Shell Canada announced plans in May for Canada’s largest liquefied-natural-gas, or LNG, facility on British Columbia’s central coast near Kitimat. Shell also is considering an option for the future expansion of the facility, dubbed LNG Canada.

The successful completion this spring of twin 2.1-mile-long bored tunnels in Seattle marks a literal breakthrough in that city's troubled history of light-rail construction. It also represents the halfway mark in the 3.15-mile, $1.9-billion project to connect downtown with the University of Washington.The 21-ft-dia tunnels run between Capitol Hill and the university. A Traylor Bros. Inc. and Kemper-Frontier Constructors Inc. joint venture worked under a $309-million contract.

For the James W. Fowler Co. of Dallas, Ore., using a vertical shaft machine made by Germany’s Herrenknecht for a 145-ft-deep, 30-ft-dia launching portal as part of a $32-million sewer upgrade project in Seattle—the first time the technology has been used in the U.S.—was a matter of necessity.

When the U.S. Coast Guard questioned a request for a Section 9 bridge permit for the $3.5-billion Columbia River Crossing project—a proposed 10-lane Interstate 5 bridge connecting Portland, Ore., to Vancouver, Wash.—CRC officials were surprised that years of planning needed to be revisited.

Aiming for a safer approach to "cocoon" a defunct nuclear reactor at the U.S. Energy Dept.'s Hanford waste site in Washington state while its radioactivity decays over 75 years, crews will enclose it in a steel shell.

The Vancouver International Airport is planning $1.8 billion in capital projects over the next 10 years, with a heavily front-loaded first four years that already has out requests for proposals for the initial package of work.

As detailed engineering progresses, Canada's Imperial Oil is evaluating plant contractor bids following its decision to rekindle plans to construct a $2-billion expansion to its Cold Lake facility operation in northeastern Alberta's oil-sands region. The revised plan includes a 170-MW cogeneration facility and a bitumen-processing plant to go on line by the end of 2014.

In-water work restrictions are so tight in the salmon-filled rivers of western Oregon that the Oregon Dept. of Transportation decided to employ a top-down bridge construction method to replace a section of Interstate 84 east of Portland. If all goes well, say ODOT officials, the method may be adopted on a more frequent basis.

Gregory Hauser laughs when he tries to recollect all the tunneling jobs in his 40-plus-year career. However, nothing compares to job No. 27, he says.

D. Kent Smith is well aware there are no shortcuts when it comes to cleaning up 60 years of radioactive and other wastes at the U.S. Energy Dept.'s Hanford former nuclear-weapons site in Washington state.