The $33.2-billion price tag for implementing the Pentagon’s current Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round is 48% higher than the Dept. of Defense initially anticipated, says Wayne Arny, deputy undersecretary of defense. The factors behind the increase include the effect of inflation and the construction of additional facilities, Arny told the House military construction appropriations subcommittee at an April 22 hearing. For the Army, 2009 is the largest year of the current BRAC round, with 96 contracts slated to be awarded, said Keith Eastin, an assistant Army secretary. Fiscal 2010 will be the current closure-and-realignment round’s final year. Past years’

Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a new $3.1-billion Strip resort, is suing its lenders for reneging on a critical $800-million construction loan. The 63-story, 3,815-room development is about 70% complete and scheduled to open in October. On April 23, an investment group led by Miami-based developer Jeffrey Soffer filed a $3-billion lawsuit in Clark County District Court against the project’s 11 lenders for refusing to provide prearranged financing. The developer already has invested over $2 billion in the project. A deepening recession and frozen credit markets make new financing difficult. Fontainebleau had hoped to raise $700 million to $900 million through condominium

The Obama administration has extended the deadline until June 30 for implementation of mandatory E-Verify use by federal contractors to determine employment eligibility of their new hires. The policy was set to go into effect on Jan. 15. “The extension provides the administration an adequate opportunity to review the entire rule prior to its applicability to federal contractors and subcontractors,” says the Dept. of Homeland Security.

While environmental groups are cheering the Environmental Protection Agency’s April 17 announcement that it has determined that greenhouse gases could pose a threat to public health and welfare, critics charge that using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions could prove costly. “Trying to regulate [greenhouse emissions] under the Clean Air Act is going to add costs and delays to transportation projects,” says Nick Goldstein, American Road and Transportation Builders Association assistant general counsel and director of regulatory affairs. WAXMAN EPA’s “endangerment” finding, which is subject to a 60-day comment period before it becomes final, is not a formal

Administration officials on April 16 outlined plans to distribute more than $3.3 billion in smart-grid- technology development grants and an additional $615 million for smart-grid storage through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grants will range from $500,000 to $20 million for smart-grid applications and $100,000 to $5 million for grid monitoring devices.“We need an upgraded electrical grid to take full advantage of the vast renewable resources in this country,” said Vice President Joe Biden. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said administration of- ficials will hold a meeting in Washington, D.C., in May to discuss the development of industrywide standards

A new study from the North American Electric Reliability Corp., the U.S. electric-utility watchdog group, finds that the nation’s increasing reliance on renewable-energy power sources will require policymakers to clear the way for updating the nation’s transmissions system. NERC says adding high levels of wind, solar and ocean energy, deemed “variable generation” for their intermittent characteristics, will require “significant transmission additions and reinforcements” to ensure grid reliability. NERC projects that more than 145,000 MW of new variable resources will be added to the country’s bulk power system with-in 10 years. Denise Bode, CEO of American Wind Energy Association ,praises NERC’s

General contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis and structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates have settled a lawsuit with the family of the man who died in his apartment when the boom of a 210-ft tower crane toppled while working on Tower 333 in Bellevue, Wash. Details of the settlement were not disclosed. An LCL action against MKA, part of the suit, remains unresolved. According to MKA Chairman and CEO Jon D. Magnusson, MKA designed the crane base assuming a tie-in to the building frame in the initial configuration, but the crane was erected without a tie-in. The reason for this is the

In the latest twist in a long controversy, an Indiana circuit court jury on April 15 cleared structural engineer Thornton-Tomasetti Inc., New York City, of fraud charges brought by the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, related to the troubled renovation and expansion of the city’s central library. Photo: Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Library’s structural engineer was sued by project owner. The library project originally was budgeted at $103 million but was completed two years late, in December 2007, and as much as $50 million over budget. Other project contractors previously settled with the library for a total of $21.5 million, including

A flurry of April announcements illustrates how the White House is moving to fill top spots at federal agencies that oversee major construction programs. The designees need Senate confirmation, but the lineup is winning praise from industry officials. At the Dept. of Transportation, Obama’s pick to be under secretary for policy, Roy Kienitz, an aide to Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D), “is a person who hasn’t been captured by conventional thinking,” says John Doyle, special counsel for law firm Jones Walker LLP. Doyle was a lead House staffer and Kienitz a key Senate aide in drafting the 1991 Intermodal Surface

Nearly a year before an ill-fated Kodiak tower crane collapsed on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and killed two workers, China-based RTR Bearing Co. sent an e-mail to New York Crane & Equipment Corp., saying, “We don’t have confidence on this welding,” referring to a custom bearing assembly the crane owner had ordered. But New York Crane asked RTR to perform the $21,860 job anyway, according to court papers filed in conjunction with the accident. Photo: Castro & Karten LLP Plaintiffs’ photographs show where swing bearing (top) snapped away from spacer ring (bottom). Even as personal-injury lawyers are now blaming Brooklyn-based