Calgary, Alberta-based TransAlta will shut down its 1,340-MW coal plant in Centralia, Wash., and build a $1-billion combined-cycle natural-gas replacement plant as the result of an agreement with the state that is pending in the Legislature. Photo: Courtesy of Transalta The last remaining coal-burning powerplant in Washington state is scheduled to be replaced by a natural-gas plant by 2025. The agreement, in the works for almost two years, will result in one of the two Centralia units being shut down by Dec. 31, 2020, and the second unit to follow by Dec. 31, 2025. TransAlta will install additional selective non-catalytic-reduction

The March 11 tsunami battered U.S. coasts and ports from Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest to southern California. Related Links: Nuclear Nightmare Pacific Northwest Faces Tsunami Risk The waves were much less powerful after crossing the Pacific. The epicenter of the 8.9 magnitude quake was the northeast coast of Japan. The governor’s office in Hawaii expects damage to run to about $10 million. Estimates are heading toward $50 million in California and one county in Oregon one of three damaged ports is reporting $25 million worth of destruction there alone. Witnesses describe a day of violent wave action inside normally

Two proposed Northwest port facilities to export coal to China are facing hurdles. Millennium Bulk Logistics, a subsidiary of Australia’s Ambre Energy North America, with a partial stake owned by St. Louis-based Arch Coal Inc., wants to upgrade the Longview Terminal Facility on the Columbia River, roughly 45 miles downstream of Portland, Ore. But environmental groups, including the Washington Dept. of Ecology, have filed suit against the project, claiming Cowlitz County didn’t follow state law in awarding a shoreline permit. Millennium bought 416 acres of a former aluminum smelter in January. It wants to replace 150 creosote river pilings and

Crews at the U.S. Energy Dept.’s Hanford nuclear-waste cleanup complex in eastern Washington are reactivating a 45-year-old site crane to remove close to 200 waste tanks, each three to 22 ft long, that are contaminated with plutonium. DOE contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. opted to restore the crane as the safest approach to extract the so-called “pencil tanks,” thinly shaped to prevent uncontrolled plutonium releases during the site’s Cold War-era atomic weapons production. Photo: Courtesy of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. Revamped crane will lift thin plutonium-tainted tanks to a yard where workers will decontaminate them safely. The 5-ton

The Portland, Ore., Bureau of Environmental Services and Salem, Ore.-based contractor Emery & Sons Construction Inc. on a recent project needed precision to bore a new sewer line beneath two trolley tracks near an existing steam vent in downtown Portland. They turned to an up-and-coming technology: laser-guided boring. Photo Courtesy Of Emery & Sons The laser-guided boring system allows crews to precisely place materials and work in tight spaces. Using a Pella, Iowa-based Vermeer AXIS tool, the laser system provides near-exact placement of a bored tunnel and then pulls the pipe back through when complete—“a marvelous machine,” says Bill Theiss,

Fluor and Boeing have made their desire known to take over management of the government-owned, contractor-operated Dept. of Energy Sandia National Laboratory facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif. Photo courtesy Sandia National Labs Announcing a “teaming agreement,” Irving, Texas-based Fluor and Chicago-based Boeing say they are “ready and willing to bid” to manage the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration facilities, if the opportunity comes up, according to Keith Stephens, Fluor spokesperson. The current Sandia contract, held by Lockheed since 1993, expires in September 2012. “We thought it important to announce our intentions,” Stephens says. “While there is not an

The complex fabrication of a $24.5-million tubular, webbed helix of red steel has set back the completion date for the Santiago Calatrava-designed footbridge in Calgary from fall 2010 to mid-June 2011. Billed as Calgary’s longest single-span structure at 126 meters—twice as long as the next longest—the Peace Bridge’s helical design keeps supports out of the water, using buried abutments on either side of the riverbank. The 6.2-m-wide bridge, double the width of other pedestrian bridges in the area, will serve 5,000 residents daily by connecting two growing neighborhoods to the city center and light rail. The city of Calgary wanted

Two major stadium renovations at Washington state universities are aiming to attract more fans to college football and boost revenue. A $250-million upgrade at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium, Seattle, and an estimated $70-million, smaller rehab of Washington State University’s Martin Stadium in Pullman are pitting rival schools against each other in the stadium upgrade race. Rendering: Courtesy of The University of Washington Husky Stadium, first built in 1920 for the University of Washington’s football team, is set for a $250-million makeover to improve sight lines, add some capacity and correct structural deficiencies. Renovations to Husky Stadium, a 90-year-old

Skanska USA has nearly completed demolition and has begun structural work on the first major renovation in more than 60 years of the student union building at the University of Washington, Seattle. The $128-million overhaul of the 256,000-sq-ft structure will improve its functionality for a campus student population that has nearly doubled in that time to 50,000. Photo:Tom Sawyer For ENR Systems and seismic protection will be improved at student union, built in 1949. Don Kowalchuk, Skanska’s project executive, says that nearly six months of hazardous material abatement during demolition has been tricky. The five-story Husky Union Building is set

Ayear after shifting bridge bents halted work on the $217-million U.S. Route 20 project near Oregon’s coast, engineers are hoping for rain and a solution. Photo: Courtesy of ODOT Unstable soils have kept completion of an Oregon road section in limbo. While over 50% of the new 6.5-mile bypass is complete, four bridges up to 1,100 ft long sit partially constructed. Lateral load from adjacent fill and subsurface ground pressure may have caused two of the 20 bents on the 10-bridge project to shift as much as two inches. Since that discovery in February 2010, crews have been collecting data.