Category Archives: High Seas

RHODE ISLAND Another round of snow, high wind gusts and frigid weather is coming to Rhode Island this weekend.

Below-zero wind chills as low as the negative teens will return Friday, with wind gusts as high as 50 mph in some parts of the state. That brings the possibility for power outages, a major safety concern with temperatures so dangerously low.

There's also the possibility of snow during the day Friday, though Rhode Island isn't expected to see more than a coating.

The cold temperatures will continue into Saturday, with highs only expected to peak in the high teens. A slight warm up will follow on Sunday, though don't expect anything above freezing the expected high is only 30 degrees.

The biggest concern will come Sunday night, when forecasters expect a "significant storm" to hit the region. It's hard to tell too much about the forecast this far out, but the NWS said there is a "significant risk" for rain or snow in interior areas and strong winds with high seas along the coast.

Here's a look at the latest Rhode Island forecast from the National Weather Service.

ThursdayPartly sunny, with a high near 46. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph.

Thursday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 32. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 7 mph after midnight.

FridayA chance of snow before 10 a.m., then a chance of rain between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., then a chance of snow after 2 p.m. Cloudy, with a high near 37. Breezy, with a north wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 18 to 23 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40 percent. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Friday NightMostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 5. Wind chill values as low as negative 13. Blustery, with a northwest wind 22 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph.

SaturdaySunny, with a high near 18. Northwest wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Saturday NightPartly cloudy, with a low around 6. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph.

SundaySunny, with a high near 30. North wind around 6 mph becoming southeast in the afternoon.

Sunday NightA chance of snow between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., then rain and snow likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 21. East wind 5 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60 percent.

Martin Luther King DayRain likely, mainly before 4 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. East wind around 15 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70 percent.

Monday NightA chance of rain before 8 p.m., then a chance of snow between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 26. West wind around 11 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30 percent.

Patch editor Mike Carraggi contributed to this report.

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RI Weather: Frigid Weather Returns, Winter Storm Incoming - Patch.com

A HUGE winter storm has hit the country this weekend, with power outages and states of emergency declared.

The storm, named Izzy by The Weather Channel, has poured down on the East Coast with intense ice, snow, wind, and rain.

There will be "major travel headaches" from North Dakota all the way down to northern Georgia and sprawling back up to Maine, saysThe Weather Channel.

As of Sunday night, 260,000 power outages were reported, 3,000 flights were canceled, and five states declared emergency.

Duke Energy estimated 750,000 customers could lose power in the Carolinas, and the company is encouraging its customers to be prepared.

The storm will end after a stint in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Sunday and into Monday.

Heavy snow is forecast in the Northeast region with up to 18 inches by late Monday.

Read our snowstorm Izzy live blog for the latest news and updates...

Iowa sees heavy snowfall

Iowa has seen significant snowfall, with 14.3 inches of snow recorded at Des Moines International Airport.

The Weather Channel said Des Moines is facing its biggest January snow storm in 51 years.

Several airlines issued travel waivers

CNNs Pete Muntean reported Southwest, United, Delta, and American Airlines all issued travel waivers ahead of the winter storm.

American Airlines published a travel alert for 21 states, DC, and Canada that will allow customers to rebook without change fees.

Alabama Highway 17 partially closed

A truck reportedly jackknifed on Alabama Highway 117 in DeKalb County, which caused part of the road to close.

Road conditions were difficult to navigate throughout much of the southeast.

Virginia views

Izzy delivered a blanket of snow in Virginia this weekend, as one Twitter user shared a photo.

What is a winter weather advisory?

A winter weather advisory is an indication that winter weather conditions are likely.

However, the conditions expected are not severe enough to warrant a warning.

What is a winter weather watch?

A winter weather watch indicates that there is potential for severe winter weather.

If a winter weather watch is issued, prepare for dangerous weather conditions.

What is a winter weather warning?

A winter weather warning indicates that a storm is more than likely in your area, and you should take action immediately.

Expect dangerous conditions and try to avoid travel.

Monday's weather in New York state

New York state can expect temperatures in the mid to high 20s on Monday, according to Buffalo meteorologist Carl Lam.

Wind will be severe in some places, up to 45 MPH, and in the western part of the state, snowfall may total as much as 20 inches.

Snow falls in New York City

New Yorkers shared photos of the snowfall to Twitter.

The snow was mixed with rain and sleet.

