A new $900 million, 740-foot skyscraper is being proposed for Boston’s Financial District. If approved, the skyscraper would be the tallest building in the Financial District and the third tallest building in the city. Entrepreneur Steve Belkin is hoping to receive approval for the tower after failing to receive enough interest or funding for a 1,000-foot building at the same location in 2006. If built, the complex would include office and retail space, a 300-room hotel, and possibly condominiums on the upper floors. The tower would be one of a few skyscrapers built in the area since the 1980s.

TheCivilEngineer.org was founded in 2000, almost 15 years ago and is currenlty visited by thousands of visitors every month. Today, we are excited to launch the new website of TheCivilEngineer.org. The website has a brand new architecture and layout. It is integrated with other websites of our network of civil industry websites, such as Geoengineer.org, TheStructuralEngineer.info and CeeCareers.com to bring you the most interesting, useful and up-to-date resources in the civil engineering industry.

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adding five hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. In addition, the agency is proposing to add three additional sites to the list.

The video below shows Tennessee officials demolishing a bridge over I-65 last weekend. The demolition decision was taken after a gasoline tanker ran into the bridge on August 15^th and exploded.

Los Angeles city leaders and officials broke ground last Tuesday at LAX’s Terminal 1 to signify the start of a $508 million modernization project. The thirty year-old terminal is the busiest terminal at the airport as it handled 9.65 million travelers in 2013. In addition to renovating Terminal 1, LAX has also been upgrading other parts of the airport including the new $1.9 billion Tom Bradley International Airport, Terminal 6, and parts of the airfield to accommodate larger planes. The projects are expected to create 4,000 construction jobs as well as 2,000 new concession jobs at the airport.

In a controversial move last week, San Francisco placed warning signs on buildings that violate San Francisco’s seismic safety laws. The large signs, written in multiple languages and displaying drawings of destroyed buildings, were posted on and around buildings to notify potential occupants that the building’s owners have not retrofitted the structure. While many agree that something must be done to convince building owners to upgrade unsafe structures, some feel that publicly “shaming” the buildings and its owners is not the smartest way to achieve the city’s goal. Berkeley tried something similar to what San Francisco is doing back in 2005. They placed warning signs on at-risk buildings and required owners to send letters to their tenants about the building being in danger if an earthquake hit.  Of the 239 buildings targeted by Berkeley, 100 owners voluntarily retrofitted their structures while the city had to pass a law to get the other 139 buildings retrofitted. San Francisco is going further than any other California city has in the past to notify the public by placing larger signs on more buildings.

The Colorado Department of Trasportation is going to line the I-70 twin tunnels, near Idaho Springs with concrete to enhance the tunnels' strength and longevity. Watch the video below explaining the details of the project and see pictures of the unlined tunnel's interior!