The next time there is an oil-spill disaster, emergency response and remediation contractors will have a new generation of tools, thanks in part to techniques and equipment deployed after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon drill-ship explosion. ISAKSON The disaster released an estimated 4.9 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico during the ensuing 86 days. Full cleanup may take years. In a briefing on Aug. 9, Adm. Thad Allen, national incident commander for the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill, said that with a cap on the well apparently holding, the response now is shifting from source control to dealing

The U.S. Energy Dept. has decided to abandon its original plan for the FutureGen 275-MW coal-fired power plant to test advanced carbon-capture and storage technologies. The agency announced Aug. 5 that will instead use its $1 billion in federal stimulus funding to refit and repower an existing plant in western Illinois to capture carbon dioxide. The money will go to members of the FutureGen Alliance, made up of U.S. and overseas utilities, powerproviders and other firm, as well as to Ameren Energy Resources, Babcock & Wilcox and Air Liquide Process & Construction to install new equipment at a 200-MW Ameren

China and Zimbabwe have signed a $400-million hydroelectric-power infrastructure deal for the expansion of the 55-year-old Kariba South power station in the 180-billion-cubic meter reservoir-capacity Kariba dam, one of the world’s largest. Public Domain Image By Ben Bird The 55-year-old Kariba dam impounds the 280-km-long Kariba Lake and straddles the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Both countries now are involved in powerplant expansion projects at their respective ends. “We have signed an agreement with China’s Sinohydro Corp. for the expansion of Kariba by an additional two 150-MW units,” Noah Gwariro, managing director of the Zimbabwe Power Co., said in Harare

Oman plans to generate thousands of liters of water a day thanks to a budding technology that collects and stores fog droplets. Photo By Angela Shah A fog collection net captures mist and turns it into water to grow 1,000 trees and help reverse desertification. In the second year of a five-year “fog collection project,” Omani officials, in collaboration with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp., have placed large nets made of plastic mesh at about 700 meter above sea level in the Al Qara mountains near Salalah, in the southern part of the nation. The collector is comprised of four 20-m-wide, 3-m-tall

China plans to award a design-build contract soon for the sunken tube tunnel and artificial islands comprising part of the 30-kilometer-long, $5.5-billion road link between Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau, in the Pearl River Delta. Bids for the bridge section will follow in a few months, says a project source. Officials plan to open the link in 2016. Road link across the Pearl River Delta will include a sunken tube tunnel and artificial islands. From Hong Kong, some 5 km of bridges will link to two 700-meter-long islands, which will be linked by the tunnel. The crossing will continue on

Officials with the Denver International Airport will decide this year whether to move ahead with a signature rail bridge design, unveiled July 29, by architect-structural engineer Santiago Calatrava. The 720-ft-long suspension bridge would likely have a $60-million-plus price tag, which is more than double preliminary cost estimates. Photo Courtesy Of Santiago Calatrava Design by Calatrava for symmetrical suspension bridge may be too costly to build. The symmetrical, tied-arch, steel-and-concrete span is planned as part of a $650-million south terminal redevelopment, which also includes a hotel and a train station. But it is also part of a commuter rail link owned

An Israeli-Russian joint venture has won the latest chunk of work on Israel’s $1-billion high-speed rail line that will connect Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Minrav Engineering and Construction Ltd., Ashdod, and underground contractor Moscow Metrostroy won the estimated $130-million contract from project owner Israel Railways. The contract, not yet officially awarded, will involve construction of two parallel 3.5-kilometer tunnels and other work. Site preparation is set to begin later this year, with tunneling to start within a year, officials say. The project involves construction of 38 km of double track from Ben Gurion International Airport east of Tel Aviv to

In late July, four 1,200-ton, 165-ft-long steel segments were erected to become a tower for the $6-billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s self-anchored suspension span. Photo Courtesy Of Caltrans Steel tower legs are lifted into place for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s self-anchored suspension span. Under a $1.43-billion contract, the joint venture of American Bridge, Coraopolis, Pa., and Fluor Corp., Irving, Tex., used a strand-jack gantry positioned atop the erection tower to pull the segments off a barge, lift them straight up over the tower foundation, then lower them into place. The first four tower sections, fabricated by ZPMC in Shanghai,

Verdant Power Inc., the leading U.S. tidal power developer, and the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group (CECEP), a renewable energy company, have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop tidal energy projects in China. The agreement is the first of its kind between China and the U.S. involving marine and hydrokinetic power projects. According to Trey Taylor, president of Verdant Power, the two firms have identified potential sites and are currently gathering data at those locations. The Generation-5 turbines they plan to use in China, says Taylor, “will be demonstrated at pilot project sites in North America as

China has installed the first major offshore wind farm outside of Europe. + Image In China, most offshore wind farms likely will be built in intertidal areas. Located in the East China Sea, near Shanghai, the 102-MW Donghai Bridge Wind Farm began transmitting power to the national grid in July. The farm, which is slated to expand in the coming years, eventually will generate annually 267 million kilowatt-hours of electricity—enough to power 200,000 Shanghai households. It currently is supplying power to the Shanghai Expo and serving as a showcase project at the five-month-long international event. The $337-million Donghai Bridge farm