Keep hydrants clear in snow

Ahead of snowstorms in the northeast, a Rochester, NY fire department shared tips for keeping fire hydrants clear in the winter.

Remove snow and ice on the hydrant, and clear a perimeter around the hydrant.

A three-foot perimeter gives firefighters enough room to work.

Clear a path from the hydrant to the street, too.

U-Shaped track

The Weather Channelwarned of the unique path winter storm Izzy could take this weekend.

With cold air much more widespread and an active jet stream plunging southward across the eastern two-thirds of the nation during the heart of winter, the stage is set for this winter storm to take a U-shaped track from the Northern Plains to New England this weekend into Monday, the outlet reported.

Winter storm names

These are thenames the Weather Channel chose for winter stormsduring the 2021 to 2022 season:

Picking names

The Weather Channel chooses names for snowstorms, and explained the process on itswebsite.

The names will be used in alphabetical order to identify winter storms that meet objective naming criteria based on National Weather Service winter storm warnings, blizzard warnings and ice storm warnings, the outlet noted.

Who names snowstorms?

TheWeather Channelnames snowstorms.

The outlet noted that the 2021-22 season is the 10th season The Weather Channel will be naming winter storms.

Southeast region's snowfall totals

These are the towns and cities in the Southewast that have received the most snowfall so far, according to the Weather Channel.

Brevard, NC is in first place with 10 inches.

Scarly, NC received 8 inches.

Boiling Springs and and Mountain Rest, both in South Carolina, saw 6 inches.

And Clarkesville, GA received 5.6 inches.

Mid-South top snowfall totals

The Weather Channel has released top snowfall totals for the mid-south region.

Harrison, AR and Canaan, AR are in the lead, with 12 inches of snow each.

Rigedale, MO received 8 inches.

Shoccoe, MS was close behind, with 7.8 inches.

And Goshen Springs, MS has seen 6 inches of snow.

Record-breaking snow in Asheville

According to the Weather Channel, Asheville, North Carolina has received 10 inches of snow so far.

With that total, Winter Storm Izzy broke the previous snowfall record, set in 1891.

Storm 'far from over'

"Winter Storm Izzy is far from over," the Weather Channel said on Twitter.

The storm will continue to bring snow, wind and ice to the Northeast overnight.

Over 80million people are still under weather alerts, the outlet reported.

Is North Carolina under emergency order?

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed an emergency order and the administration urged people to stay at home through the weekend.

The state highway agency warned that labor shortages meant crews might not respond to problems areas as quickly as normal.

We just dont have as many people to drive the trucks or operate the equipment, said Marcus Thompson, a spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Footage from North Carolina

A Twitter user in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina shared footage of sleet, snow and wind on Twitter.

Iowa sees heavy snowfall

Iowa has seen significant snowfall, with 14.3 inches of snow recorded at Des Moines International Airport.

The Weather Channel said Des Moines is facing its biggest January snow storm in 51 years.

Midwest expects heavier snow

Anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of snowfall is expected to encompass the eastern Dakotas to western Minnesota and Iowa,AccuWeathersaid.

Minneapolis, Des Moines, St. Louis, and Kansas City are all in the path of the storm.

Difficult driving conditions are expected throughout this region.

Southern states expecting snowfall

The National Weather Service said from 2 inches (5 centimeters) to 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of snow could fall as far south as northeast Georgia from Saturday evening though Sunday, and power outages and travel problems will be made all the worse by an additional coating of ice and winds gusting to 35 mph (56 km/h).

Snow accumulations could reach 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the highest elevations.

Gulf sees high winds

The National Hurricane Center's Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch put a Gale Warning in effect for the Atlantic High Seas and the Gulf of Mexico.

"Another day with a spectacular scatterometer pass depicting very well the gale wind areas: Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Tehuantepec and West Atlantic," the center tweeted.

Conditions are expected to persist through Monday.

Safety tips for power outages

The West Virginia Emergency Management Department shared safety tips for winter storm power outages.

Anyone who loses power should use caution when using candles, space heaters, or open flames.

Portable generators should be placed a safe distance from the home.

And make sure to check in on neighbors and keep the local community safe.

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Izzy snowstorm 2022 path tracker LIVE Forecast prompts winter storm warnings and advisories for this w... - The US Sun

It's been 30 years since Roberta Bondar was strapped into a five-point harness on the space shuttle Discovery and blasted into fame as Canada's first female astronaut.

