The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared on March 2 that the Gowanus Canal will be added to the list of federal Superfund cleanup sites. The heavily polluted canal runs through an old industrial sector in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and empties into New York harbor. EPA’s decision will set in motion a $500-million, decade-long effort to clean up the former industrial canal, which EPA says is contaminated with PCBs, coal-tar waste, heavy metals and volatile organics. Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) had opposed the EPA designation, fearing it would endanger real estate developement plans for the area. EPA

Hours after Chile was hammered on Feb. 27 by one of the most powerful earthquakes in its history, President Michelle Bachelet made it clear the country already is preparing for recovery. Photo: AFP/Getty Images The naval port city of Talcahuano, about 20 km from Concepción, was devastated by a tsunami about an hour after the quake, catching unwarned residents by surprise. No tsunami warnings were issued for Chile’s coastal towns. Related Links: Chile’s Quake Damage Mitigated by Past Lessons “We are facing a catastrophe of unforeseen magnitude which caused damage that will require enormous efforts of all sectors of the

The most powerful earthquake to strike Chile in a generation may have left hundreds dead and the South American nation’s infrastructure in tatters, yet the fact the destruction was not far worse is being cited as a testament to Chile’s application of improved building codes and decades of efforts to prepare. Slide Show Photo: AP/Wideworld Nine died and seven were missing—with some believed trapped alive behind a wall that took the load—when the 70-unit Alto Rio Apartment complex in Concepción rolled off its foundations in the Feb. 27 quake. Investigators likely will study the structure’s perfomance for what worked and

Six years after design began and one year after it was completed, Egypt’s Ministry of Culture is almost ready to start construction of the $550-million main building of the Grand Egyptian Museum, near Cairo. Video Image: Heneghan Peng Architects Monumental ancient artifacts will have plenty of headroom with 24-m ceilings. Image: Heneghan Peng Architects The 100,000-sq-m main building of the Egyptian museum will have a low profile to avoid competing with the great pyramids of Giza, two kilometer away. Having secured a $390-million soft loan from Japan, the ministry last month appointed a team of Hill International Inc., Marlton, N.J.,

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and levee districts throughout Mississippi River Watershed are preparing for potentially imminent floods by drawing on a battery of strategies, the first of which is keeping a close watch on weather patterns, water levels and soil conditions. Photo: USACE Ringing sand boils with sandbags raises the head, lowers velocity and prevents erosion of internal levee material + Image Photo: USACE/New Orleans District Related Links: Saturated Watersheds and Stormy Forecast Worry Flood-Control Officials in the Heartland The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and levee districts throughout Mississippi River Watershed are preparing for potentially imminent floods

A multidisciplinary team of U.S. earthquake researchers and design engineers, organized by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), is leaving Feb. 28 to spend six days in Haiti. The team, under the leadership of Reginald DesRoches, Professor and Associate Chair of the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, will document scientific, engineering and societal effects of Jan. 12’s magnitude-7 earthquake. The goal is to focus on the disaster’s impacts on people, the performance of structures and lifelines, and the enormous societal challenges of relief, recovery and rebuilding, says the Oakland, Calif.-based EERI. Team members plan

The largest dam removal and river restoration project in U.S. history moved a step closer to reality last month as the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Oregon, California, PacifiCorp and about 40 other groups signed agreements that will set into motion the $200-million removal of four dams on the Klamath River and the $1-billion restoration of the Klamath Basin. Photo: Pacificorp The 20-MW concrete dam Copco 1 has lost its efficiency since it was commissioned in 1918. + Image The dams, owned by PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Warren Buffet’s Mid-American Energy Holdings Inc., Des Moines, Iowa, would continue to produce

The Tom Bradley International Terminal at the Los Angeles International Airport on Feb. 22 kicked off construction of the new $1.5-billion Bradley West modernization project. The project comprises 1.25 million sq ft of new building area, including food/beverage and retail concessions, new premium lounge space, enlarged federal inspection/customs and border-protection facilities, and 15 new boarding gates. Enlarged passenger-seating/holding-room areas will be sized to accommodate the newest generation of aircraft, including the Airbus A380 super-jumbo jet and the Boeing B787 Dreamliner. Fentress Architects of Los Angeles designed the upgrade, and Walsh Austin Joint Venture of Los Angeles will construct it. The

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation awarded $1.5 billion in grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to 51 projects in 41 states and the District of Columbia on Feb. 17, underscoring the Obama administration’s transportation priorities. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery funds, known as TIGER grants, target projects that USDOT identified as being “major national and regional transportation projects that are in many cases difficult to pursue through other government funding programs.” Although a mix of transportation modes received grants that range from $3.15 million to $105 million, freight-rail and transit projects received the largest individual grants. Unlike

A massive highway renovation is unfolding only minutes away from Vancouver’s Winter Olympics, and the centerpiece will be a new cable-stayed bridge crossing the Fraser River from Surrey to Coquitlam. Photo: Transportation Investment Corp. Staging area adjacent to new bridge where pieces of the structure are arranged. At 1.2 miles in length including approaches, the bridge will be one of the longest of its kind in North America. Part of a 22.9-mi, $2.33-billion overhaul of Highway 1, the principal corridor in the greater Vancouver area, the project is designed to ease congestion, especially on the existing Port Mann Bridge. Financing