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  JUNE 30, 2009 2:42:25 PM EDT

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Welcome to USAspending.gov

Where Americans Can See Where Their Money Goes

Have you ever wanted to find more information on government spending? Have you ever wondered where Federal contracting dollars and grant awards go? Or perhaps you would just like to know, as a citizen, what the Government is really doing with your money.

 

Last Data Update

Contracts data is up-to-date as of June 01, 2009 for all 24 CFO Act agencies. 

Assistance (Grants/Other & Loans) data is up-to-date as of June 05, 2009 for 6 of 22 CFO Act agencies. Updates are currently pending for the following agencies:USDA, DoEd, DOE, HHS, DHS, HUD, DOI, DOJ, DOS, DOT, USTREAS, VA, NASA, SBA, USAID, NRC.

FEDERAL SPENDING FY 2009 YTD

	Contracts	$221,177,641,981
	Grants	$237,027,203,718
	Loans	$63,771,782
	Insurance	$2,062,647,048
	Direct Payments	$41,687,210,164
	Other Assistance	$37,345,915,842

TOP 5 ASSISTANCE RECIPIENTS FY 2009 YTD

1	DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES	$18,908,037,649
2	NEW YORK STATE DEPT OF HEALTH	$18,335,672,042
3	TEXAS HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION	$13,514,862,175
4	PENNSYLVANIA DEPT OF PUBLIC WELFARE	$11,168,181,944
5	LOUISIANA DEPT OF HEALTH & HOSPITALS	$5,031,984,907

TOP 5 CONTRACTORS FY 2009 YTD

1	LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION	$20,362,164,557
2	THE BOEING COMPANY	$14,730,265,990
3	NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION	$8,672,131,373
4	GENERAL DYNAMICS CORPORATION	$7,794,041,496
5	RAYTHEON COMPANY	$5,951,997,077

Poll Results: Will The Announced Price Increases Stick?

BASF Raising MDI Prices in China

Shanghai BASF announces July crude MDI contract price

2009-06-30 [Source: Pudaily]

Today, Shanghai BASF announces July crude MDI contract price at RMB15300/t, increasing RMB500/t compared with June contract price. It is the third increase since the month of May.

http://www.pu366.com/News_View.asp?NewsID=5069

This translates to just over $1.00/lb.

More Pressure on The Chemical Industry

Natural gas is a key feedstock for the chemical industry, including polyurethanes.  This legislation would undoubtedly increase prices.  Seems like every governmental project is designed to increase prices!

Frack Attack

Drilling Technique Under Scrutiny

SOURCE: AP/David Zalubowski

A worker heads to a tractor-trailer used in hydraulic fracturing for a natural-gas producer in Rulison, Colorado.

By Tom Kenworthy | June 25, 2009

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Four years after a widely used but controversial oil and gas production technology was exempted from federal regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Congress is taking another look at the process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fracking is used in most U.S. oil and gas wells and involves pumping a combination of water, sand, and chemicals under high pressure deep into rock formations that hold oil and gas. The process fractures the rock and holds open the fissures to allow oil and gas to flow to the surface.

The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, or FRAC Act, was recently introduced by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) to respond to longstanding claims by homeowners and environmental groups that the technique can lead to the contamination of water supplies with natural gas and chemicals such as benzene that threaten human health. It also comes amid new natural gas discoveries that suddenly have the country awash in reserves that could be used to substitute for coal in many power plants and serve as a bridge to a low-carbon future.

Natural gas accounts for about 22 percent of U.S. electricity generation. It is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, with half the carbon dioxide emissions of coal per unit of energy. It has therefore been cited as a possible transition fuel that would assist in the fight against climate change. A study by the Potential Gas Committee, the major authority on natural gas reserves in the United States, recently indicated that domestic reserves are 35 percent higherthan previously thought. However, the problems with fracking have the potential to undermine support for increasing its use as a power generation fuel.

The debate over fracking’s possible risks and whether it is sufficiently regulated has intensified as the process has become more commonplace, and natural gas development has soared and expanded into residential areas in recent years. The oil and gas industry has recently begun a multimillion campaign to defend the practice against the new legislation, which would force the industry to disclose the chemicals it uses and would make fracking subject to the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Fracking poses no threat to drinking water, the industry argues, because it takes place thousands of feet below groundwater supplies and because steel and cement well casings prevent the chemicals that are used and then largely recovered from escaping. Federal regulation would cost up to $150,000 per well and would force the closure of 57 percent of domestic oil wells and 35 percent of gas wells, according to the industry. Existing state oversight is adequate and there have been no documented cases of contamination of drinking water supplies, claims the industry.

