Construction Week.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on April 19 added six new sites to the Superfund National Priorities List list, is proposing four new sites and re-proposing one more. The six new sites include a chemical plant in Wilmington, Mass.; a mercury-spewing mine in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.; a defunct creosote plant in Renton, Wash.; two chemical manufacturing sites in Nebraska that threaten aquifers; and an industrial site in Augusta, Ga., that is close to four municipal wells. The proposed sites are contaminated former industrial sites in Taylor Springs, Ill.; Gibbsboro, N.J.; and Thorofare, N.J.; and a groundwater plume in Maunabo, Puerto Rico that has no identified source. The reproposed site most is the Ringwood Mines and Landfill in Ringwood, N.J. It was polluted most recently by the Ford Motor Co., which dumped paint sludge there from 1967 to 1971. The site was removed from the NPL in 1994 after an agreement with Ford. But groundwater samples showed recontamination in 2004, prompting the call for its return to the Superfund list.

Construction equipment manufacturer Terex Corp. announced April 26 that it bought a 50% share in Sichuan Changjiang Engineering Crane Co. Ltd. based in Luzhou, China. The Chinese equipment maker produces highway-mobile truck cranes ranging in lifting capacity from eight to 160 tons. Westport, Conn.-based Terex plans to use the acquisition to expand its construction crane line "inside and outside of China," says Steve Filipov, president of Terex Cranes. Terex hopes the deal will help the $6.4-billion-a-year firm cut its component costs globally, he says. Local regulations permitting, Terex has an option to buy the remaining 50%.

Japanese authorities have arrested Hidetsugu Aneha, the architect who falsified earthquake resistance data to cut building costs. Seven others, including officials a contractor and a building inspection agency, were also arrested on charges of complicity. In a tactic common in Japan, the charges were peripheral to the fraudulent building scheme so prosecutors can grill them to determine who masterminded the plan and weigh each suspect's degree of responsibility.

Scientists from the American Association for the Advancement of Science have led a drive to extend a virtual scientific and engineering library to counterparts in Iraq, whose own technical libraries are either decades out of date, looted or non-existent. The Iraqi Virtual Science Library will give Iraqi students, scientists, and engineers access to 17,422 journal titles, full text of articles, training, and online courses. Launch date is May 3.

A May 1 report issued by an engineers group reviewing a closely watched U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-sponsored analysis of the performance of hurricane protection structures in New Orleans, has endorsed the Corps study so far, including the quality of its data, analysis and conclusions. The American Society of Civil Engineers' panel says it appreciates the Corps Task Force team's willingness to work with it to examine levee system failures. The ASCE panel made numerous recommendations to improve the Corp Task Force project, but says it is "in general, satisfied with the progress made."

German real estate developer Deutsche Immobilien Fonds A.G., Hamburg, plans to seek contractors in the fall to build what it claims will be Europe's tallest building, in London. DIFA recently secured conditional planning approval for its 60-floor, 288-meter-tall Bishopsgate Tower, designed by the London-based team of architect Kohn Pedersen Fox and structural engineer Arup Group. DIFA is now seeking international investors for the project, whose cost was not disclosed.

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