Photos Courtesy of Nalcor Energy Sitework at Canada's Muskrat Falls hydropower project got off the ground before investors were lined up to finance the project. Related Links: Red River Flood-Control Scheme Moves One Step Closer to Implementation Old Dams, New Power: Powerplant Owners Swap Turbines, Upgrade Powerhouses British Columbia's $6-Billion Hydropower Fix Will Address Capacity and Seismic Issues Big questions loom now that Nalcor Energy has named Astaldi Canada, a subsidiary of one of Italy's largest construction firms, as contractor for the $1-billion civil-works construction at the Muskrat Falls hydropower development on Canada's Lower Churchill River in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Photo Courtesy Federal Emergency Management Agency Fargo wants to make reinforcement of temporary levees part of the past. Related Links: Risks Pile Up At Canada's Muskrat Falls Hydro Army Corps Plan Would Tame Red River, Prevent 100-Year Flood Flood Control on the Red River as a Complex Environmental Decision System On Oct. 24, the cities of Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn., moved one step closer to solving a perennial problem within the region: Red River Basin flooding. The U.S. House of Representatives authorized a plan to build nearly $2 billion worth of aqueducts and dams, as well as a 35-mile

Related Links: New Synfuels Pushes $5B Louisiana Plant Vancouver-based methanol producer Methanex has fast-tracked the relocation of a major chemical plant to the U.S. Gulf Coast from South America to capitalize on natural-gas prices from U.S. shale plays. It is a massive undertaking that involves hundreds of skilled workers and a seven-month voyage, but it's still cheaper than building a new plant.To move the parts from Santiago, Chile, Methanex contracted a special vessel, the Dockwise Vanguard, which can sink itself to water level to receive and unload large industrial equipment. "These ships have to be scheduled months, sometimes years in

Related Links: LA Times: Mayor Garcetti Suggests Czar for Earthquake Preparedness Simpson Gumpertz & Heger California Institute of Technology Renewed earthquake paranoia has hit Los Angeles since an Oct. 12 report in the Los Angeles Times labeled more than 1,000 buildings as "at risk" for collapse in a quake. In response, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) promised to appoint a quake "czar" to determine if retrofits of the city's older reinforced-concrete structures are needed.The Times' list—compiled through building-permit research and an owner survey—includes mostly reinforced-concrete buildings engineered between the 1960s and the mid-1980s. "This class of building exists in

Photo Courtesy of First Solar Overcapacity in China has contractors refocusing their efforts on downstream powerplants. Related Links: Rooftop Solar Set To Soar Solar Sees Growth But Clouds Loom A new $300-million solar-panel factory sits just outside Mesa, Ariz., waiting to be sold for a $50-million loss. Never used by Tempe-based First Solar, the plant is symbolic of how solar-panel manufacturing has been hit hard by Chinese overproduction. Other solar plants have been mothballed, and General Electric has scrapped plans for a major Aurora, Colo., production facility.Things could be looking up for U.S. manufacturers, however, as China, the global production

Photo Courtesy NDDOT North Dakota's largely rural and low-volume roads need reinforcing to handle the heavy volume of trucks. Related Links: Oil Boom Fuels Freight Rail Renaissance Bakken Shale Field Pushing East Coast Rail Projects Bakken Shale Extraction Sparks A Construction Booom Labor, materials and weather are challenging contractors in North Dakota during a highway construction season that is unprecedented thanks to the oilfields boom. There are 600 projects ongoing this year, worth some $630 million, compared to some 300 projects totaling $311 million last year.More work is coming. The North Dakota legislature recently appropriated $1.64 billion for highway improvement

Photo Courtesy of HKS Group Developer is considering trimming height of pivoting doors from 95 to 80 ft. Related Links: Minnesota Vikings Stadium Thanks mostly to a stronger market, bids are coming in over budget for the estimated $975-million Minnesota Vikings football stadium in Minneapolis. Work is scheduled to begin next month and be completed in 2016.The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority—the public developer—says negotiations between subcontractors and construction manager Mortenson Construction are ongoing. The design by HKS Group will not change, but some specifications may be altered, says MSFA.For instance, the height of pivoting doors may go from 95 ft

Rendering Courtesy of Millennium Partners; A Los Angeles group is trying to stop a city-approved $650-million high-rise development, claiming the site is dangerously close toor possibly on top ofthe active Hollywood fault. Photo Courtesy of Benchmark Contractors BLVD 6200 is already under construction on or near active splays of the Hollywood fault. Related Links: Millennium Hollywood Official Website Stop the Millennium Hollywood Project Organization Website Los Angeles city planners are so eager to redevelop the iconic Hollywood district that, according to a recent lawsuit, they approved a $650-million development that sits dangerously close to—or possibly on top of—the active Hollywood

Courtesy of Skanska; Bottom Courtesy CURT Nick Pfenning, (center) Mortenson Construction is part of the push for PDF standards. Related Links: General Contractor Coalition Forms To Draft PDF Creation Guidelines T he hodgepodge of plans, schematics and revisions in the portable document format (PDF) circulated within the construction industry is the focus of an initiative by general contractors called "All PDFs Created Equal."A coalition of general contractors recently met in Los Angeles to establish a set of best practices for PDF creation and sharing with which all players in the AEC community can agree.The meeting was hosted by Bluebeam Software

Courtesy of SMS Seimag A Chinese steel company has many reasons for building more capacity. This summer, Shanghai Baosteel Group Corp., China’s largest steel producer, has secured equipment orders and resumed construction activities to complete a new, modernized steel-manufacturing facility in Zhanjiang Province, southwest of Shanghai. While this project will dramatically increase the company's production capacity, some market observers think it will worsen China's massive overproduction and negatively affect global prices, which already are weak.From a western perspective, the Chinese strategy on steel can be difficult to understand. For instance, customers buy steel from traders in China, not the mills.