Deep gas formations are “thousands of feet below the land surface and are separated from freshwater supplies by layers of steel casing, protected by concrete barriers as well as millions of tons of hard, dense solid rock geologic formations,” said Chesapeake Energy Corporation Vice President Mike John during congressional testimony on June 4.

At the same hearing, Scott Kell, the president of the Ground Water Protection Council—an association of state regulatory agencies—said existing state regulation of hydraulic fracturing is “generally adequate,” though he recommended that companies develop and implement best management practices for the technique. “A one-size-fits-all federal program is not the most effective way to regulate in this area,” he concluded.

The industry’s stance was seemingly corroborated by a 2004 study by the Environmental Protection Agency on hydraulic fracturing. The study found that fracking in coal beds “poses little or no threat” to underground drinking water.

But the report drew a vigorous dissent from one EPA expert, environmental engineer Weston Wilson, who protested the study in a letter to members of Colorado’s congressional delegation. Wilson called the EPA study “scientifically unsound” and “unsupportable.”

A 2008 study prepared for Garfield County, Colorado—where more than 5,000 wells were drilled between 2000 and 2008—undercut the EPA’s conclusions. The study, a collaborative effort that involved the participation of a Maryland-based environmental engineering firm and the University of Wyoming, found that methane contamination of water wells has increased with more drilling. The methane was traced to the same formations where drilling has taken place.

Pro Publica, an independent nonprofit group that produces investigative journalism, haswritten extensively on hydraulic fracturing, including on the Garfield County study. It asserts that more than 1,000 cases of water contamination near areas of oil and gas drilling have been documented by courts and government agencies across several states:

“In one case, a house exploded after hydraulic fracturing created underground passageways and methane seeped into the residential water supply,” Pro Publica reported. “In other cases, the contamination occurred not from actual drilling below ground, but on the surface, where accidental spills and leaky tanks, trucks, and waste pits allowed benzene and other chemicals to leach into streams, springs, and water wells.

“It is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of each contamination, or measure its spread across the environment accurately, because the precise nature and concentrations of the chemicals used by industry are considered trade secrets. Not even the EPA knows exactly what's in the drilling fluids. And that, EPA scientists say, makes it impossible to vouch for the safety of the drilling process or precisely track its effects.”

Kell, the Ground Water Protection Council president, said in his testimony that reports of more than 1,000 cases of water contamination “are not accurate,” and submitted statements from regulators in five states as evidence.

But anecdotal reports of water contamination, including a television news video of a Colorado homeowner setting afire the water pouring from his kitchen faucet, has stoked the public debate.

The Natural Resources Defense Council argued in a 2007 report on the health and environmental effects of oil and gas production in western states that toxic chemicals used in energy development directly affect human health. “Many people who live near oil and gas operations experience symptoms resembling those that may be caused by the toxic substances found in oil and gas or the chemical additives used to produce them…[ranging] from eye and skin irritation to respiratory illness such as emphysema, thyroid disorders, tumors, and birth defects.”

The recent boom in the development of shale gas or unconventional gas, in areas such as Texas, Louisiana, and the Appalachian basin have intensified the debate over fracturing. New York state legislators have recently introduced legislation to ban hydraulic fracturing within New York City’s watershed.

Federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing seems a sensible precaution. As Rep. DeGette said in introducing her legislation in early June: “I support natural gas drilling. It’s an important part of our economy in western Colorado. However, I don’t think we should be developing those resources at a potential risk to the public, particularly their drinking water.”

Natural gas holds potential as a more widely used electric generating fuel during the transition to zero-carbon renewable energy sources due to its lower carbon dioxide emissions, its abundance, and the existence of infrastructure. But development should be conducted in a responsible manner that protects valued landscapes and public safety and health. The FRAC Act is an important step in that process.

