Cost to keep Miami dry over next few decades is $4 billion

It will cost at least $3.8 billion over the next 40 years to keep the City of Miami dry from rising seas, according to a draft of the city’s newly released stormwater master plan.

That sum, about four times the city’s annual budget, would buy the city new mega stormwater pumps, miles of 6-foot-tall sea walls, thousands of injection wells, and a network of eight-foot diameter underground pipes. These measures, though, are not likely to keep all neighborhoods dry.

Miami faces rising ocean levels due to the effects of global climate change. Even the best engineering options now being considered cannot fully mitigate this phenomenon, though city officials say the expense will be beneficial and keep Miami livable largely as is through 2060.

The report also alludes to a future decades later that includes floating cities and converting roads to canals.

Major building industry groups the International Code Council (ICC), ASHRAE, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES), and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) have agreed to collaborate on the development of Standard 189.1, the International Green Construction Code (IgCC), and the LEED green building program.

| Aug 21, 2014

Performance-based zoning: U.S. cities starting to loosen zoning regulations

Driven by New Urbanism, more than two dozen communities in the U.S. have loosened zoning restrictions in recent years.

| Aug 21, 2014

Meeting to finalize amendments to green property underwriting standard

The National Public Meeting for Resiliency + Infrastructure Consensus Underwriting Standard Amendments will take place September 16, from 9 a.m.-12p.m. at Perkins+Will, 1250 24th St. NW, Washington, DC in the World Wildlife Fund Building.

| Aug 21, 2014

American Iron and Steel Institute revises 14 test standards

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) published 14 revised test standards in its S900-series.

| Aug 14, 2014

Mississippi county rejects adoption of state building code

The county board of supervisors voted unanimously to opt out of the state building code.

| Aug 14, 2014

Boards at odds over North Carolina county’s CM-at-Risk policy

Some local small contractors are not pleased with the school board’s CM-at-Risk policy that was instituted in 2007. The county’s board of commissioners has offered a sympathetic ear to their complaints

| Aug 14, 2014

2014 National Electrical Code now effective in 12 states; 11 more to come online by January

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) says that the 2014 edition of the National Electrical Code(NEC) is now effective in 12 states: Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming.