A Knoxville, Tenn., engineering firm is investigating the Gatlinburg Wastewater Treatment Plant where two workers died on April 5 after an equalization basin wall collapsed and more than 2 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Little Pigeon River. Photo: By AP Worldwide An equalization basin wall collapsed on April 5 at a wastewater treatment plant in Gatlinburg, Tenn., following heavy rainfall. Photo: By AP Worldwide Two workers employed by plant operator Veolia Water North America were crushed to death. Construction Engineering Consultants is investigating the cause of the structural failure. Gatlinburg city officials on April 8 hired Construction
The Minneapolis Metrodome, ripped and deflated after blizzard-like conditions in December, will be replaced after engineers questioned the safety of the entire fabric dome. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which operates the 28-year-old Metrodome, is taking proposals for the job, which will cost an estimated $18.3 million. Offerings are due by Feb. 23, and the work is to be completed by Aug. 1. The dome, a two-layer fabric structure supported by fan-blown air and held in place with steel cables, has been under study since December after snow and ice ripped holes in the fabric and caused it to collapse.
The Minneapolis Metrodome, whose air-supported roof split under the weight of more than 17 inches of snow and ice on Dec. 12, won’t see any action at least until after Christmas. Photo: AP/Wideworld Crew checks out damaged fabric from a platform. Four panels will be replaced. The Minnesota Vikings moved their Dec. 20 National Football League game with the Chicago Bears to the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium. Other Metrodome events through Dec. 23 have been canceled as crews replace and repair the Teflon and fiberglass panels. Birdair Inc., Amherst, N.Y., which made and installed the roof, and Geiger
A memorable date for Nashville’s water department will be Memorial Day Weekend, when it expects to put back online the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant, which was under water after the city’s May 1-2 flooding. Image: Nashville.gov City’s future biosolids facility site, rendered above, is adjacent to Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, which serves the downtown area hit by the flood. Northeast of downtown and near the Cumberland River, the plant has a rated capacity of 90 million gallons per day (mgd). Since the plant has been down, the city has been under a mandatory water conservation order because the only
Even as the rivers of Middle and West Tennessee are returning to their pre-flood levels, damage estimates are rising rapidly. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean (D) on May 11 raised the damage estimate for the city to $1.56 billion, with 99% of the private sector having been inspected. Absent from the total are public buildings and infrastructure damaged by torrential rain that fell on May 1 and 2. Photo: Aerial Innovations of Tennessee PSC Metals Inc.’s recycling facility southeast of downtown Nashville sits submerged in floodwater after the Cumberland River overflowed its banks. David Penn, director of the Business and Economic
Nashville and Middle Tennessee businesses and individuals are cleaning up and trying to return to thousands of buildings and homes inundated by floodwaters in a “once-in-one-thousand-year event.” Photo: AP/Wideworkd The Grand Ole Opry House and related buildings sitting in floodwater in Nashville. With one of the city’s two water plants still underwater, Nashville and neighboring Williamson County are under a mandatory water conservation order. Power is out, at least until Friday, for a chunk of downtown after floodwaters knocked out underground transformers at a substation. The Cumberland River, which runs through Nashville, crested at 51.9 ft late Monday after 13.5
The Shangri La Botanical Gardens & Nature Center in Orange is one of the Top 10 Green Projects this year, selected by the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment. Located on 252 acres, the center houses wetlands demonstration and ornamental gardens, and an interpretive center for ecosystems such as cypress and tupelo swamp, wooded uplands and prairie lowlands. Related Links: Teaching Green The AIA/COTE competition is based on elements including intent and innovation, site, bioclimatic design, light and air, water, energy. Lake/Flato Architects of San Antonio designed the project, and Beck Group of Austin was the contractor. The
With baby boomers now in their 60s and a round of hospitals built in the 1950s outdated, billions of dollars will be spent in the United States over the next decade. Health-care facilities are environmental and energy hogs – from heating and cooling demands to cleaning supplies to procedures practiced in the name of health. Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas in Austin was the first hospital to achieve a LEED-platinum rating. White Construction Co. was construction manager for the 473,000-sq-ft facility. The green movement aims to reduce waste, cut back power needs, replace chemicals and help hospitals get
When it opens in summer 2010, the Hess Tower in Houston, a 29-story, 845,000-sq-ft office building, will have 10 wind turbines on the roof to capture wind energy and meet some of the building’s power needs. The turbines are one of the design features that will make the tower the first in Houston’s Central Business District to earn LEED-gold certification. The Energy Center II building in Houston was precertified LEED Silver and is going for LEED Gold. Sustainable building only makes sense these days, says Adam Saphier, a principal of Trammell Crow Co. of Houston, developer of the building with
LWPB Architecture of Oklahoma City wanted to go green when it opened a branch office in Norman, and it ended up going historic as well. The firm redesigned the main floor of the former Carey Lombard Lumber Co. building, built in 1889 and later occupied by Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. Photo: Joseph Mills Photography. Architects at LWPB Architects in Norman, Okla., have natural light in their work area after windows were cut into the brick walls of the old building. Photo: Joseph Mills Photography LWPB Architects of Oklahoma City renovated and updated an 1889 building in Norman for a