Photo courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District House bill would authorize channel deepening at Savannah Harbor and 22 other projects. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee House committee's "whiteboard" video on the need for the water-resources bill Related Links: Link to summary and text of bill Link to House committee "whiteboard" video on need for the water resources bill The drive to put the first new Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) on the books in more than five years picked up some steam on Sept. 11, when House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster introduced a measure
Related Links: Court Tells NRC To Resume Review of Yucca Mountain Proposal Despite a recent federal court directive and pressure from Republican lawmakers to move forward with a review of the stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not yet decided on its next step. However, the NRC has set in motion a process to help it determine what that future action will be, its chairman says.The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on Aug. 13 that NRC violated a federal energy law when it halted its review of a Dept of
image by Bill Hughes Harmon Hotel's owner has yet to say what will replace the soon-to-be-demolished structure as a building-defects trial looms in early 2014. Related Links: Dueling Las Vegas Hotel Engineering Reports Cloud Conflict Between Perini and MGM Report Finds Las Vegas Hotel Could Potentially Collapse in a Code-Level Earthquake Two upcoming hot tickets in Las Vegas both will feature the Harmon Hotel—once the planned showstopper of the huge CityCenter development, but now unfinished and never opened.The $279-million hotel soon faces court-approved demolition and also is the subject of a construction-defect trial set for next February that pits co-owner
Related Links: HUD Selects Ten Winners of Post-Sandy Rebuild by Design Competition HUD's Sandy Rebuild by Design Competition Crossing jurisdictional boundaries and strengthening relationships between private- and public-sector leaders is key to enhancing the resiliency of infrastructure around the world, federal administration officials said on Sept. 5.At a meeting of an international group of public- and private-sector decision-makers held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., Shaun Donovan, U.S. housing and urban development secretary, and Caitlin Durkovich, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the Dept. of Homeland Security, outlined efforts federal agencies have made to work with local,
Image courtesy of Kansas City Streetcar Authority Planned Kansas City streetcar line won $20-million grant, the largest in the fifth TIGER round. Related Links: DOT list of TIGER grant winners, amounts for 2013 round The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has announced that 52 projects—including highways, bridge, transit, ports, rail and pedestrian paths—will share $474 million in grants in the latest round of its popular TIGER program.In announcing the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program winners on Sept. 5, DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx told reporters, “TIGER has helped get large, multimodal projects off the ground that would otherwise struggle to find
Related Links: OSHA Proposes Tougher Limit for Silica-Dust Exposure (enr.com 8/23/13) Text of OSHA proposed silica-dust rule A newly formed 11-member construction safety coalition says it is concerned about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Aug. 23 proposal to reduce construction workers' exposure to crystalline silica dust.The groups object to the more-stringent exposure limits OSHA proposed and are urging the agency to consider factors that are unique to construction. OSHA has said it welcomes input from industry.
Related Links: Labor Dept. Affirmative-Action Rules Draw Construction Groups' Ire (enr.com 8/28/13) Associated Builders and Contractors statement Associated General Contractors of America statement Two newly issued Labor Dept. affirmative-action rules for federal contractors have sparked harsh criticism from construction- contractor organizations.The final rules, which Labor announced on Aug. 27, set new requirements for federal contractors in recruiting and hiring veterans and people with disabilities.The department says the regulations will provide more job opportunities for people in those groups. Advocacy groups for veterans and people with disabilities viewed Labor's move as a positive step. But Sherman Gillums Jr., a Paralyzed Veterans
Photo by Don Wilson, Port of Seattle Port Support Senators Murray and Cantwell say their tax proposal would recapture for U.S. ports, such as Seattle, freight now moving through ports in Canada and Mexico. Related Links: Focus on Water-Resources Bill Shifts to the House (ENR 6/3/13) Lawmakers Eye Harbor Maintenance Fund's Surplus (ENR 2/11/13) Washington state's U.S. senators, Democrats Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, want to repeal the harbor maintenance tax (HMT), a major funding source for dredging projects, and replace it with a new fee on maritime freight. They say their plan, announced on Aug. 15, would double funding
Related Links: U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Aug. 20 ruling EPA Webpage on Sewage Sludge Incinerators A federal appeals court has remanded portions of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 sewage-sludge incinerator rule to the agency for further review but left the current maximum achievable control-technology air-emission limits in place.At issue in the case was EPA’s methodology for setting new limits for emissions from new and existing sewage-sludge incineration (SSI) units at wastewater treatment plants. The new limits require numerous wastewater treatment plants that have SSI units to add costly air-emission controls, says Nathan Gardner-Andrews, general counsel for the
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