Slashdot Mirror
Domain: enr.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to enr.com.
Comments · 6
-
Re:Surprising Whitefish Energy didn't do it
My source, although I think it is low. The $400/day for accommodation is likely where they cover O&P.
-
Re:Surprising Whitefish Energy didn't do it
Separate article, same source.
That is also where the day rate came from.
-
Re:Surprising Whitefish Energy didn't do it
It looks like they have very competitive rates and minimal initial payment, and were one of two bidders on the contract. As much as I thought there was a scandal there... it doesn't seem to be the case. I don't know how they are getting linemen at less than $400/day plus accommodation... but they have 300 in place and more on the way. (They are one of many contractors working on different parts of the project to restore power.)
People don't seem to understand the magnitude of the problem when complaining.
"At least 3,000 workers, 62,000 poles, 338 towers and 6,500 miles of wire will be needed to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electric grid, which a month after Hurricane Maria is at only 20% capacity. If everything goes right—and that’s a big if—most of the island’s 3.4 million people should have power by the end of May."
-
Re:Why should there be more engineers in the US?
The infrastructure in the US is very much built out and there is not much new construction going on.
Wow, that's incorrect. The infrastructure in the US, as graded by the American Society of Civil Engineers (who might know a thing or two about the subject), is pretty miserable. Just look. The levee failure in New Orleans was a single tragic example of infrastructure failure. The next one could be an Amtrak commuter line going through a bridge into the Hudson River or a refinery blast spewing a zillion gallons of crude into the Delaware. The US needs engineers to repair the infrastructure.
Drive through the suburbs and look at all the new housing developments springing up. Drive through New York City and Philadelphia and Boston and Washington and look at the forest of tower cranes and new high rises. Look at all the pedestrian protection lining the sidewalks. Construction is growing and, according to the Engineering News-Record, civil engineering departments can't keep up.
So, in a word, "no." -
Re:The Buildings
Engineering News Record has a good discussion about how the buildings were built and why they fell. They include comments from the folks at Controlled Demolitions Inc. who drop buildings for a living.
-
some info on the collapse
Found some informative links and info on icivilengineer.com:
A great diagram and layman's explanation of the collapses from BBC [bbc.co.uk]
A more technical explanation from Engineering News-Record.[enr.com]
Finally, some background construction info and original trauma tolerances (WTC 1 and 2 were supposed to withstand the impact of a 707, but not the jet-fuel fire, evidently.)This info comes from the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations via icivilengineer.com. [icivilengineer.com]
The consensus seems to be that the buildings were exceptionally well designed and could not have been expected to stand longer than they did. So that's it - good engineering saves lives.