If all goes as planned, the growing season for lettuce and herbs will begin before year-end in a 69,000-sq-ft converted steel plant in Newark, N.J.Crews are transforming the plant into a $30-million vertical farm. The team includes the grower AeroFarms, which will be headquartered there, and the building owner-developer, RBH Group.When completed, AeroFarms will have the capacity to grow up to 2 million lb per year of baby leaf greens and herbs in an environmentally controlled, safe and sanitary facility, says AeroFarms, which hopes to create a model for sustainable indoor farming.Annual production per sq ft will be 75 times
Two 17.6-meter-dia tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are now driving a 4.2-kilometer-long highway link between Hong Kong's Lantau Island, site of the territory's international airport, and the New Territories.The second TBM set off on June 15, two months behind the first, on twin drives of Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok road tunnel.The Dragages-Bouygues joint venture of France is building the tunnel under a contract valued at nearly $2.4 billion. According to Bouygues, the TBMs, supplied by Germany's Herrenknecht A.G., are the world's largest and can map the rock face in real time plus remotely detect cutterhead damage, reducing manual inspections under compressed
FAA Issues Houston License To Convert Ellington to Spaceport Houston Mayor Annise Parker (D) announced June 30 that the Federal Aviation Administration had approved Ellington Airport as a launch site for reusable launch vehicles. Parker hopes to make the Houston Spaceport a hub for manufacturing spacecraft and training astronauts.DOE Finalizes Last of Loan Guarantees for Vogtle Project The U.S. Dept. of Energy has finalized the last remaining portion of $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees previously allotted for the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project near Waynesboro, Ga. Last month, the agency issued $1.8 billion in guarantees to three subsidiaries of
Mexico's State Utility Bids $9.8B In Energy Infrastructure Work Mexico's state utility Comision Federal de Electricidad on June 22 announced it would seek bids for 24 natural-gas and power infrastructure projects, valued at about $9.83 billion. They include nine for power distribution and eight to transport natural gas. The projected 2,385 kilometers of gas pipeline include the 800-km, $3.1-billion South Texas-Tuxpan undersea line across the Gulf of Mexico seabed and the 250-km, $1.5-billion Nueces-Brownsville line across Texas. Canada Bridge Contract Award To SNC-Lavalin, ACS Finalized The Canadian government has finalized a $3.43-billion design, build, finance, operate and maintain contract with
Related Links: Engineering News-Record Architectural Record Balcony Collapse Kills Six, Cause Under Investigation Six people are dead and seven seriously injured after a balcony collapse in downtown Berkeley, Calif. The victims, all students hailing from Ireland, attended nearby University of California, Berkeley on J1 visas. According to eyewitness reports, the students were celebrating at a birthday party in a fourth-story unit at the Library Gardens Apartments when the balcony collapsed. The balcony sheared off the side of the building and appears to have flipped over, landing atop a third-story balcony below. Four of the victims were pronounced dead at the
Indiana's recent repeal of its prevailing wage law—31 states still have them—is no cause for celebration from the public's or the industry's point of view.
Industry's Jobless Rate Declines Construction's jobless rate improved in May as the industry added 17,000 jobs. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on June 5 that May unemployment fell to 6.7%, from April's 7.5% and from 8.6% in May 2014. Last month's rate was the lowest May figure since 2006, when it was 6.6%. Specialty trade contractors led the May jobs gains, adding 12,300.No Balfour Beatty Comment on Reported Chinese Buy Offer Balfour Beatty declined to comment on a June 7 I.K. media report that China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. is pondering a possible $3-billion buyout bid. Observers note
Donning a hardhat and safety-orange coveralls, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron joined Crossrail brass and sandhogs underground June 4 at the formal completion of tunneling work on London's $22.6-billion east-west railroad megaproject.Starting in May 2012, eight TBMs drove 42 km of 6.2-m-dia tunnels on twin bores under central London. Another 13.5 km of station tunnels were excavated and lined with sprayed concrete. With work 65% complete on time and budget, according to Andrew Wolstenholme, CEO of Crossrail Ltd., "the challenge now shifts to … fitting out the stations and tunnels."Crossrail is forecast to carry 200 million passengers a year after
Photo by Royal Logistic Corps/Mod Crown Copyright Work Crew Evacuated as Live World War II Bomb is Defused at London Project SiteU.K. military munitions experts on May 22 successfully defused an unexploded bomb dating from World War II that was found during excavation work on a residential-retail project near Wembley Stadium in London. The explosive, estimated at 110 lb, is thought to have been dropped during Nazi raids in the early 1940s, officials said. The discovery prompted evacuation of nearby homes and businesses as well as workers at the site of Dexion House, a two-building complex set for completion in