A construction consortium from Spain, Mexico and Costa Rica has outbid three other competitors for the second-largest contract awarded in the Panama Canal’s $5.2-billion Third Lane Expansion effort, eclipsed only by the price tag for design and construction of the waterway’s new locks. Photo: Panama Canal Authority Dam Structure (center in green) will be built due to water level differences in new channel, which is part of the canal expansion. Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas S.A., along with Mexico’s Empresas ICA and Constructora MECO of Costa Rica, submitted a bid of $268 million for the fourth and final contract to

Wind-energy developers are working with the state of Hawaii and Hawaii’s largest electric utility to develop wind resources on two islands and deliver power to Oahu. One estimate pegs the program’s cost at $3 billion, but another source says it could cost twice that amount. + Image Photo: Illustration by Martha Hernandez, Courtesy of The Honolulu Advertiser Interisland Wind Project: University of Hawaii performed a sea-floor survey and feasibility study for the state to identify routes and possible obstacles for cable. The Interisland Wind Project encompasses two 200-MW wind farms to be developed on the islands of Lanai and Molokai,

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Dec. 29 sent a letter to the District of Columbia and six states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and outlining new penalties if they do not meet more stringent requirements for cleaning up water pollution. Bay advocates have criticized federal and state efforts to clean up the bay in the past because although states have been encouraged to meet certain milestones in reducing water pollution from point and non-point sources, they typically have faced no penalties for failing to do so—until now. Penalties could include expanding National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits to

The U.S. Energy Dept. announced on Dec. 28 a plan to treat thousands of cubic yards of radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory site in Idaho Falls, beating a court-ordered deadline by four days. The practice of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel produced about 9 million gallons of high-level liquid waste at the site over a 40-year span. DOE halted reprocessing in 1992, converting liquid waste into 5,750 cu yd of a powdered material called calcine, which it must now dispose of outside the state. The agency says it intends to convert the powder into a ceramic-like solid through a

On Dec. 16, MGM Mirage’s $8.5-billion, 18-million-sq-ft. CityCenter project debuted on the Las Vegas Strip. Perini Building Co., a unit of Sylmar, Calif.-based Tutor Perini Corp., was the general contractor, with Gensler, San Francisco, as executive architect. The seven-building, mixed-use development on 67 acres at one time employed one-third of southern Nevada’s building trades. The hotel, home and entertainment complex could resurrect or sink Las Vegas’ flagging tourism industry, possibly giving new life to stalled projects, say some observers. If unsuccessful, it could plunge MGM Mirage into financial trouble and slow southern Nevada’s economic recovery. Photo: MGM Mirage Inc.

A construction consortium from Spain, Mexico and Costa Rica has outbid three other competitors for the second-largest contract awarded in the Panama Canal’s $5.2-billion Third Lane Expansion effort, eclipsed only by the price tag for design and construction of the waterway’s new locks. Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (FCC), along with Mexico’s Empresas ICA and Constructora MECO of Costa Rica, submitted a bid of $268 million for the fourth and final contract to construct a 6.7-kilometer-long access channel on the canal’s Pacific side. Panama Canal Authority Rendered photo illustrates dam structure (center in green) that will be built because

The Washington State Dept. of Transportation has qualified four design-build teams that will vie for a $1-billion contract to construct a deep-bore tunnel replacing the seismically unsound Alaskan Way viaduct in Seattle. The winner will begin work on the four-lane, 2-mile-long double-decker tunnel on state Route 99 after the award in late 2010. + Image A new tunnel (inset) will replace waterfront viaduct. WSDOT on Dec. 18 announced the qualified joint-venture teams: Seattle Tunnel Partners, which includes Dragados USA Inc., Coral Gables, Fla., and HNTB Corp., Kansas City, Mo.; Seattle Tunneling Group, which includes S.A. Healy Co., Lombard, Ill., FCC

Translating the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification into a standard for all international construction—which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has pledged to do—may be impossible. Photo: Tom Sawyer Corps holds workshop for staffers to acquaint them with LEED, which the Corps has committed to adopting as a worldwide standard. Related Links: Building Abroad Has Corps of Engineers Working Hard To Adapt Creating high-performance facilities is not the issue, but holding to a LEED rating is problematic. “LEED is a very U.S.-based standard, and trying to take that and apply it overseas

Environmentalists were disappointed by the two-week United Nations-sponsored Copenhagen climate- change summit, which failed to set binding emissions targets. But the Danish conference, attended by 119 government heads, has helped stimulate engineers to promote themselves as low-carbon champions. Indonesian floods are thought to be tied to climate change. Global summit in Copenhagen produced only an outline of how countries may address the issue, but engineering firms see clients who believe “decarbonizing” is going to happen. Related Links: Head Sees Climate Change Chances: Arup Group Gears up to Low Carbon 'Suffering and Economic Collapse' Atkin's Keith Clarke on Global Warming Regardless

Three of four contractor teams prequalified to bid the second major leg of an $8.7-billion transit tunnel under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan submitted bids that were opened by the owner, New Jersey Transit, on Dec. 15. The project, to dig 5,200-ft-long twin bored tunnels through New Jersey's Palisades rock formation to a river access point in Hoboken, N.J., had been estimated to cost $250 million. A Secaucus, N.J., joint venture of Schiavone Construction Co., Skanska Civil and J.F. Shea was the low bidder at $258.8 million; a joint venture of OHL USA Inc., Davie, Fla., and