An investigation has been launched into why 1,000 sq m of roof was blown off Indira Gandhi International Airport’s six-month-old domestic terminal during a storm on Aug. 21 that had winds of over 90 kilometers per hour lasting 10 minutes. The section comprised about 5% of the 20,000 sq m high-tensile steel roof on the $100-million terminal. Photo: Manoj Kumar Investigators want to find out why new terminal roof section succumbed to wind. Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL), the concessionaire that holds a contract to develop, manage and operate the airport, has formed a team to look into whether there

A California inspection and testing firm has agreed to a six-month ban imposed by Clark County, Nev., from seeking new work in the southern part of the state for submitting false inspection reports on the Harmon Hotel & Spa, one of six large building projects in Las Vegas’ $8.5-billion CityCenter development. Converse Consultants’ failure to disclose defects has prompted the owner to shrink the planned building to 28 stories from the 49 originally planned. Photo: MGM Mirage Inspection firm is temporarily banned from state work for reports on tower (front, right). Hired by owner MGM Mirage Inc. to inspect the

As stormwater runoff from streets and parking lots becomes an ever-more sensitive environmental issue, eliminating it altogether with pervious pavement can be an elegant solution. Two projects now under way in Connecticut and Minnesota have facilities owners, municipal officials and the paving sector taking notice. One involves a parking lot at a university committed to cutting its impervious surfaces by half. The other is a public road in Minnesota, where a city engineer insists he is not experimenting; he is just applying a best-fit solution to a 50-year-old problem. Both applications share one thing in common: they are engineered to

Researchers working with the National Aeronautics and Science Administration, with the help of twin satellites whose sole purpose was to collect data on the Earth’s water storage, have found dangerous groundwater loss in three northwestern states of India. Image: NASA The pair of GRACE satellites, released into orbit in August 2002, transmitted monthly observation in groundwater changes to the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas at Austin. Photo: NASA After six years of monitoring northwestern India, the GRACE satellite mission revealed a 109 cu-km loss of groundwater supplies. Related Links: Renderings of 231st St. Station Scientists concluded

Contractors building two segments of a 13-mile-long sewage conveyance tunnel near Seattle have devised plans to fix in place two stalled tunnel-boring machines that had been working in poor soils and high groundwater pressure. The tunnel is a key portion of King County, Wash.’s $1.8-billion Brightwater wastewater treatment project. The rims of the cutter heads on the 17.5-ft-dia Herrenknecht slurry machines were damaged, allowing rock and boulders to get stuck, says Gunars Sreiders, King County project manager. The general contractor, the joint venture Vinci/Parsons RCI/Frontier-Kemper, first stopped tunneling in May and laid off about 160 employees. The second machine was

Chicago Transit Authority this fall plans to begin an environmental impact study of upgrades to three rail lines for projects that would cost the agency $1.98 billion. The mass-transit program would extend 5.3 miles of elevated, double track to the city's Red Line, 2.3 miles of trench-and-elevated, double track to the Orange Line and 1.6 miles of elevated, single track to the Yellow Line and calls for building six new train stations. The agency is now seeking about $57 million in federal funding to move forward with the EIS and preliminary engineering. CTA has selected a joint venture of CDM,

Contractors are preparing to hand over Italy’s newest section of high-speed railroad to the state’s operator, Ferrovie Italiane, for testing. The 5.6-km Novara–Milan section of the Turin-Venice line is due to start service this December. The new Bologna-Florence line, handed over on June 30, also will become operational in December. Nine tunnels, the longest extending 18.5 km, carry 93% of this 78-km line along the Apennine Mountains. Photo: Impregilo Bologna-Florence line featured New Austrian Tunnelling Method. Impregilo S.p.A, Milan, leads consortiums handling turnkey construction of both sections, part of the high-speed network being developed by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana S.p.A. (RFI),

Restoration work for a rail-to-trail with a lift—elevated 18 ft to 20 ft on an abandoned trestle—is called “an engineer’s dream,” even though parts of the 71-year-old steel structure, not used for commerce since 1980, were in “terrible condition,” says the structural engineer charged with preserving the section of the trestle that slices through, between and above 10 blocks of buildings and streets on Manhattan’s West Side. It is a dream because the elevated rail line, renamed the High Line in its reincarnation as a linear urban park, was designed for a 10,000-psf live load during its active years, when

An ambitious 2,500-kilometer-long “power highway” that will stretch across the breadth of Brazil has taken an important step forward with the awarding of a major subcontract to provide equipment and initial construction of the power line. Photo: C.J. Schexnayder / ENR Madeira River site is ideal for run-of-river hydro project. In late July, Zurich-based ABB snagged the $540-million contract to build a 600-kV portion of a power line that will connect two massive hydroelectric projects under construction on the Madeira River in the Brazilian Amazon Basin to the urban center of São Paulo. The job was awarded to two ABB

The U.S. General Services Administration on Aug. 14 let its largest stimulus-funded project so far, a $435.4-million design-build contract for the new U.S. Coast Guard headquarters building in Washington, D.C. Clark Construction Group of Bethesda, Md., led the winning team, joined by St. Louis-based HOK, which will provide interior designs, landscape architecture, construction documents and administration. The Washington office of WDG Architecture is architect-of-record. Chicago-based Perkins+Will created preliminary designs and bridging documents for the 1.2 million-sq-ft building, which will aim for a LEED Silver rating. The headquarters, along with a 1,000-car parking garage, will be built on the new 4.5