Tom Kenworthy is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Thanks to Alexandra Kougentakis for her help on this piece.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/06/frack_attack.html

BASF Raising BDO & Derivatives Pricing In Europe

BASF increases its prices for butanediol and its derivatives in Europe

2009-06-30P-09-296

Effective July 1, 2009, or as contracts allow, BASF is increasing the sales prices for butanediol and butanediol derivatives by EUR50 per metric ton in Europe. This measure applies in particular to 1,4 butanediol (BDO), tetrahydrofuran (THF), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP). The price adjustment is related to unsatisfactory margins and is necessary to ensure that BASF can continue to offer high-quality products and services to its customers.

 

BASF announced a global price increase for the BDO derivative polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF^®) already in April 2009.

 

With plants in Europe, Asia and North America, BASF is one of the world’s top manufacturers of BDO and its derivatives. The company’s total annual capacity amounts to 535,000 metric tons of these products. BDO and its derivatives are widely used for producing engineering plastics, polyurethanes, solvents, electronic chemicals and elastic fibers.

 

PolyTHF^® is a registered trademark of the BASF Group in many countries.

http://www.basf.com/group/pressrelease/P-09-296

Dollar to Strengthen?

Dollar to Rise Most Since 1981, Best Predictor Says 

By Lukanyo Mnyanda and Anchalee Worrachate

June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Strategists who came closest to predicting the dollar’s value against the euro so far this year see it strengthening as much as 17 percent in the second half as the U.S. recovers from the recession faster than Europe.

CIBC World Markets Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. estimate the U.S. currency will rise more than 4 percent by Dec. 31 after May ended with its steepest three-month fall since 2002. At the start of the year, all had second-quarter forecasts within a penny or two of the $1.4056- per-euro close on June 26, Bloomberg’s currency survey shows.

“I’m reasonably bullish on the dollar,” said Henrik Gullberg, a currency strategist in London at Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank, which Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc ranks as the world’s biggest foreign-exchange trader. “If you look at the data over the past few weeks, it has been consistent with the situation where the U.S. is a quarter or two ahead” of the 16-country euro region in rebounding, he said.

At the start of the year, after 2008 closed with the euro worth $1.3971, Deutsche Bank said it would weaken to $1.40 by June 30, just shy of where it was two trading days before the quarter’s end. Now the bank predicts a 17.1 percent gain to $1.20 per euro by year’s end, which would be the greenback’s best two-quarter performance against the euro or a basket of predecessor currencies since 1981.

Emerging from Turmoil

Little changed so far in 2009, the dollar is down 5.8 percent this quarter to trade at $1.4071 as of 12:34 p.m. in New York. Against the yen, which has declined against all 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg this year, the dollar has gained 5.9 percent since Dec. 31 to 96.00 yen.

Pro-dollar predictions reflect signs that the U.S. economy is emerging from the worst turmoil since World War II. Orders for American-made durable goods unexpectedly jumped in May, the Commerce Department said June 24. Median forecasts in Bloomberg’s economist survey predict the U.S. will grow 1.9 percent next year after shrinking 2.7 percent in 2009 as the euro economy contracts 4.3 percent before expanding 0.5 percent.

The Federal Reserve on June 24 said that “the pace of economic contraction is slowing.” The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last week urged the European Central Bank to cut interest rates further to speed the recovery there.

“In Europe, there’s a lot of headwinds, so the bullish- dollar story is based on what’s going on elsewhere,” said Adam Fazio, a CIBC currency strategist in New York. “We are bullish dollar in the near term.” Toronto-based CIBC predicts a 4.1 percent increase in the next two quarters.

Wide Range

Forecasts for the currency are the most scattered in two years, with fourth-quarter predictions ranging from $1.16 to $1.55 per euro, Bloomberg data show. The median of 48 forecasts sees the year ending at $1.40, near the current level.

Aletti Gestielle SGR SpA, an asset-management unit of Italy’s Banca Popolare di Verona, had the same second-quarter prediction at the start of the year as Deutsche Bank and now is among the most bearish, seeing $1.52 per euro by Dec. 31.

“There’s a lot of disillusion about growth in the U.S.,” said Fabrizio Fiorini, who helps manage $12 billion for Aletti Gestielle in Milan. “The U.S. will suffer from high debt and low consumption for quarters to come.”

Market uncertainty is driving up foreign-exchange swings. Fluctuations in Group of Seven currencies have risen to more than double what they were in the year before the credit crunch started in mid-2007; the G7 Volatility Index closed at 14.4 percent on June 26.

