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Lessons
From the Recession
Building Operating Management (01/11) Vol. 58, No. 1, P.
20 Zimmerman, Greg
The recession
has entailed budget cuts and delays to new construction, but project
momentum can be sustained by creativity and teamwork. The need to
perform extensive value engineering appears common to all
budget-strapped projects. "We just had to design a lot smarter," says
The Related Companies' Charlotte Matthews, in reference to a high-end
condominium and mixed-use development in New York City. "We really
looked at the project. We had our entire team look at every aspect.
What you learn is that normal development has a lot of fat in it. The
process of bringing a project back to budget will help you cut out the
fat and put meat in its place." Matthews says her team was able to
reduce redundancies via an integrated redesign process. "With
integrated design, we'd tweak one thing that would affect the whole
building, and eventually, through an iterative process, each change
added up to a better building," she notes. The integrated design/value
engineering process yielded better comprehension of how systems work
together. Signer Harris Architects principal William Harris says
maintaining project scope is particularly difficult when faced with
tight budgets or timelines, and owners must ensure that designers
understand the program as well as its underlying purpose. "Make sure
you have a clear understanding of 'must-haves' vs. 'nice-to-haves' and
never use contingency budget on 'nice-to-haves,'" he advises. Funding
delays are another factor that call
for creative solutions, as is the potential uncertainty of contract
work during a recession.
Web
Link
Experts:
U.S. Water Infrastructure in Trouble
CNN (01/21/11) Kosik,
Alison
The
U.S. drinking water system is in such bad shape that the American
Society of Civil Engineers gave it a grade of D minus in its 2009
Report Card of America’s Infrastructure, and there are an average of
700 water main brakes per day across the country. The aging system
poses threats of property loss, inconvenience, and public health
problems, engineers say. "Anytime you're breaking the seal of the
system that brings water into your homes and apartments, you're risking
contamination from bacteria and viruses," said Eric Goldstein of the
Natural Resources Defense Council. He said the 2008 salmonella outbreak
in Alamosa, Colorado was caused by a contaminated water main break.
"And that's just the tip of the iceberg," he said. Much of the U.S.
water delivery system was placed before World War II, and must be
replaced “or we’ll suffer the consequences,” Goldstein says. But the
nation is in recession and state budgets are tight, while some
estimates say it could cost as much as $335 billion over the next 20
years to fix the entire system. "We also need a national political
leadership that understands the extraordinary significance and
importance of this investment and why it matters to them and why it
will pay us back," said District of Columbia water general manager
George Hawkins. "Conservative or liberal does not matter." Goldstein
agrees. “You can't have jobs, you can't have businesses, homes, you can't have hotels if this
infrastructure isn't in place.
Web
Link
UT
Professor Leads World Effort in Developing Next Generation of
Supercomputers
Tennessee Today (01/07/11)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville professor Jack Dongarra says that
supercomputers need to be taken to the exascale
level to solve problems in the economy, engineering, and manufacturing.
The speed of the fastest supercomputers currently in use is measured in
petaflops, but exascale is three orders of
magnitude higher than a petaflop.
"It's not the technology that's drawing us to exascale.
The technology can take us there and that's the good news, but it's
really the science that's the driver, in some sense," Dongarra says. "These science
applications have stepped up and said, 'In order for us to do the kinds
of problems that we can't do today--in order for us to do them in the
future--we need exascale
computing.' " Dongarra
is leading an international effort to achieve exascale
computing technology, and many of the researchers contributing to the exascale movement have abandoned
their own personal projects to reach the new standard. "We have to have
the techniques and software to effectively use these machines on the
challenging science problems of the day," he says. Exascale computing will be
crucial for science, national security, and the economy, according to Dongarra. The researchers are
confident they can achieve exascale-level
technologies by 2020.
Web
Link
Lack of
Transmission Lines Is Restricting Wind Power
New York Times (01/21/11) Galbraith, Kate
Though many ranchers in
Texas have expressed a desire to host wind turbines, few want the
unsightly high-voltage transmission lines needed to carry the power to
distant cities running through their property. The lack of transmission
lines has hurt wind power's prospects in the state, leading T. Boone
Pickens, who bet heavily on wind a couple of years ago, to scale back
on his planned projects and say he is looking elsewhere to build. To
encourage others, the state is moving forward on a project to build $5
billion worth of transmission wires to connect the turbines to the
cities that need power. On Jan. 20, The Texas Public Utilities
Commission (TX PUC) approved the route of a controversial line that
will run about 140 miles through the Hill Country, one of the state's
most scenic regions. Vigorous opposition in 2010 succeeded in derailing
plans for another line that the state had wanted to build through the
area. Instead, the existing electric infrastructure will be upgraded to
carry a greater load. "All Texans love their land," notes Barry T. Smitherman, the commission
chairman. During the process of planning the routes for transmission
lines, Smitherman says,
"we didn't please everyone, but I think with each of these we really
tried to work hard to make it as acceptable as possible for the
landowners." The Hill Country is not the only part of Texas where
resistance to new power lines has been fierce. The utilities building
the lines can take the land by eminent domain as a last resort, if they
and property owners cannot agree on a price for an easement on the
land. Once all the newly-approved lines are built, they will nearly
double the amount of wind-energy capacity in Texas. Last year, wind
supplied the Texas power grid with nearly 8 percent of its electricity.
