New York City has issued a request for proposals (RFPs) for construction of a waste-to-energy conversion facility. The project, part of a new waste-reduction plan under the PlaNYC initiative, aims to double the rate of waste diverted from landfills, primarily through increased reuse, recycling and composting. Proposals are due by June 5.   The city will not provide capital funding for the state-of-the-art plant but will pay a per-ton fee to the plant operator, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office in announcing the project on March 6. Private sector firms should submit plans for a pilot plant that would use sustainable

  HALLR. Randall Hall was named president of Batson-Cook Co., Atlanta, effective Jan. 1, 2012. Hall most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of the West Point, Ga.-based contractor's Atlanta division, where he was responsible for the Duke Energy Center project in Charlotte, N.C. Prior to that, Hall had served as senior vice president and general manager of the firm's West Point division. Raymond Moody, who had served as Batson-Cook's president for the past 16 years, will continue with the firm as chief executive officer. Steve Kufrovich has been hired by Choate Construction Co. in Atlanta as

Columbia University is set to begin construction March 12 on an $8.9-million upgrade to its two-story, 22,500-sq-ft Core Lab facility on the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory campus in Palisades, N.Y. The project includes some demolition work to make room for lab space, says Jessica Vail, marketing manager at construction manager Sordoni Construction, Chester, N.J. Rendering Courtesy of Payette Sordoni and the design team of architectural firm Payette as well as Vanderweil Engineers, both of Boston, will provide design and construction services to renovate the majority of the existing lab building to create the new Lamont Center for Bio-Geochemistry. There is a

A state court has ordered the New York State Dept. of Transportation to cancel an interchange upgrade project already under way and rebid the job because the agency violated competitive bidding laws by requiring compliance with a project labor agreement. A state Supreme Court judge in Albany ruled that including the labor pact was illegal in this case and "tainted" the bidding process by its inclusion. The agency says in a statement that it is reviewing its options on the project "to maximize taxpayer dollars on this critically important transportation project." The agency halted all work on the project on

Cornell University has chosen six out of 43 architectural firms to design the core academic building, part of the planned applied sciences campus that the university is developing with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology on Roosevelt Island, New York. Cornell plans to select the winner and sign a contract next month. The finalists are Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Chicago; Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York; Morphosis Architects, Santa Monica; Steven Holl Architects, New York; and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Each firm will be asked to assemble a team and prepare to be interviewed

It will take months to determine the cause of the Feb. 16 accident at the 4 World Trade Center construction site in which a crane cable snapped, dropping its load of steel beams 40 stories, says the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. No one was injured at the site as the beams plummeted and hit the flatbed truck used to transport the load, says the agency, which is overseeing the investigation. Work has resumed at the site after part of it was shut down temporarily pending an investigation, the Port Authority says. “The crane in question is

New York Photo Courtesy of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Temporary Setback: Despite losing its request to immediately roll back the toll hikes, AAA is continuing to seek a permanent injunction to have them reversed. Photo by Joe Woolhead Ongoing Investigation: On Feb. 16, the cable of a crane carrying steel beams at the 4 World Trade Center construction site snapped, causing the beams to fall about 40 stories. Probe Into 4 WTC Cable Break to Take Months It will take months to determine the cause of a Feb. 16 accident at the 4 World Trade

City officials are investigating why the cable of a crane carrying steel beams at the 4 World Trade Center construction site snapped just before 10 a.m. Feb. 16, causing the beams to fall about 40 stories onto the flatbed truck used to transport the load. No one was injured at the site, which is set for completion this fall, say city officials. "The incident occurred in an enclosed section of the site, which is not accessible to the public," Tishman Construction, 4 WTC construction manager, said in a statement. The job site is partially shut down pending an investigation, it

The solar market remains in a state of flux with some firms expanding and others restructuring. Most recently, San Mateo, Calif.-based SolarCity, a solar power installer and service firm, says it will open a Hartford office to take advantage of incentive programs under Connecticut's newly created Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority (CEFIA) and the Conn. Dept. of Environmental Protection. Rendering Courtesy of SolarCity "Connecticut residents pay some of the highest electricity rates in the nation," says Ed Steins, Northeastern regional director of SolarCity, which has offices nationwide including New Jersey and New York. "We can give them the option

SnapShot  February 13, 2012 Submitted By: John Fraissinet, Street Photographer,StreetObservations.com, New York "Every day I walk by this spot on the way to work," says Fraissinet, who took this shot of the Fulton Street Transit Center, under construction in downtown Manhattan. He used a Canon EOS 40D camera at f3.5, a shutter speed of 1/80 and a 55mm zoom lens. "This looked like an interesting setting, and then I spotted the lone construction worker. I followed him for a while and then he appeared at the opening where the netting was pulled back," he says. "Then unobstructed, I grabbed the shot."