Winning Streaks

In the past six quarters, just two forecasters in Bloomberg’s survey -- Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen and Royal Bank of Canada’s London-based strategists -- were among the five most accurate half-year-hence dollar-euro prognosticators twice in a row. Only London-based HSBC Holdings Plc did so three straight times. The rankings are based on forecasts in Bloomberg’s database on each quarter’s first day.

Robert Minikin, a Standard Chartered Plc currency strategist in London, said forecasting is difficult because governments are committing record sums to battle the recession.

“There’s profound uncertainty about the impact of the non- conventional measures,” on foreign-exchange markets, Minikin said. “It’ll be difficult” for policy makers “to unwind what they’ve done,” he said. There will be “heavy downward pressure” pushing the dollar to $1.55 per euro by year-end, he added.

HSBC has gone from positive to negative on the currency following three straight quarters in the ranks of the most accurate. After foreseeing $1.25 per euro by this quarter’s end, HSBC predicts $1.50 by Dec. 31.

‘Vulnerable Position’

“The dollar is in a vulnerable position because of the quantitative-easing policy,” said Paul Mackel, a HSBC currency strategist in London.

The greenback fell against the euro from early 2002 until the economic crisis exploded in mid-2008, when it strengthened to a two-year peak of $1.2330 per euro on Oct. 28 as investors fled to the perceived safety of Treasuries. It’s been a rollercoaster since -- $1.4719 on Dec. 18, $1.2457 on March 4 and then an 11.4 percent decline as investors returned to riskier investments and pushed theStandard & Poor’s 500 Index up 29 percent.

The legal tender fell as much as 0.9 percent on June 26, after policy makers at thePeople’s Bank of China renewed calls for a new global currency “delinked from sovereign nations.” Despite such talk, investors aren’t deserting dollar assets. The Fed’s custodial holdings of Treasuries for foreigners rose to a record $1.96 trillion this month as central banks and others abroad bought $15.2 billion worth the week ended June 24.

‘Risk Rally’

The dollar rose today for the first time in three days against the euro after China said it will not alter its foreign- currency reserves suddenly. China’s “foreign exchange reserve policy is always quite stable,” central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan told reporters yesterday in Basel, Switzerland.

“The recovery is going to take time, and that puts pressure on the risk rally,” saidGeoffrey Yu, a strategist in London at UBS AG, the second-biggest currency trader. Renewed demand for havens is “going to be dollar supportive,” he added, predicting it will strengthen to $1.30 per euro in three months. The currency will trade at $1.40 by the end of 2010, Ashley Davies, a UBS currency strategist in Singapore, wrote in a report today.

“You don’t have to bet on the recovery to be bullish on the dollar,” said Christoph Kind, who manages $20 billion as head of asset allocation in Frankfurt atFrankfurt-Trust Investment GmbH. “If the situation stays as bad as it is, the dollar is a safe haven. And if the economy turns the corner, the U.S. will be the first to get out of the recession. On that basis, the dollar looks like a good investment. We are buying the dollar against the yen and the euro.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Lukanyo Mnyanda in London atlmnyanda@bloomberg.net; Anchalee Worrachate in London ataworrachate@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 29, 2009 12:37 EDT 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&sid=abVRzOIqXuBs

Results from Lyondell Unsecured Creditors Day in Court

Creditors’ suit cites warnings inside Basell

By BRETT CLANTON
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

June 27, 2009, 11:38AM

Melissa Phillip Houston Chronicle

This LyondellBasell plant is in Channelview. The Netherlands-based company has more than 4,000 employees in the Houston area.

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Dutch chemical giant Basell’s $12.7 billion buyout of Houston’s Lyondell Chemical Co. went forward in 2007 despite repeated warnings from the highest levels of Basell and its affiliates that the deal was too risky, according to sealed court documents obtained by the Chronicle.

A year later, in a move that was “entirely foreseeable,” the merged company filed for bankruptcy, buried in debt, starved for cash and overtaken by downturns in the chemical and refining industries Wall Street had seen coming, LyondellBasell creditors claim in a recently filed suit that includes the documents.

Internal skeptics of the merger feared the 100 percent debt-financed deal would saddle the new company with billions in debt and worried that financial projections about the combined company were intentionally inflated to help sell the deal to lenders, the sealed documents show.

