Faced with growing demand for consistency in building rating systems, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has agreed to team up with its Australian and British counterparts to develop a common metric to measure emissions of carbon dioxide from new homes and buildings. The USGBC signed a memorandum of understanding on March 3 with the U.K. Green Building Council, the Green Building Council of Australia, and United Kingdom-based BRE Global Ltd. A working group representing each of the rating systems will seek to align the tools to provide consistency in measurement and reporting. Paul King, chief executive of the U.K.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has begun the long road to recovery at its Kingston Fossil Plant following a massive coal-ash spill on Dec. 22, 2008. The agency has pledged to make the areas “as good, if not better than they were before” in its long-term cleanup plan filed on March 2 with a Tennessee state agency. Photo: TVA Photo: Contractors will clear damaged area (top) and reseed. Related Links: After Dike Failure, TVA Cleans Up On March 9, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it will tighten EPA coal-ash regulations by the end of the year as a result of the

The U.S. Energy Dept. is headed back to the drawing board for a national nuclear-waste depository. President Barack Obama, making good on a campaign pledge, is seeking an alternate dump site to Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. “I have consistently said that I am opposed to Yucca Mountain,” Obama told a Las Vegas crowd last January. “That will not change.” Photo: The U.S. DOE The budget at Yucca was cut $100 million for the rest of 2009. The U.S. Energy Dept. has spent over $10 billion since 1983 performing geological tests and studies at Yucca Mountain

What do you get when you cross a farm commune with a traditional neighborhood, a suburban subdivision and a golf community? If T. Wall Properties has its way, you get the 717-acre Bishops Bay, a planned development for the rural towns of Westport and Middleton, Wis. The scheme, if approved, would contain a 240-acre neighborhood that integrates farming with housing. Slide Show Image: SWA Neighborhood planned near Madison, Wisc., would help preserve agriculture in the area. “This development can truly be a model to transform and improve the way communities are planned and the way people live,” says Andy Inman,

The economy may be acting like a square, but the 82-story “Aqua” in Chicago is making waves with hipsters looking to live in style. Built by general contractor James McHugh Construction Co., the $475-million tower topped out on March 4 and is nearly sold out, says owner Magellan Development Group. The 2.2-million-sq-ft, 968-unit building is set to open in phases starting in May and finish up next year on time, on budget. It includes 264 condos, 476 rentals and hotel spaces, a mixed-use first for Chicago, says Magellan, which planned Aqua to bookend a $4-billion Lakeshore East urban village. Designed

Progress on two major European skyscrapers may not represent the green shoots of economic recovery, but they help lighten the gloom. In London, pile work is due to start mid-month on the 310-m-tall "Shard," planned as Europe�s second-tallest building. And workers in Frankfurt are beginning to mobilize the planned Tower 185. Photo: Vivico Real Estate Workers begin mobilizing for Frankfurt Tower 185. Photo: London Bridge Quarter Ltd. If London's 310-m-tall "Shard" moves forward, it could Europe's second tallest building. With Middle Eastern backing, London Bridge Quarter Ltd., recently signed a construction contract with local Mace Ltd. for the estimated $1.5-billion

A House committee has cleared a four-year aviation reauthorization bill that would provide a boost for airport construction grants and a hike in passenger facility charges, as an airport group says capital needs continue to climb. But with a temporary Federal Aviation Administration authorization set to lapse March 31, another extension is likely. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on March 5 approved a bill that would authorize $70 billion for FAA over the 2009-2012 period. It includes $16.2 billion for FAA's Airport Improvement Program, which provides grants to fund runways, taxiways and other infrastructure. Under the bill, AIP would

A banking consortium agreed to provide financing for a nearly $1.8-billion toll lane project in Florida. The Florida Dept. of Transportation signed off on an agreement for I 595 Express, LLC to finance, build and operate the $1.796-billion Interstate 595 Corridor Improvement Project, after concessionaire ACS Infrastructure Development of Spain secured financing from an international banking consortium. Image Photo: RS&J Three express toll lanes will be added to I-595. “For a major infrastructure project to get its financing together in the current climate is a big deal,” says Gerry O’Reilly, director of transportation development for FDOT district 4. Late last

Three international consortiums submitted bids on Tuesday to design and build the new sets of locks for the ongoing $5.2-billion expansion of the Panama Canal. Photo: C.J. Schexnayder/ENR A cargo ship enters the Gatun Locks on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. Photo: Panama Canal Authority A computer illustration of the proposed locks for the Panama Canal third lane expansion project. Officials with the Panama Canal Authority – the quasi-governmental organization that oversees the waterway’s administration often known by its Spanish-language acronym, ACP – accepted bids in a ceremony in Panama. The canal authority has previously projected the lock

The Panama Canal Authority is soliciting bids for the estimated $70-million removal of 16 million cu m of material at the waterway’s Atlantic entrance. The job is a key portion of the canal’s $5.2-billion third-lane expansion project that will allow larger "post-Panamax" ships to use it. Last April, Belgium-based Dredging International won the $177.5-million contract to widen and deepen a nine-mile-long navigation channel beyond the Pacific entrance of the waterway. The deadline for bid submissions is July 15, with the project’s completion expected by the second quarter of 2013.