Elastogran GmbH, a Lemförde, Germany-based subsidiary of BASF Group, has begun commercial sales in Europe of Elastocoast, a system for reinforcing broken rock revetments with a polyurethane binder. Pilot installations to protect several quickly disappearing North Sea German Islands, including Hallig Gröde (shown here) armored in two projects in 2006 and 2007, have performed well. The binder is tumbled in a concrete mixer on-site and spread over a substrate. A Wyandotte, Mich., U.S. branch is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop design guidelines for U.S. use. Video Photo: Tom Sawyer / ENR Photo: Elastogran Related Links:
Reducing flood risk on the Mississippi River delta is big business. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with a $14.3-billion appropriation to bring the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System to 100-year levels of protection by June 1, 2011. Photo: Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure Group Pile driving for $695 million IHNC barrier. Cost expected to climb. Related Links: Engineers Focus On Big Delta Threats Building With Nature by Weaving Defenses California Wants a Sea-Level-Rise Plan, But Money Is an Issue Connecting the Rocks Defining Protection To Know the Risk Climate-Proofing Rotterdam This will be
Although Marie Laveau no longer practices voodoo in New Orleans, another “dark art” —soils testing—is practiced there, under unprecedented scrutiny and at a higher level of intensity than ever before. “The work here is moving state of practice into state of the art,” says Dr. Rai Mehdiratta, program director for FFEB Geotechnical Consultants, a joint venture. He says the joint venture in the last two years has accomplished work that previously would have taken 15, “using more tools” in the process. “What we are doing here today, people will expect in the future,” he says. Video Photo: Angelle Bergeron /
California officials hope to soon begin holding public meetings to gather information for a sea-level-rise assessment report that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has asked the National Academy of Sciences to prepare by Dec. 1, 2010. But finding money for the contract is an issue. Slide Show Source: UACE Sacramento District Related Links: Engineers Focus On Big Delta Threats Contractors Brace for a Workstorm as Louisiana Projects Surge Building With Nature by Weaving Defenses Connecting the Rocks Defining Protection To Know the Risk Climate-Proofing Rotterdam Schwarzenegger asked the academy in November to convene a panel with representatives from the state’s resources
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.
A water pipeline that serves the city of Folsom, Calif., as well as Folsom Prison collapsed Feb. 13 at a Folsom Dam construction site, but officials were able to install a temporary bypass line with no loss or reduction of service. Photo: Kiewit $1.6-billion spillway replacement is joint venture among U.S. Burueau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers, Valley Flood Protection Board and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency. The incident involved the permanent 42-in line that was being moved to make way for the second phase of a new spillway project. A temporary 24-in line was placed into service
Engineers from the International Commission on Large Dams will meet with Chinese engineers in China beginning on March 29 to discuss whether a new reservoir might have had a role in triggering last May’s Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province. Reservoir-induced seismicity is a known phenomenon, but Chinese authorities dispute its role in the Wenchuan quake. The ICOLD team of a dozen people will include the organization’s chairs and members of its seismic committee.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., and Ocean Power Technologies, Pennington, N.J., will work together to develop large, utility-scale ocean-wave-power generation projects in North America. Under the terms of the agreement, Lockheed Martin will manufacture, deploy, operate and maintain the wave systems that have been designed by Ocean Power. Ocean Power’s trademarked PowerBuoy is deployed in 100 ft of water within three miles of shore. The rise and fall of the waves moves a pistonlike structure in the buoy. Lockheed and OPT plan to deploy buoys off the coast of either Oregon or California.
Not a day goes by that Walter Baumy, engineering division chief for the New Orleans District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, doesn’t get a call or visit from someone who says he has a better mousetrap a better product or method for bringing the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System to 100-year levels by 2011. But since the district is now in an all-out push to meet that deadline by rapidly prosecuting designs and contracts in hand, Baumy is wary of the distractions. Photo: Infrastructure Alternatives The Corps seeks new ideas, like this NASA
Literally miles of pile will be installed in New Orleans over the next two years as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rushes to bring the area’s flood-control system to 100-year protection levels by June 1, 2011. As the largest civil-works project in the area’s history, it could be a very loud job. But so far it isn’t, thanks in part to a quiet hydraulic machine that area engineers are making some noise over. Initially, the Giken unit sits on a reaction stand. Later, it works atop existing pilings and uses them as counterweight. After driving a piling, the rig�s