Related Links: Jefferson County Commissioners Send Refinancing Plan to Alabama Legislature Jefferson County, Ala., Commissioners in Last-Ditch Renegotiations Over Muni Debt Spending on Sewers, Risky Financing Push Alabama County Near Bankruptcy Jefferson County, Ala., commissioners, faced with massive sewer-system debt and loss of a major revenue source, filed for bankruptcy Nov. 9, saying efforts to negotiate with creditors had failed and future talks would not be productive.With $4.1 billion in sewer, school and general obligation debt, the filing would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, outpacing the $1.7 billion bankruptcy by Orange County, Calif., in 1994.Jefferson County, with
Photo Courtesy of AP Wideworld A fatal flaw in a cold joint, with splicing couplers instead of dowels, weakened the concrete wall. The April wall collapse at a Gatlinburg, Tenn., wastewater treatment plant that killed two workers was caused by deficient construction that allowed gradual corrosion of the rebar inside it, a state safety report said.The report, written by Mahammad Ayub, director of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration office of engineering, and Mary Misciagna, Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health safety supervisor, did not find workplace safety violations, so the state is not issuing citations against the city of
Related Links: Audit: Deficiencies in N.Y. Wastewater Treatment Plant Before Collapse Binghamton-Johnson City, N.Y., Sewer Board Files Collapse Suit Safety Report on Upstate New York Treatment Plant Due in June The owners of the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant, site of a 100-ft wall collapse in May, are eager to begin repairs but they first must determine if Hurricane Irene-related flooding undermined the structure's foundation.The two south-central New York state cities, which own and operate the plant, are also dealing with a pair of engineering reports that blame construction errors and changes for the wall failure and that limit
Britton Bridge LLC, the Mt. Juliet, Tenn., company with two fatalities on a Knoxville bridge project this year, has been fined $7,150 for a pair of violations related to the second death.The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company for exposing employees to hazards from falling objects when working on a barge during bridge demolition and for not warning them about hazards from the swing radius of the 300-ton and 150-ton Link Belt cranes mounted on barges below the bridge.Solin Estrada-Jimenez, 49, was killed on May 24 after being hit in the head by a piece of concrete
Related Links: Joplin, Mo., Devastated by May 22 Tornado, Learning Lessons From Rubble Atlanta's Downtown Corridor Hammered by a Twister The EF-4 tornado that destroyed more than 3,041 homes and 400 businesses when it ripped through Tuscaloosa, Ala., in April changed the look and possibly the life of the city as it moves into recovery.The high winds also damaged more than 8,800 homes and almost 1,000 businesses and other structures.The city and county are starting to rebuild schools and public buildings after removing almost 800,000 cu yd of debris—including 2,879 stumps—replacing traffic lights and signs and restoring services.The six-mile-long, 1.5-mile-wide
Related Links: Tennessee Bridge Contractors Work Stopped After Fatality Britton Bridge LLC, the Mt. Juliet, Tenn., company with two separate fatalities on a Knoxville bridge project this year, has been fined $7,150 for a pair of violations related to the second death.The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company for exposing employees to hazards from falling objects when working on a barge during bridge demolition and for not warning them about hazards from the swing radius of the 300-ton and 150-ton Link Belt cranes mounted on barges below the bridge.Solin Estrada-Jimenez, 49, was killed May 24 after being
McCoy Architects LLC Architects' rendering of Islamic Center of Murfreesboro shows plan for conventional mosque. The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has broken ground on a new mosque after delays by a lawsuit, arson of construction equipment, protests over the project and contractors hesitant to submit bids.The Center, which operates in a small building in the downtown area, held a ceremonial groundbreaking Sept. 28 and work started the next day on the 12,000-sq-ft first phase of what is planned as a 52,000-sq-ft complex.S&A Constructors LLC of Nashville is the contractor; the architect is McCoy Architects LLC of Lexington, Ky.“This has been
Related Links: Jefferson County, Ala., Commissioners in Last-Ditch Renegotiations Over Muni Debt Alabama’s legislature will go into special session in November to enact laws for Jefferson County – its largest and home of Birmingham – to refinance $3.14 billion in sewer debt that threatened the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy.The Jefferson County Commission voted Sept. 16 to approve a conceptual settlement that will allow it to refinance $2.05 billion, charge single-digit rate hikes for users, mandate sewer hookups for new construction and create a governmental utility service corporation (GUSC) to manage and finance the system until the debt is repaid.GUSC members
Jefferson County, Ala., commissioners named two members to negotiate personally with creditors, bypassing a court-appointed receiver, as they again delayed a Chapter 9 bankruptcy that would be the nation’s largest.In a unanimous vote on Aug. 12, the five commissioners voted for David Carrington, commission president, and James A. "Jimmie" Stephens, finance chairman, to start meeting personally with the creditors, which include J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., to reach a settlement on $3.2 billion in sewer bonds by Sept. 16.County debt for school and general obligation funds would bring a bankruptcy to more than $4.1 billion, about twice as large as
Related Links: Corps To Update Missouri River Dams' Release Strategy Corps Delays Missouri River Manual Revision The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is still sending above-normal releases from its six Missouri River dams, does not plan to increase its flood storage capacity this fall and winter because of risks to downstream levees.Brig. Gen. John R. McMahon, commander of the Corps’ Northwest Division, says the planned release schedule announced July 29 will allow the Corps to get its system ready for the 2012 season when it starts March 1.“We came to the conclusion that this year we would not need