The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is issuing an especially dire forecast for tropical storm activity in the Atlantic and Caribbean basins this hurricane season. Photo: NOAA Hurricane Ike, in 2008. NOAA is predicting an active, to extremely active hurricane season this year. In a report released May 27, NOAA said that it is expecting “an active to extremely active” hurricane season. For the six-month season, which begins June 1, NOAA is projecting a 70% probability of 14 to 23 named storms with top winds of 39 mph or higher. It predicts the named storms will include eight to 14

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has offered an emergency permit to the state of Louisiana to build 45 miles of coastal barrier berms, out of 128 miles of berms the state originally sought permission to build in its effort to block the migration of oil to wetlands from the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Col. Al Lee, New Orleans District Commander, offered the permit on May 27, but noted the state still is responsible for obtaining other required permits and for coordinating the work with other federal agencies whose approval also may be

Work on the $1-billion Port of Miami Tunnel project, long delayed and nearly cancelled due to financial reasons, has finally begun. On May 24, work officially commenced with site clearing and grubbing and delivery of equipment and materials. The project’s price tag includes $607 million for design and construction. The Florida Dept. of Transportation selected concessionaire Miami Access Tunnel, led by Bouygues Publics Travaux of France, to design, build, finance, maintain and operate the tunnel. The project will reroute trucks out of downtown Miami, providing direct access to the port from the MacArthur Causeway, also known as Highway A1A. A

Birmingham, Ala.-based Vulcan Materials Co. has agreed to pay the Illinois Dept. of Transportation $40 million to settle a 2001 lawsuit contending the aggregates producer damaged a former major artery that bisects an operating company quarry in McCook, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. The road has been closed for more than a decade after it shifted suddenly. Photo: Vulcan Materials Aggregate mining was the cause of the Joliet Road collapse, the state of Illinois contended. Vulcan Materials disputed the claim but has agreed to pay the state DOT $40 million. The suit contended that Vulcan, the largest construction aggregate supplier

The Dept. of Energy has awarded Paris-based Areva Corp. a $2-billion conditional loan guarantee for a greenfield uranium-enrichment plant in Idaho Falls, Idaho—one of the plants needed to help supply the U.S. market with enriched uranium for nuclear powerplants. Photo: Areva Corp. Idaho Falls Facility would cover 400 acres and cost $3.3 billion. The DOE says it has an additional $2 billion for a loan guarantee to support another uranium-enrichment plant, a guarantee for which Bethesda, Md.-based USEC Inc. has said it will re-apply later this year. Areva expects to award an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the 400-acre,

As oil from the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion began spreading into Louisiana’s marshes, state and local leaders moved ahead on plans to protect the state’s shores with a massive sand-berm project­—even without the approval of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard. Photo: U.S. Navy Photo Louisiana National Guard units have been called out to help plug 40 gaps in islands along the coast in an attempt to limit the amount of oil entering the marshes from the April 20 spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Related Links: BP Considers Options To Plug Gusher, Investigates

Some 200 Haitian engineers and engineering students gathered in Port-au-Prince on May 20-22 under a tent in plus-90°F heat to learn about seismic-resistant design and construction. The four introductory courses—which covered topics such as the seismology and seismicity of Haiti, earthquake-resistant design principles and rapid building assessment methodology—were held thanks to an agreement between the University of Quisqueya (UniQ) in Port-au-Prince and the University at Buffalo’s Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (UB-MCEER). Photo: UB-MCEER Seminar tents housed 100 participants each day. Photo: UB-MCEER The introductory seismic program included field evaluation training. Related Links: Congress Moving on Aid for Haiti,

More than four months after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, Congress is stepping up efforts to provide funds for disaster relief and start rebuilding the country. Lawmakers also are insisting on specific goals and timetables for achieving those reconstruction targets. Photo: fadedyouthblog.com Actor-activist Penn, shown here in Haiti, urged the U.S. to “stay the course.” Related Links: Q&A With Haitian-American Architect- Engineer Yves François U. of Buffalo Seismic Seminar Aimed at Haitian Engineers VIDEO: Habitat for Humanity Experiments VIDEO: Life at the Epicenter of Haitian Quake Rebuilding Haiti Haiti funding hasn’t been enacted yet; congressional action on that front has

After receiving tips, Bay County, Fla., sheriff’s deputies arrested 11 undocumented workers at the Panama City Marina on May 19, 2010, for using stolen Social Security numbers to obtain employment cleaning up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico Related Links: Louisiana Starts Pushing Sand To Block Oil BP Considers Options To Plug Gusher, Investigates ‘Complex Accident’ Website Channels Oil-Spill Info Bay County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Ruth Corley says BP subcontractors hired the men, who most recently came from South Carolina, Mississippi and other parts of Florida. The men are citizens of Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador and Bolivia, she

Valuable lessons can be learned and possibly applied to modify U.S. seismic design codes and practices from the behavior of structures during the magnitude-8.8 earthquake that rocked Chile on Feb. 27, said the leader of a team representing the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which visited Chile from April 5-12. In April, ASCE also sent assessment teams from its Coasts, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute (COPRI) and its Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering (TCLEE). Photo: ASCE/SEI Assessment Team In Concepción, one side of the Torre O’Higgins Office Building is undamaged as the walls are