Development of two new nuclear units in Texas could be delayed or put further at risk after estimates for the reactors rose 30% last month to $17 billion. The price escalation shocked San Antonio, Texas, municipal utility CPS Energy, which has a 40% stake in the South Texas Project in Matagorda County. The company’s board of trustees ordered an investigation into whether information about the price escalation for the 1,358- MW advanced boiling water reactor units was kept hidden. “A cost estimate that exceeds our preliminary total project cost of $13 billion is not acceptable and will result in CPS

The $2-million Sustainable Sites Initiative, having included its four-star rating system within its guidelines for developing and maintaining healthy landscapes, is seeking applications for 75 to 150 pilot projects to test the credit-based program. Applications to SSI, which is taking the first comprehensive look at sustainable landscape design, construction and maintenance, are due by Feb. 15. Photo: Sustainable Sites Initiative Sustainable Sites Initiative is the first to take a comprehensive look at greener landscapes. On Nov. 5, SSI released the 233-page “SSI: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009” and “The Case for Sustainable Landscapes,” a set of economic, environmental and social

The scheduled December groundbreaking of the first phase of the $5.5 billion Honolulu Rail Transit Project has been delayed by at least a month, says project spokesman Scott Ishikawa. “Based on the time needed to get participating agencies to review the draft environmental impact statement and the time needed for the federal and state level to approve the final EIS, we decided to push back construction until the end of January,” he says. In late October, the city awarded the $482.9-million first-phase contract to Omaha-based Kiewit Pacific Co. The 6.5-mile design-build project is expected to take three years to complete.

Expert crews are rappelling down a steep wall of jagged, unstable rocks above Interstate 40 in western North Carolina, beginning the cleanup and repair process of an Oct. 25 rockslide that shut the highway down. The repair could take four months and cost $10 million. The 500,000-ton rockslide on U.S. Forest Service land caused the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation to declare an emergency and Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) has asked the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to declare the rockslide a federal disaster area. Crews with contractor Phillips & Jordan Inc., Knoxville, Tenn., are working with rock stabilization specialists from

Another behemoth civil works project is taking shape in New Orleans as construction of the $1 billion Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) West Closure Complex project rapidly advances. Since receiving the notice to proceed August 4, Gulf Intracoastal Constructors, a joint venture of Omaha-based Kiewit Corp. and Traylor Bros. Inc. of Evansville, Ind., has been working round-the-clock. GIC has already cleared and grubbed most of the 200-acre site, built 4,000 ft of roadway, and excavated 150,000 cu yd of dirt. Photo: Angelle Bergeron Gulf Intracoastal Constructors is driving 1,375, 137 ft-long steel pipe piles for the foundation of the pump station

While the overall economy shows signs of slowly coming back to life, the airline industry continues to struggle. Over the past year, the combination of substantially lower passenger traffic, still-wobbly financial markets and nervous carriers has curtailed the revenue streams airports typically count on for major capital projects. Photo: McCarran International Airport Work on a $2.4-billion project at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas continues through 2009, even as other projects were put on hold. Photo: Denver International Airport Stimulus money came to the rescue of hundreds of airports with long-standing maintenance needs, including Denver International. Related Links: The Top

Omaha-based Kiewit Pacific Co. was awarded a $482.9-million contract for the first phase of construction for the 20-mile Honolulu Rail Transit Project. The 6.5-mile design-build project is expected to break ground in December and be completed in late 2012. The contract came in $90 million below the engineer’s $570-million estimate. “Because of the sluggish economy, construction bids are coming in much lower than anticipated,” says Scott Ishikawa, project spokesman. He says that has prompted the city to seek proposals now for the next phase of the $5.5-billion project.

Claimed as the world’s largest seismicly isolated building, Istanbul, Turkey’s new 200,000-sq-meter Sabiha Gökçen International Airport terminal opened at the end of October. Designed for a 7.5 to 8.0 moment magnitude quake and built in just 18 months, the roughly $600-million terminal sits on 300 isolators, according to lead designer Arup Group Ltd. Construction was by the locally based LIMAK–GMR Joint Venture. Photo: Arup Group

As 280,000 daily vehicles resumed using the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 2 after a six-day repair of a steel saddle that holds a cracked truss section in place, engineers and metallurgists were still investigating why the original Labor Day weekend fix failed so quickly. Photo & Diagram: Caltrans Bay Bridge closed down for nearly a week after steel members repaired in September fell into traffic. A second emergency contractor again addressed a cracked eyebar in the truss. The Oct. 27 failure occurred when a 5,000-lb crossbeam and steel connectors fell into afternoon traffic, causing one accident and a

A new power-transmission project on the Texas-New Mexico border will facilitate movement of power throughout the U.S. from booming alternative-energy developments in the Southwest. One of those developments, a 600-MW Texas wind farm, will be built with funds and equipment from China. The announcements last month of the two projects strengthens the region’s position as a leader in renewable energy and highlights China’s growing U.S. investment. + Image Source: American Superconductor Corp. Tres Amigas Superstation The Tres Amigas SuperStation in Clovis, N.M., will link the Texas Interconnection to the nation’s other two electrical grids, the Eastern and Western interconnections. With