But first, she left a tearful farewell recording for her mom, in case of disaster. It was the first time a Canadian had been part of a shuttle launch since the devastating Challenger explosion that killed seven crew members six years earlier.

"For me, being the first was not about breaking records. It was the idea that there was somebody who represented strength and valour and bravery," Bondar, 76, told Piya Chattopadhyay of CBC Radio's The Sunday Magazine.

Bondar joked that people saw her as either "brave or out of her mind."

There are a few things people may not know about Bondar. Her name is pronounced BOND-ur, not bond-ARE.

In space, she played renditions of OCanadaas she drifted above planet Earth. And what she saw as she was tossed like a slow-motion dicechanged her.

"In space tumbling around and being at all angles develop[s] a different perspective," said Bondar, who now lives in Toronto.

"I like reflecting back to it in the moments when I have some peaceful time, especially out in the natural world. I think about being away from the planet and how much the planet meant to me."

Bondar dreamed of space travel since grade school. She defied her high school guidance counsellor who dissuaded her from pursuing science saying it wasn't a subject for girlsand a lot of odds to eventually earn a spot on the U.S. space shuttle Discovery's flight that blasted off on Jan. 22, 1992.

"No one had done any of this. I was really on the tip of the prow of a ship plowing through heavy seas. There were no role models for me in Canada," said Bondar.

Now, decades later, there are schools in Bondar's name and a Canadian postage stamp with her face.

"Being the first Canadian woman was a big thing because it supposedly was going to show the diversity of the space program, which is I don't want to choke over itbut I'm not sure that we have that, still," said Bondar.

Bondarinspired would-be female astronaut candidates like Alberta'sShawna Pandya. She saidshe's been fascinated by the night sky and space travel since childhood. Pandya followed in Bondar's footsteps, getting a degree in neuroscience and studying medicine before attending the International Space University in France.

"I remember being obsessed with reading about Dr. Bondar's trajectory. She inspired me in so many ways. She was hugely influential with the trails that she blazed," said Pandya.

Despite Bondar's inroads, astronaut recruitment programs don't reflect Canada's diversity, still leaning toward military-trained males, according to Bondar.

NASA confirmed that73 women have been to space about 12 per cent of all people sent thereso far.

"We can continue to expect it to increase as astronaut classes are increasingly diverse. Canada's last astronaut selection was 50/50," said Stephanie Schierholz, lead spokesperson for NASA public affairs.

The first woman in space was cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on the Soviet Union's Vostok 6 in 1963. America's first woman in space was Sally Ride, a California physicist aboard the Challenger's STS-7 mission that blasted off on June 18, 1983.

Currently, NASA's Artemis program aims to land the first woman on the moon by 2024.

Competition to be selected as an astronaut is fierce and often foreign nationals like Bondar are seen as "taking up space," she said. On board the shuttle,Bondar performed like any male crew member.

Commander Ronald Grabevoluntarily gave her his bunk or sleeping cabinet spotso she would not have to share with a male crew member.

"He didn't have to do that. That's the only special treatment I got as a female," said Bondar.

And she risked losing her coveted spot on the shuttle when she "kicked up a fuss" over the treatment of her family.

Bondar's father had died in 1985. In 1992, only her mother and sister came to see the launch at the Cape Canaveral Complex 39-A in Florida. While other astronaut families watched from a room in the assembly tower, Bondar's family members remained in the public gallery.

They were also denied the privilege of greeting Bondar when she landed at the Edwards Air Force Base in California after eight days in orbit.

"The rules said that unless you had a spouse or a dog, you couldn't have someone greet you. So I wasn't married. I didn't have a dog. I had a mother and a sister."

In the end, after a fight, Bondar's mother did greet her, but her sister waved from behind barbed wire.

That moment still stings.

Bondar is adamant that it was her supportive family, not rocket fuel, that really launched her.

It was a childhood of asking: Why?

"If we don't ask those deep questions about what's out there then we are never going to evolve," Bondar said.

Now the first neurologist in space has evolved into an avid wildlife photographer.She now studies endangered migratory birds and runs the Toronto-basedRoberta Bondar Foundation. She says her new mission is fusing art and science in an effort to protect the planet.

"When you look at Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, you see the work that was done. It captures both art and science. So at some point along our path, art and science split.

"I'm not sure that was the best thing to do because scientists have to be creativeor they couldn't possibly develop ways of looking at things with different perspectives. And artists really have to understand some science."

