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Posted: March 29th, 2010, 3:55pm EDT
Teaming gathers momentum as major Corps procurement draws dozens of companies to heavily attended March 24 briefing.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
Prices for diesel fuel, structural steel, lumber and gypsum-wallboard products started to stir during the first quarter, but most increases were coming off dismal lows in 2009 and were not strong enough to break the stranglehold the recession has on construction costs.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
New York City’s tallest residential tower, with a draped stainlesssteel curtain wall, is under budget and on schedule. So far, there are only 100 RFIs and no claims.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
While President Obama signed the health-care reform legislation into law at a jubilant White House ceremony on March 23, grim-faced Republicans geared up for a battle in the Senate over a “reconciliation” package that amends the bill just signed into law.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
Firms looking to boost sagging bottom lines and gain more-robust public-sector construction markets generated a record attendance of more than 550 at this year’s federal and military workload briefings, sponsored by the Society of American Military Engineers on March 18 in Alexandria, Va.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
Adam on the Green River in western Washington state remains one of the nation’s most unsafe, despite $15 million of work that has been completed over the past year.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
If another Hurricane Katrina-like disaster hits New Orleans, the city’s water and sewer board will now have a hazard-mitigation plan to ensure that local environmental infrastructure can get state and federal emergency repair funds.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
Traffic moved across the Bridge of Lions on March 17 for the first time in four years following the lengthy restoration of the historic landmark in St. Augustine, Fla.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, claims that a three-year-old student recreation facility at its main campus fails to meet some seismic requirements under the 2002 Uniform Building Code. The structure remains open, but a warning notice is posted.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
The project will rebuild the Congress Parkway interchange, which connects Interstate 290 to the north-south leg of Chicago’s Wacker Drive, the double-decker downtown artery made famous in the movie “The Blues Brothers.”
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
Rocky economic times, green infrastructure, lean construction and helping the industry be heard were themes at the Associated General Contractors of America convention in Orlando on March 17-20.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
Komatsu Ltd. is testing the North American equipment market with its new PC200LC-8 Hybrid Excavator, a lean, green digging machine that has sold more than 700 times in Asia since production began 19 months ago.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
URS Corp., San Francisco, has settled a lawsuit by the Minnesota Dept. of Transportation on all claims by the state over the collapse of the I-35 bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis on Aug. 1, 2007.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
BC Hydro, British Columbia’s province-owned electric company, on March 11 selected 19 renewable projects to be built in the province as part of a request for proposals for renewable projects.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
Skanska, Whitestone, N.Y., in a joint venture with Watsonville, Calif-based Granite Construction, has been awarded a $542-million contract to construct the new PATH station at the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
Welding machines are becoming another low-hanging fruit for jobsite crime. In January and again in March, thieves grabbed a 2006 Miller Big Blue 300 welder off a jobsite along Interstate 495 in Tysons Corner, Va.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
TransCanada Corp., based in Calgary, Alberta, received permission on March 11 from Canada’s Energy Board to build the 327-mile Canadian portion of the Keystone XL expansion pipeline, which will be the first pipeline to take Canadian crude oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
New construction starts in February climbed 5% from the previous month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $440.9 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
States and construction companies forced to cope with stopgap federal bills that provided transportation funding on the installment plan now have a bit more breathing room.
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Posted: March 25th, 2010, 11:31am EDT
Despite progress in Congress on a multiyear aviation measure, it looks like another extension—the 12th since 2007—is on its way for Federal Aviation Administration programs, including airport construction grants.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems entice firms with visions of seamless operations and powerful flows of data. But are they worth the pain of implementation?
