Valuable lessons can be learned and possibly applied to modify U.S. seismic design codes and practices from the behavior of structures during the magnitude-8.8 earthquake that rocked Chile on Feb. 27, said the leader of a team representing the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which visited Chile from April 5-12. In April, ASCE also sent assessment teams from its Coasts, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute (COPRI) and its Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering (TCLEE). Photo: ASCE/SEI Assessment Team In Concepción, one side of the Torre O’Higgins Office Building is undamaged as the walls are

BP began conducting the first pressure and diagnostic tests on a five-story blowout preventer (BOP) atop its Macando well bore on May 25 in preparation for a “top kill” attempt to stop the oil that has been gushing from the well and into the Gulf of Mexico since the April 20 explosion. In the “top kill” operation, a vessel will pump drilling mud at a rate of 40 barrels to 50 barrels a minute into two 3-in. choke-and-kill lines at the bottom of the BOP. If the mud stops the oil from coming up the well, concrete then would be

A memorable date for Nashville’s water department will be Memorial Day Weekend, when it expects to put back online the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant, which was under water after the city’s May 1-2 flooding. Image: Nashville.gov City’s future biosolids facility site, rendered above, is adjacent to Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, which serves the downtown area hit by the flood. Northeast of downtown and near the Cumberland River, the plant has a rated capacity of 90 million gallons per day (mgd). Since the plant has been down, the city has been under a mandatory water conservation order because the only

As the consequences unfold of the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the flow of information has become as critical as the movement of the oil slick. One firm’s web-based information management system is having some success in crisis communication for those affected and is gaining wider play among infrastructure managers as an employee-management and business-continuity tool. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard U.S. Coast Guard was the first client of the PIER system. Related Links: Louisiana Starts Pushing Sand To Block Oil BP Considers Options To Plug Gusher, Investigates ‘Complex Accident’ BP Cleanup Subs Were Using Undocumented Workers

The Tennessee Valley Authority will permanently store on-site coal ash that is recovered during the second phase of its cleanup of a failed dredge cell at its Kingston powerplant in Harriman, Tenn. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the plan, which TVA announced on May 18. Photo: TVA Near the TVA powerplant site with a failed ash-disposal cell, dredging of the Emory River is almost complete after 18 months. The first phase of the cleanup, removing coal ash from the nearby Emory River, is wrapping up, with more than 3.32 million cu yd of ash removed from the river

A series of guides written by leading building organizations to advance energy efficiency are on target, helping designers achieve 30% energy savings over the minimum code requirements of Standard 90.1-1999, developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and others, according to a market assessment released on May 20 by ASHRAE. The assessment, which focused on ASHRAE members, was conducted by the Energy Center of Wisconsin and showed that 70% of ASHRAE members who have used the guides find them credible and useful design resources. The guides were developed in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects,

With the rapid advance of work on a surge barrier on New Orleans� eastern flank, the city has substantially more protection against storm surge than it had just a year ago. Photo: Angelle Bergeron/ENR Vic Zillmer, USACE resident project manager atop the surge barrier stretching away toward its land tie-in to Chalmette levees. Photo: Angelle Bergeron/ENR New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu saluted the Corps for being �on task and on time� with the project and for building levees �better than before.� Left to right behind are Col. Robert Sinkler, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers� Hurricane Protection Office

The $800-million Port of Anchorage expansion project is more than a year behind schedule because of rules that limit crews from working in the water when any of the roughly 300 local beluga whales are within a mile of the construction zone. As originally engineered by Seattle-based PND Engineers Inc., with construction oversight by Anchorage-based Integrated Concepts and Research Corp., a high-energy impact hammer was to be used to drill steel sheets into three hard-seabed areas for the earth-filled open-cell sheet-pile configuration. However, due to the whales, crews were forced to use a vibratory-hammer method instead. The vibratory hammer apparently

Officials of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority have identified two “hot spots” close to the site of a major water supply pipe break in Boston on May 1 that may be where a critical 10-ft-dia coupling is buried after being forced loose by the rupture. The break generated a two-day boil-water edict. Crews from Barletta Engineering, Canton, Mass., now are designing a trench box to protect the pipe as they begin to excavate, an MWRA spokeswoman told ENR on May 18. The coupling is expected to offer clues to the cause of the rupture, but the agency is not speculating

Even as the U.S. Navy awarded seven U.S. and Guam-based joint-venture teams on May 10 a $4-billion indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for design-build work on the Pacific island and nearby sites over five years, it also started to compete the first major task order under the contract. Photo: U.S. Navy, by Christopher S. Borgren II Looming troop transfer will unleash huge Guam building boom. Construction will support relocation of thousands of U.S. Marines to Guam from their current base on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The contract is the largest ever by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command’s Honolulu division. Under the