Building for the Future - Expanding Wind Power Manufacturing In NYC Metro Area

Wind power, and more specifically, offshore wind power, has the potential to generate renewable energy and manufacturing jobs. There are several projects that are in the planning phase up and down the East Coast, including Massachusetts and New Jersey that would build major wind power facilities offshore.

Locating facilities where the parts are made is a daunting task, particularly when you understand the size and complexity of the parts needed to make a single wind turbine. We're talking about parts that cannot easily fit on a tractor trailer. Some of these structures can be hundreds of feet tall and need massive equipment to erect.

In fact, it makes sense to build such a manufacturing facility next to an existing rail link and in close proximity to an existing port facility to reduce manufacturing and shipping costs of the end products. That's why Poland's legendary Gdansk shipyard (birthplace of the Solidarity movement) has gotten into manufacturing of wind power systems.

A major cost in their manufacture is their problematic transport, and the decision by Gaardbo's company GSG Towers to invest 250 million zlotys ($73.48 million) in production in Gdansk was largely based on the advantage of being able to load the tubes directly onto ships in the old free city's harbour on the Baltic.

"It is the perfect place for this; as they say, location, location, location. About 30 per cent of the cost of wind towers is transport," he says.

"We are proud to be helping this historic site. Maybe it's because I am an outsider I have to admit that I feel deep responsibility for the people and this place."

The yard, spread over a series of islands and canals in Gdansk's historic town centre, employed as many as 20,000 workers in its heyday in the 1970s and 80s and was almost a town in its own right, with bars, buses and shops.

Much of the period since has been one of struggle for the city's ordinary working population and the shipyard's reinvigoration is a symbol of the investment which has made Poland one of Europe's few recent economic success stories.

That the Gdansk shipyard found new life in wind power suggests that a similar venture could have tremendous economic potential in the New York metro area.

That means a port like New York/New Jersey could be home to a wind power manufacturing facility. It could reduce time to install new wind turbines and become a major player in refurbishing and repairing existing turbines.

There are several parcels within the New York/NJ Port that could be suitable for building wind turbines, including locations in Sunset Park, Brooklyn or Port Jersey. The Brooklyn Navy Yards might be a suitable location though it lacks the rail connections of the other locations and is constrained due to redevelopment of significant portions of the site to other purposes.

Consider that GE sought to build a $100 million plant in the UK, which would generate 1,900 jobs to support an offshore wind turbine factory. A similar facility in the New York metro area would have a tremendous spinoff capability, enabling still more economic development around wind and renewable energy facilities.

At a time when the Port Authority and New York City is looking to redevelop portions of the waterfront away from manufacturing or shipping, this has the potential to generate new jobs and economic development and shouldn't be overlooked.

Penn State Report On Sandusky Finds Repeatedly Concealing Key Information

The report by the Special Investigator (the law firm headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh) hired by Penn State to look into the Jerry Sandusky abuse of children on campus has been released (full report here) and it appears that the university is in trouble.

Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State. The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky’s victims until after Sandusky’s arrest.

In critical written correspondence that we uncovered on March 20th of this year, we see evidence of their proposed plan of action in February 2001 that included reporting allegations about Sandusky to the authorities. After Mr. Curley consulted with Mr. Paterno, however, they changed the plan and decided not to make a report to the authorities. Their failure to protect the February 9, 2001 child victim, or make attempts to identify him, created a dangerous situation for other unknown, unsuspecting young boys who were lured to the Penn State campus and football games by Sandusky and victimized repeatedly by him.

Further, they exposed this child to additional harm by alerting Sandusky, who was the only one who knew the child’s identity, about what McQueary saw in the shower on the night of February 9, 2001. The stated reasons by Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley for not taking action to identify the victim and for not reporting Sandusky to the police or Child Welfare are:

(1) Through counsel, Messrs. Curley and Schultz have stated that the “humane” thing to do in 2001 was to carefully and responsibly assess the best way to handle vague but troubling allegations.

(2) Mr. Paterno said that “I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was. So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn’t work out that way.”

