June 19, 2007 New York, Vertical farming in the big Apple

Following article was published by the BBC News.

Vertical farming in the big Apple
By Jeremy Cooke - BBC News, New York

Is this how farms will look in the future?

Downtown Manhattan is hardly a place you would associate with agriculture. Rather, with its countless restaurants, cafes, shops and supermarkets this is a place of consumption. And so every morsel, every bite of food New Yorkers munch through every day must be trucked, shipped or flown in, from across the country, and across the world.

Now though, scientists at Columbia University are proposing an alternative. Their vision of the future is one in which the skyline of New York and other cities include a new kind of skyscaper: the "vertical farm". The idea is simple enough. Imagine a 30-storey building with glass walls, topped off with a huge solar panel.

On each floor there would be giant planting beds, indoor fields in effect. There would be a sophisticated irrigation system. And so crops of all kinds and small livestock could all be grown in a controlled environment in the most urban of settings.

That means there would be no shipping costs, and no pollution caused by moving produce around the country.

It's all the brainchild of Columbia University Professor Dickson Despommier. He and his students took existing greenhouse technology as a starting point and are now convinced that vertical farms are a practical suggestion.

Professor Despommier lists many advantages of this revolutionary kind of agriculture. They include:

- Year round crop production in a controlled environment
- All produce would be organic as there would be no exposure to wild parasites and bugs
- Elimination of environmentally damaging agricultural runoff
- Food being produced locally to where it is consumed

And, says the professor, vertical farming would allow some existing traditional farms to be returned to natural forests. Good news in a time of global warming.

"Even if it's not quite natural.... a little bit factory-like in terms of its production, here's what you're going to get back: you're going to get back the rest of the earth. And I'll take that any time."

Nurturing high rise crops in the "vertical farm"

The plan is to make the whole complex sustainable. Energy would come from a giant solar panel but there would also be incinerators which use the farm's waste products for fuel. All of the water in the entire complex would be recycled.

Several hours drive north of the city in upstate New York, Ed Miller's 18,000 apple trees are in full bloom. Like farmers across the world he has lived through decades of constant change and innovation. But he remains, at heart, a man of the soil.

So what does he think of the virtual farm concept? He is, perhaps, surprisingly positive: ''It looks like a fancy greenhouse," he says. "It's fabulous, it will be very interesting. It will be phenomenal."

For now, vertical farms are a virtual concept. But the scientists insist that the theory is sound. All they need now, they say, is the money to make this a reality.

Graphics courtesy of Chris Jacobs, Rolf Mohr, and Dean Fowler of machinefilms.com and unitedfuture.com

June 6, 2007 Texas 146 expansion pushing businesses off the road

June 6, 2007, 12:29AM
Texas 146 expansion pushing businesses off the road
Project could ease congestion, but it will put merchants along the Seabrook highway at risk
By RUTH RENDON

Businesses at risk
A plan to widen Texas 146 through the southeast Harris County community of Seabrook will see many businesses along the road eliminated or affected in some way. The businesses include (Source: City of Seabrook):

West of Texas 146
Kaferhaus, Baygas/Eagle Gas, Miller's Machine, Boats Etc., Steve's Super Shine, All American Automotive Repair, Seabrook Lawn, Bente Interiors, Benjamin Automotive, Season's Imports, Benestante Investments, Guy Taylor, Sno Cones, Enterprise Leasing, Neptune Subs, Seabrook Pet Supply, Jack Turk, Psychic Palm, Wilcox Inc., Laredo's Mexican restaurant, Bay Area TV Repair.

East of Texas 146
Tookie's Restaurant, Mario's Flying Pizza & Italian Restaurant, Marburger's Sporting Goods, Whataburger, Ryan's Express Dry Cleaners, Donald's Donuts, Wells Fargo, Morgan Land LLC, Bay Texaco, Walgreens, Blockbuster, KFC/Taco Bell, McDonald's, Kwik Kar, Popeyes, Sonic, Angel's gas station, Batavia Services, Allometrics, ATD , Equipment, Auto Zone, CVS/Pharmacy

The parking lot at Neptune Subs in Seabrook is being eliminated to make way for, well, cars.