Yet those concerns fell on deaf ears as the deal built momentum and as chief architects of the merger focused more on the millions they stood to gain if the deal was completed than on the long-term health of the new company, the documents claim.

The creditors’ suit was attached to a motion filed last week in LyondellBasell’s massive Chapter 11 case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. The Chronicle obtained copies of the unredacted version.

The motion asks Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber for permission to sue Leonard Blavatnik, chairman of Access Industries, a private equity firm that owns Basell, and itsaffiliates, as well as Wall Street banks that signed off on the merger that created LyondellBasell. It has more than 4,000 employees and seven manufacturing plants in the Houston area.

“Unsecured creditors were harmed by the way this merger was put together,” said John Elstad, a lawyer for the creditors with Brown Rutnick in Boston.

He otherwise declined to comment on allegations made in the redacted sections, which are still under court seal, or about broader claims in the lawsuit.

LyondellBasell lawyer Deryck Palmer also declined to comment, except to note that allegations in the suit are “only one side of the story.”

New details

A July 21 hearing has been set to determine if the lawsuit will go forward and whether sealed portions of the 140-page document will be made public.

Those redacted portions, now hidden by solid black lines in public court documents, provide new details about events leading up to the July 2007 merger agreement between Basell and Lyondell, the closing of the transaction several months later and the subsequent bankruptcy filing a year after that.

The story begins in April 2006, when Access Industries, the private equity parent of Basell, made an unsolicited offer for Lyondell of $24-$27 per share, a premium of about 10 percent over the stock price at the time. But then-Lyondell CEO Dan Smith told Access it would have to offer at least 20 percent premium for the board to consider it a serious offer.

At Access’ request, investment bank Merrill Lynch ran the numbers on a deal at $28 per share. It concluded the “timing was right” to acquire Lyondell — code-named Hugo for the purpose of the study. The bullish view emboldened Access to act.

Concerns surface quickly

Almost immediately, however, the proposal met skepticism within Access.

CEO Lincoln Benet raised concerns to Blavatnik, the billionaire chairman, about the combined company’s ability to fund operations and pay down merger-related debts if a downturn occurred in the refining and chemical businesses, a prospect then looking increasingly likely.

But Blavatnik pressed ahead. In August, Access made a formal offer of $26.50 to $28.50 per share, which Lyondell later rejected.

In early 2007, with Lyondell’s stock over $30, Blavatnik tried again. He proposed buying Lyondell for $35 to $38 per share, which Merrill Lynch again supported, given the availability of credit for such deals at the time and the potential for big returns to Access in a few years.

An April 10, 2007, presentation by Merrill to Access asked, “Why Hugo?” The answer: “Because you can.”

A Merrill Lynch spokesman declined to comment.

An Access spokesman declined to comment on specific charges in the lawsuit but in an e-mailed statement said the “economic environment and industry-specific dynamics in which the merger between Basell and Lyondell was completed was very different than today.”

New round of doubts

Inside Access, doubts surfaced again about the wisdom of a Lyondell acquisition, particularly at $38 per share.

“We are putting a lot of debt on the combined entity just because the financial markets will let us,” Ajay Patel, a vice president of mergers and acquisitions at Access, wrote in an e-mail at the time. “This may not be prudent in the long term.”

Volker Trautz, then CEO of Basell, went so far as to ask Blavatnik to give executives a chance to pull out their stock holdings in Basell if he was going to gamble with Basell’s equity and pursue Lyondell at such a high price.

But the price would go still higher. In June, Smith threw out $48 a share as a better asking price for Lyondell. And again Blavatnik agreed despite concerns by his team.

On July 17, Lyondell and Basell announced a merger agreement, with Merrill Lynch, Citibank and Goldman Sachs agreeing to fund the deal.

But things unraveled quickly. Rising crude prices boosted costs for the refining business, a weakening economy slowed demand for chemical products and the new company’s earnings fell, giving heartburn to banks that had agreed to finance the transaction.

Projections off

The deal was given a final push by Lyondell’s earnings projections for the rest of 2007 that later turned out to be much too high — projections the creditors’ suit called a “feat of reverse engineering.” The merger closed in December. When it did, Blavatnik received more than $300  million. Dan Smith, meanwhile, took home more than $56  million.