She said in space it was the absence of Earth's sounds and smells that she noticed most. No bird song. No scent of forest rain. That's when she says that she realized just how much Earth really meant to her.

Written by Yvette Brend. Produced by Annie Bender.

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Roberta Bondar flew into space 30 years ago and never saw Earth the same after that - CBC.ca

The Sri Lanka Navy has made a significant contribution to the realization of the government's efforts to save the future generation of the nation from the menace of drugs. Thus, in the year 2021 alone, the Navy has mounted successful narcotic raids in island waters and on high seas and has seized a large consignment of illegal drugs worth over Rs. 15.86 billion street value.

The Navy has stepped up operations not only in coastal waters around the island but also in international waters in collaboration with other agencies to thwart all forms of illegal activities including the smuggling of drugs. As a result of that, the Navy managed to take hold of this massive stock of narcotics in year 2021.

In anti-drug operations carried out on 74 occasions, both in island waters and in exhausting operations on high seas, the Navy has seized over 1268kg of heroin with 119 foreign and 22 local suspects. Similarly, on 151 other occasions the Navy was able to nab 186 local and 07 foreign suspects with over 7095kg of Kerala cannabis during the year 2021.

Further, 98 suspects were held with more than 158kg of Crystal Methamphetamine (ICE) in 73 operations conducted by the Navy. Besides, the Navy collared 27 other suspects with over 69kg of local cannabis in 16 operations and 09 more local suspects with over 88kg of Hashish during 08 other operations mounted in the past year.

Under the guidance of His Excellency the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, coordination of Defence Secretary, General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne and leadership of Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne, the Navy is determined to extend these anti-drug operations into year 2022, in a bid to make the government's efforts a success, to save the future generation of the country from the menace of drugs.

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Navy seizes narcotics worth more than Rs. 15.86 billion street value in 2021 - nation.lk - The Nation Newspaper

Cloudy with a chance of hailstones

Much like the state of our New Years resolutions, the UAEs weather in 2022 has got off to a bit of a moody start. The rain is of course much needed after a particularly long dry spell but it has brought its challenges too.

And were not talking about the frizz-effect on your freshly coiffed bob. The National Center of Meteorology (NCM) has issued a number of heavy rain, dust and storm warnings which reduce visibility on roads and can lead to obstructions in low-lying areas.

The culprit for all this unsettled weather is an atmospheric clash between a low surface-level pressure front from the Southwest and an area of upper low air pressure originating in the West. Mix that in with the migrating cloud patterns from the Red Sea and the result is *gestures broadly around*.

From the weekly weather bulletin issued by the NCM, it looks like these stormy interludes could last all the way up to the end of this week.

Temperatures are expected to take a tumble on Tuesday with a bracing wind of up to 50kph emerging from the north west, bringing with it dust, sand and the possibility of that sideways straight into your face rain. Might want to hold off on coiffing that bob.

The wind and rough seas are predicted to carry through into Wednesday with roaming patches of high humidity.

By Thursday, the cloud, rain and wind intensity should begin to decrease, with patchy skies but a more stable weather system in place for the weekend.

Stay safe on the roads out there folks.

Images: Getty

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UAE weather: dark and stormy skies set to continue through the week - What's On

THE 1970s

The U.S. Navy emerged from the Vietnam War into a different world than that preceding the 1964 Tonkin Gulf incident. In some ways it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Elmo Bud Zumwalt was one of the most energetic and thoughtful officers to occupy that position, to be followed by two equally astute leadersAdmirals James Holloway and Thomas Hayward. Navy Secretary Graham Claytor (197779), a decorated World War II destroyer escort commander, was a powerful naval influence on Defense Secretary Harold Brown.

They and their staff officers developed and published their visions and concepts in a succession of cogent documentsProject Sixty, Missions of the U.S. Navy, Sea Plan 2000, Strategic Concepts of the U.S. Navy (NWP-1), the Sea Strike Strategy, and The Future of U.S. Seapowerthat stimulated intense debate within the naval service (often in the pages of Proceedings) and would serve as springboards for the Maritime Strategy efforts of the 1980s. Vice Admiral Stansfield Turners transformation of the strategy curriculum at the Naval War College was sustained by subsequent CNOs and War College presidents, all of whom strove to boost Navy student officer attendance as well.

But successive Congressestransfixed by wrongheaded notions of dtente, peace dividends, and a narrow focus on only a few areas of the globeoften pushed back against the Navys views and refused to allocate sufficient funding to implement them.