The sandwich shop — and its parking lot that abuts Texas 146 — is one of more than 40 businesses along the increasingly busy highway that are being eliminated or affected by a planned roadway expansion. The highway that cuts through Seabrook and neighboring Kemah serves as a hurricane evacuation route for residents in Galveston County and southeast Harris County.

Every morning and afternoon the roadway goes through major gridlock. On weekends, the bridge over the Clear Creek channel connecting the two communities is backed up with tourists heading to the popular Kemah Boardwalk.

City and state officials point to the expansion between Red Bluff and just south of FM 518 as necessary.

"This roadway has become very heavily congested," said Hassan Nikooei, transportation engineer and project manager for the Texas Department of Transportation. "It cannot handle the traffic that it already has. Even if we widen this short segment through Seabrook and Kemah, it still will be over capacity."

Texas 146 serves not only as a hurricane evacuation route but also as an alternative to Interstate 45 for commuters who work in Houston. Many residents in Seabrook, Kemah and east League City prefer taking Texas 146, to Texas 225 and Loop 610 to make their way into downtown. The city and TxDOT recently agreed on an expansion plan after years of negotiations, but the final design is still being ironed out, as is the price tag.

Construction could start by 2015 or sooner if funding becomes available.

In the interim, Seabrook hopes to alleviate some of the congestion by turning off a flashing school-zone light whenever nearby Bay Elementary is not in session. Another suggestion is to increase the length of turning lanes on Texas 146 for motorists turning west onto Red Bluff. The suggestion, Seabrook City Manager Chuck Pinto said, can be implemented during a resurfacing project that's expected to start this summer.

What is for certain is that businesses on the west side of Texas 146 — such as Neptune Subs — between the highway and an unused Union Pacific railroad track will be wiped out.

Month-to-month leases
Those businesses now operate under 30-day leases with Union Pacific, Nikooei said. Once TxDOT purchases the right of way from the railroad company, the businesses no longer will be able to lease the property on which they sit.

Nikooei said TxDOT and Seabrook will help those business owners relocate. "We'll do our best to minimize the heartache," he said.

Vinny Schillaci, owner of Neptune Subs, said he is grateful some relocation help is in the works. After being in business almost 30 years in Seabrook, he does not want to venture far.

"I could move across the street in the shopping center, and my business could increase 40 percent or it could decrease. Nobody knows," Schillaci said. "Customers are saying, 'Please stay.' I can't move too far."

On the east side of Texas 146, businesses will be encroached upon by the expansion to the point of depleting parking or cutting into their buildings, forcing them to relocate.

"Every single restaurant, bank and pharmacy will be gone," resident Keith Gray said. "For the business owners in the city, this is rough."

Already the city is looking at ways to retain the affected businesses, Pinto said. City leaders are considering rezoning areas north and south of Repsdorph to accommodate relocated businesses. The city also is considering putting together incentive packages to keep businesses.

The 5-mile project will consist of five lanes in each direction at Red Bluff. Traveling south, motorists will see the roadway reduced to four lanes in each direction and have two frontage-road lanes. As motorists approach NASA Parkway, there will still be four lanes in each direction and two lanes of frontage in each direction. Two lanes will be designated to turn onto NASA Parkway, and the other two lanes will go over NASA Parkway and continue to bypass Kemah.

The project also calls for the widening of the Kemah-Seabrook bridge to have three lanes in each direction with a median and shoulders.

New bridge in the works
Another bridge just to the west of the current bridge is planned with two express lanes in each direction. The express lanes on the bridge will bypass the weekend revelers that travel to the Kemah Boardwalk.

At a public hearing this spring, some Seabrook residents said the city leaders should have chosen a bypass over the current plans.

Nikooei said TxDOT has proposed having an express lane through town, providing access to drivers and eliminating the need to take additional right of way from the east side of Texas 146. The city of Seabrook rejected that alternative, he said.

Seabrook Councilman Kim Morrell said the thought behind going with the current plans was that with a bypass instead, motorists would no longer stop and do business in Seabrook.

Nikooei said the city will be responsible for 10 percent of the right-of-way costs.

ruth.rendon@chron.com

May 26, 2007 Shanghai maglev project suspended amid radiation concerns

Article published by China View.

