It may not be the biggest job nor the most important, but workers at Clackamas, Ore.-based Oregon Iron Works are clamoring to work on one of the company’s most unusual projects: Ocean Power Technologies’ PowerBuoy 150, a device designed to capture 150 kW of wave energy off Oregon’s coast. Photo: Ocean Power Technologies Oregon Iron Works crew, working on a wave-power prototype, hopes to build bigger generators. “The guys in the shop are pretty excited about this,” says Chandra Brown, vice president of Oregon Iron Works. “It’s pretty fun.” For the company, which typically builds bridges and boats, the job

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York Public Service Commission awarded $204 million in contracts on April 9 that will support the development of 318 MW of renewable electricity at eight sites. The eight projects are in various stages of project development and have not yet been built. NYSERDA has issued no new solicitations since January 2010, when the authority announced a round of power orders for five projects slated to generate 142 MW. In December 2009, New York’s PSC established a goal of supplying 30% of its power from renewable sources by

A massive,1.7-million-cu-yd, deep-soil-mixing project is powering up in eastern New Orleans, and veterans of the technique say it’s probably the largest such project ever undertaken. Photo: Angelle Bergeron At 1.7 million cu yd, deep-soil-mixing job nearly triples the volume of Boston’s Big Dig. var so = new FlashObject("http://natalie.feedroom.com/construction/natoneclip/Player.swf","Player", "300", "169", "8", "#FFFFFF");so.addVariable("skin", "natoneclip");so.addVariable("site", "construction");so.addVariable("fr_story", "bf145635c641e16b70fe8531bcc9d0476f7d3458&rf");so.addVariable("hostURL", document.location.href);so.addParam("quality", "high");so.addParam("allowFullScreen", "true");so.addParam("menu", "false");so.write("flashcontent"); Joint-venture partners Archer Western Contractors, Atlanta, Ga., and Alberici Enterprises, Overland, Mo., are strengthening a levee maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers so it can be increased in height to +28 ft from its current +17 ft without widening

As invisible as the global recession, dust from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano cast a cloud over the April 19 opening of Bauma in Munich. The triennial construction-equipment show was expected to draw over 500,000 people. Photo: Bauma Eighty of Bauma’s 3,150 booths were left unattended when the show opened. With the city’s international airport shut, prospective visitors joined hundreds of thousands of Europeans left stranded. Creating engine-stalling dust, the April 14 volcanic eruption triggered halts to a reported 75% of European commercial flights, with total bans in Britain and elsewhere. What should have been a two-hour flight for Nigel Chell, communications

The legal battle over the U.S. Energy Dept.’s nuclear-waste storage program took a turn on April 14, when the agency halted closure of Nevada’s Yucca Mountain repository following a legal challenge by Washington state. Its suit challenges the order’s legality and includes a request to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw the facility’s application. The state says DOE lacks authority to terminate Yucca Mountain, claiming the move hikes risks at federal nuclear-waste sites, including Hanford in eastern Washington. An appeals court in Washington, D.C., ordered DOE to halt layoffs of repository staff and work by contractors until after May

On April 15, opposing sides in a debate over the fate of a deteriorating, nine-year-old Seattle apartment tower presented their positions regarding the building’s future safety to Seattle’s Dept. of Planning and Development (DPD). McCarthy Building Cos. maintains the 26-story McGuire Apartments, with its corroding post-tensioned slab system, can be economically fixed. The owner disagrees. Photo: Kennedy Associates Contractor and owner at odds about ‘sick’ tower’s cure. + Image Source: Post-Tensioning Institute Post-tensioned slab The steps to post-tensioning are as follows: Place the tendons and nail anchors to the formwork, cast the concrete slab, remove the formwork, stress and anchor

A recent successful load test on a steel-fiber-reinforced-concrete beam, free of congestion-causing diagonal reinforcing steel, promises to positively impact constructibility of tall, moment-resisting frames in seismic zones. Using SFRC, engineers can reinforce high-aspect-ratio link beams, which span openings in shear walls, as regular beams, say the test’s researchers. Photo: Gustavo J. Parra-Montesinos Steel-fiber-reinforced-concrete beam (above, rotated 90°) needs no diagonal reinforcement. “We have a design for which you do not need diagonal bars, and you can still achieve large drift capacity under very high shear forces,” says Gustavo J. Parra-Montesinos, the test’s lead researcher and a Dept. of Civil and

As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Chicago District considers possible scenarios for closing Chicago’s locks to keep predatory Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide if it will hear a lawsuit that could force the locks’ closure. Lynne Whelan, Corps-Chicago District public affairs officer, says the agency is studying several options, including closing the locks to boat traffic as many as three or four days a week. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox filed a lawsuit with the high court in December to force closure of the locks. The court is expected to

The New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on April 2 denied a water-quality standards certification for Units 2 and 3 of Entergy Corp.’s Westchester County-based Indian Point nuclear powerplant. The certification, under Clean Water Act guidelines, is required by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew the units’ operating licenses for the next 20 years. The current licenses expire in 2013 and 2015, respectively. DEC says the units, which generate 1078 MW and 1080 MW, respectively, daily take in 2.5 billion gallons of water from the Hudson River and discharge the untreated water back into the river. DEC

California’s High Speed Rail Authority is reconsidering plans for a new leg, which would run from Los Angeles to San Diego, of a $42-billion, 800-mile system; instead, it now is weighing a shared-track arrangement with Amtrak. The proposal was put forth on April 8 by Richard Katz, an authority board member. He says that the measure could save an estimated $2 billion and would eliminate the need to demolish hundreds of homes and businesses. The project has been awarded $2.25 billion in federal stimulus funding and could begin construction as early as fall 2012.