Just one year later, LyondellBasell placed all of its U.S. operations and a European holding company in bankruptcy protection. A reorganization plan is expected later this summer.

brett.clanton@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/6500126.html

Propylene Markets

Spot prices are up close to contract, which is now $0.385/lb. after an 8.5c/lb increase this month.  Talk is of another 3.5c/lb or so of increases in July, then a slow retreat the balance of the year.  Time will tell, but spot is usually 4-5c/lb lower than contract, so the pressures are there.

PROPYLENE: up at 37.75 cents/lb
Refinery grade propylene (RGP) was most recently heard offered at 37.75 cents/lb, compared with July trading last week at 37.00-37.25 cents/lb.

http://www.icis.com/Articles/2009/06/29/9228407/noon-snapshot-americas-markets-summary.html

Asphalt Polyurethane Joint Technology

PennDOT expands joint-repair efforts on I-78

Dan Hartzell | The Road Warrior

June 29, 2009

PennDOT workers address broken expansion joint on I-78 bridge in Greenwich Township, Berks County. The steel plate that covers the joint had come loose, so it was welded back in place. Engineers are considering a more permanent solution in the next few weeks. (Dan Hartzell/The Morning Call)

Q: The lanes of I-78 west of Route 61 are suffering from the same problem as Route 22 from 15th Street to the Lehigh River Bridge: Blown-up expansion joints. This area of 78 was repaved just a few years ago, and every expansion joint in the low-speed lane is a bump. Does PennDOT plan to correct this condition properly in the near future?

Terry C. Oswald, Emmaus

Q: Eastbound I-78 between Hamilton and Cedar Crest seems to be sinking. At many points along this stretch, a one-inch gap exists between the right and middle lanes, and at one place it widens to at least three inches. That spot is enough to give my car a good jolt; a motorcyclist changing lanes there might be thankful the hospital is nearby.

John Bittenbender Allentown

Q: Can't something be done about the patched seams on the overpass on I-78 westbound, west of the 78/309 split? Motorcyclists (including myself) are jolted out of their seats riding over these seams, which could pass as speed bumps!

Laura Gerhart Emmaus

A: Terry Evangelista of Weisenberg Township, Gregg Heilman of Allentown and Dan Stonehouse of Emmaus all issued similar complaints about the asphalt strips that cover the joints just off the ends of many highway bridges, Evangelista citing examples that rise three to four inches above the road surface.

Bill Thompson of Kintnersville, also a motorcyclist, cited the problem at the joints where Route 412 meets the on-ramp to I-78 west -- a situation he considers ''beyond annoyance at this point; it's a safety issue.''

The time span of these queries extends for more than a year, from February 2008 through last month. So we have two separate but similar ongoing problems: Heaving shoulders and widening vertical gaps between lanes and between shoulders and lanes, and rising asphalt strips at the 3-foot-wide horizontal joints near bridges, actually known as relief joints.

PennDOT officials said in March 2008 that the widening seams between lanes on 78 would have to be addressed, but not immediately, which surprised me at the time, since some of them seemed to resemble mini-canyons to my non-expert eyes.

At that time, PennDOT was planning to repair the sinking concrete slabs on the stretch of 78 basically in front of Lehigh Valley Hospital -- a job they completed last summer, and which seems to be holding up well at this early stage.

With that out of the way, they're gearing up to address the heaving shoulders and the seams as well, said engineer Chuck Enoch. They've taken ''core borings'' or samples of the concrete to better analyze the problem and find the best solution.

''Our engineers are working to determine what has failed, whether the roadway dropped or the shoulder failed,'' he said.

Most likely, grinding machines will be used to bring down the high spots, followed by a more sophisticated ''diamond grinding'' to provide a smoother finish.

The widening seams probably will be re-sealed as part of the same project, Enoch said. All that should be done later this year, before winter sets in once again.

The asphalt strips often seen at the approaches to bridges are expansion joints in a way too, though it's a little more complicated than a simple space between concrete slabs with a tar or urethane strip between, said PennDOT engineer Tom Gorgia.

Instead (to oversimplify), relief joints go between a slab that makes up the regular road surface and a bridge ''approach slab'' that has a separate layer of concrete beneath it, and which ''floats'' or shifts in response to expansion and contraction between road and bridge slabs.

