Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Dept. of Public Works Treatment plant is set for completion next year; deep tunnel is set for a 2017 completion. One month after awarding a $25-million sewerage-tunnel construction inspection contract amid a packed field of proposals, Indianapolis utility Citizens Energy Group will select a firm to build the $275-million project, with the low bidder 33% below the estimate.On Sept. 29, AECOM Technology Corp. was awarded the inspection contract for the Deep Rock sewage overflow project. The Los Angeles-based firm bested competitors that included Parsons Brinckerhoff's Water Group, locally based American Structurepoint, Burgess & Niple and a
Related Links: D.C. Water's Blue Plains Undertakes Three Major Environmental Projects The Chesapeake Bay remains at risk, largely because of pollution from stormwater runoff, farms and wastewater treatment plants. Excess nitrogen and phosphorous from these sources deplete oxygen and create large “dead zones” in which algae blooms cut off sunlight vital to the survival of marine life and underwater grasses. In December 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency developed a bay-wide “pollution diet” that sets numeric limits on the total maximum daily load of nutrients each state in the watershed can contribute to the bay. Blue Plains already is meeting
Photo courtesy of Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District MRES plans to add powerplant on right side of Red Rock Reservoir spillway. Missouri River Energy Services plans to build a 36.4-MW hydroelectric plant on an existing dam near Pella, Iowa. The project is indicative of a slow but developing trend in the U.S.MRES, a Sioux Falls, S.D.-based municipal utility power supplier, has hired MWH for engineering work on the $220-million project, Tom Heller, MRES chief executive officer, said on Sept. 16. MWH is an engineering consultant headquartered in Broomfield, Colo.MRES plans to build the Red Rock hydroelectric facility on
Photo by Debra K. Rubin Flood-damaged Home Depot megastore could stay closed until Sept. 3 Related Links: For a Downgraded Storm, Irene Leaves Her Mark on East Coast Infrastructure While many contractors and homeowners have flocked to big-box home improvement stores for critical supplies in Hurricane Irene-hit states, extensive flooding at one of Atlanta-based Home Depot's largest U.S. stores, in Union, N.J., will keep it closed until at least Sept. 3.The store has been shuttered since Aug. 28, when Irene swept across New Jersey.A Home Depot spokesman declined to discuss the extent of damage to the roughly 217,000 sq-ft "superstore"
While many contractors and homeowners have flocked to big-box home improvement stores for critical supplies in Hurricane Irene-hit states, extensive flooding at one of Atlanta-based Home Depot's largest U.S. stores, in Union, N.J., will keep it closed until at least Sept. 3.The store has been shuttered since Aug. 28, when Irene swept across New Jersey.A Home Depot spokesman declined to discuss the extent of damage to the roughly 217,000 sq-ft "superstore" or say when it would reopen. A security guard at the store site said the store could reopen on Sept. 3. Water had completely filled the store's parking lot,
Related Links: Hurricane Irene Serves as Laboratory for Testing Bridge Innovations Hurricane-Hit N.J. Home Depot Ends Up In Same Flood as Customers Hurricane Irene's late summer trip Aug. 27-30 along the East Coast from the Carolinas up to Manhattan and through New England was anything but restful for people and infrastructure in the storm's path.The hurricane had diminished to tropical storm status as it churned up the coast, turned inland and headed to Canada. But it brought enough wind and rain to generate record flooding in some areas; it chewed up infrastructure and caused damage of at least $7 billion
Photo courtesy of USACE Instrument packages at 28 points along the 7.5-mile levee include spider magnetometers, which slide down a tube as the soil below the levee compresses. Clusters also include two inclinometers that bow out of plumb in response to horizontal soil movement and settlement plates buried in the new lifts to measure placement and consolidation in the new work zone. A benchmark, anchored in a stable sand layer, completes the package. + Image Infographic courtesy of USACE Inclinometers bow out of plumb in response to horizontal soil movement and settlement plates buried in the new lifts. Related Links:
The Mississippi River & Tributaries flood control system fought like a champ through the record-breaking floods of 2011. Now it has an estimated $2 billion worth of scars to prove it.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t have the money to fix the MR&T system, but it already has identified 2,534 locations that need attention, at least 160 of which it says would not be able to withstand another flood.In an effort to rally the kind of broad support that was behind the genesis of the Corps’ MR&T Project, which was created after the disastrous floods of 1927, on Aug.12
Six years after South Korean steelmaker Pohang Iron and Steel Co. signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orissa government for India’s largest foreign direct-investment project, the $12 billion mega-venture remains a non-starter.The integrated steel project is mired in opposing political agendas, environmental conflicts and the country’s biggest issue: land acquisition by the government and ongoing protests by local residents who contend the land for the project was taken not for public use but for a private company.A memorandum of understanding on the 12-million-tons-per-annum integrated steel-plant-and-port project, signed in 2005, reportedly expired last year.Orissa steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty recently
Related Links: Corps To Update Missouri River Dams' Release Strategy Corps Delays Missouri River Manual Revision The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is still sending above-normal releases from its six Missouri River dams, does not plan to increase its flood storage capacity this fall and winter because of risks to downstream levees.Brig. Gen. John R. McMahon, commander of the Corps’ Northwest Division, says the planned release schedule announced July 29 will allow the Corps to get its system ready for the 2012 season when it starts March 1.“We came to the conclusion that this year we would not need