The one kind of surprise you want when you have gone to great lengths to plan the moving of an entire bridge section is when things slip and slide along even more smoothly than expected. That’s what happened last weekend in Cleveland. It is a story of planning, good luck, checked calculations and final success. Photo: Ruhlin ws removed anchor bolts from bolster between pier cap and truss. Photo: ODOT Over 500 ft of Innerbridge was moved 4 in. to open up expansion joint. Using a painstakingly coordinated cast of hydraulic rams and jacks, crews performed a memorable 4-in. westward
Despite the global recession, a panel of transportation experts meeting in Seattle agreed now is the time to invest in and improve transit systems as part of a comprehensive and holistic solution to pollution and congestion. “The American public had the infrastructure that was once the envy of the world....We let it crumble,” said Patrick Natale, executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers. “But it’s a new day. We finally have the leadership to take action, and it’s very exciting.” Planning is as crucial as funding. Susan Zielinski, University of Michigan’s managing director of sustainable mobility and accessibility
If you’re not in the electricity business today, you may be soon. Developments in generation technologies, regulatory policies, industry standards and digital communication are blurring the distinction between customers and utilities. Renewable-energy generation, primarily solar photovoltaic panels installed on privately owned rooftops throughout the country, is serving load under the roofs, with surplus power being sold into the grid. Utilities also are leasing rooftop real estate on warehouses and big-box stores to site their own PV panels. Slide Show Photo: Southern California Edison Warehouse rooftop will generate 2 MW for Southern California Edison’s grid. Related Links: Smart Grid Will Give
In the Gulf of Mexico, in underwater terrain akin to a mountain range in waters reaching 10,000 ft deep, Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell plc, its partners and an extensive team of contractors are setting records for ultradeep oil and gas engineering, construction and development. At 7,817 ft, the Perdido project will be the deepest spar platform in the world as well as the deepest drilling and production facility. It also will have the deepest producing subsea well, at 9,627 ft, and will deploy the first commercial-scale subsea oil-and-gas separation plant. Photo: Shell Oil Co. Perdido’s topsides were towed to the
Brilliant minds—Nikola Tesla, Thomas A. Edison—and great engineers produced the marvel of the electric grid. It has united and fed the vast complex that is modern industrial and post-industrial society. But like the Scarecrow in Oz, the grid lacks a brain. Advances in electronics, communication and information technology now are enabling engineers to give the grid a brain. In the last decade, grassroots initiatives have sprung up around the country to create what has come to be called the smart grid. In a smart grid, sensors can anticipate system disturbances and respond to them before they cripple the system. Communication
The U.S. House of Representatives took the first steps toward approving an ambitious and wide-ranging global-warming bill on May 21. The Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill that industry sources are calling historic by a 33-25 vote, largely along party lines. Photo: AP/WideWorld Bill sponsor Waxman (center) and GOP’s Barton oversaw a week of markups. Photo: AEP Bill sets 83% target reduction by 2050. The massive bill—more than 930 pages—is the result of weeks of hearings and negotiations in the House, and it is supported by a wide range of environmental groups, corporations, electric utilities and energy companies. But
Thirty-two years after the last polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were discharged into the Hudson River from manufacturing complexes, General Electric Co. began dredging on May 15 to remove 400,000 tons of contaminated sediment along a six-mile stretch near Fort Edward, N.Y. Additional dredging is planned downriver along a 34-mile section to Troy for a 2015 completion. + Image Source: General Electric Co. Drainage gallery will collect seeping PCBs for treatment and disposal. Related Links: Perdido Shatters Deepsea Records Fairfield, Conn.-based GE has not released costs, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates total cleanup at about $750 million. Additionally, New York
In New Orleans, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is spending billions of dollars constructing, elevating and bolstering flood defenses, establishing hardy, fast-growing ground cover to protect levees from erosion and overwash damage is a critical part of the process. “The name of the game is getting grass established quickly,” says Jeff Beasley, turf-grass physiologist with the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge. On May 20, the center partnered with the Corps and Jesco Environmental & Geotechnical Services Inc., Jennings, La., to conduct the first, “possibly annual” course in levee re-vegetation and erosion-control techniques. Photo: Angelle Bergeron
Atlanta-based Southern Co. plans to demonstrate carbon dioxide capture and storage technology at a coal-fired powerplant near Mobile, Ala., with a portion of the carbon emissions at the plant captured for underground storage in a deep saline geologic formation. Southern, along with the Dept. of Energy, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Electric Power Research Institute and others, will build a demonstration facility at Alabama Power’s 2,657-MW Barry generating plant. Beginning in 2011, between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, or the equivalent of emissions from 25 MW of the plant’s capacity, will be captured for storage. The CO2
Crews recently topped out the $640-million Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The design-build project is being constructed on the site of the existing National Naval Medical Center as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005 by a joint venture of Clark Construction Group, Bethesda, and Balfour Beatty Construction, Fairfax, Va. When completed, the building will feature a new 560,000-sq-ft ambulatory care clinic and a 165,000-sq-ft in-patient addition to the existing hospital. The team also is constructing an eight-story, 944-space patient parking garage, a 700-ft-long logistics tunnel and 450,000 sq ft of phased renovations
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