When ethnic violence erupted last summer in northern Kosovo, builders of the country’s first modern motorway found the project’s sole supply quarry inaccessible behind roadblocks. The U.S.-Turkish construction team scoured the Balkans for aggregate and secured an alternate source just in time to continue work. The team recently completed the highway’s first section.
Courtesy Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd and NDA Dounreay site, once the core of U.K. nuclear-power research, will be decommissioned. AU.K.-U.S. team has begun final negotiations with British officials to assume ownership and cleanup management of a defunct nuclear research site in Scotland, which would be Britain's second-largest decommissioning project. The team, selected on Nov. 23, is set to take over the Dounreay site in April if it can show how at least $780 million and six years can be cut from the current cleanup effort, which now may cost $4 billion and last until 2038.On Nov. 23, the U.K. Nuclear
As London’s main international airport at Heathrow nears full capacity, momentum is growing in the U.K. for a major new hub in the Thames Estuary. London Mayor Boris Johnson has been lobbying hard for an estuary airport for two years. Recently, architectural heavyweight Sir Norman Foster proposed a rival $80-billion estuary project that includes high-speed rail, tidal power and a major new utilities and data spine.Foster’s Thames Hub would be built at the end of the Isle of Grain, Kent, some 55 kilometers east of central London. Over a third of the 40,000-hectare airport would be on land reclaimed, with
Sweden and Norway honor scientists, economists, writers and peace activists each year with the Nobel Prize; now the United Kingdom wants to recognize engineers at the top of their field. On Nov. 17 in London, British Prime Minister David Cameron launched a $1.6-million biennial prize for engineering developments that significantly benefit humanity. To be called the Queen Elizabeth award, the prize will be open to teams of up to three people anywhere in the world.An international expert judging panel, to be named in February, will issue the first call for prize nominations. Nominations will close in July 2012 and the
PHOTO BY ArcelorMittal Steel structural tower rises in London at Olympic Games site. The U.K.'s tallest sculpture—at 114.5 meters—reached structural completion on Oct. 28, when crews placed the top section of steel-tube diagrid. Designed as a permanent observation platform over London's emerging Olympic Park, the tower contains some 2,000 tonnes of steelwork. It was designed by local artist Anish Kapoor, along with structural engineer Cecil Balmond, former chairman of Arup Group Ltd., London. Steelcraft Erection Services Ltd., Dalton, is building the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower with tubular modules fabricated by the company's affiliate Watson Steel Structures Ltd., Bolton. The tower is
Earlier this month at the International Federation of Consulting Engineers' annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, Africa was recognized as a major market for infrastructure, with political upheavals in the Arab north creating new opportunities, according to regional speakers. Further, major investments are needed in sub-Saharan nations to sustain economic growth rates that now outstrip those of industrialized nations.Originally set to take place in Tunisia, the Oct. 2-5 conference was switched last spring by the organization, known as FIDIC, amid rising tensions in North Africa, said outgoing President Greg Thomopulos, chairman and THOMOPULOSCEO of Stanley Consultants, Muscatine, Iowa. However, Africa remained
Courtesy of Moatti-Rivire The 324-m-tall Paris icon is getting a glass floor for its first-level platform, 57 m above grade. A new restaurant, conference center and "green" features are also in the mix. A $34-million project will replace facilities on the first level of Paris’ landmark Eiffel Tower, last upgraded in the 1980s. A glass floor measuring over 30 sq meters will fill the now open central section of the 5,240-sq-m platform, 57 m above grade. A new restaurant and conference space are also in the works, along with improved disabled access, various forms of renewable energy, stormwater harvesting and
LONG-AWAITED LINK Plans to link Italy and Sicily have been considered for decades. Courtesy of Stretto di Messina S.p.A. MASSIVE MESSINA Construction on a new Italy-Sicily crossing that would easily break the world record for main suspension span length could begin next year, but only if Italys economy cooperates. Italian government officials are reviewing final designs for an estimated $11.7-billion suspension bridge that, with a 3,330-meter-long main span, would break the current world-record length by 66%. Construction of the Messina Strait road-and-rail crossing between the mainland and Sicily could start next year, the owner's director general said at a London
Image courtesy AGL Energy/Meridian Energy Located 230 kilometers west of Melbourne, the farm will be powered by 140 3-MW turbines. Located 230-km west of Melbourne, the farm will be powered by 140 turbines Due for completion in 2013, the $1-billion wind farm will produce enough energy to power more than 220,000 homes, according to the developer. Developers of Australia’s Macarthur Wind Farm recently completed financing for the 420-MW project, which it says will be the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest wind farm. Construction already has started at the site in Southwest Victoria. Houston-based KBR Inc. is acting as the owner’s project manager.Due
As London’s 2012 Olympic Games approach, the 8,425-sq-meter, curved roof over the new West Concourse at London's King's Cross railroad terminal is now fully exposed from the inside for the first time.