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
A rocky season in Colorado began on cue on March 8 with a rockslide on Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs. It punched holes in a bridge and dumped boulders the size of semitrucks on the highway, closing a 17-mile stretch.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
Building information modeling, still relatively rare in the transportation construction world, proved key in gaining public approval for a planned $573-million, 9.4-mile rapid-transit bus system in Hartford, Conn.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
Las Vegas’ $8.5-billion CityCenter development—the country’s largest privately backed project—may soon have the country’s largest mechanic’s lien.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
The Senate has passed a $123-billion measure that would extend a collection of tax breaks through December, including some that could benefit construction. The extensions would be retroactive, because many of the incentives have expired.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
The Washington State Dept. of Transportation escaped one last schedule hurdle in its planned opening of the new, $519.8-million state Route 120 Hood Canal Bridge, thanks in part to the ample time alloted for functional testing of the new west-half lift span.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
The International Code Council and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc. have merged their efforts, rather than compete, to develop the nation’s first “green” model code for commercial buildings.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
A New Orleans contractor tried and failed four times to drive sheet piles through a dense soil layer with progressively larger vibratory hammers and an impact hammer.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
The growing demand for renewable energy has pushed one big Ohio power provider to build five hydroelectric projects, worth $2 billion, on existing Ohio River valley dams.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
The hospital that served as the model for television’s long-running medical drama “ER” will soon get a new lease on life.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
Orlando has approved the sale of $69 million in bonds to partially plug a gaping funding hole in its originally priced $1.1-billion downtown building program and kick-start construction of the $250-million first phase of the city’s new performing-arts center.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
The March 11 move by Willbros Group, Houston, to buy Seattle-based InfrastruX Group for $480 million in cash and stock sets up a new energy-sector engineering giant.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
In a move observers say could have big implications for U.S. climate-change policy, five large electric utilities said on March 16 that they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower-court ruling that subjects them to lawsuits claiming that their carbon-dioxide emissions cause health problems, coastal erosion and other climate-change impacts.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
Because the owner and developer remain at odds, the fate of much of the 16-acre World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan may now be in the hands of a third party.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
Construction of a $1.4-billion, 11-kilometer light-rail line connecting Vancouver, B.C., to other provincial cities is set to start in early 2011, even though Translink, the municipal transportation authority, cannot yet fund its share of the project.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
Forest City Ratner Cos., developer of a controversial arena in Brooklyn, N.Y., finally broke ground on the project after years of delay, legal battles by residents fighting New York City’s use of eminent domain, a change of architect—from Frank Gehry to Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects—and two redesigns.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
Students interested in studying nuclear-energy science or engineering have until April 26 to apply for $5 million in scholarships and fellowships the U.S. Energy Dept. is offering to boost the sector’s workforce.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
Non-residential buildings started the year 21% below January 2009’s level, while non-building construction began the year 8% behind last year’s start, according to McGraw-Hill Construction’s data for new construction starts.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
After a delay of more than seven months, a two-year, $34.6-billion Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization finally has made it to the Senate floor.
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Posted: March 18th, 2010, 10:14am EDT
With the House nearing a critical health-care vote, construction is keeping a watchful eye on whether one controversial provision survives.
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Posted: March 15th, 2010, 5:41pm EDT
The bonds will plug a gaping funding hole in the Community Venues building program and will start performance center work.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
A new commercial vehicle stole the limelight at this year’s Work Truck Show, but it wasn’t a truck.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
The initial line to Birmingham would extend the U.K.’s only truly high-speed line between London and the Channel Tunnel.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
The criminal prosecution of James F. Lomma, a prominent crane owner with offices in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, swivels on the failure of a Chinese rotator gear, the hold-down welding of which catastrophically snapped in May 2008, sending steel debris raining onto the streets of Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
Engineers inspecting Chile’s structures after the magnitude-8.8 earthquake that struck the nation’s midsection on Feb. 27 say Chile’s modern buildings are more robust than many equivalent buildings on the West Coast of the U.S.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
Private investors will be interested in high-speed-rail projects—if the federal funding stream remains consistent, experts say. In particular, advocates are hoping the $2.5-billion Tampa-Orlando line will prove the mode’s viability.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
After weathering a two-day funding cutoff, federal highway and transit programs are back in operation, thanks to a stopgap bill signed on March 2.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
After nearly four years of legal challenges and revisions, contractors and unions face stiffer federal safety mandates after April 22 for lead-paint dust containment in homes and public facilities built before 1978 that are occupied by children under the age of seven.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
Despite the gloomy construction employment climate, one New Orleans contractor has established a new safety and craft training facility and will hire several hundred people to bring its workforce to 1,000 by summer.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
Milwaukee is spending $100 million on a metropolitan flood-control project, hoping to avoid future flood damages that have cost that much since 1997.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
Construction’s unemployment rate continues to rise, reaching 27.1% in February, its highest level in a decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:12pm EST
An Indiana bill that paves the way for a public-private partnership to design, build and operate the $1.1-billion Illiana Expressway through Indiana and Illinois unanimously passed the Indiana Senate on March 2.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:11pm EST
On March 3, the U.S. Energy Dept. formally withdrew its application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make southern Nevada the site of national nuclear-waste repository.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:11pm EST
Ten major energy, engineering and construction companies have formed Friends of the “Supergrid” to promote a multibillion-dollar grid linking offshore European wind farms.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:11pm EST
A rock slide on Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs, Colo., punched holes in a bridge and dumped boulders the size of semitrucks on the highway, closing a 17-mile stretch of the road on the morning of March 8.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:11pm EST
The Army Corps of Engineers is facing bipartisan heat from House lawmakers about how it is carrying out important policy changes called for in the 2007 Water Resources Development Act.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:11pm EST
Beating the deadline set by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, all state departments of transportation obligated their full allotments of ARRA highway funds to projects by Feb. 26.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:11pm EST
Lawmakers on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hope to advance bipartisan legislation this year that aims to cut powerplant emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:11pm EST
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is extending the comment period until March 30 on the proposed revision of its Injury and Illness Recordkeeping rule.
