The University of Utah is looking to renovate its 40-year-old College of Architecture + Planning building into the nation’s first institutional facility to meet net-zero-energy standards. Photo courtesy of the University of Utah The announcement was made by Brenda Scheer, dean at the University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning, and Joerg Reugemer, associate professor, during their presentation at a sustainability conference in Salt Lake City on April 8. The university’s concrete building was constructed with single-pane windows during a time when energy was cheap, Scheer says. “Our plan is to cut the building’s energy use by 80%, improve
A rocky season in Colorado began on cue on March 8 with a rockslide on Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs. It punched holes in a bridge and dumped boulders the size of semitrucks on the highway, closing a 17-mile stretch. Four days later, the Colorado Dept. of Transportation announced that Flatiron Construction Corp. of Longmont, Colo., was the apparent low bidder for the contract to repair damage. The job includes 400 linear ft of westbound barrier, 150 linear ft of eastbound steel bridge rail, a design-build fix of 460 sq ft of retaining wall, 500 tons of base course and
When it comes to defining zero-energy, the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden is writing the book. Scientists at the South Table Mesa campus have developed technologies such as transpired solar collectors and are investigating the benefits of night purging—cutting-edge ideas that are fueling the sustainable-energy movement and stretching the skills of the design and construction industry. Photo: Carl Cox, NREL The RSF is under construction at NREL’s South Table Mountain Campus near Golden. It was designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification from the USGBC. Its energy saving features will be shared with, and hopefully replicated
In July, the Colorado Dept. of Transportation started one of its largest stimulus-funded transportation projects with the multimodal rehabilitation of nine miles of the C-470 highway between Interstate 25 and Santa Fe Drive, south of Denver, and an adjacent bike path. Denver, Colo. Photo: CDOT ARRA funds are used to repave nine miles of Denver-area highway and 26 miles of bike paths with concrete and asphalt. Photo: CDOT Related Links: Stimulus: A Snapshot of Top Shovel-, Wrench- and Pencil-Ready Projects The $22.3-million project, entirely funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars, will repair or replace highway concrete base slabs