Industry News Briefs
December 17, 2009 Headlines
Senate, House Approve 3-Month FAA Funding Stopgap Measure
GAO Reports on How States Have Used Stimulus Funds
Green Buildings Pose Potential Legal Liabilities
Industry News
Senate, House Approve 3-Month FAA Funding Stopgap Measure
Engineering News-Record (12/11/09) Ichniowski, Tom
Congress has approved a new series of extensions to allow Federal Aviation Administration programs, including the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) construction grants, to continue operation. The House approved the bill on Dec. 8, and the Senate approved the bill on Dec. 10. President Obama is expected to sign the bill, which would extend the programs till March 31, 2010. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., says that the extension includes $2 billion in contract authority for the AIP, which provides grants for runways, taxiways, and other airport infrastructure. Authorizations for these projects are subject to annual appropriations. The new stopgap measure also extends the passenger ticket tax and other aviation excise taxes through March 31. Those taxes feed the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. Oberstar says the stopgap also extends the FAA's authority to tap the trust fund to finance the agency's programs. Since the long-term FAA authorization expired on Sept. 30, 2007, Congress has been unable to pass a new long-term bill, and has instead settled for several short extensions. In May, the House was able to pass a three-year, $53.3 billion FAAA bill, and the Senate commerce committee approved a two-year, $34.5 billion measure in July, but no action has been taken on either effort since then.
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GAO Reports on How States Have Used Stimulus Funds
U.S. Government Accountability Office (12/10/09)
Recent testimony based on a Government Accountability Office report, in response to a mandate under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, address the uses of Recovery Act highway funding, including the types of projects states have funded and efforts by the Department of Transportation and states to meet requirements of the act, as well as the uses of Recovery Act transit funding and how recipients of funds are reporting information on the number of jobs created and retained. In the report, the GAO examines the use of Recovery Act funds by 16 states and the District of Columbia, which represents about two-thirds of the funds available through the act. So far, three-quarters of Recovery Act highway funds have been obligated, and Federal Highway Administration reimbursements are increasing. As of November 16, $20.4 billion had been obligated to over 8,800 highway projects across the country. States continue to use most Recovery Act highway funds for pavement projects, though the use of funds varies depending on state transportation goals. About 10 percent of funds have been dedicated to replacing and improving bridges, and 9 percent has been obligated to construct new roads and bridges. States are also working to ensure Recovery Act highway requirements are met, though two factors may affect some states' abilities to meet requirements. First, many states are awarding contracts for less than original cost estimates, which allows states to reallocate funds to other projects. Second, obligations for projects in suballocated areas, while increasing, are generally lagging behind obligations for statewide projects. The GAO has also continued to find confusion among fund recipients on how to calculate the number of jobs created and saved, a reporting requirement of the Recovery Act.
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Green Buildings Pose Potential Legal Liabilities
Risk Management (11/09) Vol. 56, No. 9, P. 34; Holbrook, Emily
While the sheer volume of new LEED projects signals a permanency for green construction, there are a number of legal issues that builders, building owners, and occupants must reevaluate over time to determine an appropriate level of care. Marsh's "Green Building: Assessing the Risks" study of 55 construction industry executives reveals that business codes, standards, and other rules are evolving and this could lead to liabilities. "From a governmental standpoint, you have risks related to passing laws to mandate green building practices, and we've seen lawsuits against certain municipalities over the past couple of years that were related to this," said Shari Shapiro, a LEED accredited attorney for Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, a Philadelphia-based law firm. For possible solutions to cover these risks, some development companies are turning to insurance and surety. ISO, Fireman's Fund, and even Lloyd's of London now offer green liability coverage lines. AIG joined the market with its line of green reputation coverage, which provides $50,000 in coverage per occurrence for crisis management consultant costs.