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Posted: March 11th, 2010, 4:11pm EST
To five-year-olds and many parents, learning math and science or studying engineering isn’t a very kid-friendly option.
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Posted: March 9th, 2010, 5:31pm EST
Enbridge Inc. is itching to get going on its proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline stretching from outside Edmonton, Alberta, to Kitimat, B.C.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 11:03am EST
Kenya, east Africa’s largest economy, has begun the $960-million process of constructing and upgrading two key roads in the capital of Nairobi through public/private partnerships as part of the multinational Northern Corridor Transport Improvement Project (NCTIP).
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 11:03am EST
Six years after design began and one year after it was completed, Egypt’s Ministry of Culture is almost ready to start construction of the $550-million main building of the Grand Egyptian Museum, near Cairo.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 11:03am EST
Thanks to bipartisan support, London’s $24-billion government-sponsored Crossrail project seems to have a secure future even as public spending cuts loom.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 11:03am EST
California Engineering Contractors, Pleasanton, Calif., was not happy with its high-speed Internet options. Even while paying thousands of dollars a month for bonded T1 lines or similar high-end connectivity at its main office, field offices at projects were often stuck with limited broadband.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 11:03am EST
Developers of a major offshore wind farm in Massachusetts Bay failed to reach agreement by March 1 with local Native American tribes who say the $1-billion Cape Wind project would destroy ancestral burial sites.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
Temblors in 1960 and 1985 triggered an overhaul of building codes and construction practices, improving structural performace in Chile’s recent seismic events.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
Hours after Chile was hammered on Feb. 27 by one of the most powerful earthquakes in its history, President Michelle Bachelet made it clear the country already is preparing for recovery.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
In mid-February, Glendale Water & Power awarded a $4.2-million contract to Greenville, S.C.-based Utility Partners of America Inc., as the Southern California city joined a nationwide move to so-called smart water and electric networks.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
Brazilian-backed proposal to build a 2,000-megawatt hydroelectric plant in the Peruvian Amazon has gained momentum in recent weeks as the government of the Andean nation has thrown its weight behind the effort.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
Two construction companies, a designer and a contractor with major footholds in South Africa, take somewhat different views of the country’s market prospects in these tougher economic times.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
After nearly a week of extra-innings deliberation, a New York City jury finally convicted regional concrete testing giant Testwell Laboratories on Feb. 25 of racketeering stemming from allegations it filed fake test results on more than 80 buildings.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
Work on the 26-km-long Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) is well under way, with the last contract to be awarded in 2011.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
The Michigan Dept. of Transportation will find out on March 17 how many developers, investors, lenders, design-build contractors and operators are interested in building a new $2.26-billion international bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
In a strongly worded response that was not a surprise to the U.S. military, a San Francisco-based official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has raised concerns about the potentially major environmental and infrastructure damage from the planned relocation of thousands of Marines and others to the tiny Pacific island of Guam.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
De-authorizing navigation on the Missouri River would do wonders to ensure a robust water supply for irrigation and recreation in the Midwest—although at a cost to certain interest groups, many of them downstream.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
Within weeks of Ethiopia’s inauguration of the 420-megawatt Gilgel Gibe II hydro plant by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in January, a 15-meter section of its head-race tunnel collapsed.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
Rio de Janeiro is pushing for high-speed-rail service in time for the 2014 Olympic Games.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
A joint U.S.-European group has presented the low bid to analyze the options for a vehicular crossing at the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal, officials said on Monday.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
President Obama has picked Stephen T. Ayers, acting head of the office of the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) for the past three years, to serve a full 10-year term as the Capitol Architect.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
A recent U.S.-Canada trade agreement that attempts to resolve a dispute over the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s “Buy American” provisions will provide some help for water and wastewater companies in both countries, but in many ways it is too little, too late, industry sources say.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
The Louisville, Ky., district of the Army Corps of Engineers allowed resumption of Ohio River traffic through the 1,200-ft Markland Lock chamber on March 1 after an expedited 155-day, $6-million emergency repair operation.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared on March 2 that the Gowanus Canal will be added to the list of federal Superfund cleanup sites.
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Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:55am EST
The Associated Builders and Contractors, an Arlington, Va., group that represents non-union construction firms, proposed a five-step plan on March 2 to help create new jobs in a sector in which unemployment has reached 24.7%.
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Posted: March 4th, 2010, 4:31pm EST
The measure next goes back to Senate for final action.