(3) Mr. Spanier told the Special Investigative Counsel that he was never told by anyone that the February 2001 incident in the shower involved the sexual abuse of a child but only “horsing around.” He further stated that he never asked what “horsing around” by Sandusky entailed.

Taking into account the available witness statements and evidence, it is more reasonable to conclude that, in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at Penn State University – Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley – repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse from the authorities, the Board of Trustees, Penn State community, and the public at large.

They concealed all kinds of critical information on a repeated basis, and held Spanier, Schultz, Curry, and Paterno responsible for ongoing failures to protect against Sandusky's child abuse, essentially empowering Sandusky to continue abusing children.

If you don't think that this report will play heavily in potential civil suits for those cases that might not have passed the statute of limitations, you haven't been paying attention. The University is likely going to have to pay out multi-million dollar settlements with those who were abused, because the investigation shows that those key officials knew, or had reason to know of the abuse, and did nothing to stop it.

Sewer Replacement To Disrupt Traffic Around Fulton Center and Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan has some of the oldest infrastructure in Manhattan since it is home to some of the oldest portions of the city. That infrastructure needs to be maintained and upgraded from time to time, so it's not surprising that the DEP needs to undertake a 48-month sewer replacement project on Broadway from Ann Street down to Rector Street. If those blocks sound familiar, it's because the Fulton Street Transit Hub (now called Fulton Center) is nearing completion after years of construction, and John/Dey Street is a nexus of construction (for Pace dorms and Fulton Center work). Just a block away, the World Trade Center construction is slowly rebuilding the site.

In other words, it's yet another multi-year construction project that local residents and businesses will have to contend with.

City officials told residents at a meeting Tuesday night that two lanes of Broadway would stay open at all times, said Ro Sheffe, chairman of Community Board 1's Financial District Committee.

The officials also said the work would begin with the two-block section of Broadway between Ann and John streets, moving south after about 18 months, Sheffe said. The city initially planned to start at Rector Street instead and move north, but the old water pipes are causing leaks at the Fulton Center so that section needs to be fixed first, Sheffe said.

Residents at Tuesday's meeting were unhappy to hear about such a large and potentially disruptive project.

"It desperately needs doing and we all recognize that," Sheffe said. "But we've been beset by construction for 10 years down here, and to hear about four more years is very upsetting."

Other major water main projects Downtown, such as those ongoing on Hudson and Chambers streets, drew complaints from residents and business owners who said the work was noisy and unsightly and caused traffic problems.

The DDC officials promised Tuesday night to have traffic control officers on Broadway during the entire four years of the project, Sheffe said.

Considering that the World Trade Center construction will drag on for at least another half decade, the area wont finally be able to free itself from the gauntlet of construction sites along major thoroughfares for at least that long.

But, when the projects are done, the area will have new infrastructure, new access points for the subway system, PATH, and new class A office space, plus new retail and residential opportunities.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 167

Fiterman Hall is nearly complete. The exterior is essentially completed and interior spaces are being prepared for a fall opening. That's tremendous news for the CCNY, which has been craving the space since they were forced out after 9/11 left the original building seriously damaged and contaminated.

Meanwhile, Santiago Calatrava's signature PATH transit hub should start to rise above street level in coming weeks. The final shape of the structure has been completed, and while it will be several more years before it is fully open to the public, the nearly $4 billion hub is making progress.

If that $4 billion figure seems high, it should. The transit hub was originally expected to cost $2.2 billion, but has steadily risen even as the delays have mounted.

The costs for the transit hub are one of the main reasons that the Port Authority has needed to raise tolls and fares - it's a huge blow to its budget and it has to recoup those costs. AAA has been suing the Port Authority claiming that the toll hikes were being used to fund rebuilding of non-transportation components of the rebuilding efforts.

Work on the Vehicle Security Center, which is being built on the site of the former Deutsche Bank Building is continuing as steel is being erected below street level (and partially visible from PATH as it winds underground adjacent to the work site.