Basically, more expansion/contraction room is required, and relief joints provide the extra space.

''Design criteria determine how much the bridge needs to move -- that sizes the gap,'' Gorgia said.

Sometimes relief joints covered with asphalt can heave from the freeze-thaw cycle, or in other instances, the paving can sink below the surface. Those strips are milled down, or asphalt is added, respectively.

PennDOT spokesman Ron Young said officials try to get to as many of them as possible, as quickly as possible. Motorists should report examples of problem strips.

The regular expansion joint on the eastbound lanes of the I-78 bridge over Old Route 22 in Greenwich Township, Berks County, deteriorated so quickly June 19 that emergency repairs had to be made; a section of the three-quarter-inch thick steel plate that covers the joint broke off and was dangerously loose. It was welded back in place temporarily, but engineers are considering a more permanent solution in the next few weeks, Gorgia said.

The most likely scenario will be to remove and eliminate the steel plates and fill the joints with concrete and a flexible urethane material, he said.

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-5warrior0629.6938856jun29,0,1437164.column

Press Release on Fall PU Show

Sustainability And Resiliency Take Center Stage At Polyurethanes 2009 Technical Conference

June 29, 2009

Arlington, VA - Scientists, engineers, manufacturers and business leaders from around the world will discuss future growth and opportunities at the Polyurethanes 2009 Technical Conference, October 5 – 7 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, just outside Washington, D.C. Sponsored by Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), this year's Conference will include more than 80 technical papers in 16 technical sessions, as well as numerous poster presentations, educational seminars and the annual Polyurethane Innovation Awards. CPI will release its biannual 2008 End Use Market Survey on the Polyurethane Industry in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and two special issue sessions will address the Green Chemistry Initiative and turning recession into opportunity using new polyurethane applications.

"Sustainability and innovation are especially important to the many industries that rely on polyurethane materials to help them solve their most pressing challenges," says Neeva-Gayle Candelori, director, ACC Center for the Polyurethanes Industry. "The global recession has highlighted the versatility and resiliency of polyurethanes in helping companies reduce both cost and carbon footprint while continuing to deliver exceptional value and performance. The

Polyurethanes 2009 Technical Conference is a great opportunity for anyone interested in hearing the latest developments, finding new ways to overcome economic challenges, and planning for the future."

Economics and enterprise take the spotlight from day one, with a special issue session titled: "From Downturn to Recovery: Unlocking Potential in a Recession." Running concurrently will be the Processing Innovations technical session, which includes four papers featuring time and performance improvements to several mixhead systems for a variety of polyurethane materials. In addition, a new overview seminar on polyurethane equipment and processing will be part of the "Professional Development Program." And nearly every session, from "Advances in Automotive Processing Technologies" to "Flexible Foam" to "Footwear" and "Construction One: Building Blocks of the Construction Industry," will address the importance of cost efficiency.

Green technologies, applications and industry issues are a dominant theme again at this year's Conference, highlighted by the special issue session titled "Regulatory and Legislative Impacts of a "Greening" Regulatory Landscape." Scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, October 6, this expert panel discussion will follow two closely related papers during the morning Environment, Health & Safety session that cover both the California Green Chemistry Initiative and the U.S. Environmental Protections Agency's (EPA) alternative ChAMP program. Two Renewable Content sessions are scheduled again this year, with overflow papers scheduled in other sessions relating to the end use, such as elastomers and automotive.

The Blowing Agents session will include an overview of future directions, followed by the introduction of four new blowing agents by leading global manufacturers. Virtually all the papers in three separate Construction sessions address sustainability and/or energy efficiency as they relate to high performance polyurethane insulation, roofing, sealing and other applications. The two Automotive sessions focus on new technologies and products that highlight polyurethane's impact on reducing weight and noise in finished cars and trucks, improving productivity and post-production processes, and helping automakers adjust to rapidly changing regulations and consumer demands.

Registration for the Polyurethanes 2009 Technical Conference is now open. To register, please visit: www.polyurethane.org/conference2009.

For more information about CPI and the Polyurethanes 2009 Technical Conference, contact CPI at 703-741-5103, or visit www.americanchemistry.com/polyurethane for entry forms or to register.

SOURCE: The American Chemistry Council (ACC)

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