Three former New York City project officials indicted in connection with a fatal 2007 fire at a vacant Ground Zero high-rise being cleaned of asbestos and demolished will stand trial on manslaughter and other charges on Jan. 18. A New York state supreme court judge rejected on Oct. 22 motions to dismiss charges. The fire killed two firefighters. Click here to read ruling by Judge Rena K. Uviller. Photo: AP August 2007 fire at former World Trade Center site killed two firefighters. Related Links: Ground Zero Blaze Raises New Questions on Demolition Job Now facing trial related to the Deutsche

Iceland’s erupting volcano and the breadth of global disruption it caused last spring is a clear indication of “just how connected the world is,” says Lester Gerhardt, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. He would know. Gerhardt leads global study programs at the school and is a co-founder and chairman of the New York City-based Global Engineering Education Exchange. The group of nearly 80 U.S. and overseas engineering schools has fostered global study since the mid-1990s. However, today, more engineering and construction education programs are expanding offerings and connections in international study. “More employers

Engineering education in the K-12 grades still only reaches a small fraction of U.S. students. Experts say new content standards could raise its profile in more classrooms and bring engineering in line with standards used in science, technology and math. In a new report, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) contends that, while set standards for K-12 engineering are doable, their usefulness and implementation would be limited. Photo: National Academy Foundation A student at a high school engineering “academy” run by a business-university group explains a design project. The group now runs 29 such programs, with more set to start.

Most mentors in engineering push kids to excel in math, science and technology so they can succeed in the field. But a Tuscaloosa, Ala., geotechnical engineering firm champions reading skills as its mentoring cause for young students in any career—and the effort is working. Photo: Courtesy of TTL Inc. Photo: Courtesy of TTL Inc. Reading incentive mentor program sponsored by TTL Inc. has boosted student performance, says President McClure. Committed employees at TTL Inc. not only have helped raise stubbornly low reading test scores in several Southern-area elementary schools, they also have sharpened their firm’s connection to local clients and

STEHLY Richard D. Stehly was an activist in the American Concrete Institute for more than 30 years, pushing the technical boundaries and construction possibilities of the materials to the global industry. But his Sept. 18 death in Edina, Minn., apparently after suffering a fatal heart attack at a hockey game, has silenced him only six months after reaching the advocacy group’s top spot as president. ACI says that Kenneth Hover, Cornell University professor of civil and environment engineering, and the group’s senior vice president, will succeed Stehly as president. Stehly was also senior vice president and principal engineer of American

Robert A. Olmsted, the first director of long-term planning for New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and a transportation engineer, builder, historian and industry mentor for more than 60 years, died on Aug. 16 in Manhattan. He was 85. Olmsted early in his career at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (left) and at the 2009 Manhattan Bridge centennial. Olmsted—a descendent of Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed New York City’s Central Park—began his own industry career in the late 1940s as a Cornell University engineering graduate on the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. A protégé of Ole Singstad, the innovative

Responding to federal concerns about potential cost overruns that could impact promised project funding, officials in charge of the $8.7-billion Hudson River rail link between New Jersey and Manhattan have halted project procurement and land acquisition for 30 days as they review costs. Officials appear confident that costs for the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) project are set to stay on track in the current competitive construction market. In a Sept. 9 statement, James Weinstein, executive director of project leader New Jersey Transit, announced the month-long halt after completion of a five-month cost study by the Federal Transit Administration

Robert A. Olmsted, the first director of long-term planning for New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and a transportation engineer, builder, historian and industry mentor for more than 60 years, died on Aug. 16 in Manhattan. He was 85. Olmsted—a descendent of Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed New York City’s Central Park—began his own industry career in the late 1940s as a Cornell University engineering graduate on the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. A protégé of Ole Singstad, the innovative structure’s chief engineer, Olmsted went on to work for other New York-area transportation agencies and on global engineering

Lots of buyers with lots of cash, in this country and from abroad, as well as motivated sellers, are fueling a rebound in merger-and-acquisition activity so far in 2010. While it may not yet equal explosive pre-recession rates, the M&A boomlet is being pushed by new catalysts, along with continuing market and regulatory uncertainties, observers say. “Defensive deal-making continued to be the hallmark of M&A activity through the first half of the year,” says Mick Morrissey, principal of Morrissey Goodale, a Newton, Mass., management consultant. “By the end of June, the pace of industry consolidation had stopped declining.” While numbers

Ian P. Tyler, a chartered accountant who now runs London-based contractor Balfour Beatty plc, admits to “never being good” at the accounting business. But the company’s CEO is much better at the numbers game than he lets on, having propelled it in the last decade to become a diversified and profitable construction industry player. With the $626-million addition of professional services heavyweight Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), New York City, in 2009, the firm now aims to expand its global footprint and capitalize on its resources. The combination already is generating a new competitive force, as the firms work to take advantage