As the U.S. marks the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the White House Council on Environmental Quality has announced the formation of a new federal interagency task force to oversee the massive economic and environmental restoration work that still remains for the Gulf Coast. Photo: Angele Bergeron / ENR Storms have taken 340 sq miles of land in four years. The task force, announced on Aug. 26 by CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley in an interview with Bloomberg News, is something environmentalists and critics of the Army Corps of Engineers have been seeking since Katrina hit. CEQ so far hasn’t spelled
Contractors across the nation will be watching the Mississippi Supreme Court Oct. 5 to see if it upholds a Rankin County circuit court decision that ruled the insurer is not responsible for subcontractor performance under a contractor’s Commercial General Liability policy. In Architex Association Inc. v. Scottsdale Insurance Co., Architex alleges that “an unintended construction defect by a subcontractor constitutes an occurrence that triggers coverage under a contractor's CGL insurance policy,” according to a statement from the law firm of Burr & Forman LLP of Jackson, Miss., representing Architex. The lawsuit alleges that Scottsdale has a “duty to investigate and
How would local transportation be affected if a metropolitan area experienced 140 million miles of additional heavy traffic in a 28-month period due to an explosive construction boom or a major disaster? New Orleans is about to find out. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state and city officials may be writing a primer on how to manage that kind of scenario. “They certainly had traffic impact with the Big Dig and the cleanup after the destruction of the Twin Towers, but never has a whole city been so affected by a construction project,” says Gib Owen, the Corps’
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is banking on a fabric coating, better fill and changes in scour aprons and anchor tubes to make a 5.7-mile-long installation of berm with a sand-filled, geotextile-tube core the most resilient and long-lived geotube beach-hardening project it has built to date. + Image Image: US Army Corps of Engineers Hardcore sand dune Photo: Angelle Bergeron/ENR Gulf-side anchor tube and apron will drop like a protective curtain if land is cut away. Related Links: Tubin' on the Isle Weeks Marine Inc., Cranford, N.J., is 20% complete on a $25.7-million contract to restore the beach of
The contractor for the $453-million steel-superstructure portion of the widening of the Huey P. Long Bridge in New Orleans is working out the last details of an erection sequence that is faster, safer and interferes less with motor and marine traffic than the stick-build sequence the owner originally proposed. Photo: HNTB Piers have been enlarged and new bracing added to prepare for widened spans. Photo: Angelle Bergeron / ENR Related Links: Span Readied To Receive Steel: A Bridge Grows in New Orelans MTI, a joint venture of Massman Construction Co., Kansas City; Traylor Bros. Inc., Evansville, Ind.; and IHI Inc.,
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and contractors building a $695-million storm surge barrier in New Orleans are wrangling with the U.S. Coast Guard over an evacuation plan for heavy equipment that neither stymies construction nor risks damage to levees and floodwalls from storm-tossed vessels if a hurricane comes in. The Coast Guard is demanding the armada of floating equipment now at work on the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lake Borgne Storm Surge Barrier clear the area if a storm threatens. Typically, many tropical storms pass within a five-day run of the city during a hurricane season. This year, that
Members of the U.S. Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee are challenging the limits of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' mission for building natural hazard defenses. During a June 16 hearing on hurricane and flood protection work in Southeast Louisiana the narrow issue was the Corps' recommendation for an $800 million project to build permanent pumps and storm surge barriers at mouths of three New Orleans outfall canals. The committee chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the Louisiana delegation and witnesses backed a $3.5-billion "Option 2," instead, which would improve city storm drainage as well as perimeter defenses. Although the
Two men fell 75 to 80 ft. to their deaths Friday, June 12, when a rebar cage they were attaching gave way on a New Orleans-area bridge widening project, ENR has learned. Photo: Courtesy Louisiana TIMED Program The Huey P. Long Bridge Widening project, where two workers fell to their deaths June 12. Related Links: ENR’s Prior Huey P. Long Bridge Stories Louisiana’s Huey P. Long Bridge Widening The Louisiana Dept. of Transportation and Development has ordered joint venture Kiewit/Massman/Traylor Construction to cease all related steel and iron work on the $434 million, Phase IV of the Huey P. Long
One week after an 11th-floor scaffold collapsed on June 10 at a 21-story apartment construction project in Austin, Texas, killing three workers, local contractor Andres Construction Services has resumed work on the $40-million structure with “some limitations for the exterior,” says a spokesperson for the owner. It eventually will house students and faculty from the nearby University of Texas campus. Four men were working on a scaffold between the building’s 11th and 13th floors when part of it collapsed, says Harry Evans, an Austin Fire Dept battalion chief. Two men fell about 100 ft to the ground and were pronounced
The scaffolding accident that killed three workers on an Austin high-rise apartment building has underscored what some local researchers and safety advocates believe are safety problems in the city’s construction sector. One week after an 11th floor scaffolding collapsed June 10 at a 21-story apartment tower, killing three workers, contractor Andres Construction, has resumed work on the $40-million structure, says the owner of the building. It is set to house students and faculty at the nearby University of Texas campus. Four men were working on a scaffold between the building�s 11th and 13th floors when part of it collapsed, says