Industry News

• Honolulu gets OK to proceed with $5.26B rail project
  Honolulu has received the green light from U.S. 9th Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima to proceed with construction of its $5.26 billion rail project. However, the city cannot begin work on the project's phase four until it reconsiders options to the planned downtown routes. "The judge's ruling allows us to complete the remaining work requested by the court, while keeping the project on schedule ... Oahu residents can look forward to seeing their rail system fully operational in 2019 as planned," said Dan Grabauskas, executive director and CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation. Honolulu Star-Advertiser (12/27)     

• $5B worth of projects to change Boston skyline
  Twenty-two projects worth $1.6 billion were started this year in Boston, while 37 more -- worth $3.4 billion -- have been approved, according to Mayor Tom Menino's office. This slide show profiles seven of the largest projects, including the $350 million state-of-the-art Longwood Center research facility, the $625 mixed-use Millennium Tower and the $500 million global headquarters of New Balance. BostInno (Boston) (12/28)     

• Fla. nuke plant's $5B-plus repair tab has ripple effects
  Duke Energy and its subsidiary Progress Energy must decide whether to shut down the Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida or spend $3.5 billion to repair a "botched" maintenance project and hundreds of millions more to buy energy from other sources. Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited -- the company that insures all 104 nuclear plants in the U.S. -- has only $3.6 billion to cover claims. That means other nuclear facilities and projects could be affected -- as could rate payers across America. Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.) (12/30)     

Sustainability & Green Building

• Report: BIPV to become a $2.4B market by 2017
  A new Pike Research report forecasts that the market for building-integrated photovoltaic technology is expected to boom in the next few years, moving from $606 million this year to $2.4 billion in 2017. BIPVs are ultra-thin solar panels, some of which can "printed right onto building materials" such as walls, roof shingles, windows and steel roofs. GigaOm (12/27)     

Leadership & HR

• Want to be perfect? Get ready for a lifetime of disappointment
  Good leaders don't aim for perfection, writes Mike Henry Sr. It's simply impossible to be perfect, so striving to be leads to inauthenticity and disconnect. "When we face our imperfection and still do what needs to be done, that's genuine character-based leadership," Henry writes. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership (12/20)     

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by Concrete SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• 2012's top "mindblowing" buildings (FastCoExist)

• Slideshow: San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center (San Francisco Chronicle)

• Supplier delivers pink concrete slabs for a cause (Concrete Construction)

• Wash. DOT: Pontoons will last 75 years despite design flaws (Blank)

• San Francisco 49ers' new stadium tops out (The Santa Clara Weekly (Calif.))

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Policy Watch

• Pressure mounts for Congress to pass Sandy aid bill
  House and Senate lawmakers face increasing pressure to pass legislation to fund reconstruction and other expenses resulting from superstorm Sandy. A $60.4 billion funding plan recently won Senate approval, but House Republicans want to cut the amount to roughly $27 billion. Projects such as transit and community development are the focus of the Senate proposal to help New York, New Jersey and other storm-ravaged states. The Hill (12/30), Politico (Washington, D.C.) (12/28), Reuters (12/28)     

• Perciasepe, McGinty among candidates to succeed Jackson at EPA
  Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator Robert Perciasepe is considered a potential replacement for Administrator Lisa Jackson. Other options include the agency's air-pollution chief, Gina McCarthy, California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols and Kathleen McGinty, who has held top environmental jobs in Pennsylvania and for former President Bill Clinton. The Hill/E2 Wire blog (12/27), National Journal (12/27)     

ACI News

• Understanding Adhesive Anchors: Behavior, Materials, Installation, Design CD-ROM (SP-283)
  This CD-ROM contains 18 papers that were presented at sessions sponsored jointly by Committee 355 & 503 at the ACI 2010 Spring Convention in Chicago. The objective of the papers is to provide a reference document and give a better understanding of the performance, capability, and reliability of adhesive anchors installed in concrete. The papers present the design, installation, qualification, and inspection requirements. Other papers discuss the characteristics of sustained load behavior and other specific anchor installation and qualification considerations. Order your copy today.     

• Andy Scanlon Symposium on Serviceability and Safety of Concrete Structures: From Research to Practice CD-ROM (SP-284)
  This CD-ROM contains 21 papers that were presented at sessions sponsored jointly by Committee 435 & 348 at the ACI Fall 2011 Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. The papers encompass a broad overview on the important issues related to serviceability and safety of structures from both a theoretical and design perspective. There are 15 papers on serviceability related to deflection and cracking, an additional five papers on topics related to various aspects of safety, and one paper on sustainability issues. Order your copy today.     

Editor's Note

• SmartBrief will not publish Tuesday
  In observance of New Year's Day, SmartBrief will not publish Tuesday. Publication will resume Wednesday. Enjoy the holiday!     

SmartQuote

Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty." --John Selden, English jurist and scholar