An eye-catching project is taking shape in Baku. It features three curving towers ranging from 31 to 39 stories, rising from a podium with an extensive roof garden. The towers will be shield-shaped in cross section. One tower will house luxury apartments, another a hotel and the third, offices. The design by HOK is inspired by Azerbaijan’s tradition of fire worship. Baku is an active seismic zone. The excavation is seven stories deep and required a bored pile retaining wall and foundation piles up to 50 m long. Winds sometimes reach 120 km/hour, requiring tower cranes to be shut down.

The Senate has approved former Arizona Dept. of Transportation Director Victor M. Mendez as the new head of the Federal Highway Administration. Mendez, who was confirmed as FHWA Administrator on July 10, joined Arizona DOT (ADOT) in 1985 as a transportation engineer and in 2001 was named ADOT director. Photo: Arizona DOT Mendez led Arizona DOT from 2001 until February 2009 Related Links: Former Arizona DOT Chief Picked to Head FHWA He held the top ADOT post until February, when he and other state agency heads left when Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer [R] became governor. Mendez also played

Seemingly defeating the odds, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved a landmark global-warming bill on June 26 by a 219-212 vote, setting the stage for further action on the bill. But while it has a fair amount of support from a wide range of groups and is a priority of the Obama administration, the bill faces a hurdle in the Senate, where Republicans and moderate Democrats could prevent its passage. The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 80% by

A construction team led by Spanish contractor Sacyr Vallehermoso SA has won the Panama Canal expansion’s largest contract to date, the design-build job to build a third set of locks on both the waterway’s Atlantic and Pacific openings. Photo: ACP Current Panama Canal facilities are a tight fit for ships. Related Links: Panama Widens Horizons Ten Minutes with CH2M Hill’s Mike Kennedy The team, which includes two U.S. engineers, proposes to construct the locks, a job estimated by owner Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to cost $3.48 billion, for $3.12 billion, ACP said on July 8. � ACP says that the

Faster, stronger and greener elements need to be part of bridge construction in the U.S., accomplished through fast-track project-delivery methods, Accelerated Bridge Construction techniques or alternative materials, according to a variety of industry officials. Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) could contribute to all those themes, said speakers at the International Bridge Conference held in Pittsburgh on June 14-17. “The ABC mantra is ‘Get in, get out and stay out,’” noted David White, marketing manager with Sika Corp., Lyndhurst, N.J., a manufacturer of FRP components. “FRPs will fit all of that, especially the ‘stay out.’” But the higher initial cost of installing composite

A small precast-concrete bridge in New Jersey is being replaced with a hybrid-composite beam structure that could have a service life of 100 years. This is the third project using the technology, which combines a glass-fiber reinforced shell, self-consolidating concrete for compression reinforcement and high-strength continuous steel fibers for tension reinforcement. Photo: HC Bridge Co., LLC Hybrid-composite beam in New Jersey was installed with an excavator. HC Bridge Co. LLC, Chicago, is supplying beams for the $1.34-million state Rte. 23 Peckman’s Brook Bridge in Cedar Grove, N.J. The 50-year-old four- lane, 66-ft-wide, 30-ft-long bridge is considered structurally deficient and is

In a special session on July 2, the Texas Legislature refused to extend the authority of the Texas Dept. of Transportation to build privatized toll roads in agreements with private developers. The refusal comes at the end of a two-year moratorium on private toll-road construction passed in 2007. It is a setback for Gov. Rick Perry (R), who had appointed a Legislative Study Committee on Private Participation in Toll Projects. One member, Bob Poole, director of transportation policy for Los-Angeles-based Reason Foundation, says the committee’s 2008 report concluded the state needs tolling and private capital, although rules should be modified

A recent study from the National Academy of Sciences predicts so-called “green” refrigerants that replace ozone-depleting ones will contribute to global warming if left unchecked. Published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study presents new data about modern hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are considered greenhouse gases. The study claims HFCs could contribute the equivalent of up to 45% of carbon-dioxide emissions by 2050. Under that worst-case scenario, even if countries adopt a 450-ppm cap on CO2, “You still would have overshot it by about 50%,” says Mack McFarland, a scientist at refrigerant maker DuPont and

To safeguard downstream residents, work now is under way in California to seismically upgrade the San Pablo Dam. The $54-million project involves removing an existing buttress, strengthening the downstream foundation using cement deep-soil mixing and constructing a new 85-ft-high by 950-ft-long buttress. The San Pablo Dam, located near El Sobrante, is an 89-year-old, 38,600 acre-ft drinking-water impoundment. It is managed by the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), which serves 1.3 million people in parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Photo: EBMUD Trestles carry flumes (above) for building the original dam, while soil-mixing augers now work to strengthen the

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and contractors building a $695-million storm surge barrier in New Orleans are wrangling with the U.S. Coast Guard over an evacuation plan for heavy equipment that neither stymies construction nor risks damage to levees and floodwalls from storm-tossed vessels if a hurricane comes in. The Coast Guard is demanding the armada of floating equipment now at work on the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lake Borgne Storm Surge Barrier clear the area if a storm threatens. Typically, many tropical storms pass within a five-day run of the city during a hurricane season. This year, that