Israel’s IDE Technologies is set to win a contract worth more than $100 million to build four additional thermal desalination units at a Tianjin, China, powerplant that will become the country’s largest desal complex when completed. The Kadima-based firm beat out France’s SIDEM, India’s VA Tech Wabag Ltd. and several Chinese companies for the award from Tianjin SDIC, the Chinese powerplant owner. IDE will supply the multi-effect distillation desal units to double production of desalinated water to a total capacity of 200,000 cu meters a day. Photo Courtesy Ide Technologies Facility in Tianjin, China, will become the country’s largest desalination

In Venice, all eyes are on dramatic work at three lagoon inlets to hold back flood tides that repeatedly assault the historic Italian city. But along the mainland shore, engineers from the same construction consortium quietly are stemming more insidious flows of industrial pollution from Porto Marghera into the 550-sq-kilometer lagoon. Photo: Peter Reina Massive caissons will support 78 steel gates that weigh 300 tonnes each. Photo: Peter Reina Project Manager Roland Bastian with interlocking, Z-section sheet piles recycled from scrap metal. Related Links: Stemming Venice Lagoon Pollution: Barriers sheet piled at Porto Marghera About two-thirds of a 57-km-long “fence”

Covered by what is claimed to be the world’s tallest tensile structure, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center has opened in Astana, Kazakhstan. Photo: Courtesy Nigel Young, Foster + Partners Designed by London-based Foster+Partners, the 150-meter-tall transparent tent is clad in cushions of insulating ethyl tetra fluoro ethylene to shelter Kazakhs from their harsh climate. With a 250 x 230-m elliptical footprint, the tent encloses a park as well as entertainment and leisure facilities. The structure’s design-build team includes Sembol Construction, Antalya, Turkey, and structural engineer Buro Happold, London.

A federal science agency says the Gulf of Mexico coast from the Mississippi River to the western Florida panhandle remain the most vulnerable to oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon spill. Texas’ coast has little chance of being struck but currents in the Gulf raise the probability to six to eight out of ten that the Florida Keys, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale will be hit. Exactly where surface oil will spread in upcoming months can’t be known for sure, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To make its estimates, NOAA scientists factor in historical wind and ocean current

A new, one-month extension for Federal Aviation Administration programs, including the agency's airport construction grants, has been signed into law. President Obama signed the measure into law on July 2, one day before the previous stopgap was to expire. Final congressional approval came on June 30, when the Senate passed the measure. The House had cleared it one day earlier. The new stopgap is the 14th extension since September 2007, when the last multi-year FAA bill was enacted. The House and Senate have passed new multi-year FAA bills and lawmakers from the two chambers have been meeting to reconcile differences

King County has sued contractor Vinci, Parsons, Frontier-Kemper (VPFK) for $74 million in damages as part of its $1.8-billion Brightwater sewer project. In the suit, amended on June 4 in King County Superior Court, the county says that VPFK fell three years behind its promised schedule and into breach of contract. VPFK’s work on the 13-mile project included construction of a 2.2-mile bored tunnel north of Seattle. Work started in September 2007, and by October 2009, the county gave VPFK formal notice it required major changes. Originally scheduled for a November 2010 completion, VPFK said it wouldn’t finish until 35

Indiana and Kentucky are seeking to fast-track a new bridge over the Ohio River between Madison, Ind., and Milton, Ky. Using design-build to replace the badly deteriorated 3,181-ft-long steel-truss superstructure and modify the concrete piers means opening a new bridge in 2012, rather than finishing environmental processes in 2012, says Kevin Hetrick, INDOT project manager. Initial estimates peg the total cost at about $131 million. The federal government will pay $20 million through an ARRA TIGER grant. Indiana and Kentucky will split the remaining cost equally. INDOT plans to open bids on Sept. 15. The bridge will be closed in

The board of directors of Denver’s Regional Transportation District approved last month a public-private partnership consortium’s $2.085-billion proposal to build and operate 44 miles of new commuter rail, including a line serving Denver International Airport. Denver Transit Partners is sponsored by Fluor Enterprises Inc., a division of Irving, Tex.-based Fluor Corp., and Australia’s Macquarie Capital Group Ltd. They are joined by partners Ames Construction, Balfour Beatty Rail Inc., Alternate Concepts Inc. and HDR Inc. The proposal came in $300 million lower than RTD’s budget estimate of $2.4 billion for the Eagle P3 project. The bid also promises to open the

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority broke ground on June 26 on the Metro Gold Line’s $690-million Foothill extension. Stretching 11.3 miles, the design-build project will dissect California’s San Gabriel Valley, linking Pasadena with Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale and Azusa. Work is scheduled to be complete in 2014. The first contract, worth $18.5 million, was awarded to Skanska USA, along with designer AECOM. This 24-month project involves the construction of a train bridge over the 210 Freeway in Arcadia, in a known fault-line area.

Acontractor has won a $5-million bonus for repaving 10,925 ft of runway in 120 days at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The new $348-million project, which re-opened on June 29, required two online concrete batch plants, intense planning and 17,000 ft worth of fencing to render the Bay Runway—the country’s second-longest—a construction work zone. Photo: Port Authority of NY and NJ Intense planning, collaboration enabled 11,000 ft of repaving in 120 days. Related Links: Rapid Runway Rehab Tutor Perini Civil Inc., Peekskill, N.Y., can win another $5-million bonus on its $210-million contract once it completes remaining