Related Links: All-in-One Systems Slash Planning Time Advanced Work Packaging: Design through Workface Execution Helping Teams Advance Work Packages "Plan the work and work the plan," contractors often say, but the strategy is often easier said than carried out. To improve productivity, some owners, engineers and contractors in the industrial sector are rethinking established planning concepts to remove constraints from the field, improve predictability and better enable crews to "work the plan." Through early alignment of engineering and construction planning, these firms carry better certainty from design through project execution, helping crews spend less time on non-productive tasks.During the past
Rendering courtesy of Hickok Cole Hickok Cole designed the new Reston Station project in Reston, Va., which broke ground last year. The 1.5-million-sq-ft mixed-use, transit-oriented development is located directly above the new Reston Station-Wiehle Ave. stop on the Metrorail system. Related Links: ENR MidAtlantic Top Design Firms ENR MidAtlantic Top Design Firms By Market Sector ENR MidAtlantic Prospects have clearly brightened for design firms in the mid-Atlantic region. As the economic recovery continued, several locally based firms saw business improve last year, including Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson; KCI Technologies; Whitman, Requardt & Associates; and Pennoni Associates, which is ENR MidAtlantic's
Related Links: ENR MidAtlantic Charged with developing a "living laboratory" to demonstrate energy-saving solutions in existing buildings and sustainable strategies in new facilities, the team behind the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation project at the Philadelphia Navy Yard faced a formidable challenge to bring together a wide variety of high-performance building systems.But creating the collaborative environment to achieve the project's objectives proved to be just as challenging. With completion scheduled for late summer, the CBEI team's approach is expected to yield a project with expanded scope that also exceeds targeted energy goals and stays on budget.The project originated in 2011,
Photo by AP Wide World A proposed EPA rule calls for a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030. States would be responsible for implementing plans by June 2016. Related Links: EPA Sets Ambitious Goal to Cut Existing Powerplants' CO2 Emissions Text of EPA Proposal (June 2) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing powerplants, calling for a 30% reduction below 2005 levels by 2030. EPA says the proposed rule, which it released on June 2, could lead to upgrades at fossil-fuel-fired powerplants and has the potential to
Photo by Bruce Buckley/ENR Crews at Sparrows Point, Md., are wrapping up six tunnel tubes that will create roughly half of the new Elizabeth River Tunnel. The immersed tube tunnel will link Norfolk, Va., and Portsmouth, Va. Crews for SKW Constructors built the tubes, which each consist of five reinforced concrete sections, in dry dock and installed temporary bulkheads for buoyancy. In June, with the aid of tub boats, the tubes will float 220 miles down the Chesapeake Bay to the construction site.
In developing the Center for Sustainable Landscapes in Pittsburgh, the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens took aim at unprecedented levels of achievement in green building.
Related Links: Silver Spring Transit Center Still Under a Dark Cloud Report Details Litany of Problems with Silver Spring Transit Center Project The Silver Spring Transit Center project in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring, Md., could face another lengthy delay after a recent study recommended strengthening beams and girders and repairing concrete before opening the facility. If recommendations in the report are followed, the transit center, now more than two years behind schedule, could face another eight to 10 months of delay at an estimated cost of more than $7 million.The study—by a four-person, pro bono independent panel,
Related Links: View Recent GAO Bid Protest Decisions ENR Story History on Corps of Engineers- New Orleans PCCP Project Bid Protest, 2011-2013 No end in sight to $22Billion, Y-12/Pantex contract squabble (Knoxville News) GAO Bid Protests: No Small Business Size Challenges (Usually) Attorney Steven Koprince, April 15 post Dissecting GAO's Bid Protest 'Effectiveness Rate', by Daniel I. Gordon (2014) Bid Protests: The Costs are Real, but the Benefits Outweigh Them By Daniel I. Gordon (2013) GAO Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2013 Congressional Research Service GAO Bid Protests: Trends and Analysis (August 2013) In 1924, the
Related Links: Top Project Starts Of 2013 Major projects moved ahead throughout the mid-Atlantic states in 2013, thanks in large part to significant investment in heavy civil, power and industrial projects. The 20 Top Starts in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, ranked by total project value, tallied a combined $8.44 billion in work. Notably, projects related to natural gas led the way. With natural gas production expanding in the region, due to extraction from the Marcellus shale formation, energy companies are pushing ahead with significant projects. Dominion Virginia Power tops this year's list with
Photo Courtesy of City of Philadelphia Controller's Office Puddles on Taxiway S at Philadelphia International Airport show signs of rutted asphalt. Related Links: Boston First To Use Warm-Mix Asphalt on U.S. Runway Branson, Mo., Runway Collapse Triggers Lawsuit The Philadelphia city controller is at odds with a local contractor and the city's Division of Aviation over a 2009 taxiway repaving project at the Philadelphia International Airport.During an October 2011 closeout walk-through at the airport, the controller's office determined Taxiway S, which had been repaved two years earlier, was rutting. The controller claims the contractor, A.P. Construction, Philadelphia, did not use
