Within a few seconds in mid-December, engineers at a new research facility in Vicksburg, Miss., sealed a 2,000-cu-ft-per-second torrent of water pouring through a 40-ft-wide, eight-ft-deep levee breach using a 100-ft-long, 15-ft-dia., air- and water-filled fabric tube rolling in the stream. Photo: Angelle Bergeron For ENR Full-scale trials of a 100-ft-long levee plug at a new test facility in Vicksburg show technology and techniques for rapidly sealing levee breaches are ready for business, but funds are lacking. Graphic: Courtesy ERDC A 2.2-million-gal source pool and collapsible weir on the test basin simulate a breach. Related Links: Ready To Roll: Levee

The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District may have to spend more than $2 billion over the next 10 years to improve water quality. The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board on Dec. 9 directed California’s capital city to remove ammonia and other residual materials from treated water before discharging it into the Sacramento River. The city’s 28-year-old plant releases as much as 180 million gallons of water per day into the delta-feeding waterway. The controversial decision came after a contentious permit renewal process in which SRCSD estimated that, between the capital improvements, pilot studies and reports, rates for its

Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. beat out six other bidders to win a $127-million design-build contract to construct Portland, Ore.’s first crossing of the Willamette River in more than 37 years. The 1,720-ft cable-stayed bridge with a 780-ft main span will carry only light rail, cyclists and pedestrians. The bridge is part of the $1.5-billion, 7.3-mile Orange Line project from Portland to neighboring Milwaukie, scheduled to open in 2015.

A joint venture led by Dragados USA, New York City, and Tutor Perini Corp., Sylmar, Calif., is now able to begin revising its best-value winning bid to build a 1.7-mile, 55-ft-diameter deep bore tunnel beneath downtown Seattle. Tunnel Partners, which also includes Frank Coluccio Construction Co., Tukwila, Wash.; Mowat Construction Co., Kent, Wash.; HNTB Corp., Kansas City; and Spanish firm Intecsa, Madrid, submitted the favored best value proposal with a $1.09 billion bid plus technical credits that totaled 71,577,000, for a resulting best value score of 1,018,123,002, the Washington State Dept. of Transportation announced Dec. 9. Photo: WsDOT Seattle tunnel’s

The Israeli government has approved nationalizing the Tel Aviv metro light railway project in hopes of jump-starting the estimated $3-billion project after five years of delay. Two months after canceling a private consortium’s proposal, the government says it will finance construction from the state budget. The state-owned Metropolitan Mass Transit System Co. will oversee the project. The 22-km line will link Petah Tikva north of the city to Bat Yam in the southwest. About $390 million in route planning and design is set for completion by the end of 2011. The rail line, now expected to be completed in 2017,

The Dept. of Energy on Dec. 21 announced a $1.45-billion loan guarantee for Abengoa Solar Inc.’s Solana project, the world’s largest parabolic trough concentrating solar plant. The 250-MW project near Gila Bend, Ariz., is the first U.S. large-scale solar plant capable of storing energy it generates. Solana would avoid the emissions of 475,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year compared to a natural-gas-burning plant. DOE has guaranteed or conditionally committed to support 16 clean-energy projects totaling nearly $16.5 billion. Together, they will produce over 37 million megawatt-hours. DOE is also supporting the world’s largest wind farm and a 2,200-MW nuclear

After completing a $6.2-million front-end engineering and design study, Bismarck, N.D.-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative has decided against moving forward with a carbon dioxide capture and sequestration project at its Antelope Valley Station in Beulah, N.D. Basin said the project, which was designed to capture CO2 from a 120-MW lignite unit, is not currently economically viable. The study indicated that the demonstration project could cost as much as $500 million.

Canada’s National Energy Board approved the $16.2-billion, 1,200-kilometer Mackenzie Valley Pipeline in the Northwest Territories, Canada, but financial and regulatory hurdles remain. The gas project aims to develop three major Arctic natural-gas fields and a pipeline to bring the resource to the southern markets. The project still needs final approval from the federal government in early 2011, more than 6,000 additional project permits and a funding framework. The best-case scenario would see gas flowing by 2018, say industry sources.

In a scathing report issued on Dec. 16, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill characterizes the effort to build berms to stem the onshore flow from the Macondo well blowout as a politically motivated measure that was ineffective at stopping the oil. Five months after the largest oil spill in U.S. history was capped, contractors are still constructing the sand structures on barrier islands off Louisiana’s coast. The commission concluded that the berms do not survive a cost-benefit analysis because they blocked only 1,000 barrels of the five million barrels of oil that were released in

While the federal government continues to tangle with Congress over a climate-change law, the California Air Resources Board on Dec. 16 endorsed its own cap-and-trade regulation. The measure sets a statewide limit on the emissions from sources responsible for 80% of California’s greenhouse-gas emissions and establishes a price signal needed to drive long-term investment in cleaner fuels and the more efficient use of energy, according to CARB. The regulation is designed to provide covered entities with the flexibility to seek out and implement the lowest-cost options to reduce emissions. The cap-and-trade program also works in concert with standards for cleaner