Skywalk Memorial Close to Fundraising Goal, Construction of New Design Anticipated

When I was an undergraduate engineering student about 20 years ago, one of the events covered in the engineering ethics class I took was the 1981 collapse of the skywalk at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri.  Even 31 years after the collapse, the 114 people who were killed are remembered.

A nonprofit foundation was formed to create a memorial to the victims of the collapse.  It is now only $150,000 from having enough to start construction of the memorial.  It has also chosen a design.

You can visit the Skywalk Memorial Foundation at www.skywalkfoundation.org.

Related posts and articles

Redesign cuts cost of memorial to victims of skywalks collapse (Horsely, L., Kansas City Star, Dec. 2, 2012)

New Briefs

It’s been a while since I’ve had to post anything on this blog, so some of this news is old. I appreciate those of you who still follow this blog. I hope I can continue to make something worthwhile for you.

Foxx Sworn in As Transportation Secretary

Anthony Foxx has been sworn in as Secretary of Transportation. Foxx was mayor of Charlotte, NC, and has had a career as an attorney and politician.

GAO Critiques Nonpoint Source Program

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report that critiques the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 319 program. This program (named for the section of the Clean Water Act that authorized it) provides grants to states to undertake activities to reduce nonpoint-source pollution, including subgrants to organizations to implement improvements. They found that the program sometime failed to produce desired results and that EPA’s oversight of the program sometimes was inadequate or produced unintended undesirable results. In addition, a complementary program of the Natural Resources Conservation Service introduces practices that, by themselves, can decrease water quality because their primary intent is soil conservation.

I-5 Bridge Collapse

At this time, IW has no news to add to what has been reported on the I-5 bridge collapse. The collapse of a bridge on I-35 was one of the events that prompted the launch of this blog. IW sends it’s condolences to those affected by this event and wishes the National Transportation Safety Board a fruitful investigation.

Many Highway Projects are Categorical Exclusions for NEPA

GAO published a report on expediting highway projects. One of the interesting things was that many highway projects were considered categorical exclusions for the purpose of review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Categorical exclusions are classes of projects that, individually or collectively, have been determined by rule to have no significant environmental impact. These projects receive no or limited NEPA review.

New Appointees to Advisory Committee on Construction Safety & Health

Acting Labor Secretary Seth D. Harris appointed or reappointed eight members to the ACCSH. The new members are

-Sarah M. Coyne of Arizona Construction Training Alliance and

-Jerry Rivera of the National Electrical Contractors Association.

OSHA Extends Deadline for Crane Operator Certification

The Occupational Safety and Health Agency announced its will extend the deadline for certification of crane operators to November 10, 2017. The original rule that was finalized in 2010 established a deadline next year.

Report on Rural Water Infrastructure

The GAO published a report on programs that fund drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in rural areas. In Missouri, agencies that administer the State Revolving Fund (a state-administered EPA-overseen program), Water and Waste Disposal Program (U.S. Department of Agriculture), and Community Development Block Grants Program (a state-administered program overseen by the Department of Housing and Urban Development) coordinate their water funding efforts.

Google

National Transportation Safety Board Not to Hold Hearings on Minnesota Bridge Collapse

The collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last year was one of the things that inspired us to start a blog on infrastructure issues. We mentioned it in our first post.

Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has decided it will not hold public hearings. The NTSB holds hearings on only a few of its investigations; it had none in 2007. The decision of was not unanimous and it has draw heat from some in Congress.

You can find NTSB documents on the investigation here. They anticipate issuing a final report later this year.

Settlement Announced in Taum Sauk Reservoir Collapse Case

AmerenUE of St. Louis, Mo., has agreed to pay the State of Missouri almost $180 million for damages caused by the collapse of its Taum Sauk reservoir in 2005. About $118 million will go to projects in around Reynolds County, where the reservoir is located. Most of this is for the restoration of the Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park and Goggins Mountain Wildlife Area ($103 million).

Additional projects include additions to the state parks system. One project will extend the Katy Trail into the Kansas City area. Another will develop a state park on the Current River at the former Alton Club/Jerry J. Presley Conservation Education Center.

More information on this story is available from
Engineering News-Record
Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Missouri Governor’s Office
This site

Energy & Water Update

ENERGY

Illinois Approves Power Line Rejected in Missouri

We previously posted that the Missouri Public Service Commission rejected a power line project called the Grain Belt Express, which would connect wind energy generation in Kansas to users in Indiana. The Illinois Commerce Commission has approved the project, making Missouri the only holdout.  Clean Line Energy, the company behind the project, plans to continue to seek approval either by reapplying to the state or seeking an overriding federal approval.

Texas Utility Offer Free Nighttime Electricity

TXU energy has offered customers free energy at night. This unusual offer is an attempt to shift use from daytime, when wholesale energy costs are high, to night, when prices drop.

Texas may be better able to adopt a program like this. It has more wind resources than other parts of the country, accounting for 10 percent of generation, and wind blows more at night. In addition, the Texas grid operates largely independently from the other grids in the country, so it cannot easily sell and deliver excess generation to the larger wholesale market.

You can find out more about this free electricity program here.

WATER

Cardboard Sewers Collapse in Canada

In the building boom after World War II, many Canadian sewer service lines were built of a tar-impregnated cardboard. These pipes have been failing with increasing frequency. Some Canadian cities are facing replacement costs of hundreds of millions of dollars.

It appears that these pipes stood up well until dishwasher became common and the hot water began to soften them. This is an interesting illustration of how we are putting new demands on our infrastructure that could hardly have been imagined decades ago when it was originally built.

You can read more about this issue here.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics Releases Highway Bridge Report

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) recent released a report on highway bridges. The report summarizes information on bridges from several federal government sources and reports. Some of the interesting highlights of the report follow.

Bridge Conditions. In 2006, 74,000 bridges were found to be structurally deficient. This amounts to about 12 percent of highway bridges. Structurally deficient bridges are considered unsafe or likely to collapse, but need significant maintenance and may need weight or traffic limitations.

Spending. About $12 billion was spent on highway bridges in 2004. The vast majority, about $10.5 billions, was for rehabilitation and replacement of bridges.

Bridge Ownership. State and local governments own 98 percent of the bridges tracked by the Federal Highway Administration. The agency’s National Bridge Inventory includes all public road bridges over 20 feet long.

Rural vs. Urban Bridges. Urban interstate bridges, less than 5 percent of highway bridges, carry almost 35 percent of bridge traffic. Rural local bridges, about 35 percent of highway bridges, carry less than 2 percent of the traffic.