The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has declared 17 levee systems in the California Central Valley—about 180 miles' worth— ineligible for federal rehabilitation assistance should they be damaged in a flood.
For years, scientists have warned of the potentially dire consequences of earthquake-induced levee failures in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in northern California, but now a team of engineers from Southern California is testing the unusual soils used to build and support the levees to model performance during a quake.
This article appears in the Sept. 3, 2012 issue of Engineering News-Record’s Global Digital Edition Warnings of dire consequences from earthquake-induced levee failures in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of Northern California have frequently been raised over the years, but now a team of engineers from Southern California is testing the unusual soils from which the levees are built and upon which they stand to see if the oft-predicted failures during a quake are likely to occur.Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles’ George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering (NEES) have been conducting shake tests of model levees
Construction started last week on a $72.7-million regional intermodal transportation center project at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. The 520,000-sq-ft project includes construction of a three-level consolidated rental car parking structure with a car wash and fueling system; a rental car customer service building; and a ground level bus transit station for MTA, Burbank Bus, Amtrak and charter/shuttle buses. The bus station features an open-air design complemented by 16 art panels adorning all three levels of the structure.Work also entails construction of an elevated, 1,100 ft-long moving walkway, which will transport rental car customers and rail and bus passengers between
Engineering and architecture firm Salas O’Brien of San Jose has acquired KDW, PS, headquartered in Seattle. As part of the Salas O’Brien, LLC family of companies, KDW, PS will be known as KDW Salas O’Brien.The new business combination will have 125 professionals, more than 30 of whom are registered engineers, architects and communications distribution designers. Salas O’Brien now has nine offices in Burbank, Monterey, Oakland, Orange County, Sacramento, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Seattle and Bozeman, Mont.
In the ongoing conflict between the California Department of Transportation and the state capitol’s lead newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, over safety testing of the new east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the newspaper’s latest claim was that Caltrans has ignored several deficiency assessments of state transportation projects made by an internal engineering team. Related Links: Bay Bridge Safety Concerns Trigger Local Scrutiny and Senate Hearing Sacramento Bee Refuses to Retract Bay Bridge Safety Story This team, according to the Bee, has been examining safety test results from gamma-gamma testing since December, and the newspaper, through a Freedom of
The $2.2 billion Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System project, located on approximately 3,500 acres of federal land in California’s Mojave Desert managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior‘s Bureau of Land Management, is at the halfway point and has reached it peak construction workforce of 1,200 construction workers. Related Links: Ivanpah Solar Project Renews Power Market Principals on the project include NRG Energy, Google, BrightSource Energy and construction partner Bechtel.The 370 (net) megawatt Ivanpah solar power facility is actually three individual power plants that will feature BrightSource Energy’s solar thermal power tower technology to produce clean, renewable energy from
The 10 leading companies on ENR California's 2012 Top Contractors list collectively had a strong year, reporting a 15% gain in their Golden State revenue in 2011. But in general, most contractors saw business hold relatively steady, posting small revenue upticks or declines compared with their 2010 results. Related Links: ENR California's Top Contractors 2011 Ranking Engineering News Record As they look at 2012 and beyond, California contractors are starting to see brighter business signals on the horizon. In particular, they are spotting signs of life in the technology-driven commercial office and residential markets, both in the San Francisco Bay
Combining prominent transportation and energy projects, impressive revenue growth in the Golden State and an active community outreach program, Kiewit has been selected as ENR California's Contractor of the Year.