Having for decades accepted overwhelming Soviet superiority on the ground in central Europe, U.S. defense planners worried that the capability gap there between the Warsaw Pact and NATO had only grown during the Vietnam War, destabilizing the overall East-West military balance. Likewise, U.S. nuclear superiority over the Soviets had given way to parity. In such a situation, reestablishing U.S. maritime superiority was critical to maintain overall stability. Yet Pentagon planners themselves helped the Soviets chip away at that superiority, as they sought to trade resources needed by U.S. maritime forces for an obsessive focus on central Europe and land-based forces.

The Navys ship designers, naval architects, aviation engineers, and associated contractors fashioned a new generation of fast, lethal, and sophisticated warships, aircraft, and weapons, including Nimitz-class carriers, Los Angelesclass submarines, Spruance-class destroyers, and Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates. Force levels plummeted, however, as worn out and obsolete hulls and airframes from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam were retired.

The Navy was populated by operators who were seasoned in forward operations under the sea, in the air, and in combat close to shore. But its mess decks were roiled by racial tensions, and drug abuse was rampant. The service honed scores of smart officers skilled in operations analysis, politico-military affairs, and strategic planning, whodue to demanding repeat staff tours and appropriate high-level educationunderstood the nature and benefits of the Navy in keeping the country safe. But the CNOs staff (OpNav) was riven by community stovepipes and intraservice budget battles as defense spending tumbled and shipbuilding costs soared.

Admiral Zumwalt dealt brilliantly with the services racial issues. He also refocused the Navy on the Soviet threat, expressing particular concern over the Soviet Navys capability to interdict sea lines of communications between the United States and its allies across the Atlantic and Pacific. Analysts at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), the Navys federally funded research and development center, shared the CNOs concern but believed that the main wartime Soviet naval effort would be to deploy ballistic-missile submarines as a strategic reserve in far-northern ocean bastions, protected by most of their remaining warships (which would deploy at ever-greater distances from the bastions as their capabilities improved, effectively severing the western sea lines of communication as a secondary effect). Late in the decade, the Intelligence Community, including the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), using some stillhighly classified data and analyses, sided with CNA and began to educate the Navys operators.

Through it all, in response to national tasking, the Navy continued to deploy forward as much of the fleet as it could to enhance deterrence against the Soviets, reassure global allies, help resolve crises, and maintain its combat edge. Meanwhile, the Soviets continued their massive naval building program; developed worrisome naval employment concepts of their own; increased their combat reach from their home bases; and developed advanced naval bases in Cuba, east and west Africa, the Middle East, andmost galling of allCam Ranh Bay, in what was now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Soviet design bureaus developed imaginative new submarine and surface warship designs, and Soviet shipyards built them in quantity, along with a new generation of offensive, long-range, land-based naval aircraft.

The U.S. Navy had its own string of advanced bases around the world that it could use, and it was allied with most of the worlds other naval powers. Despite the defeat in Vietnam, most of those bases remained available, with a new base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean showing great promise. Allies, for the most part, stuck by the United States, although many of their fleetsespecially in Europegrew progressively smaller. With the increased sophistication of evolving C3 systems, however, interoperability among the navies of the western alliance required constant tending by the leading power, the U.S. Navy. Transfer of precious but essential technological secrets was a growing issue, andunbeknownst to the United States and its alliesspies were poking holes in the blankets of secrecy that cloaked many of their activities.

Throughout the 20th century, the U.S. Navy had become famous for the quantity and quality of its at-sea exercises. The Cold War reoriented the services exercise program to the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, and northeast Pacific, to improve combat readiness, experiment with new tactics and gear, reassure allies, and signal resolve to the Soviets. Throughout the Vietnam War, the Navy continued this rigorous exercise program, but by the late 1970sin the interests of dtente and false economiesit pulled in its horns. The U.S. Navy even began treating the Norwegian Sea as if it were a Soviet lake, much to Moscows delight.

Since the 19th century, the Navy had developedat the Naval War College and elsewherea considerable war-gaming competence, gaining insights in ways not possible on the high seas. By the 1970s, however, the gaming was focused on examining discrete tacticsa worthy focus but neglectful of global maritime strategy. Fortunately, Naval War College professor Francis J. Bing West and others at Newport realized this shortcoming, andonce they were done working on Seaplan 2000turned their attention to creating and implementing a new annual Global War Game, starting in 1979.

