Five tidal power schemes, the biggest able to generate 5% of U.K. electricity demand, have been shortlisted for the Severn Estuary, the long sea inlet that separates Wales and Cornwall in the southwest of England. The government's inclusion of a full, $30-billion barrage across the estuary has angered environmental groups. Slide Show DECC Fleming Lagoon's design, looping out from one shore, would not obstruct tidal flows as much as a barrage. Having eliminated five schemes, the Dept. of Energy and Climate Change will now consult on its shortlist till April, aiming to select its preferred option early next year. A
The normal clutter of braced shoring is absent on a U.K. job to replace viaduct bearings near London because the shoring firm has created a cheaper and simpler megaprop system by bolting together standard stock. “We’ve never made these composite props before,” says Ian Fryer, engineering director for supplier RMD Kwikform Ltd., Walsall. “We hadn’t thought of it.” Photo: RMD Kwikform Ltd. A propping system to support a bridge under reconstruction can handle varying heights and pier configurations. Related Links: Agile Robots Can Climb High Places Replacing the 108 bearings is part of a $9.2-million project to refurbish Country Way
The sea in every step along a west Scottish beach stores enough energy for over 70 homes, estimates Richard Yemm, who has taken wave power closer to reality than anybody so far.
A deep understanding of wind behavior gained from 25 years of sailing prepared architect Shaun Killa to successfully promote the largest-ever integration of electricity generating turbines into a building, the Bahrain Word Trade Centre.
The U.S. financial crisis spread rapidly to the rest of the world during the second half of the year, slowing the global economy and rolling back construction inflation in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America. In particular, the economic slowdown in China has taken away one of the main drivers of global construction inflation as China’s once voracious appetite for raw materials evaporates. Related Links: Credit Cancer Kills Prospects for Recession-Proof Global Economy Global Financial Crisis and Recession Is Knocking Down Inflation Worldwide Even Overheated Gulf Market Moves Into a Slump in a Changing Economy Prices Go Awry
The global construction market had been booming in 2007 and through midyear 2008, and large international contractors and design firms reaped the benefits. The demand for big-ticket projects, from petroleum production facilities and powerplants to major infrastructure upgrades and signature buildings, made the demand intense for world-class contractors with the size and expertise to deliver these projects. As a result, big firms around the world were scrambling to grow, either organically or through acquisition, to meet this demand. Illustrations: Guy Lawrence /ENR Related Links: 2008 Top Global Sourcebook For many firms, this booming market has come to a screeching halt.
Moscow’s Federation Tower is well on the way to becoming Europe’s tallest building at 365 meters, with one of the world’s loftiest concrete frames. With its accompanying 509-m-tall observation tower, the skyscraper is on “super fast track,” a schedule that sometimes has left the building’s Chinese contractor struggling to keep up with a design that keeps evolving. Slide Show Photo: Thornton Tomasetti/Sofia A. Pechorskaya Contractor is having trouble keeping up with design changes. Related Links: High-Rise Fever Hits Moscow As one of Russia’s first modern skyscrapers, the two-building Federation Tower development leans heavily on western expertise in design, management and
Until recently, no buildings in Moscow surpassed the 240-meter Moscow State University—the tallest of the city’s “Seven Sisters” towers built at sites throughout the city during Stalin’s era. But a few years ago, Russia’s new wealth from natural resources started an upward rush. Before the global economic crisis hit, plans were moving forward for 4.6 million sq m of high-rise development by 2012. But with only two buildings complete and 11 under way, developers are raising eyebrows by putting some jobs on hold. Still, Moscow remains Europe’s high-rise hot spot. Slide Show Photo: Turner Construction Moscow City, with 14 towers
Thousands of workers daily take the train from their homes at Slavutich, across 55 kilometers of unpopulated woodland and marsh in northern Ukraine to their workplace. No ordinary commuters, they are workers at the Chernobyl powerplant, scene of the world�s worst-ever nuclear disaster. Nearly 4,000 people work at Chernobyl, safeguarding the destroyed reactor building No. 4 and tending to the three surviving shut-down units. Among the construction teams is Alexander Nikolayevich Plotnikov, project manager at contractor Utem Engineering, Bucha. Slide Show Photo: Eric Schmieman Background radiation levels determine type of protective gear and how long workers are allowed to toil
Borys Kulishenko is part of a generation to have grown up near Chernobyl and found work there since the accident 22 years ago. Now 28, Kulishenko was a small boy when his father was �forced� by the Soviet authorities to move from his job at Russia�s Kursk nuclear plant to work on Chernobyl's water-supply system a year after the accident, he says. Peter Reina/ENR Kulishenko settles into nuclear cleanup schedule. Related Links: Radiation Threat Still Permeates Chernobyl�s Entombment Graveyard for Nuclear Debris Expands Huge Cleanup at Bomb-Making Megasite Is The New Atomic Fallout “All the friends I went to school
