A bell tower in St. Mark’s Square dating back to 12th-Century Venice is getting a new lease on life through a two-year project to stabilize the ill-fated monument standing on tricky soil. In January, workers began drilling cement-reinforced micro-piles to provide watertight enclosures around seven chambers so a girdle of titanium rods can be threaded through the ground around the tower’s faulty foundation block. Photo: Peter Reina / ENR The most prominent monument in St. Mark’s Square in Venice is a 20th-Century reconstruction Related Links: Stabilizing Venice Monument During most of this year, subcontractor Trevi SpA, Cesena, will drill about

Transit projects in Denver, San Francisco, Hartford, Honolulu and Minneapolis will get a first-time boost from the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program for fiscal year 2011. But FTA administrator Peter Rogoff conceded that the consistency of annual levels of funding will be uncertain as long as the six-year transportation reauthorization bill is delayed. At a Feb. 2 press conference, Rogoff announced $1.82 billion for 27 major transit projects for FY 2011. That includes $835 million for 19 new construction projects, including $80 million for two rail lines in Denver, $45 million for a busway to connect Hartford and New

Plans for a Southern Nevada national nuclear waste repository are all but kaput. The U.S. Energy Dept. said Feb. 1 it will withdraw its Nuclear Regulatory Commission application within 30 days. The move comes after DOE spent nearly three decades and $38 billion on waste repository tests and studies at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The agency planned to store up to 77,000 tons of radioactive waste there from 80 sites in 35 states. Spent utility fuel and high-level defense waste would be placed in specially engineered containers housed inside a network of tunnels built deep within

The White House announced on Jan. 29 that the federal government will reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 28% by 2020. The announcement comes on the heels of President’s Obama’s pledge on Jan. 28 that the United States would reduce GHG emissions by 17% by 2020 as part of an international climate agreement. The Jan. 29 announcement follows up on an executive order signed by the president this fall, which required federal agencies to set sustainability goals by Jan. 4. The 28% reduction target is the aggregate of 35 federal agency self-reported targets required by the executive order. Among

California is the top winner but Midwest states and Florida also scored big in states' fierce competition for $8 billion in federal grants to build high-speed-rail lines around the country. Related Links: High Speel Rail Awards Summary High Speed Rail Map Round Two of ARRA Rail Grants Draws Huge Crowd States Vying for First ARRA Rail Grants States Clamor For High-Speed Funding The White House released a list of awards on Jan. 28, [see full list pdf attached] shortly before President Obama and Vice-President Biden were scheduled to make a formal announcement in Tampa. The funding is part of the

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority is facing its worst budget crisis in 30 years -- and it will only get worse if a six-year transportation bill waiting to be reauthorized is cut as the Obama Administration vows to rein in domestic spending, said its chairman and CEO. Jay Walder, who rejoined the agency last July after a 19-year stint in London, asked attendees at a New York Building Congress luncheon Jan. 28 to approach him directly with ideas about how the MTA can simplify its "risky, cumbersome" contracting process, described as the "MTA premium" by the industry. "Come to

The U.S. embassy in Haiti is one of the rare significant structures in Port-au-Prince to have survived the Jan. 12, 7.0 magnitude earthquake with only minor damage, none of it structural. Photo: Pbase.com/beulahchapel Construction work on Port-au-Prince embassy in 2007. As a result, the embassy has become an important base for several relief efforts. The embassy is a relatively new structure. It was built as a design-build project by Fluor Corp., as part of the U.S. State Dept’s overhaul of its global facilities. Construction started on the 134,000 sq-ft office building with its 54,874 sq ft of support structures in

The rebuilding of Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir is a project of many superlatives. The upper bowl of the 440-MW pumped-storage system sits on top of Missouri’s highest peak, 1,590-ft Proffit Mountain. It is believed to be North America’s largest roller-compacted concrete dam. When the original earth-and-rockfill dike was over- topped and failed in December 2005, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt (R) called the damage done by the 4,365 acre-ft of water it released “the worst man-made disaster in the history of Missouri.” And the $10-million civil penalty imposed on St. Louis-based utility AmerenUE by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the

Denver’s Regional Transportation District says it will need about $2.4 billion more than expected to build all components of the city’s FasTracks rail expansion. The agency, which released its 2010 FasTracks budget in January, puts the total at $6.6 billion, well beyond the $4.2 billion it can collect from taxes in the near future. RTD oversees bus and rail transit for the six-county Denver metro area. In 2004, the agency spearheaded an election in which voters approved $3.95 billion in new taxes for FasTracks. The program aims to build 122 miles of new commuter-rail and light-rail lines, 18 miles of

The Federal Transit Administration approved last month the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority’s revised testing plan for eleven 30-year-old foundations that will be used to support piers for the new Dulles Metrorail extension in northern Virginia to Dulles International Airport. Photo: Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project Team Agency will begin tests on piers originally built in the 1970s to see if they can handle new light-rail system to Dulles Airport, after initial criticism. The concrete foundations, supported by concrete and steel caissons driven 50 to 60 ft deep, are among 13 that were installed by the Virginia Dept. of Transportation in the