dry excavation is needed to create a 6.7-km link between the existing navigational channel at the entrance to the Gaillard Cut, the canal’s narrowest stretch, as well as the new set of locks yet to be constructed. Last month, that $3.1-billion contract was won by an international team of contractors and design firms, Grupo Unidos por el Canal, led by Spanish contractor Sacyr Vallehermoso S.A. The upcoming excavation contract represents more than half the total works needed for
The city of Hamilton, Ontario, is embarking on a $550-million upgrade of its main wastewater-treatment plant. CH2M Hill, with subconsultant AECOM, is performing detailed design and services during construction of the project, which could last five to seven years, says Dan McKinnon, acting director of operations for the Hamilton Dept. of Public Works. The project will replace a 500-megaliter-per-day activated-sludge treatment plant with a 1,000-mld membrane bioreactor, treat a large combined-sewer flow and help to clean up a polluted Lake Ontario harbor. “There is no aspect of the existing wastewater-treatment plant that won’t be touched,” says McKinnon. The planned bioreactor
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is holding a series of meetings this summer in several states to discuss the federal government’s new plan for restoring water quality in the Great Lakes. The $475-million draft plan, proposed in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget, needs congressional approval before it can be implemented. But government officials are moving forward with public meetings and say they may issue requests for proposals as early as late summer 2009 for competitive grants for work to begin in early 2010. “Administrator [Lisa] Jackson feels a great sense of urgency for more action to restore the Great
Mobilization has begun in Southern California for excavation of the foundation of what authorities are calling the largest raise of a concrete dam in the U.S. and the largest using roller-compacted concrete in the world. A groundbreaking ceremony on July 9 will kick off the project to raise San Vicente Dam, Lakeside, Calif., in the final phase of the San Diego County Water Authority’s Emergency Storage Project. “It will more than double the capacity of the reservoir,” says Kelly Rodgers, authority project manager. “San Diego relies primarily on imported water.” Water supplies from the Colorado River and from northern California
If finished by 2011 as planned and supported by an effective stormwater pumping system, the $14.3-billion hurricane and storm-damage risk-reduction system of levees, gates and floodwalls going up around New Orleans will “dramatically reduce” vulnerability to flooding and potential loss of lives and property during extreme storms events, according to a new report that explains the extraordinary risk-analysis tools developed to study the system since Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in 2005. “If it’s constructed and performs equal to what we assume it will in the model, it’s going to be a hell of a system,” says Lewis “Ed” Link, the director
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority on June 25 awarded a $4.9-million contract to the Boston office of Stantec for engineering services on the 45-year old, 60-mgd West Roxbury Wastewater Tunnel. The 12-in thick cast-in-place concrete lining in the 12,500-ft long, 84-in dia. rock tunnel, which serves about 125,000 homes and businesses, is eroded due to hydrogen sulfide corrosion. J.F. White, Framingham, Mass., will inspect the tunnel, which has two portals and a 220-ft deep shaft, this fall to help determine the extent of the problem and the relining solution. "The 12-in liner is structural and as of a decade ago
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 22 that mine wastewater slurry can be pumped into an Alaskan lake under the Clean Water Act. The 6-3 decision in Coeur Alaska Inc. vs. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council reverses a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the mining company’s permit violated the Clean Water Act. The case centered on the question of whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or the Environmental Protection Agency had authority over activity in the Lower Slate Lake in the Tongass National Forest. Following the enactment of a Bush administration rule in 2002, the Corps
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
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