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Secretary Chu Announces $100 Million for Advanced Research Projects
U.S. Department of Energy (12/07/09)
U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu recently announced that a second round of funding opportunities for major, transformational energy research projects will be made available through the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). An additional $100 million in Recovery Act funding will be made available in an effort to accelerate innovation in green technology, make America more competitive, and create jobs. "I am pleased to announce ARPA-E’s second funding opportunity because it demonstrates our commitment to lead the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies, creating thousands of new jobs while helping cut carbon pollution," says Chu. "This solicitation focuses on three cutting-edge technology areas which could have a transformational impact." The new funding will focus specifically on three new areas of technology, representing new approaches for biofuels, carbon capture, and batteries for electric vehicles. The first technology is electrofuels, which aim to provide new ways of making liquid transportation fuels, without using petroleum or biomass, by using microorganisms to harness chemical or electrical energy to convert carbon dioxide into liquid fuels. The second area is Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT), which will explore high risk, high reward research efforts that will revolutionize technologies that capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants. Third is Batteries for Electrical Energy Storage in Transportation (BEEST), which is dedicated to developing a new generation of ultra-high energy density, low-cost battery technologies for long-range electric plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
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New Science Estimates Carbon Storage Potential of U.S. Lands
U.S. Department of the Interior (12/10/09)
A revolutionary national assessment estimates that forests and soils in the United States could be used to remove additional quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help fight climate change. The lower 48 states could, hypothetically, store an additional 3 billion to 7 billion metric tons of carbon in forests, if agricultural lands were used for planting forests. The carbon stored is the equivalent of two to four years of the U.S.'s current CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels. "Carbon pollution is putting our world—and our way of life—in peril," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, speaking at the global conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark. "By restoring ecosystems and protecting certain areas from development, the U.S. can store more carbon in ways that enhance our stewardship of land and natural resources while reducing our contribution to global warming." U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists found that the conterminous U.S. currently stores 73 billion metric tons of carbon in soils and 17 billion metric tons in forests, which is the equivalent of more than 50 years of America's current CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels. Currently, the country's forests and soils are not enough to absorb the nation's accelerating pace of emissions. To determine how much more carbon could be stored in forests and soils, USGS scientists analyzed maps that represent historical vegetation cover before human alterations and maps of vegetation that could occur if there were no natural disturbances, like fires, pests, and droughts, and compared those maps to maps of current vegetation and carbon storage.
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$600 Million Marked for Community Health Centers
Modern Healthcare (12/09/09) Lubell, Jennifer
President Barack Obama has allocated nearly $600 million in stimulus funds to help community health centers across the country. The funding includes allocations for the development of new construction and renovation projects. The funds will be awarded to 85 community heath centers. The Health Resources and Services Administration has received a total of $2 billion through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to expand healthcare services to low-income and uninsured individuals through its health center program, and so far nearly $1 billion of those funds have been awarded to community-based organizations.
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An Effort to Spread Green Power to Coasts
New York Times (12/08/09) Wald, Matthew
The North American electric system has long operated as three loosely linked grids, but a new transmission company is aiming to unite them, a union that could have strong implications for renewable energy if it occurs. The company, Tres Amigas, plans to make regulatory filings on Dec. 8 proposing a huge power hub near Clovis, N.M., covering more than 20 square miles. The hub would be remote from populated areas but near the majority of the continent's wind and solar resources. Supporters say the project would allow immense transfers of power across the country. The project would link the Eastern Interconnection, which stretches from Halifax to the Dakotas and New Orleans; the Western Interconnection, which runs from British Columbia to a slice of Baja California, and extends east toward the Rockies; and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, a transmission grid covering most of that state. Eight small connections currently link the grids, with a total power-moving capacity of 2,000 megawatts, equivalent to the output of a couple of nuclear plants. The first phase of the project would more than double the size of the linkage, to 5,000 megawatts, and it might eventually be expanded to 30,000 megawatts. Phillip Harris, former president of a grid organization that oversees the Middle Atlantic states, founded Tres Amigas and designed the proposed hub. His part of the project would cost less than $2 billion, but other companies would have to spend substantial sums building transmission lines. Harris says he has obtained letters of intent from three major transmission companies to build such lines. The project would use several new technologies to move energy among grids that all use alternating current, but since the alternation is not synchronized, it would use advanced electronic controls to stabilize each grid. One of the filings asks the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to affirm that the Texas electric grid can remain free of federal regulation even if Texas utilities join the proposed hub, a ruling utilities have termed a requirement for them to participate.
