While some are testing the waters of integrated project delivery, a group within the U.S. Dept. of Energy is tilling greener pastures by devising a new design-build project-delivery model for fast-tracked, net-zero-energy buildings, public and private. DOE calls the process progressive, performance-based design-build (DB). Haselden Construction, DOE’s DB contractor for the first application of the model—the $80-million Research Support Facility of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo.—calls it design-build “on steroids.” The 222,000-sq-ft RSF is the largest known net-zero-energy building in North America, says the DB team. Photo: Haselden Construction + Image Drawing: Stantec Siting, Massing and

Photo: Controled Demolition Inc. Before Photo: Controled Demolition Inc. After With cracks as sharp as the frozen Arctic air, a 1,375-ft-tall steel communications tower in Port Clarence, Alaska, was demolished on April 28, the first step in the decommissioning of the U.S. Coast Guard’s network of LORAN radio navigation facilities. The 400-ton, 45-segment triangular tower is the tallest structure to be felled by explosives, says Controlled Demolition Inc., Phoenix, Md., which performed the operation as a subcontractor to Jacobs Field Services North America. The remote installation, located 75 miles north of Nome, was one of 24 land-based LORAN stations in

The recession has enabled the California Dept. of Transportation to save approximately $2.4 billion in construction costs for major projects since 2006 due to strong competition. Some bids are coming in at 40% below engineers’ estimates, says Kris Kuhl, supervising transportation engineer and official chief for contract awards and services at Caltrans. Overall, Kuhl says that so far this fiscal year, project bids are averaging 33.8% under estimates. The savings, obviously, means that Caltrans can push for more transportation construction starts, Kuhl adds. “Depending on the nature of the work, we also are seeing a record number of bidders,” he

The Environmental Protection Agency on May 4 unveiled a draft rule to regulate for the first time coal ash under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Under the proposal, coal plants would be required to retrofit existing impoundments, which typically store the ash in liquid form, with composite liners. The proposal also would provide strong incentives for utilities to eventually close the surface impoundments and shift to dry storage in landfills, EPA says. The potential regulation of coal ash has been highly anticipated by environmental groups, who say that contaminants in coal ash—such as mercury cadmium and arsenic—can leach

The battle of Belo Monte came to the headquarters of Brazil’s National Electric Energy Agency, Aneel, in Brasília on April 20. While government and business leaders convened inside, hundreds of protesters gathered in the streets. Indigenous tribes fight proposal. In response to the project being awarded inside the National Electric Energy Agency building, vocal protesters dumped hundreds of pounds of horse manure onto its steps. The project has become a flashpoint for the need to conserve the vast but fragile Amazon as well as meet the country’s growing energy needs. Caught in the middle of the conflict are hundreds of

A controversial 11,200-MW hydroelectric dam deep in the Brazilian Amazon was awarded to a nine-company consortium on April 20, setting aside years of controversy and last-minute protests. The Belo Monte dam will harnass the Xingu River’s power. Brazil’s electricity regulating agency Aneel awarded the tender to build and operate Belo Monte dam to the Norte Energia Consortium led by Compañía Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco (CHESF), a unit of state-run Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA. The group presented an offer to sell electricity from the project for 77.97 reais, or $44.24, per megawatt-hour. The other companies in the consortium include Galvão,

The U.S Army Corps has unveiled a $1.7-billion, 10-year plan to restore to health the ailing Anacostia River in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The plan, two years in the making and released on April 19, identifies 3,000 projects to help restore the severely polluted river and watershed spanning 176 sq miles of land through a combination of stormwater controls, stream restoration, wetland creation and restoration, fish blockage removal, reforestation, and controlling trash and chemical contamination. However, finding funding to pay for the projects could be a challenge. Funding for the plan was authorized under the Water Resources and Development

International engineers and contractors may be eyeing China as the world’s largest consumer market, but the Chinese government still wants domestic industry firms to do some market-related globetrotting of their own, particularly in rail construction. Photo: Bombardier Corp. China purchased more than 60 Canadian-made high-speed-rail cars that will ride on domestic and global lines Chinese firms aim to design and build. Photo: Lou Rocco / ENR China Rail Construction top economist Shang Qingxi says the firm is now the country’s largest contractor. The state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. (CRCC) is now China’s largest and fastest-growing contractor, says Shang Qingxi, deputy

Engineering News-Record’s Senior Editor Tom Sawyer, and Jenna McKnight, deputy news director for McGraw-Hill Construction, spent a week in Haiti in mid-April staying with a local family and traveling throughout the Port-au-Prince area to meet with Haitian refugees and others already engaged in the start of reconstruction, as well as with representatives of foreign aid organizations and U.S. officials. One long-sought document that came to hand during the visit is the Haitian government’s Action Plan for National Recovery and Development, described below. Navy Capt. Jim Wink said, “Right now they have the attention of the world.” Wink, chief engineer for

Orient Express Hotels Ltd., the Bermuda-based luxury travel and real estate firm, plans to build and operate a $2-billion, 528-mile freight railway line that will extend its railway network in the Andean country to Brazil, the company’s Peru manager, Laurent Carrasset, said. Orient Express Hotels is best known in Peru for operating the train service from Peru to the famous ruins of Machu Picchu, but the company also has a significant presence in regular railroad interests, recently completing a $25-million upgrade of a rail line serving Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.’s copper mine in southern Peru.