Dana Lowe, a 53-year-old subcontractor for steel erector CSE Inc., based in Williston, Vt., died on March 14 in a crane-related accident at a Hanover Inn hotel construction site in Hanover, N.H.Lowe was injured on the afternoon of March 13 when a crane hook hit the aerial lift he was working on, causing it to topple over, according to a statement by Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone. "Lowe landed on the concrete deck of a portion of new construction," he stated.The New Hampshire Medical Examiner's Office listed the cause of death as blunt-force trauma to the head. The case is
Photo courtesy of columbia university SENSING GREATNESS Cable mock-up under tension is encased within a custom-made corrosion chamber. Positive results from field tests of a corrosion detection and remote monitoring technology for suspension bridge cables have raised researchers' hopes the tools could be used for testing the health of bridges worldwide.The test confirmed that "we have the tools to reliably assess and quantify the level of corrosion on a suspension bridge for damage assessments," says Raimondo Betti, a civil engineering professor at Columbia University and lead project engineer on the $1.8-million collaborative research study. Before, the process involved subjective judgment
One year after Japan's Fukushima Daichi nuclear powerplant suffered devastation and meltdowns after a powerful offshore earthquake and tsunami, the island nation is embracing more renewable power sources to offset its electricity mix.
Star and Northeast Utilities have agreed to purchase 129 MW from the Cape Wind offshore wind farm as a condition of the utilities' pending merger, according to a deal announced on Feb. 15 by Massachusetts officials.
HNTB New Portsmouth Bridge design evokes history of predecessor www.portsmouth-nh.patch.com Old Memorial bridge main span floated out Feb. 8-9. After three days of delays, a visit from the Federal Highway Administrator and spirited public input, demolition began Feb. 8-9 on a key crossing between New Hampshire and Maine.
Construction workers who plummet to their deaths while wearing their fall protection equipment always present a puzzle for investigators. So when John Plante, a 44-year-old lineman, fell Jan. 17 from a wooden utility pole while working on a Central Maine Power transmission project in Saco, Maine, no one could immediately explain why.Plante fell more than 40 feet from a 95-ft wooden utility pole, says Don Rassiger, chief counsel for Plante's employer, Hawkeye LLC, a subsidiary of Willbos Utility T & D, Happauge, N.Y. Hawkeye’s work on the $1.4 billion transmission project has been suspended indefinitely pending investigation, according to a
A two-million-gallon water tank in Rochester, N.H., that last month lost half its contents to a steady leak will stay off-line while an accident probe continues, municipal officials say.
Replacement of the historic 76-year-old, 120-ft-long Chelsea Street Drawbridge in East Boston will smooth the journey not only of 20,000 daily motorists but of barges supplying fuel for Logan International Airport and the northeast region.
Massachusetts’ highest court on Dec. 28 upheld an agreement allowing Cape Wind to sell power to National Grid, removing a major obstacle for the planned 130-turbine offshore wind farm on Nantucket Sound.The ruling affirms the 2010 decision by the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Utilities (DPU) to allow National Grid to buy 50% of Cape Wind’s output — 234 MW. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the New England Power Generators Association and TransCanada had appealed the DPU’s decision late last year.In the 35-page ruling, Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margot Botsford called the DPU review consistent with
Manchester Water Works Sinkhole trapped car on exposed gas line after 110-year-old water main burst. Vehicle and driver were rescued. The town of Manchester, N.H., has been replacing about two miles of aging water pipeline annually in recent years, but municpal crews could not complete their task before a 12-in.-dia water main dating back to 1901 burst. The rupture on Dec. 13 created a street sinkhole that was perilous for one driver.“A cap blew off the back of a cross on the water main,” before water gushed up on the left side of the subcompact, trapping it on a live
