The News Review:
- Cost Projections Rise Again For Sewage Plant Expansion Plan
- Heavy Engineering Corp to get Rs 200 crore contract
- Rolling off the line: your house
- Business Roundup | Business | projo.com | The Providence Journal
- Property clinic
Cost Projections Rise Again For Sewage Plant Expansion Plan
Southern Maryland nline – Feb 2, 2008
“I’m not satisfied with $125 million” King told The County Times. “We’re going to do everything we can to get those costs down. “Design and construction are large percentages of the hefty price tag King said but so is the new technology set to go into the plant that will make removal of nitrogen-based contaminates much more efficient to meet state mandates by 2011. The aim of the plant expansion is to increase the sewage treatment capacity from six million to nine million gallons of water a day. Currently the plant is running with about two million gallons of treatment capacity to spare King said but on paper the county has already made enough treatment allocations for development EDUs (Equivalent Dwelling Units) to max out that capacity in the next few years if the plant is not expanded. King said the county is still on course to make the necessary expansion even if it is in stages to reduce the short term costs and provide a larger cushion for development before the actual capacity of the plant is met. “We’re on schedule to get that done before we reach the plant’s capacity” King said reiterating how critical the expansion was for the county’s continued growth.
Heavy Engineering Corp to get Rs 200 crore contract
Economic Times – Feb 2, 2008
“HEC has emerged as lowestbidder for augment ore handling plant of the BSP. The bid was opened Jan 31. Weare likely to get work order worth of Rs 200 crore in the next one month” HECsecretary Abhay Kanth told media. According to Kanth HEC beatMc Nally Bhyarat Aelecon Engineering and Tata Robins Fraser Ltd in the bidding.
Rolling off the line: your house
Toronto Star – Feb 2, 2008
25 Percentage of lumber saved over site-built homes due to tight control of waste and reduced need for wall studs. 5 Similar plants Mattamy is considering for the GTA over the next five years. Milton plant will be disassembled and moved to a new site. Weather problems don’t affect construction since these houses are assembled indoors Feb 02 2008 04:30 AM Tracy Hanes Toronto Star It’s a bitter and blustery day on the western edge of Milton; with the wind chill it feels like -18C. But Brent Bennett is without hat coat or gloves as he works to install windows and doors in a house under construction. That’s because Bennett and his co-workers at Mattamy Homes’ Stelumar Advanced Manufacturing plant are building homes indoors for the nearby Hawthorne Village on the Escarpment site. Bennett the lead hand in back framing has worked in construction for 21 years all over Canada and has had to contend with a variety of conditions such as "being up to your knees in muck one day on site and then having it all frozen over the next day… Mattamy continues to operate a manufacturing facility in Cambridge which supplies Milton’s plant with prefabricated wall and floor panels. The walls are built on 24-inch centres rather than the usual 16 but are stronger because of the rigid polyurethane foam insulation. Value engineering (designing products at the lowest cost while maintaining quality) and computerized design and manufacture allow for optimized load bearing through aligned floor joists studs and roof trusses Cauchi says. The timberframe structure itself is more than strong enough to meet requirements. The rigid foam adds a structural strength bonus. The engineered design also maximizes heating and cooling efficiency as ducts from the basement furnace can be lined up to run straight up to the attic cutting the distance hot or cool air has to travel. Rigid foam insulation is usually found only in high-end custom homes Cauchi says.
Business Roundup | Business | projo.com | The Providence Journal
Providence Journal – Feb 2, 2008
Cleanup for bike path setPAWTUCKET — n the drawing board for a couple of decades the Blackstone River Bikeway will eventually stretch all the way from Providence to Worcester. To make way for the part of the project that passes through Pawtucket the city’s Redevelopment Agency is embarking on a costly cleanup appropriating $720000 to clear three polluted lots along the bike path’s right of way. The Redevelopment Agency voted unanimously this week to award the engineering company Vanasse Hangen Brustlin a contract to prepare plans and specifications for the cleanup which is being financed with $120000 in matching funds and in-kind services from the city and three $200000 grants from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Vanasse Hangen Brustlin will be responsible for obtaining the necessary approvals from the EPA and Department of Environmental Management for the cleanup and overseeing the project. Somerset airs 13-building condo planSMERSET — About 80 people filled the meeting room of the Pottersville School this week to scope out a proposal for 40 condominium units in 13 buildings on the south side of Lafayette Street between Charlene and Tiffany drives. The project to be called Brookland Estates would be served by a private road and have private snow clearance and garbage collection. The lawyer for developer Avotu LLC Thomas Killoran acknowledged that “there is a significant amount of wetlands in the area” but suggested that it should not be problem except that “there will be a slight disturbance of the wetlands area at the entryway” at Lafayette… Approval from the full City Council will be necessary to finalize the deal for the underground easement. Cullion Concrete buyout resolution K’dCRANSTN — The City Council has approved a resolution backing the proposed $1. 9-million buyout of the controversial half-built Cullion Concrete Corp. batching plant in the Eden Park neighborhood. The 6-to-3 vote although nonbinding provided critical political support for a deal that appeared tenuous in recent weeks. “I’m happy that they’re moving forward to resolve this matter” said Mayor Michael T. Napolitano who urged the council to back the resolution in a series of emotional appeals.
Property clinic
Telegraph.co.uk – Feb 2, 2008
If the ground round a new basement is back-filled with pea shingle so that water can flow freely and if the excavated space is of modest size then the effect on the water table is likely to be minimal. You say your neighbour wants to dig down seven metres below the house and garden. Seven metres is a big dig on a civil engineering scale. I suggest that the people on your side of the street write to the planners and say that it will be difficult to judge the merits of the project unless the applicant submits an expert’s report stating the effect on the water table as well as on the stability of adjoining structures. This should deal with the situation during construction (when ground water will presumably be pumped out to leave a dry site for construction) and after completion. It should then be possible to form a balanced judgment on the proposal. John Winter runs his own architectural practice… John Winter runs his own architectural practice. Points of law ur immediate neighbour has dumped topsoil contaminated with Japanese knotweed on to his land which is right next to ours. We’re worried because this plant is notoriously invasive and difficult to eradicate. We have been informed by several sources that his action is illegal yet our approaches to the county council and local environment agency have been fruitless; both claim that they can’t instruct him to remove the contaminated soil. From past experience we have found dealing directly with our neighbour is not an option. What can we do? David Fleming writes: Section 14(2) of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 makes it an offence “for a person to plant or otherwise cause to grow in the wild any plant which is included in Part II of Schedule 9″. This schedule does list Japanese knotweed.