The Federal Highway Administration has given the Texas Dept. of Transportation a green light to proceed with construction of the West Rail project in Brownsville, an estimated $85-million effort to relocate a Union Pacific Railroad line out of the heart of the city and away from downtown Matamoros, Mexico. The project is a cooperative effort involving officials in both cities, the state agency, Cameron County and the Mexican government. On the U.S. side, improvements would relocate the existing railway from the U.S. 77-83 rail junction to a switching yard farther west, routing it south to the Rio Grande River just

Mounting an effort to combat the blackouts and brownouts that are familiar features of life in Cairo, the Egyptian government recently secured the final piece of financing for a new 1,500-MW, combined-cycle gas-fired powerplant designed to keep the capital city’s lights on longer. With Egypt’s electricity demand set to grow 50% by 2017, the planned $1.3-billion Giza North plant represents a small but critical step toward power sufficiency. A $384-million loan from the European Investment Bank completed financial requirements for the plant, which is 30 kilometers northwest of Cairo. The World Bank board of directors approved a $600-million loan for

Keen to reduce their region’s growing energy reliance on Russia, European financial institutions have thrown their weight behind the $10.3-billion Nabucco gas pipeline through Turkey. Map: Walter Kornegay And Sue Pearsall For ENR Nabucco pipeline would provide gas delivery route that avoids Russia. Russia is fighting back with two rival projects, the first already well into construction. Together, the three pipelines could pump 149 billion cu meters of gas per year into the continent. The 3,300-kilometer-long Nabucco pipeline will cross Turkey, continue through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, and terminate some 50 km inside Austria at Baumgarten. It is planned to

The multibillion-dollar, decade-long effort to restore the Florida Everglades has made tangible but slow progress; however, the effort is facing some difficult challenges ahead, says a new report from the National Research Council. Photo: Courtesy of South Florida Water Management District The Picayune Strand project, begun in 2003, was one of two CERP projects to receive ARRA funding to accelerate construction. The Tamiami Trail project also received ARRA funds. Those challenges include finding continued funding and balancing the need for meeting federal water-quality requirements with the restoration plan’s goal of increasing water flows, the study authors conclude in the NRC’s

An ill-starred effort to bore one of the deepest tunnels in the world has restarted in the mountains of northern Peru after months of delays due to rock bursts. The $247-million Los Olmos irrigation project was halted when the tunnel-boring machine at work on the 12.5-mile-long tunnel (with 6,890 ft of overburden) was damaged by rock bursts in April. On July 8, engineers with Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht were able to restart the TBM, but rock bursts continue to hinder progress. In August, work began on the tunnel’s opposite approach using conventional drill-and-blast methods. The tunnel breakthrough is now slated

Belgian dredging firm Jan de Nul has won the Panama Canal expansion’s last major contract, a $54.5-million job to dredge and excavate 4 million cu meters at the entrance of the historic waterway’s Pacific access channel. The contract will make way for construction of new and larger locks. + Image Photo: Courtesy of Panama Canal Authority Excavation work to build an access channel from the Panama Canal to new, larger locks at the Pacific entrance of the waterway is more than half completed. Photo: Courtesy of Panama Canal Authority Excavation proceeds at the canal’s Atlantic entrance for the new, larger

If New Zealand university professor Andrew Charleson has his way, giant rubber bands cut from used tires would strap together new and existing adobe houses the world over, saving lives and avoiding injuries by preventing the houses from collapsing in earthquakes. Having tested his belt-and-suspenders concept, Charleson intends to seek funding to implement the approach as soon as the construction manual for the banding, currently under review by the World Housing Encyclopedia, is finished. Photo: Andrew Charleson Rubber-strap wraps could be installed on adobe brick houses for about $500 per house, prof says. Photo: Andrew Charleson. Straps, from used-car tires,

Building-sector groups once again are decrying the Portland Cement Association’s revised requirements for sustainable buildings, which were released recently. The move came after a failed attempt by PCA—at code hearings in August 2009—to get any of the provisions of High Performance Building Requirements for Sustainability 2.0 adopted into the model International Green Building Code. Other organizations characterize PCA’s second attempted end run around the accepted model-code development process as a self-serving push for the use of concrete over rival structural materials through the local adoption of code provisions that have been consistently rejected at the national level. High Performance Building

Rhode Island has become the first state to adopt the new International Green Construction Code. The state has identified the IGCC as an “equivalent standard” to meet requirements that all new major facility projects by state agencies be constructed as green buildings. Sponsors of the IGCC standards include the American Institute of Architects, ASTM International, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the Green Building Council and the Illuminating Engineers Society. The new standards will take effect in Rhode Island this month.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added New York City’s Newtown Creek to its Superfund list, which prioritizes cleanup and remediation efforts for the country’s most hazardous waste sites. The 3.8-mile-long Newtown Creek, which runs along the border of Brooklyn and Queens, was found to be contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pesticides and metals. One of the most active industrial areas in New York City was adjacent to the creek for many years. This is the city’s second site assigned to the Superfund List. Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal was added in March. The EPA says the evaluation