Only a few weeks remain before a federal renewable energy incentive program expires. The 1603 Treasury Dept. grant program, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, pays investors a cash grant equal to 30% of the total cost of eligible projects that began from 2009 through December 31, 2011. Under the program, payment is due within 60 days of the renewable energy system’s activation. After the expiration date, projects may be eligible for the 30% federal investment tax credit program that allows participants to reduce their tax liability."The grant program is a big incentive for developers to

The New York City Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced on Nov. 7 that all construction managers working on its $14-billion capital construction program are required to be certified. The announcement was made at the Construction Management Association of America’s national conference in Washington, DC. “We are raising the bar,” says Kevin Donnelly, deputy DEP commissioner. “In order for us to be successful, we recognize that we need to change our organization, both internally and externally.”The DEP will expect more leadership from its construction managers in areas such as safety, quality management, risk management, and the timely resolution of issues.“Our

Gotham Organization Inc.’s $520-million Gotham West, a four-building, mixed-use residential building that spans from West 44th to West 45th Streets between 10th and 11th Avenues in Manhattan, broke ground on Nov. 7. The 1,200-unit complex, scheduled for completion in 2014, is expected to create more than 2,900 construction and construction-related jobs and 34 permanent jobs over the next three years. Rendering Courtesy of Gotham Organization Inc. The groundbreaking follows an agreement reached in June in which key New York City unions, including laborers and structural trades, agreed to a 20% wage cut for work on the Gotham West project.Gotham Construction

Seven educational institutions including Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, and Stanford University have responded to Applied Sciences NYC’s Oct. 28 deadline in a request for proposals to build or expand a state-of-the-art engineering and applied sciences campus in New York City in exchange for access to city-owned land and up to $100 million in city capital, says the office of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Applied Sciences NYC is an initiative created by the city that is expected to help drive the economy. According to the New York Economic Development Corp., the new applied sciences campus will generate an

A construction worker died Nov. 8 after rescuers pulled him from wreckage at a Brooklyn, N.Y., condominium project under construction. Four other workers were also rescued from the rubble at 2929 Brighton Fifth Street in the Brighton Beach section, according to a New York Times account. Three were listed in stable condition, according to news accounts. A fifth worker who was working outside the building refused to be treated.   New York Dept. of Buildings engineers, in a preliminary investigation, theorized that the building’s collapse could have resulted from workers not following proper concrete pour practices, says a DOB spokesperson.

EPA and the Dept. of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced plans last week (Nov. 4) to jointly evaluate the feasibility of developing biomass, geothermal, solar or wind energy production on 26 Superfund brownfield and former landfill or mining sites. The feasibility study, part of EPA's RE-Powering America's Land initiative, calls for EPA to provide about $1 million in technical assistance to the sites, Lura Matthews, RE-Powering America's Land project lead, told attendees at the PV Power Generation Mid-West & East conference, held this week in Manhattan. The study aims to determine the best technology for each site; the

SnapShot  November 7, 2011 Submitted By: David Winakor, Portland, Conn. �In the afternoon bustle of midtown, I saw this worker toiling,� says Winakor, who does not generally go out of his way to photograph people but says he wanted to take a photo that reflected New York �without regard to the exact time in history.� The worker he photographed would occasionally look up or at passersby, �but I didn�t see a single person look at him. It was a strange dichotomy,� Winakor says. He shot the image while on a business trip with a Canon Rebel XTI with a 135mm lens

Arverne by the Sea YMCA has chosen Racanelli Construction Co., Melville, N.Y., to provide general contractor/construction management services on a new $17.3-million project in Queens. Construction on the two-story, 36,600-sq-ft building began in September and is expected to be completed by March 2013. Rendering Courtesy of Donald Blair Architects The project will be built on a 2.2-acre site, part of the 117-acre Arverne-by-the-sea residential community in Arverne, N.Y. The facility will be constructed out of a piled foundation and contain concrete and structural steel framing. It will include a partial basement with a pool hall, locker rooms, conference rooms, multi-purpose

Bristol, Conn. The Connecticut Laborers' District Council is not a fan of ESPN's choice of nonunion contractors to build a new $100-million, 193,000-sq-ft digital center in Bristol, Conn. The council is encouraging union players in the major sports leagues to boycott ESPN. The general manager charges that the GM, Associated Construction Co., Hartford, Conn., and site contractor, Mizzy Construction, Plainville, Conn., are nonunion shops that “do not pay living wages or follow area standards.”Neither ESPN nor the contractor firms returned calls for comment by press time. However, the Connecticut chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors throws its support behind

The failure of a nut connecting a fuel injector to a fuel pump at Manhattan’s North River Wastewater Treatment Plant is one of the most likely initial causes of the four-alarm fire that shuttered the plant for days last July, according to a Dept. of Environmental Protection report released yesterday. However, the initial cause of the blaze, which caused millions of gallons of raw sewage to spill from the plant into the Hudson River, cannot be determined with absolute certainty because the fire damaged or destroyed much of the equipment involved, DEP says. The nut may have failed because it