The U.S. potentially could reduce non-transportation energy consumption by 23% by 2020 and greenhouse gases by 1.1 gigatons annually, but this goal is achievable only if significant barriers are addressed and overcome, says a new report from McKinsey & Co. These barriers include $520 billion in needed up-front investment and a fragmented network of buildings, devices, building codes and other requirements. The potential for reducing energy consumption in the U.S. is huge, but coordinated national and regional strategies are needed to unlock the existing potential, says the New York City-based management consulting firm in its July 29 report. “Energy efficiency

Lifestyle doyenne Martha Stewart, more at home with comforters than cars, likely never dreamed her commuting-to-work routine would inspire a way of living, which could be called insider parking. But the developer of a 19-story residential building nearing completion in Manhattan, just blocks from the 19-story Starret-Lehigh building where Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. has its offices, modeled its 15 “sky” garages after Stewart’s habit of driving her vehicle straight into the freight elevator and up to her office. Slide Show Image: Selldorf Architects Residents drive through gate, into lift and up to their apartments. The paparazzi-proof residential building takes

With the Highway Trust Fund facing a shortfall within weeks, Congress has approved a $7-billion infusion for the fund's highway account, a move that backers of the legislation say will be enough to keep the account solvent through Sept. 30. Photo: Granite Construction Stopgap measure will fund project such as this new bridge in Key Largo, Fla. Related Links: Highway Trust Fund Fight is Heading Down to the Wire Downward Travel Trend Raises Highway Trust Fund Worries Other ENR Highway Trust Fund Stories The new money will be transferred from the general fund. Final Congressional action on the short-term trust-fund

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is holding a series of meetings this summer in several states to discuss the federal government’s new plan for restoring water quality in the Great Lakes. The $475-million draft plan, proposed in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget, needs congressional approval before it can be implemented. But government officials are moving forward with public meetings and say they may issue requests for proposals as early as late summer 2009 for competitive grants for work to begin in early 2010. “Administrator [Lisa] Jackson feels a great sense of urgency for more action to restore the Great

Officials from the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee, which oversees construction of the new $6.3-billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, will travel to Shanghai at the end of August to investigate recent delays in steel deliveries from the Zhenhua Port Machinery Co. The discovery in January of cracked welds in girders has slowed shipments. Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney says a major delivery of deck- work segments for the self-anchored suspension span’s tower will be two months late. Ney says the delay will not affect the bridge’s 2013 completion date, but further delays may threaten the schedule. Photo: Caltrans

With the congressional August recess around the corner, House and Senate lawmakers were moving along separate tracks with competing plans to avert an imminent crisis in the Highway Trust Fund. The House was aiming for a $5-billion “fix,” designed to prop up the fund’s struggling highway account until Sept. 30. The Senate was working on a $26.8-billion infusion designed to keep the fund healthy through March 2011. Observers expected a deal to be struck before the recess, but at ENR press time the exact outcome was by no means clear. The differences between the House and Senate trust-fund remedies are

Federal highway, transit and airport grant programs notched small gains and high-speed rail won a surprisingly large $4 billion in a fiscal 2010 transportation and housing spending bill that the House passed on July 23. The $123.1-billion measure includes $75.8 billion for the Dept. of Transportation, a 13% gain over DOT’s 2009 funding. The bill also has $47 billion for the Housing and Urban Development Dept. The Senate Appropriations Committee is slated to take up its version of the DOT-HUD bill on July 30. The House bill would set the 2010 highway obligation ceiling at $41.1 billion, up 1% from

Bentley Systems Inc., Exton, Pa., released an information model-based product for electrical substation design. Bentley Substation V8i integrates two- and three-dimensional tools and can shift from schematic line drawings to 3-D object views on the fly. Reports and bills-of-materials can be generated from the data as required. It draws on a database of more than 2 million electrical parts. Three-D modeling helps optimize site layout, integrates with Bentley’s Project Wise system and is priced at $15,000 a seat.

Work is to begin in mid-August on a $3.4-billion, 1,000-mile crude-oil pipeline from northern Canada to Superior, Wis., says Canadian owner Enbridge Inc., Edmonton, Alberta. Enbridge is burying a 36-in. pipe that will carry 450,000 barrels of crude oil daily, with a 326-mile U.S. route running from North Dakota to Wisconsin. The project will run parallel to another 20-in. pipeline that was constructed in 2009. The project was awarded to U.S. Pipeline, Houston, and Precision Pipeline of Wisconsin.

A nine-year, $600-million riverbed remediation in northeastern Wisconsin—the world’s largest river cleanup of its kind—is proving that dredging doesn’t have to be drudgery. Operating in a mode more akin to just-in-time manufacturing and with laser-like precision, contractors there are using a very efficient system of mapping, dredging and filtering river sediment as they clean up 13.3 miles of the lower Fox River near Green Bay, home to the largest concentration of pulp and paper mills in the world. Slide Show Photo: Mike Larson/ENR Photo: Mike Larson/ENR Tetra Tech’s Ray Mangrum, left, and Steve McGee, right. Over the course of the