The rest of the country averages about 2 percent.
Web
Link
'Superstreet' Traffic
Design Boosts Travel Time, Safety
PhysOrg.com (01/10/11)
"Superstreet" traffic design results in
significantly faster travel times, and leads to a drastic reduction in
automobile collisions and injuries, according to North Carolina State
University researchers who have conducted the largest-ever study of
superstreets and their impacts. Superstreets are thoroughfares where
the left-hand turns from side streets are re-routed, as is traffic from
side streets that needs to cross the thoroughfare. In both instances,
drivers are first required to make a right turn and then make a U-turn
around a broad median. While this may seem time-consuming, the study
shows that it actually results in a significant time savings since
drivers are not stuck waiting to make left-hand turns or for traffic
from cross-streets to go across the thoroughfare. "The study shows a 20
percent overall reduction in travel time compared to similar
intersections that use conventional traffic designs," says Dr. Joe
Hummer, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering
at NC State and one of the researchers who conducted the study. "We
also found that superstreet intersections experience an average of 46
percent fewer reported automobile collisions – and 63 percent fewer
collisions that result in personal injury."
Web
Link
Lack of Transmission
Lines Is Restricting Wind Power
New York Times (01/21/11) Galbraith, Kate
Though many ranchers in Texas have expressed a
desire to host wind turbines, few want the unsightly high-voltage
transmission lines needed to carry the power to distant cities running
through their property. The lack of transmission lines has hurt wind
power's prospects in the state, leading T. Boone Pickens, who bet
heavily on wind a couple of years ago, to scale back on his planned
projects and say he is looking elsewhere to build. To encourage others,
the state is moving forward on a project to build $5 billion worth of
transmission wires to connect the turbines to the cities that need
power. On Jan. 20, The Texas Public Utilities Commission (TX PUC)
approved the route of a controversial line that will run about 140
miles through the Hill Country, one of the state's most scenic regions.
Vigorous opposition in 2010 succeeded in derailing plans for another
line that the state had wanted to build through the area. Instead, the
existing electric infrastructure will be upgraded to carry a greater
load. "All Texans love their land," notes Barry T. Smitherman, the commission
chairman. During the process of planning the routes for transmission
lines, Smitherman says,
"we didn't please everyone, but I think with each of these we really
tried to work hard to make it as acceptable as possible for the
landowners." The Hill Country is not the only part of Texas where
resistance to new power lines has been fierce. The utilities building
the lines can take the land by eminent domain as a last resort, if they
and property owners cannot agree on a price for an easement on the
land. Once all the newly-approved lines are built, they will nearly
double the amount of wind-energy capacity in Texas. Last year, wind
supplied the Texas power grid with nearly 8 percent of its electricity.
The rest of the country averages about 2 percent.
Web
Link
Can
coal ash really be green?
The
EPA claims coal ash reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and its use in
construction is a source of LEED credits. However, one organization
says that coal ash, which is radioactive and loaded with mercury,
should not be considered a green product and its credits should be
revoked as LEED revises its standards.
Web
Link
Empire
State Building now wind powered
It well may be the world's most famous office
building, at least it's
owners think so, but the Empire State Building is now also New York
City's largest commercial purchaser of renewable energy. Under a
newly-signed contract with Green Mountain Energy, 100% of the
building's electricity, all 55 million kilowatt-hours of it, will come
from wind power, via renewable energy certificates from Green
Mountain's parent company NRG Energy.
Nationally,
based on EPA rankings on green power purchases, the Empire State
Building is expected to come in at number 18 for 100% green power
purchasers. All of
this adds to the impressive $20 million energy efficiency improvements
undertaken at the New York City landmark, intended to reduce energy use
by 40%. Purchasing
this amount of renewable energy will avoid about 50,000 tons of CO2
emissions annually.
Web
Link
The Rest of the New
Jersey Tunnel Story
The Wall Street
Journal;1/14/11;MARY
ANASTASIA O'GRADY
When
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie put the kibosh on the mega
infrastructure project known as the ARC train tunnel last summer he
cited billions of dollars in projected cost overruns as the reason. But
during a visit to The Wall Street Journal's offices on Wednesday Mr.
Christie, a Republican, told us that the overruns were only the final
straw. Almost as important was the design of the project, which Mr.
Christie called "ridiculous." "I
was willing to live with what I thought was an ill-conceived and
drastically imperfect plan if it stayed within budget," he said. But
when it became clear that the cost overruns were "a certainty," there
was no way he could defend it.
The
issue is far from over. New Jersey spent $271 million of federal money
on the initial stages of the project. He said that the federal
government's decision to release that money when ARC did not have final
approval and did not have safeguards in place to protect against waste
should have been a no-no. "That's my argument of why I don't have to
pay the money back."
Web Link
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