New Lab for Testing Possibilities of Net-Zero Energy Homes
It looks a lot like many other suburban homes. It’s even located in a popular suburban area – Gaithersburg, Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C. But it’s really a Recovery-funded laboratory, built specifically to allow researchers to test various high-efficiency and alternative energy systems, materials, and designs that would produce all the energy a residential home would need every day.
Officially called the Net-Zero Residential Test Facility, the recently completed lab will be home to researchers from the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. Over the course of a year the researchers, simulating a family of four, will test and demonstrate whether a net-zero energy home can fit in just about any neighborhood.
Approximately $2.5 million of Recovery funds paid for construction of the lab, which includes three types of geothermal systems so they can be evaluated in the same climate and soil types, and multiple ducting systems. Elaborate safety systems are also included, as they would be in any other lab.
The goal is to identify existing and new energy technologies that work best and most affordably in a home-environment.
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Reopens After Recovery Work
September 2012 – Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Renovations Are Complete
After nearly two years of renovation and rehabilitation, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool reopened at the end of August.
Popular among the approximately 25 million people who visit the National Mall each year, the Reflecting Pool has also been the site of historic events, perhaps most notably involving civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech while overlooking the Reflecting Pool in 1963. And the famed contralto Marian Anderson, barred from singing at Constitution Hall in 1939 because she was African-American, held a widely attended outdoor concert on Easter Sunday that year by the Reflecting Pool.
Built in the 1920s, the pool had begun to crack and leak – at one point losing as many as 500,000 gallons of water a week. Lacking a circulation system, the 6.75-million-gallon pool also required draining, cleaning, and refilling twice every year.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) used $34 million of Recovery funding to repair and upgrade the Reflecting Pool and also install a circulation system. DOI officials note that the 580 granite stones that had been originally placed along the edges of the pool in the 1920s were catalogued and put back into place.
Photo of the Week – Paving Project
Photo Contributed to the Recovery.gov Flickr Group by Virginia DOT
Asphalt paving on the Fort Eustis Boulevard widening project. An ARRA funded project. (Photo by D. Allen Covey, VDOT)
To see more photos of Recovery projects or add your own photos, visit the Recovery.gov Flickr Group.
More Soldiers, Bigger Hospital
Workers are one year into constructing an Army hospital to replace an aging facility that was never intended to handle as many patients as it does today.
The Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, slated for a 2015 opening at Fort Hood in Texas, is both the largest Pentagon contract funded by the Recovery Act – $530 million – and the largest medical facility project in the military.
The original Darnall hospital opened in 1965 to serve 17,000 soldiers; an addition in 1984 expanded capacity to 39,000 troops. Today, the hospital serves roughly 45,000 soldiers as well as nearly 125,000 family members and retirees within a 40-mile radius.
The new medical center will be nearly 60 percent larger than the current facility and will include a six-story hospital, three out-patient clinic buildings, and three parking garages.
Balfour Beatty/McCarthy, based in Dallas, designed and is building the medical center.
Demolishing old building to make way for new medical center, left; drilling for placement of massive, concrete piers for foundation.
Artist’s drawing of lobby of new Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center.
Photo of the Week – Boston Dorchester Avenue Project
Photo contributed to the Recovery.gov Flickr Group by MassDOT
The Boston Dorchester Avenue $15.6 million project funded by federal stimulus ARRA funds will improve safety and mobility at four major intersections- Andrews Square, Glover’s Corner, Fields Corner and Peabody Square.
To see more photos of Recovery projects or add your own photos, visit the Recovery.gov Flickr Group.
Photo of the Week – Cleanup of SRS K Cooling Tower
Photo contributed to the Recovery.gov Flickr group by Savannah River Site
SRS Recovery Act Update: SRS Recovery Act workers use heavy equipment to remove the rubble of K Cooling Tower while sorting more than 800 tons of reinforced steel for recycling.
One of the most visual milestones of cleanup projects underway within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management was the demolition of the K-Reactor Cooling Tower at the Savannah River Site (SRS).
Now, this American Recovery and Reinvestment Act project has been completed one month ahead of schedule, with debris from the implosion safely hauled away and deposited in an on-site landfill. With project completion, a great safety achievement was realized.
To complete the project, more than 800 tons of reinforced steel from the structure were sent to a local scrap metal recycler. This recycling effort also helped to stimulate the local economy beyond the SRS Recovery Act Project.
To see more photos of Recovery projects or add your own photos, visit the Recovery.gov Flickr Group.
Project Spotlight – Reconstruction of Water Pumping Stations
Recipient: Patrick Albin Carlson Joint Venture, LLC
Award Amount: $920,932
The recipient reported that these Recovery funds would be used to:
Provide all materials, equipment, some minor design, and labor required to completely reconstruct four permanent water pumping stations. These stations, which are used for wetland habitat management, are located on the Green River in Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado.
Project Status: Completed. Construction began on 6/8/2010 and was reported complete as of 12/31/10.
To see how funds were distributed between the project’s prime and sub recipients and to learn more about the project, check out the Award Summary or enter your zip code to find Recovery projects near you.
IG Report Highlight – Department of Defense
Inspector General Report
From: Department of Defense
Date: January 6, 2012
Re: Were contractors managed effectively
Background: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mobile unit awarded contractors almost $420 million in Recovery funds for 124 projects. The Pentagon’s Inspector General reviewed 11 contracts related to four projects involving a total $53.6 million in Recovery money. The purpose of the review was to evaluate how well USACE Mobile managed the contractors’ performances and if USACE had ensured that the contractors reported on the use of the funds.
Findings: USACE Mobile officials had:
- Established adequate quality controls throughout the life of each contract
- Monitored contracts for full compliance
- Ensured that use of funds was reported in clear and understandable manner
National Endowment for the Arts Closes Books on Recovery Awards
Having distributed $50 million of Recovery funds among more than 700 recipients, and with all projects now complete, the NEA becomes the second federal agency to conclude its Recovery Act activities. (The Smithsonian Institution was first, in July 2011.)
As it normally does with program funding, the NEA divided its awards into two categories:
- 60 percent were grants awarded on a competitive basis to nonprofit arts and related organizations
- 40 percent was awarded to state arts agencies and regional arts organizations.
637 grants were made to nonprofit art and related organizations for a combined $30 million. State/regional arts commissions received a total 56 grants involving approximately $20 million.
All grants were specifically intended to help the nonprofit arts sector weather declines in philanthropic and other support during the recession.
Photo of the Week: Building Community Capacity through Broadband
Photo Contributed to the Recovery.gov Flickr Group by WIbroadband
Building Community Capacity through Broadband (BCCB) outreach educator Terri Harings works with a student in Superior, Wisconsin. BCCB is an ARRA-funded Wisconsin broadband project.
To see more photos of Recovery projects or add your own photos, visit the Recovery.gov Flickr Group.
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