That comes as 4WTC has been topped out and work is progressing elsewhere on the site except at the WTC museum, which continues to be subject to ongoing acrimony between the memorial foundation and the Port Authority. The fighting comes amid yet more demands that the National Park Service take over the memorial and museum operations, and that's a move that I'd fully support - though I still blame the Port Authority for the ongoing delays at the museum and elsewhere on the site.

Elsewhere near the World Trade Center, a Morton's Steakhouse will be coming to 130 Cedar Street, which overlooks the Trade Center site.

In more ominous news, Egypt's newly elected President, Mohamad Morsi is reportedly expected to call for the release of 1993 WTC Bombing mastermind Sheikh Abdel Rahman.

DNA Evidence Links Unsolved Murder To OWS Subway Protest? UPDATE: Lab Error?

The NYPD made a rather startling announcement last night. They indicated that DNA evidence gathered at the crime scene for the 2004 murder of Sarah Fox matches DNA found on a chain used by OWS pranksters in a March 2012 stunt to lock open gates for subway stations so that commuters could go through for free.

Officials have linked forensic evidence from the 2004 murder scene of a 21-year-old Juilliard student to the scene of a recent Occupy Wall Street subway protest, NBC 4 New York has learned.

DNA evidence from the scene of Sarah Fox's murder in Inwood Hill Park eight years ago has been connected to DNA from a chain left in a subway station by Occupy protesters in March, NBC 4 New York first reported Tuesday.

Fox was found nude and strangled in the park in May 2004, days after she disappeared during a daytime jog. Investigators recovered her pink CD player in the woods just yards from her body.

Sources said Tuesday the DNA found on the CD player matches DNA found on a chain left by Occupy Wall Street protesters at the Beverly Road subway station in East Flatbush on March 28, 2012.

That Wednesday morning, protesters chained open emergency gates and taped up turnstiles in eight subway stations and posted fliers encouraging riders to enter for free.

A "communique" posted online later that day by the "Rank and File Initiative" described the act as a protest against service cuts, fare hikes and transit employees' working conditions.

It was attributed to "teams of activists, many from Occupy Wall Street... with rank and file workers from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Amalgamated Transit Union."

No one was arrested in the March subway protest incidents. Police are continuing to investigate, and are now working to try to identify the source of the DNA found in common with the chain and the CD player.

There's any number of ways that the DNA could be a match. The same person that murdered Fox could have been among those providing the chains used to chain open the subway entrance or could have been among those who actually chained it open. It could be a transit worker or someone else entirely - such as someone who came into contact with the chains as they walked through.

Some people will attempt to link the murder to OWS, but without having the suspect in custody, there's no way to know for sure. It will depend on where the DNA was obtained from the chain - to rule out inadvertent contact with the chain such as someone passing through at one of the affected stations.

If it is found that someone involved with OWS was involved in this murder, it would be yet another black eye on the group, which had protested at Zuccotti Park for months and which sparked similar protests nationally.

UPDATE:
Well, there was another possibility that I hadn't considered before, but which is now a more likely scenario - lab error.

The DNA that investigators initially believed was recovered from skin cells on the slain woman’s portable compact disc player and from the chain found after the March protest came from a laboratory supervisor at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the person briefed on the matter said.

“The O.C.M.E. tainted the samples and it was the O.C.M.E. supervisor’s whose DNA was on both,” the person said.

But Ellen S. Borakove, a spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner's Office, said, “We’ve excluded all medical examiner personnel.” She added that the office was still working on the test.

The Medical Examiner’s Office maintains a database of employees’ DNA for the purpose of eliminating such errors.

Bridge Repairs To Cause Massive Headaches For NY Drivers

The Alexander Hamilton bridge, which spans the Harlem River and is a huge bottleneck for anyone who takes the George Washington Bridge between New Jersey and New York, is currently undergoing a huge reconstruction and rehabilitation project. New lanes are being added, and traffic diversions are a regularly occurring feature.

Now, those construction headaches are being taken to another level as the upcoming phase of construction will further limit the number of lanes available.