All of these developmentspositive and negativewere magnified as the Carter administration entered its final years. Defense Secretary Harold Brown continued to support Navy development of extraordinary new systems, including the Aegis combat system, the SLQ-32 electronic warfare system, and others, but he did not provide enough funding to procure them in numbers. The Navys ship count continued to drop, but demands for deployments increased. Crisis after crisis required emergency deployments and repositioning naval power worldwide. But the administration continued to focus mostly on building up military power in West Germany, until the Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan illustrated the limits of such a narrow perspective.

Meanwhile, the intellectual ferment in the U.S. Navy began to have positive second-order effects. Successive CNOs built on the ideas of their predecessors. Admiral Holloways Naval Warfare Publication 1, Strategic Concepts of the U.S. Navy (NWP-1), emphasized the importance of seeing the Navy as an integrated body of warfare areasstrike, antisubmarine, antisurface, antiair, and amphibiousinstead of a series of semiautonomous subsurface, surface, air, and special warfare stovepipes. This was reinforced by Admiral Haywards encouragement of the composite warfare commander (CWC) concept for carrier battle group command and control. CNO Hayward created a Directorate for Naval Warfare, organized by warfare areas, within OpNav, to help shape the Navys program objective memorandum (POM) and annual budget proposals and to foster better integration of platforms and weapons systems within the fleet. Admiral Hayward also reacted favorably to a recommendation by Robert Murray, the outgoing Under Secretary of the Navy, to set up a small cell of front-running officers, fresh from major command, to develop tactical and operational concepts that would be useful to OpNav and the fleet. As important, it would improve those officers own strategic and operational acumen, anticipating that many would later become influential flag officers. This group was established in Newport, Rhode Island, and called the Strategic Studies Group (SSG). Its first iteration was in 1981.

At the same time, the Navy continued to populate plans offices, especially in OpNav OP-06 and on fleet staffs, with appropriately educated and experienced experts in politico-military affairs and strategic planning. In 1978, Rear Admiral Robert Hilton, the Director for Strategy, Plans, and Policy (OP-60), reshuffled his team and put several leading strategists and NATO experts into a new Strategic Concepts Branch (OP-603), reporting directly to Hilton. His successor, Rear Admiral Arthur Moreau, continued this practice with enthusiasm.

Some OP-603 midgrade officers, along with denizens of other OpNav divisions, periodically came together on their own to argue about optimum approaches to address naval issues of the day. These meetings were professional but unofficial, informal, and not recorded. They were, however, yet another manifestation of the intellectual excitement within the naval officer corps of the time, in the face of a rising Soviet naval threat and U.S. administrations that did not appear to be responsive to the needs of the serviceor the countryin maintaining maritime superiority.

As the 1970s ended, the American people had had enough of the false promises of too-narrow objectives, dtente, and peace dividends, as well as falling force levels and rising defense costs. The election of President Ronald Reagan in November 1980 ushered in an era of peace through strength. I was fortunate to be named Secretary of the Navy in the new administration. The President, a strong bipartisan group in Congress led by Senators John Tower and Scoop Jackson, and I were determined to refocus the Navy on three major efforts:

Articulate an aggressive, forward-leaning, global maritime strategy, involving not just the U.S. Navy, but also the other services and our naval allies, as part of a new national security strategy to reestablish maritime supremacy. The goal was to demonstrate to the Soviets that they could not win a war against NATO and would bankrupt their economy if they tried to keep up.

Increase the U.S. Navy force goal to 600 battle force ships, including 15 carrier battle groups, 100 submarines, and amphibious lift for one Marine amphibious force and one Marine amphibious brigade. These requirements were derived directly from the operational needs of each theater surrounding the Soviet Union.

Reduce defense costs, especially for procurement, by fostering and enforcing competition among suppliers.

When the administration took office, we were able to use the institutions and processes already in placebut denied funding by the previous administrationto reestablish U.S. global naval superiority. Combined with simultaneous improvements in Army and Air Force resources and fighting concepts, these efforts stabilized overall global military deterrence in our favor. We also added a number of key new innovations.

The Naval War College and the Naval Instituteand their fora and mediaprovided the Reagan administration ready-made outlets to reach the Navy and Marine Corps officer corps and beyond with the concepts of a maritime strategy and maritime superiority. So too did routine hearings on the Hill convened by the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, mostly to explain and gain support for the 600-ship force goal. We were fortunate that President Carters Defense Secretary, Harold Brown, had continued critical Navy research, development, prototyping, and testing programs on new platforms and systems. Except in a few cases, all we had to do was fund and procure many more of these items in the fleet, and fast. We used other gatherings and media as well to spread the logic of the buildup, and many of these concepts and explanations were picked up and reported by the trade press and broader mainstream media.