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Spray-on Solar Cells Will Shake Up the Electricity Market by 2015
Kiplinger Letter (11/20/09)
Cost-effective plastic solar cell coatings that can be painted on building rooftops and exteriors are being developed by university and private labs in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Switzerland. The cell coatings absorb sunlight and produce electricity similar to what solar panels do now, but can generate power even on cloudy days, making them up to three times more efficient than current solar modules, enabling a business to cut its electricity purchases by as much as 75 percent. The plastic coatings contain microscopic particles of copper, indium, gallium, and titanium. Tax credits expected to be a part of potential federal climate change legislation have helped prompt activity in the spray-on solar cell field.
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Hot Plates
Roads & Bridges (11/09) Vol. 47, No. 11, P. 32; Malloy, Michael J.
The collapse of a deck truss bridge two years ago instigated a deeper study of such structures, which uncovered a number of significant issues that have triggered a revival in gusset plate maintenance. An inspection of Cleveland's Innerbelt Bridge found multiple gusset plates that exhibited bowing at the edges and were under the compression verticals. Ultrasonic testing technology also found extensive section loss where the gusset plates come in contact with the tops of the bottom chords, while through holes were spotted in two sites. Over 40 gusset plates had to be fortified over an approximately five-month period. The repair job involved covering the existing plates with new plates using a patent-pending technique that employs specialized high-strength bolts.
Sustainonomics
American City & County (11/09) Vol. 124, No. 11, P. 32; Barkin, Robert
Communities across the United States are paying more attention to the potential of implementing sustainable energy projects to improve their economies. The National League of Cities is devising an online sustainability resource center to offer communities tools to deploy sustainability programs, including connections to information Web sites, best practices, and advice for finding potential partners to split the cost. In addition, the federal stimulus program has reserved $3.2 billion to aid states and local governments in managing energy efficiency and conservation projects via the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants Program. The program is designed to lower fossil fuel emissions and total energy usage, as well as create and retain jobs and enhance energy efficiency in the transportation, building, and other industries. Interest in sustainability is expanding as some local programs that yield significant energy and cost savings are completed.
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A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030
Scientific American (11/01/09) Vol. 301, No. 5, P. 58; Jacobson, Mark Z.; Delucchi, Mark A.
Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson and University of California, Davis research scientist Mark A. Delucchi speculate a way for all the world's energy to be delivered by wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) by 2030. The researchers only focus on technologies that emit close to zero greenhouse gases and air pollutants, with the idea being that WWS will supply electricity for transportation and heating. Jacobson and Delucchi call for nearly 4 million large wind turbines, about 89,000 photovoltaic and concentrated solar plants, and 900 hydroelectric stations globally. If 100 percent of the earth's energy were supplied by WWS, then global power demand could decline significantly: The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that in 2030 the world will need 16.9 terawatts (TW) of power while the United States would consume about 2.8 TW, but with WWS replacing fossil fuels those respective numbers would fall to 11.5 TW and 1.8 TW. Jacobson and Delucchi write that one of the potential obstacles to establishing a sustainable WWS infrastructure is a shortage of materials that could include indium and tellurium used in thin-film solar cells, lithium needed for electric car batteries, neodymium incorporated into wind turbine gearboxes, and platinum for hydrogen car fuel cells. The researchers note that "because the wind often blows during stormy conditions when the sun does not shine and the sun often shines on calm days with little wind, combining wind and solar can go a long way toward meeting demand, especially when geothermal provides a steady base and hydroelectric can be called on to fill in the gaps."
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Addressing Drying Shrinkage in Concrete
Structural Engineer (11/09) Bescher, Eric; De Bruyn, Kyle
Using concrete designed to compensate for drying shrinkage helps reduce cracking, increase service life, and reduce the costs both of adding joints and repairing the concrete later. In some cases, shrinkage during drying can be minimized by using less water in the concrete, although this can make the concrete stiffer and harder to place. Other options include using shrinkage-reducing admixtures or water-reducing admixtures, although these can have their drawbacks. Shrinkage-compensating mineral admixtures present another method for reducing shrinkage; these form expansive crystals in the cement matrix to compensate for shrinkage. One project where shrinkage-compensating concrete was used was a parking garage at John Wayne Airport in California, whose decks are nearly crack-free with little wear after 10 years of service. In the hills above Los Angeles, a home built in the 1960s has one of the earliest post-tensioned shrinkage-compensating concrete roof decks, which has seen little need for maintenance over its 40-plus years in service and has the added benefit of being fireproof. Water treatment plants and liquid containment structures are among the other projects where shrinkage-compensating concrete has played a key role in eliminating leaking and cracking that could cause contamination or other problems with meeting the building's performance design.