Getting across the world’s busiest bridge is rarely easy during rush hour, but traffic engineers estimate that backups on eastbound Route 95 could extend to Route 80 in Hackensack — nearly five miles from the bridge — and down the New Jersey Turnpike, a New York Department of Transportation spokesman said Tuesday. Traffic heading back to New Jersey from New York will not be affected.

Significant and consistent delays on North Jersey’s busiest traffic arteries could also mean spillover into side streets, as commuters look for alternative routes, experts said.

A Port Authority spokesman said the agency was not aware of a past road repair project that caused such a sustained and severe impact on traffic flow at the bridge, crossed easterly by 140,000 vehicles per day. But because the project is in New York, the delays are sure to take some New Jersey commuters by surprise on Monday morning.

“I wasn’t even aware that there was a project, but you can bet that until it’s done, I’ll be taking the train,” Kris Baker, 47, of Teaneck said after learning about the construction on Tuesday. He said he usually drives to his job at a bank in Manhattan.

The expected backups are due to a $409 million rehabilitation of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, a nearly 50-year-old arch span that carries Route 95 traffic over the Harlem River, between Manhattan and the Bronx. The mostly federally funded project, the largest the New York State Department of Transportation has ever undertaken, will extend the bridge’s life another 75 years. Work is under way, but the fourth of six phases will involve resurfacing the bridge. As a result, the middle section of the eastbound highway will be closed, with traffic diverted to new lanes that curve around it on both sides.

Officials say once completed about two years from now, the same New Jersey roads that will be clogged over the next several months will see fewer delays because of the span’s repaved surface and additional breakdown lane.

Transportation officials are expecting that New York bound drivers could face delays of miles during the rush hour. They figure that traffic will back up more than 5 miles into Hackensack and the I80/I95 split.

This is what happens when you try to get 7 lanes of inbound traffic down to four restricted lanes. It also means that traffic from the upper level will have an even tougher time trying to cross traffic to get to the Major Deegan (I87/I287).

Still, the project is absolutely critical since it would extend the life of the bridge by another 75 years, plus it adds a breakdown lane - eliminating traffic bottlenecks that were an all too normal occurrence when there were accidents or breakdowns before construction began.

The only real alternatives for trucks is to either go up to the Tappan Zee bridge or to sit in traffic.

Commuters ought to seriously consider mass transit to avoid the headaches, but those who cannot commute by mass transit or who are driving across the span will have massive delays to contend with. Localities on both sides of the bridge will find major traffic problems as drivers clog up local streets.

And the problems will get worse once the Port Authority begins its reconstruction project on the Lincoln Tunnel helix.

Amtrak's $151 Billion Northeast Corridor Wishlist, and California's HSR Boondoggle

Let the numbers sink in.

$151 billion.

220 mph high speed rail between Washington DC and Boston, enabling 37 minute trips between Philadelphia and New York City, and 94 minute trips between Boston and New York or New York and Washington DC.

That was the promise once envisioned for the Northeast Corridor (NEC) when Amtrak settled for the Acela service that ended up being less than half that speed. Those kinds of numbers would get me out of my car and head down to DC or Baltimore to catch ballgames on the weekend and would make business travel even more convenient for those all along the NEC.

Now, Amtrak is resurrecting the true high speed rail vision for the Northeast Corridor. It has the potential to be a game changer considering that those trips would be a fraction of the time spent flying between those destinations (not counting the travel time from the airport to the city center or the security checks).

Current travel times from New York to Philadelphia on Amtrak's sleek Acela trains are 1 hour, 15 minutes. Travel between New York and Washington currently takes 2 hours, 45 minutes and New York to Boston takes 3 hours, 41 minutes, according to Amtrak's website.

"The NEC (Northeast Corridor) region is America's economic powerhouse and is facing a severe crisis with an aging and congested multi-model transportation network that routinely operates at or near capacity in key segments," Amtrak's President Joe Boardman said in a statement.

The traditionally cash-starved railroad is funded by Congress, where Republicans have been reluctant to finance prior plans to develop high-speed rail in the United States.

Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm acknowledged a lack of federal support but said there were other funding options.

"You have to have a plan and if you have a plan, the money will follow," Kulm said.