When the CNOs SSG convened its first annual cohort in Newport, called SSG I, six front-running officers were handpicked by CNO Hayward, each from a different warfare community. They were directed to examine a NATO sea campaign against the Soviet Unions vulnerable Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and Mediterranean flanks, and they established links with the Naval War Colleges War Gaming Center and the Navys recently repurposed Washington-based Advanced Technology Panel (ATP). A robust travel schedule had the SSG visiting and exchanging ideas with unified and fleet commanders and their staffs. Once the groups work was underway, I met with them and their successors periodically to glean what they had learned and ensure they knew my views on the operational and tactical subjects they were studying. I also met on occasion with the informal naval discussion group of mid-level officers that was functioning as a precursor to the current Strategy Discussion Group. And in a widely reported speech at the National Press Club in August 1981, I laid out important policies to increase affordability and decrease costs, which we were already pursuing vigorously.

Most important, I ensured that three of the Navys most aggressive, offensive-minded, and tactically astute flag officersVice Admiral James A. Ace Lyons Jr. and Rear Admirals Hank Mustin and Jerry Tuttlestarted to prepare for a seminal at-sea exercise in the fall of 1981. In this exercise, called Ocean Venture, the U.S. Second Fleet, NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic, and other forces would surge into the northern Norwegian Sea to demonstrate and practice what a forward maritime campaign entailed, including imaginative cover and deception tactics, techniques, and procedures. Similar exercises would follow every year in the Mediterranean, northeast Pacific, and Arcticnot just talking the talk but walking the walk of a global, forward, offensive campaign against the Soviets.

In 1982, things really came together. Forward exercises were conducted in the northern Pacific and Mediterranean. For the first time in 20 years, two U.S. Navy attack submarines surfaced together at the North Pole. SSG I war-gamed their hypotheses and presented their findings to the Navy leadership, then went to fleet and staff assignments to use what they had learned about strategy and operational art. SSG II convened and began to examine ingenious new offensive Mediterranean and Pacific campaigns. The annual Global War Game reconvened at Newport, with a Mediterranean-focused scenario. And the Intelligence Community published a widely usable National Intelligence Estimate at the secret level that laid out its consensus view of Soviet naval strategy and policy, which U.S. naval planners could use to develop countermeasures.

Meanwhile, the Navys uniformed leaders tasked the strategy whizzes in OP-60 to create the first public version of a maritime strategy brief for widespread circulation within the defense establishment. It was then used to kick off the annual POM build in the fall. OP-60 put together a classified briefing that exceeded all expectations. I approved the brief and used it enthusiastically. Admiral Haywards Warfighting Directorate (OP-095) used it in its warfare appraisals, which informed the next stage of POM development, made easier by the briefings focus on CWC warfare areas and by the assignment to OP-095 of numerous SSG alumni.

That strategy briefing became the basis for hundreds of briefings, usually by OP-603 strategists, to appropriate audiences at war colleges, service academies, congressional committees and subcommittees, academic and U.S. Naval Institute fora, and Washington, fleet, and allied staffs. By 1984, having murder-boarded, honed, and presented the briefing, OP-603 reformatted it as a printed classified OpNav document, with text and graphics, which was signed out by CNO Admiral Watkins. It was updated and expanded in 1985 and joined that year by a classified Amphibious Warfare Strategy, drafted by a NavyMarine Corps team and signed by the CNO and the Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC) jointly. In 1986, the CNO, CMC, and I published an unclassified version of the strategy in a special edition of Proceedings. The message was the same as that of my early speeches, articles, and testimony: (1) We have an appropriate and effective maritime strategy that will ensure our nation maintains its vital maritime superiority; (2) The minimum force needed to execute the strategy is 600 ships, including 15 carrier battle groups; and (3) We have instituted new procurement policies that are bringing down the cost to the American taxpayer of naval systems needed to build and sustain a 600-ship Navy and carry out the strategy.

