Photo Courtesy of Ameren FutureGen seeks to retrofit a unit at an existing plant in Meredosia, Ill. Legal challenges may force the owner to return $1 billion in ARRA funding, obtained in 2010. Related Links: FutureGen 2.0 Clean Coal: Is Carbon Capture and Storage Fossil Fuels' Best Hope? Foundation work for a new chimney at a 65-year-old powerplant in Meredosia, Ill., is under way for a $1.65-billion retrofit designed to create a prototypical commercial-scale coal-fired facility equipped with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), says Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for FutureGen Industrial Alliance Inc.This is the first construction work to be performed

photo courtesy of Port of anchorage Upgrade of city's port, key to state imports, is mired in a battle over its sheet-pile design. Related Links: CH2M Hill Now Will Run Troubled Port of Anchorage Expansion Job Anchorage Port Expansion Problems Spark Dissension on Project Team  Even as it remains enmeshed in lawsuits against former contractors and even a federal agency over its problem-plagued port upgrade, the city of Anchorage—and its new project manager, CH2M Hill—are changing its design and scope to resume work on a project stalled since 2010 and at least $300 million in the hole.Work started in 2003,

Related Links: Boomlet Prompts Oil Shipper's Plan To Increase Its Capacity Booming U.S. Energy Market Spurs Pipeline Net Expansion Canexus Corp., says it will start Canada’s first pipeline-connected crude oil rail terminal before the end of August, but the Calgary-based chemical manufacturing company and terminal operator is already considering the sale of the Bruderheim, Alberta, facility.Design issues,  construction cost escalations and schedule delays related to expansion efforts at Bruderheim  have depressed Canexus’ balance sheet and share price—even as demand for more Alberta crude shipping capacity is climbing.In 2012 Canexus pegged Bruderheim's construction costs at $125 million, but recent estimates have

Related Links: Greens Niinist calls for govt to reconsider Rosatom for nuclear plant Russia Moving To Expand Global Nuclear Power Market Share More scrutiny from the European Parliament and tighter economic sanctions imposed against Russia for its role in Ukraine’s civil war could threaten the international construction portfolio of state-owned nuclear power firm Rosatom, which the company says will reach $100 billion in 2014. Finnish political leaders have called to stop an $8.4-billion nuclear power project in northern Finland, in which Rosatom has a 34% ownership stake. As the project waits to receive final approval from Finland’s Parliament in September,

Photo by AP Wide World New criminal charges were filed against PG&E in the 2010 San Bruno pipeline fire that killed eight people. Related Links: July 29 Superseding Indictment Announcement and Link to Document April 1: U.S. Indicts PG&E on 12 Criminal Counts in Fatal 2010 California Blast San Bruno Fire May Cost California Utility More Than $4 Billion Pacific Gas & Electric could be facing new penalties of more than $1 billion when it appears in a U.S. federal court in San Francisco on Aug. 18 to address charges under a July 29 indictment that more than doubles the

Pacific Gas & Electric could be facing new penalties of more than $1 billion when it appears in a U.S. federal court in San Francisco on Aug. 18 to address charges under a July 29 indictment that more than doubles the number of its alleged violations of the federal Pipeline Safety Act linked to a fatal 2010 gas pipeline blast in San Bruno, Calif.

Courtesy AECOM High-speed rail would be built in stages over the next 20 years. Related Links: Calif. High-Speed Rail Moves Forward, Slowly California High-Speed Rail Plan Faces Funding Deadline The money is already starting to move to firms like AECOM and Tutor Perini following a California budget resolution earlier this summer that cleared the way for a continuous, year-over-year, funding stream for the state’s ambitious high-speed rail project. Top engineering and construction firms—likely to be called upon to build, and also finance the project—have been waiting for long-term public funding commitments before risking their own capital and labor, says Stephen

Tax-incentive packages being awarded by municipalities and states to manufacturers to locate big projects are including local-hire requirements for construction labor that contractors say can be tough to meet."Most owners receive state incentives and support to attract these projects, and that puts the challenge on us to find local subcontractors who are qualified and have capacity," says Chris Morgan, project manager at Michigan-based Walbridge Construction. "The difficulty varies by the state or region."Before starting work in 2012 on the first $975-million phase of the Benteler Steel plant near Shreveport, La., Walbridge knew it had to meet local hiring mandates for

Early-stage construction of an incinerator and powerplant project near Baltimore is at a standstill after the Maryland Dept. of the Environment issued a stop-work order over emissions reductions credits (ERC) needed to comply with restrictions on its air-quality permit.The plant owner, Energy Answers International, had received an air-quality permit to construct a 120-MW generating station that would combust an average of 4,000 tons per day of processed municipal solid waste at the brownfield site in Curtis Bay, Md., according to the Maryland DOE. The company first had to show, however, that it had offset credits for approximately 1,500 tons of

Related Links: New Hollywood Map Shows Two Projects Atop Active Fault Millennium Hollywood On July 1, the California State Geological Survey started mapping the Santa Monica fault in Los Angeles, part of almost 2,000 miles of unmapped fault lines. The project could delineate new earthquake zones and restrict future developments in the state.CSGS was able to ramp up its mapping efforts weeks after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed the state's $156.3-billion budget, which includes $1.49 million this year for fault zoning and $1.3 million in dedicated annual funding. State officials had been under increased pressure to provide fault-line data to