Among the sources was $450 million in funding turned down by the state of Florida for a high-speed rail proposal there that will instead be used for rail improvements in New Jersey.

Starting sometime in the 2020s, the hyper speedy "NextGen" trains will replace Acela trains, which were first introduced in 2000, Kulm said.

The newest Amtrak improvement plan also calls for direct links to airports and listed Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore and White Plains, New York, as possible candidates for Amtrak service. Some are already served by local commuter rail lines, such as Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which connects to the Philadelphia International Airport.

"The vision we will shape with the Northeastern states, Amtrak and all of our stakeholders will outlast the vagaries of politics, budgets and critics," said Joseph Szabo, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, which oversees Amtrak, of the 2012 report.

There's more than a little to be critical of when discussing Amtrak's record on high speed rail and upgrading its infrastructure. It has consistently lagged behind on its maintenance and upgrades of infrastructure, and while it has moved ahead with bridge replacement projects elsewhere on the NEC, particularly in Connecticut, the three major bottlenecks on the system are in New Jersey - the Portal Bridge, the tunnels into Manhattan, and the Harold Interlocking, which is Sunnyside Queens where LIRR, NJ Transit, and Amtrak trains have to pass through in a coordinated ballet to keep everything resembling a schedule. Those projects would apparently be included in the overall $151 billion approach.

Something has to give on the costs involved. There's no reason why Amtrak's costs to upgrade are anything approaching $335 million a mile for the NEC between Boston and DC. It costs France's SCNF far less to build a mile of new rail, but that has to be tempered by the fact that the Amtrak right of way is seriously constrained because of urban development throughout the NEC and acquisition costs would be far higher in the US. Still, there are ways that Amtrak can and should bring the costs to upgrade the system down.

Still, $151 billion as spread over 30 years is something approaching $5 billion a year - a major infusion of money but not nearly as eye popping. This is investment in infrastructure and it would mean tens of thousands of construction jobs up and down the East Coast. It would mean steelmakers and fabricators would be supplying new rail and equipment. Technology companies would be providing equipment to make the system more reliable. Engineering firms would be generating jobs for those to design and build the network.

In other words, while Amtrak would be spending the money, it would be private enterprises that are generating the jobs and revenues that would have long term benefits to the local and national economy. It would also build a robust backup to the creaking air travel system.

It's also worth noting that California is about ready to delve into a high speed boondoggle of its own where it's proposing to build a high speed rail network not to connect San Francisco with San Diego via Los Angeles, but rather, inland where there's a fraction of the population to support such a network. It was a political decision so that the money could be obtained, not because it made economic sense.

The California HSR project route was decided not because of practicality or revenue, but by which parts of the state would be able to get it to run through their communities, even though it would mean tearing up farmland and requiring condemnation of land (eminent domain). Instead of using a routing that required fewer eminent domain proceedings and a more direct route, they chose the one that had the political backing. So, California will find itself with a HSR that few will end up using, cost more than it should, and everyone will point to it as a reason not to do HSR in the US.

The HSR setup in France and Japan is similar to an airport hub and spoke approach. You build the hubs in the major urban centers, and connect those with HSR. As the system grows, you can expand the HSR to secondary satellite communities and then with urban rail networks. This way, you maximize population density that would take advantage of the HSR, you can achieve travel times that can not only meet but beat air travel (especially considering the time to pass through security, to say nothing of having to travel to an airport that is frequently on the outskirts of the city, not the city center as most rail facilities are located).

Amtrak's Northeast corridor is the opposite approach - it's already a profitable route for Amtrak and if Amtrak could get the system up to speeds approaching HSR found in Europe or Asia, it could not only win commuters away from the airlines, but it would reduce congestion in the air- improving the travel for fliers too since commuter flights between Boston, DC, and New York are a significant cause for delays throughout the US airspace because of congestion at the New York area airports. It's all the more reason to throw support behind the Amtrak plan. It has a path to profitability and generating economic development to say nothing of jobs.

UPDATE:
The Amtrak documentation can be found here. It's a manageable 42 page document, complete with charts, graphs, and how the new right of way would be organized. It would essentially create a 4-track express/local track configuration with the express track capable of handling the HSR.

