Pittsburgh-based safety equipment manufacturer MSA has come up with a way to make hard hats greener — it uses sugar.

While it sounds like construction workers would be in for a sticky mess after that first rainstorm hits, that’s not the case. MSA developed the hats in Brazil using high-density polyethylene sourced from sugarcane.

“By developing a hard hat sourced from sugar, we have reduced the overall carbon footprint that’s associated with the entire life-cycle of this particular product, from start to finish,” said Eric Beck, MSA’s global director of strategic marketing, in a release.

The “green” polyethylene is made from sugarcane ethanol, which results in a smaller carbon footprint because, for each ton of the material produced, up to 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide are captured from the atmosphere. Conversely, Beck said one ton of polyethylene sourced from petrochemicals emits more than 2 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The final kicker is that green polyethylene is 100 percent recyclable.

MSA claims the hats are the first industrial safety product produced from nearly 100 percent renewable resources. I wonder if the U.S. Green Building Council has LEED points for that.

For more information, check out www.MSAsafety.com.

Handling water and wastewater is becoming more and more important in our everyday lives. Just take a look at the DJC’s Environmental Outlook special section and you will see several articles on the subject.
First up, read about how Ecology is revising Sediment Management Standards to clarify what is needed to clean up contaminated sediment sites and to make the cleanup process more effective. Then read about the 200 West Pump and Treat System at Hanford that is scrubbing contaminated groundwater while saving more than 70 percent in energy costs over its life.
Not all water management is about getting stormwater out of the ground. Arnie Sugar from HWA GeoSciences writes about the benefits of increased infiltration of stormwater using low-impact development methods.
Then there’s wastewater. Tom Paul of Mortenson Construction covers how wastewater plants can be tapped as a renewable energy source.
If all this water talk has your head swimming, you can read about proposed rules that would allow some larger projects to bypass the SEPA process.

Thanks to all who participated in the special section!

The Preliminary Draft of Seattle’s Solid Waste Plan is now available for download and review at www.seattle.gov/util/SolidWastePlan.

AGC held a workshop for members on the proposed regulations and was one of many stakeholder groups that provided input to Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) last summer.

For a quick overview of the changes between the Preview Draft and the Preliminary Draft, scroll down to Appendix C: Public Involvement, and click on “Summary of Changes from Preview Draft”.  To view stakeholder feedback, scroll further and click on “Summary of Stakeholder Outreach” and “Construction and Demolition Recommendations.”

Learn how a LEED platinum house was put together, when a green retrofit makes sense and what is going on with living buildings. Those topics and more are covered in the DJC’s 2012 Building Green special section. Don’t miss it!

Seattle Public Utilities plans to boost construction and demolition recycling from the 61 percent current level to 70 percent by 2020 through a suite of new programs and requirements.

SPU says the new programs mainly bump up recycling requirements on materials that already, or will soon have, secure end markets. Some of these materials are already banned from garbage disposal if they come from public works construction projects. Others, like metal and cardboard, are banned from City commercial and residential garbage containers.

Among the specific elements of the proposal are:

• Ban carpet from disposal in the garbage by 2013, when a carpet take-back program will be in place.
• Ban recyclable metal and cardboard from C&D sites from disposal by 2012.
• Ban asphalt, brick, and concrete paving from disposal by 2012.
• Ban clean wood, clean gypsum, and plastic film from disposal by 2013.
• Ban tear-off asphalt shingles from disposal 2014.

Click SPU’s recycling proposal for more information – the Construction and Demolition requirements are found in Chapter 5, Other Solid Waste Programs.

Everyone is invited to a forum hosted by the AGC Education Foundation and Seattle Public Utilities to learn more about, and comment on, the propsed plan. To sign up for the Stakeholders’ Forum, click here.

OK, the video is sped up and WSDOT contractor Eastside Corridor Constructors performed the work. BUT, this 230-foot-long and 12-foot-wide fish culvert was installed last weekend while crews performed annual bridge maintenance and other work on state Route 520.
The larger culvert will improve fish migration and is the second of eight that will be installed between Medina and Bellevue over the next three years.
ECC is a joint venture of Granite Construction Co. and PCL Construction Services.

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Clover Park Technical College has eight openings left in its Trades Academy Pre-apprenticeship Prep for construction trades. The hitch is you must contact them immediately and be ready to start on Friday.

The 10-week class runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily in Lakewood. It includes hands-on skills training and provides a close-up look at a number of trades. You must be 18 years old with a high school diploma or GED, have reliable transportation, and attend an orientation and assessment session. Enrollment preference is given to veterans and eligible veteran spouses.

Course components are:

• OSHA 10 construction safety certification
• First aid/CPR certification
• Trades math (tutoring available)
• Flagger certification
• Forklift certification
• HAZWOPER 40 certification
• Lead RRP certification

For more information, contact Jon Kime, grants administrator/special projects, (253) 589-4548 or (253) 241-8937 (cell).

Two elementary school kids have won the 7^th annual I-90 Bridging Futures Art and Essay Contest.

Susan Wehelie and Thomas Snedeker topped more than 100 students from around the state who drew wildlife bridges and wrote about the importance of considering wildlife in highway design.

Susan is a fourth grader from Dunlap Elementary in Seattle and Thomas is a fifth grader from Lincoln Elementary in Ellensburg. They were given goodie bags and framed copies of their art. Their classes each got $200.

WSDOT and the I-90 Bridging Futures Coalition sponsored the contest.

Way to go kids!

(Photos courtesy of WSDOT)

Susan

Thomas

Photo courtesy of Watts-DelHur

After taking  home the Eagle of Excellence award last month from the ABC of Western Washington, the Watts-DelHur joint venture is at it again — this time grabbing the top honor last night at the AGC of Washington’s Build Washington Awards.

The winning project is the Elwha water facilities in Olympic National Park. Watts-DelHur was able to finish the job a year ahead of schedule partly by diverting the Elwha River to a temporary channel. It also had a perfect safety record.

I can’t recall a contractor (or joint venture) ever winning both local associations’ top awards in one year. On top of that, the project also won an Aon Build America Merit Award earlier this year from the AGC of America.

Way to go W-D!

Sicklesteel Cranes won the grand award for safety at the Build Washington Awards banquet, which was held at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront hotel.

Check out all of the award winners in the DJC’s special section.