Madrid, Spain-based renewable energy company GA-Solar and its parent company, Spanish steel manufacturer Corporación Gestamp, announced late last month they will build a $1-billion, 300-MW photovoltaic solar project near Santa Rosa, N.M. The project is expected to take up to four years to build on a 2,500-acre site. The company says it will obtain racking equipment and possibly inverters and steel from local sources. The project joins about 20 other utility-scale solar projects in New Mexico that are in the planning stages and total 1,815 MW.

The U.S. government’s long-term role in Haiti’s recovery from the devastation of the magnitude-7 earthquake on Jan. 12 is still not clearly defined, and it may not be for weeks and months to come. But in the short term, as logistics improve and food and water distribution stabilizes, the creation of temporary housing and medical facilities is at the forefront of the second phase of operations. Other governments and industry volunteers also are playing a role. Photo: U.S. Navy Photo By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Chris Lussier. U.S. Marines with the 8th Engineer Support Battalion unload supplies from a

The government of Miyi County in Sichuan Province has begun construction on an ecologically sensitive new town, which will eventually house 100,000 people. The 825-acre site, located south of the city of Pazhihua along the Anning River, will include higher-density housing and commercial zones as well as new wetlands and recreational and agricultural districts. SWA Group, a landscape architecture, planning and urban design firm based in Los Angeles, won the master-plan competition in 2008. A promenade made up of parks and public spaces, designed by SWA, will provide river access. SWA hired Los Angeles-based architectural firm Studio SHIFT to design

Structural engineers on reconnaissance missions in quake-ravaged Haiti observing the salvaging of compromised building materials are extremely concerned about premature rebuilding. The work, getting under way, is perpetuating the very poor construction practices that caused hundreds of thousands of collapses and more than 170,000 deaths in the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck on Jan. 12 with an epicenter 25 kilometers from Port-au-Prince. Photo: The United Nations The United Nations headquarters in Haiti, constructed without seismic resistance, was one of the newer reinforced concrete buildings that did not survive the earthquake. Photo: MCEER-AIDG Haitians walking near a dangling roof slab at the

In southeast Louisiana, crews are laboring hard to build miles of new fortifications to defend the region against another Hurricane Katrina-like disaster. But as local flood-protection officials learned last month, understanding and applying the evolving science of storm-surge and flood risk modeling is an even tougher race. Photo: Angelle Bergeron Mathijs Van Ledden, president of Haskoning Inc., a New Orleans-based division of Dutch engineering firm Royal Haskoning and flood protection adviser to the Corps of Engineers, describes storm-surge studies in Louisiana dating from 2005. Related Links: Corps Expects July Start at Seabrook “What we know about storm surge is changing

A project under way to build a $250-million renewable-fuel plant in Park Falls, Wis., will eventually draw on about 1,000 tons of forestry waste daily and convert it into sulfur-free diesel. Chart: Flambeau River Biofuels Patented process turns forestry waste into diesel fuel and other renewable products. “We will take bark, sawdust, wood chips and forest residue that wouldn’t be used for anything else and turn it into biofuel, wax, green electrical power, steam and heat that are useful,” says Bob Byrne, president of Flambeau River Biofuels. The contractor expects to begin late this year, and the plant is expected

In its final report on the collapse of the Dallas Cowboy’s practice facility, the National Institute of Standards and Technology recommends owners of other fabric-covered, tubular-steel-framed structures have their buildings evaluated. Some universities already have; of these, at least two have found the structures fail to meet established codes. Photo: Courtesy of the University of New Mexico Engineer’s report found flaws in the Summit Structures practice facility at the University of New Mexico. NIST concluded the Cowboy’s building designed and built by Summit Structures of Allentown, Pa., failed to withstand wind loads that were substantially less than required by design

In April, the Simon Wiesenthal Center plans to announce the name of its replacement architect for the redesign of its planned Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. The group and its first architect, Gehry Partners, recently parted company after six years. The center cited “today’s economic realities” as a rationale behind the redesign. Frank Gehry issued a statement saying he will not be able to participate in the redesign effort because his staff and resources are committed to other projects around the globe.

An independent engineering report prepared for the University of New Mexico about its Albuquerque indoor practice facility found that wind pressure could enter the building through openings in the structure and not escape, putting the training facility at risk of collapse. The investigation by Chavez-Grieves Consulting Engineers in Albuquerque found the school’s steel-and-fabric facility had been designed by Summit Structures, Allentown, Pa., as an enclosed building. However, the independent engineers concluded that louvers, roll-up doors and other openings created a partially enclosed building. Currently, the university uses the facility only when the louvers and doors are closed and the wind

A bell tower in St. Mark’s Square dating back to 12th-Century Venice is getting a new lease on life through a two-year project to stabilize the ill-fated monument standing on tricky soil. In January, workers began drilling cement-reinforced micro-piles to provide watertight enclosures around seven chambers so a girdle of titanium rods can be threaded through the ground around the tower’s faulty foundation block. Photo: Peter Reina / ENR The most prominent monument in St. Mark’s Square in Venice is a 20th-Century reconstruction Related Links: Stabilizing Venice Monument During most of this year, subcontractor Trevi SpA, Cesena, will drill about