Capital investment would be phased in - with the section around New York City being key to the overall strategy. That means getting the Gateway/Portal Bridge/Harold Interlocking done is critical to the overall strategy. It also means a significant chunk of the $151 billion is going to the New York metro area for design and construction. Considering that the Portal Bridge is estimated to run $1.3-1.8 billion, while the Gateway Tunnel is another $13-15 billion ($14.7 billion as per page 24). Page 31 addresses the segment costs. Interestingly, rolling stock is the lowest cost of the entire package - $5.2 billion, which makes sense since the infrastructure construction costs are the lion's share of the project.

It also addresses expanding existing capacity - including acquiring 40 additional Acela express passenger cars to lengthen train-sets by 2015 (expanding capacity by 40%). By 2020, Amtrak hopes to acquire new high-speed train sets (doubling service from NYC to DC) as well as complete the Portal Bridge and Harold Interlocking/Sunnyside Yards projects as well as upgrading the power systems through New Jersey.

By 2025, it hopes to get Gateway Tunnel done and to finally get more regularly scheduled Acela trips between NYC and DC and Boston. It's only by 2040 that the full HSR would be realized.

The document also provides new renderings for the Moynihan Station, which would expand Penn Station under the Farley Post Office. It wouldn't expand capacity, but rather rejigger space under the post office and MSG.

What's interesting is that the HSR plan for the NEC would include an entirely new alignment inland from New Rochelle, New York through Providence, Rhode Island. The alignment wouldn't change south of New York City. A newly configured Shoreline Express would cover those cities covered by the current NY to Boston alignment, with regional service supplementing service.

The Amtrak vision also indicates that there would be express and super express service - direct NYC to DC and NYC to DC routings - with no intermediate stops. Other trains would stop at designated city stops.

The Amtrak plans for rolling stock - the locomotives and train sets, would depend greatly on whether the FRA would allow an off-the-shelf solution or needing to build a system from the ground up. Frankly, it would be far cheaper to go with an off-the-shelf system, but that would mean likely buying from a foreign source (think France, Japan, or other European or Asian providers).

Black Lung Makes a Reappearance In American Coal Mines

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Enactment of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 was supposed to sharply cut exposure to coal mine dust.

The act set a standard for coal dust exposure (2 milligrams per cubic meter of air), which was as little as 1/4 of the concentrations miners breathed at the time.

The act's passage followed a 23-day unauthorized and rowdy strike in which 40,000 West Virginia coal miners demanded government efforts to prevent the disease and to compensate victims.

By the end of the year, tough dust exposure limits were in place. Miners were offered free diagnostic chest X-rays every five years, and federal compensation became available.

The X-rays showed 4 in 10 miners tested had black lung. The disease killed 1,800 miners in a single year. But diagnoses soon plunged more than 90 percent, according to NIOSH data.

"They anticipated that no one would develop progressive massive fibrosis," says 84-year-old Donald Rasmussen, a pulmonologist in Beckley, W.Va., who says he's tested 40,000 coal miners in the last 50 years.

"In 1969, I publicly proclaimed that the disease would go away before we learned all about it," he adds. "And I was dead wrong."

The regulations did result in a major decrease in black lung deaths at the outset, but after a period of long decline, the numbers are on the rise. The numbers have been rising since the mid 1990s.

Thus, even though the federal regulations are being met on coal dust exposure, the miners are apparently being afflicted in greater numbers as a result of silica that is being thrown into the air by the very equipment that is supposed to make the miners' jobs easier. They're so effective and are being used to scrape away the rock to get at the coal seams that they are creating a toxic brew in the air.

This is the kind of situation that would seem to call for new protections, including requiring masks for certain mining operations near the face of the mines. Some mining companies will complain that their profits may be squeezed by the regulations, but they'd still come out ahead because they'd have a healthier workforce which is more effective and efficient.

RIP Ernest Borgnine

They don't make actors like Ernest Borgnine anymore. The Academy Award winning actor died yesterday at the age of 95.