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China has suspended the construction of a high-speed magnetic levitation train linking the eastern cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou after residents raised concerns their health may be affected by radiation from passing trains, officials and experts said on Saturday.

"The project has been suspended in line with the arrangements of the municipal government," said a spokesman with the government of Minhang District in Shanghai's southern suburbs.

An official with the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress confirmed a major reason for suspending the project was the magnetic radiation concerns raised by residents living along the proposed route. "The government is working on the issue," said the official on condition of anonymity.

Approved by the central government in March 2006, the 35-billion-yuan (4.5 billion U.S. dollars) maglev train track was to be 175 km long and trains were expected to reach speeds of 450 km per hour.

Many thought the line would be operating by 2010, when Shanghai plays host to the World Expo.

The Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev line would have been the world's second commercial high-speed maglev track. Shanghai operates the world's only commercial maglev system on a 30-km run between Shanghai's financial district and its Pudong airport.

"The petition office told us early this month that construction and all the plans to relocate residents (along the route) had been suspended," said a resident in Xinzhuang township in Minhang. "We had been looking forward to this."

The 28-year-old expectant mother, began to petition in March, shortly after she learned the maglev route was to run through her community. "I was worried the radiation could harm my baby."

The planned maglev route was to be separated from communities along the route by a greenbelt only 22.5 meters wide, although a blueprint at the local government indicated a protection belt 150 meters wide would be built on either side. German specifications require a 300-meter leeway on both sides of the track.

The local government has been under huge pressure over the past months, with crowds of petitioners knocking at their doors every day as thousands of complaints were received online. The Minhang District government alone received more than 5,000 petitioners in a single day in March.

According to the designers' blueprint, the new maglev route would have run southwest from the existing maglev station in Shanghai's financial center. It was to then pass the Shanghai World Expo venue and cross the Huangpu River to the Shanghai Southern Railway Station.

From there, a double track was to be built with the northern route leading to the Hongqiao International Airport and the southern route linking Jiaxiang and Hangzhou while following the Shanghai-Hangzhou expressway.

Minhang District in the southern suburbs of Shanghai was to have been a juncture of the two lines.

The project would have required a massive relocation of residents and possible radiation dangers for those close to the tracks.

Analysts said the petitioners had apparently succeeded in convincing the government to think twice about the project.

"The project is still under study and its final design is subject to approval," said Wang Qingyun, an official in charge of transportation at National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

"It's still hard to say whether the maglev would be built, but if it is it won't be possible to complete it before 2010," said Wang.

Local media reported earlier that all the relocation work was to be done before the end of this year. Over the past few months, however, much of the relocation work was halted and new real estate projects that had been suspended resumed.

"We were told to resume construction because the maglev project had been suspended," said a sales manager of Linshui Meidi Garden, a new housing development project in Minhang District.

Sources close to the Shanghai municipal government said officials were still weighing the pros and cons of the value of the project. "The original budget was 35 billion yuan, but experts said the final cost would likely top 40 billion."

While supporters of the project said the maglev trains would speed up urbanization and economic development in the Yangtze River Delta and help Hangzhou and Jiaxing cities in Zhejiang Province catch up with their wealthier neighbor Shanghai, those who are against the idea worried the costly project would not be able to pay for itself.

"The 150 yuan cost of a one-way ticket is obviously too high for ordinary people," said Prof. Li Hong, a researcher with the NDRC's transportation institute. The price, calculated at the proposed rate of 0.75 yuan per kilometer in the project's mid-term report, would equal 75 percent of the cost of an air ticket but more than three times the current train fare.

He said high fares are affecting the number of passengers using the existing maglev train to Shanghai's Pudong International Airport. "Its ticket revenue is only 100 million yuan a year which means it will take 100 years to pay for its construction costs," said Li.

An alternative solution to the abandoned meglev project could be a high-speed rail link. It would be almost as fast as the maglev train but cost only half as much. A trip from Shanghai to Hangzhou by high-speed train would take 35 minutes, only seven minutes longer than the maglev ride.

Ministry of Railways said the project was under study. "Details will be published at an appropriate time," said Huang Min, a planning official.
Editor: Pliny Han