Critical Path

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New data have been released on the economic stimulus, including a list of the 10 largest federal contracts awarded so far, and Dept. of Energy environmental cleanup contracts are well represented. The information is based on the first batch of ARRA contract reports filed by those who won the work. Under the recovery act,

Federal investigators in Philadelphia are looking at unsafe ground conditions as a suspect in Monday's tragic aerial lift accident, which killed the machine operator and injured three bystanders.

Like politics, football and cars, tools play an important role between fathers and sons. After pitting my dad’s disco-era drill against some of today’s snappier twisters, I’m beginning to understand why he gets so upset whenever I “borrow” it.

One of the most daunting challenges facing architects and engineers in their struggle to deliver net-zero energy buildings is a four-letter acronym: HVAC. But the good news is there is “huge opportunity to improve” the way buildings are heated and cooled today, Peter Rumsey, PE, principal of Rumsey Engineers in Oakland, told the audience at Architectural Record’s 2009 Innovation Conference in his session, “The New Generation of Super-Efficient HVAC Systems.”

DOT's ARRA grant competition for high-speed rail corridors draw large requests from New York, California, Florida, other states

It's not often that I feel like I can justifiably praise someone to the skies. But there are moments when civil engineers deserve it--and should just accept it.

Defections from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its stance on climate-change legislation have grown to a trickle. They started with Pacific Gas & Electric’s Sept. 22 withdrawal, accompanied by a letter from the California utility’s CEO, who found it “dismaying that the Chamber

DOT receives 1,400 applications, but only has $1.5 billion to award.

A big aspect of social media is sharing photos. ENR picked up on that trend seven years ago when we launched our popular annual photo contest. The 2009 competition now is open. Click here  for the full rules, entry forms and to submit your photos.

Opposition to climate-change legislation has paid off for the United States Chamber of Commerce. It has enabled the premier business lobby to shed a troublesome member--Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Francisco--that has become dismayed by the organization's willful ignorance and its single-"minded" (using the term broadly) opposition to efforts to address the 21st century's greatest single threat.