As the 2012 Olympic Games’ gateway venue, the $405-million Aquatic Centre is the 250-acre park's most flamboyant building, adorned by an aluminum-clad roof with a sweeping profile. But many agree the center will not look its best until workers clip its temporary wings, after the July 27 to Aug. 12 games. During the events, nearly two thirds of the 17,500 Olympic spectators will sit in two temporary wings, rising steeply from either side of the center. The curvaceous building is running 20% over its 2007 budget. Officials at the U.K. Dept. of Culture Media and Sport attribute the rise to

California and Florida together have won nearly 70% of the $2.5 billion for high-speed rail that the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's awarded in its second round of funds for the new program. Related Links: DOT Sketches Plan For High-Speed Rail 'Excited' High-Speed Rail Builders Get Ready The awards, which DOT announced on Oct. 28, would help fund 54 projects in 23 states. The latest awards follow an initial, $8 billion in DOT high-speed-rail aid, whose winners were selected in January. The first-round money came from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For the newly announced grants, DOT received 132

Dubbed “The Ugly 3” by opponents, Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101 on the Colorado ballot propose statewide cuts in taxes and fees that could cost the state billions of dollars in revenue and force severe cuts in social services, road repairs and capital building programs. Related Links: Getting to the Bottom of Amendments 60, 61 and Prop. 101 All three measures are being pushed by an anti-tax group called CO Tax Reforms, which says they are the result of “taxpayers’ revenge” for motor vehicle fee increases voted by the legislature last year and a mill-levy freeze enacted in

Cement slurry used in the Macondo well was unstable and may have contributed to the April 20 blowout aboard the Deepwater Horizon, according to a report issued Thursday by Fred Bartlit Jr., lead investigator for the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Related Links: Gulf Oil Spill In his report to the presidential-appointed commission, Bartlit said that Houston-based Halliburton and BP both knew from previous tests that the nitrogen-based cement, as planned to be used in the Macondo well, would be unstable. “Halliburton (and perhaps BP) should have considered redesigning the foam slurry before

For the first time, secondary treatment of wastewater in Victoria, British Columbia, could become a reality. Image: Courtesy of Victoria’s Capital Regional District. The city’s new plant, rendered above, rejects the premise that secondary wastewater treatment is unnecessary because the water turbulence in the Juan de Fuca Strait dilutes discharged effluent. The minister of environment for the province of British Columbia approved the Capital Regional District’s (CRD) Core Area Liquid Waste Management Plan in August. Andy Orr, communications manager for the district, says a request for proposals on a new $738-million wastewater treatment facility will go out this fall. Construction

The reprieve for a major new commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River, once set to be the largest public works project in the U.S., never arrived. Proponents of the megaproject, estimated at $8.7 billion, failed to convince New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie (R) that the state would not have to make up cost overruns that some claimed would boost the total price of the project to $13.7 billion. “In the end, my decision is not changed,” Christie said. “I cannot place upon the citizens of the State of New Jersey an open-ended letter of credit.” Christie emphasized his objection

The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority has selected the team of Delaware River Stevedores, Philadelphia, and Hyundai Merchant Marine Shipping Agency Inc. to develop a 119-acre site; the resulting Southport Marine Terminal will try to attract commercial container vessels that will be using the expanded Panama Canal to reach East Coast markets. + Image Photo: PRPA Before construction can begin on Philadelphia’s first new marine terminal in a half-century, however, the developers must put together a facilities design and financing plan for the project, estimated to cost $250 million. The developers also will ensure that the first phase of the dredging

Battling floods, difficult soils and the environmentally sensitive nature of the Amazon rainforest, crews are building a 3,600-meter-long, $400-million bridge with a 400-m-long cable-stayed central section over the Negro River using a 400-barge working platform. The project, marked by a death and environmental controversy, is intended to boost economic development in the Amazon. Brazil’s Manaus-Iranduba Bridge, scheduled for completion by year’s end, will straddle the river close to where the waterway merges with the Amazon River. The span will create a land link between the city of Manaus and the town of Iranduba as well as 30 other, smaller municipalities.

A $4-billion-plus highway that includes what will be one of the world’s longest highway tunnels will soon be under construction along the west side of Stockholm, Sweden. Image: Courtesy of Foster + Partners A rendering of the winning Slussen master plan to revitalize the waterfront area. + Image image: Courtesy of Vägverket. The route for the Stockholm Bypass Project, which will include one of the world’s longest road tunnels, skirts the city’s west side. Related Links: Foster+Partners Slussen Masterplan slideshow Project for Public Spaces blog: “Is Stockholm in Danger of Losing Its Waterfront?” Vägverket’s official site Stockholm Traffic Bypass Gets

A six-firm consortium now is assembling loans for a $6.5-billion project to build a 377-kilometer-long, privately financed toll highway in Turkey. The project—from Gebze, near Istanbul, to Izmir—includes a suspension bridge that likely will incorporate the world’s second-longest span over the seismically active Izmit Bay. The Izmit bay crossing, with a 1,700 m span, “is still in the conceptual design stage,” says Simon Bourne, head of bridges at U.K.-based URS/Scott Wilson Ltd., Basingstoke. The firm, in a joint venture with AECOM, has a $15.9-million contract with the project consortium to supervise the bridge’s design and construction. The consortium Otoyol Yatirims