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Putting Vacuum Excavators to Work on Utility Jobsites
Utility Contractor (11/09) Morgan, Jason
Contractors working around buried utilities can benefit from using vacuum excavation, which involves self-contained excavators that use pressurized air or water to displace soil then remove the spoil through high-velocity suction. "Since vacuum excavators use low-pressure air or water to remove spoil, they are perfect for potholing to identify existing utilities during underground construction projects," says Mike Moore, vice president of the vacuum excavator manufacturer McLaughlin, adding, "In fact, the air and water move around the existing utilities, giving the operator a clear view." According to Moore, "Operators can select the amount of air or water pressure depending on the utility. A lower pressure of 1,500 psi should be used for gas and fiber lines in order to not damage the line coating. A higher pressure can be used for water lines." Some advantages of air-based vacuum excavators over water-based ones include the ability to immediately use the vacuumed-up spoil as backfill, as well as the fact that water-based excavators require that a supply of water be brought to the site. On the other hand, water-based excavators can work with more types of soil, such as clay or frozen ground, with heated water being particularly useful. In the past year, several manufacturers have been combining water and air excavation into a single unit so that contractors can choose which to use without needing separate excavators. It is important to ensure that operators are trained in the safe handling of pressurized fluids, as well as safely avoiding hazards involving hot water.
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The Key to Successful Offshore Structural Monitoring
Offshore (11/09) Enuganti, Prahlad; Campbell, Mike
Even the most well conceived and high-specification monitoring system for offshore structures can run into problems when it is not linked to the best data interpretation and processing techniques, which are vital for high-quality integrity management and R&D. To deal with this issue, it is a good idea to look at global positioning systems (GPS) for offshore floating platforms, which can be useful for monitoring vessel position, low-frequency second order surge, and sway motion. During one real-world test, the second-order surge and sway motions were significantly larger than the design stage had predicted, which can cause real concern. As part of this example situation, further analysis found that the motions were within acceptable limits, but the value of the instrumentation system would have diminished if the system had not been properly understood via data analysis. In order to interpret structural modeling data correctly, it is necessary to have a detailed understanding of the instruments and specifications, a sound understanding of what is modeled and why it is in the model, advanced tools and techniques for data processing, and the best employees for making sense of it all. BP has spent the past decade on an extensive assurance initiative for assessing and maintaining offshore drilling risers' structural integrity, and it has found that vortex induced vibration happens in the field, albeit much less than predicted by software. Shell's BC-10 project and Chevron's Riser and Flowline Monitoring system on its Tahiti development include other recent successes in modeling.
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Soundmasking in a Green Office
Buildings (11/09) Madsen, Jana
In spite of everything that green buildings have to offer, speech privacy consistently suffers because "acoustical requirements are not yet a part of the LEED-CI rating system, [so] acoustical performance is often not on designer's radar screens," reports Ethan Salter of Charles M. Salter Associates Inc. Shorter systems for furniture panels increase the infiltration of daylighting from perimeter windows. When shorter panels are used, though, a tenant's space is missing the barrier portion of speech privacy. Newer, more efficient HVAC technology systems are quieter, resulting in lower levels of ambient noise, and, consequently, less speech privacy. The recommended solution is to include soundmasking systems in the original design, which is the "most cost-effective and acoustically effective thing you can do for speech privacy," reports Margenau Associates Inc. CEO Tom Margenau. The three types of soundmasking systems are: centralized, distributed (or decentralized), and networked. According to Salter, "If acoustical performance is addressed from the initial LEED design charrette through design into occupancy, our experience is that achieving acceptable acoustics in a green project often does not increase costs substantially."
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