Tornado leaves swath of damage in Virginia Beach, Va. | Where will all the flying taxis take off and land? | Transurban CEO: Road project funding under pressure
May 2, 2023
News for and about the civil engineering community
A rare tornado spawned by severe weather along the East Coast damaged more than 100 structures in Virginia Beach, Va., on Sunday evening, officials said. A state of emergency was declared and several schools were closed in the wake of the EF3 twister
Accelerating New York's EV Adoption
Electric vehicles are an important part of New York's clean energy transition. Con Edison is funding initiatives to install and operate EV charges and offering rewards for charging smart across the boroughs and Westchester. Learn How
As flying taxis steadily move from "if" status to "when," some have wondered where the necessary vertiports will go. A McKinsey report suggests that a busy, high-income city like London or New York might need up to 30 vertiport sites, with a midsize city such as Dallas getting by with between 10 and 18.
Higher construction and finance costs in combination with a focus on renewable energy projects have constrained funding for road projects in Australia, says Transurban CEO Scott Charlton. As such, the company will focus more on improvements to existing assets than new projects, Charlton says.
Cloud seeding is a proven technology for increasing precipitation that has been in use since the 1940s, and many are hopeful that it could be part of the solution to alleviate drought conditions in the Western US. Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have been using cloud seeding for years to increase mountain snowpacks and the activity shows signs of taking off in New Mexico and Arizona.
As oil output in the US Gulf of Mexico approaches its peak, companies such as ExxonMobil are divesting assets and shifting their focus to carbon capture and storage opportunities. Wood Mackenzie predicts that the region's oil and natural gas output will peak in 2025 at 2.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, paving the way for CCS to play a significant role in the basin's future, alongside oil, gas and renewables.
Artificial intelligence can bring significant improvements across multiple dimensions of the oil and natural gas business, including operational performance, safety, sustainability, maintenance and forecasting, but its adoption lags behind other industries, according to Kumar Lakshmipathi, principal solutions architect for Amazon Web Services. A recent Ernst & Young survey found that 92% of oil and gas companies worldwide are investing or planning to invest in AI, but according to Gartner, nearly half of AI projects fail to progress from the pilot phase to actual production.
Local residents at two public meetings held in New York last week have called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to step in and prevent an estimated 1.5 million gallons of tritium-tainted water from being discharged from the decommissioned Indian Point nuclear plant into the Hudson River. Regulators have pointed out that the water would cause less radioactive exposure than a typical X-ray.
Stiffened facade inspection rules are now in place in San Francisco after March storms caused glass failures in six buildings, in some cases sending glass into streets below. A combination of outdated building codes, underreported damage and a lack of skilled labor contribute to facade failures, but owners of new buildings can take action by scheduling regular condition assessments from a facade specialist, write Jay Grenfell and Gerald Delaune.
Several architectural firms help AMP Center upcycle its headquarters in Sydney -- the Quay Quarter Tower, which resulted in saving 12,000 tons of CO2 and avoided demolishing the building. "[I]f you can retain the structure--and that's where the majority of your embodied carbon is--then you're lowering your footprint," said Danish architectural firm 3XN's Fred Holt.
Concerns about environmental justice and hydropower are coming to a head in Miami, Okla., where residents are concerned that the decades-old Pensacola Dam is exacerbating flooding and releasing hazardous mining waste from the Tar Creek Superfund site into the area. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is considering renewing the dam's permit and the situation could set a precedent for how regulators hold other aging hydropower dams responsible for environmental justice concerns.
Countless items we use and consume in our everyday lives have a foundation in chemistry. Charles Franklin, senior director for energy, climate and the environment at the American Chemistry Council, discusses the role the business of chemistry plays not just in sustainability, but also the overall economy. Franklin also shares insights from a paper the ACC recently released that highlights the many ways natural gas can -- and already is -- playing a crucial role in the energy transition, including in areas like wind and solar energy and electric vehicles.
