Much to the relief of Miami officials, the Florida Dept. of Transportation and the Miami Access Tunnel (MAT) consortium have reached agreement on commercial terms for the revived $1-billion Port of Miami Tunnel project. MAT, led by Paris-based Bouygues Publics Travaux, brought in a new French partner, Meridiam Infrastructure Finance, after its original 90% equity partner, Australia’s Babcock & Brown, bailed out late last year. FDOT approved the switch in early May. “We signed an agreement to proceed; now they have to find financing,” says Dick Kane, FDOT spokesman. The state has set a deadline of Oct. 1 for financial

Federal water-pumping in California’s Central Valley Project jeopardizes the continued existence of several threatened and endangered species, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Fisheries Service. Changing water operations to reduce the threat will reduce water available for drinking, irrigation and industry by an estimated 5% to 7%. The cutback could lead to higher water-use rates and, depending on the level of drought, further rationing. The Bureau of Reclamation’s pumping operations will not be immediately affected.

Engineers are getting better at picking up the pieces after hurricanes and reducing the next-flood risk in devastated areas. But places vulnerable to catastrophic events generally must wait until they have been wrecked before significant risk-reduction measures are planned, funded and applied. Grand Isle berm rebuilt around geotube core. As the 2009 hurricane season opens, $14.3 billion worth of levee repairs and new defense construction is roaring ahead in the area smashed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Construction began in May on a massive, roughly $1.8-billion surge barrier to protect the southeastern flank of New Orleans, where the Corps of

While the owner of the 2.6-million-sq-ft Empire State Building gears up for a $500-million renovation, designed to cut energy costs by 38% and be a model for other green office-building retrofits, a construction firm that recently moved into its green ESB offices is releasing hard data on the 24,000-sq-ft retrofit. Skanska USA Building, which moved into its 32nd-floor space in November, reports it has reduced its energy bill by 46% over its smaller, previous offices elsewhere. Photo: Guy Lawrence / ENR Building landlords target $4.4 million in yearly savings. This fall, Skanska expects to be awarded LEED Platinum status for

Architect Ellerbe Becket, Kansas City, has been retained by Nets owner and Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner, of Forest City Ratner Cos., to come up with a new design for the long-delayed and controversial Atlantic Yards basketball and entertainment arena in Brooklyn, N.Y. Ellerbe Becket replaces Gehry Partners. Other key designers, New York City-based structural engineer Thornton-Tomasetti, and mechanical-electrical-plumbing engineer, WSP Flack + Kurtz, will remain on the project. Forest City Ratner says it hopes to unveil new images of the arena, named Barclays Center, in late June and that it intends to break ground later this year in anticipation

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the Obama administration will propose a remedy for the projected shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund by mid-August, but adds that the White House wants any revenue infusion to the fund to be "paid for," or offset. He also expressed confidence that the problem will be resolved. "It's going to get fixed," he says. Key Senators have said DOT and Office of Management and Budget officials told Democratic congressional staffers the trust fund will need an injection of $5 billion to $7 billion by August or federal highway payments to state DOTs will have to

The green revolution may be a much-ballyhooed fixture with architectural, engineering and construction cognoscenti, but what happens when the revolution actually arrives on the doorstep of the traditional blue collar, Irish Catholic, family-oriented stronghold of South Boston? Wicked Delicate Films' production of The Greening of Southie successfully explores that theme with a hip blend of time-lapse photography, great music and on-point dialogue as a young management team leads skeptical tradesmen through the experience of assembling an 11-story, 144 unit condominium project called the Macallen Building. Photo: Wicked Delicate Films Related Links: Preview of The Greening of Southie Southie, of course,

Demolition began on June 1 at one of the largest-ever dam-removal projects in the U.S. Since 1921, the Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue River near Grants Pass, Ore., has provided irrigation, but at a cost to the coho salmon that spawn in the river. A consent decree in 2000 capped a decade of legal fights and set the stage for the demolition. Photo: Slayden Construction Group Removal will open 500 miles of river for spawning. The 39-ft-high, 500-ft-long concrete-buttress dam was built in 1921 by the Grants Pass Irrigation District for irrigation only and provides no electricity or flood

As hurricane season dawnedon June 1, Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure Group, Baton Rouge, headed into production mode on construction of a $695-million, 2-mile-long, gated storm-surge barrier to help protect the southeast flank of New Orleans. By midsummer, more than 100 cranes and supply barges will be engaged. Under contract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Shaw is using a 500-ton crane to set and drive 66-inch-dia, 144-ft-long concrete spun-cast cylinder piles to form the vertical face of the surge-barrier wall. By June 4, a second crane of the same type is scheduled to join in. Shaw expects to drive

The one kind of surprise you might want if you were moving more than 500 ft of bridge section would be to have things slip and slide along even more smoothly than expected. That is what happened over Memorial Day weekend in Cleveland as crews moved the Innerbelt Bridge 4 in. to open up an expansion joint. Slide Show Photo: Ruhlin Co. Crews lifted the bolster, which connects the pier to the truss. Using a painstakingly coordinated cast of hydraulic rams and jacks, crews pushed about 10 million lb of bridge section westward. The feat frees up an expansion joint