The Navy of the 1980s began to include numerous new systems, notably, reengined F-14s, Aegis cruisers, Tomahawk land-attack and antiship cruise missiles, improved Los Angelesclass submarines, four recommissioned battleships, vertical launch systems, close-in weapons systems, SLQ-32, and more. Force levels went from 521 battle force ships in 1981 to 594 in 1987. The Navy also instituted and refined new operational and tactical organizations, concepts, and procedures, including O-6-level carrier air wing commanders (also known as Super CAGs), the Naval Strike Warfare Center in Fallon, Nevada (a.k.a. Strike U), outer air battle tactics, and operational maneuver from the sea, to name a few.

I left office as Secretary of the Navy in 1987. The forward maritime strategy, the 600-ship force goal, annual global exercises, and constant tactical innovation were firmly in place. My successors Jim Webb and Will Ball subscribed to them. So, too, did CNO Admiral Watkins successor Admiral Carl Trost, who published three Proceedings articles on the continued validity of the strategy, even as the Soviets began to buckle and Congress began again to slash defense budgets.

In fact, the largest of the global, aggressive, forward at-sea exercises was the enormous Pacific Exercise 89 led by Admiral David Jeremiah. The Global War Games at Newport also continued, with an ever-expanding number of participants. Successive SSGs continued to respond to CNO tasking, including SSG VII, which evaluated the strategy in the Pacific for Admiral Trost in 198687, and SSG IX, which recommended that the CNO repurpose the group, since they saw the Soviets as finished as an enemy. OP-603 strategists continued to brief the strategy around the clock, and Admiral Trost signed the last updated version of the OpNav strategy document in 1989.

Throughout this entire period, President Reagan called on elements of the Navy to help him deal with a global array of wars, crises, incidents, and diplomatic issuesin Grenada, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, the Arabian Gulf, and elsewhere. As each of these operations wound down, the Navy hastened to capture, disseminate, and use lessons learnednot only to improve future performance in similar circumstances, but also to refine tactics, techniques, procedures, and systems intended for use against the Soviets in accordance with the strategy. Lessons from the Falklands War were studied in particularand used.

Finally, the Navy had once more become an elite calling Americans were proud to support and in which they were proud to serve. Popular culture reflected this attitude, from the success of books such as The Hunt for Red October to movies such as Top Gun, TV series including Winds of War, documentaries on finding the Titanic, the stage revival of South Pacific, and Chers unforgettable music video If I Could Turn Back Time.

As the decade ended, Navy morale andwarfighting competence were high, and the American people and their elected leaders again accepted maritime superiority as a strategic deterrent and war-winning necessity for the nation. Plus, of course, the Navy had helped win the Cold War itself.

So, how did the Navy recover and rebuild from the Vietnam War and improve in both quantity and quality to be the dominant Navy in the world by the end of the 1980s? It:

Built well on the foundation of existing official and unofficial Navy institutions, including the geographic and numbered fleets, OpNav, Advanced Technology Panel, Naval War College, CWC concept, strategic planning subspecialty, the Naval Institute, and CNAand fostered interorganizational synergies among all those elements

Created new institutions, organizations, and purposeful activities as needed, including the SSG, Global War Games, Naval Strike Warfare Center, and Super CAGsand fostered synergies among them

Developed, promulgated, and refined a global, offensive, joint, and allied strategy

Identified the most aggressive experts in strategy, operations, tactics, force planning, and cost-cutting; fostered their development; and placed them in critical positions to take advantage of their energy and effectiveness

Focused intelligence efforts, including open-source analyses, on determining the Soviets strategy, operational concepts, vulnerabilities, and weaknesses, and disseminated them throughout the Navys operational leadership and the fleet, to counter the Warsaw Pact military decisively

Expanded and learned from robust programs of at-sea exercises, war games, real-world operations, conferences, murder boards, and historical naval analyses

Adopted justifiable and achievable force goals, consistently sticking to them and ensuring they were resourced

Cut procurement costs, especially through competitive, firm fixed-price contracts, while opposing gold plated design changes

Upgraded existing designs and systems and did not chase research & development rainbows

Accomplished and integrated all these efforts through strong presidential, secretarial, CNO, and CMC leadership

The Navy and Marine Corps today face challenges similar to those of the late 1970s. The force is tired from 20 years of nonstop operations in the Central Command area of responsibility. Procurement has been insufficient to build and maintain a force needed to meet the demands levied against it. And the American people do not have a strong, visceral connection to the Navyhaving been told by successive generations of political leaders from both parties that their country has the strongest, best military in the world, while they were at the same time cutting budgets and increasing demands year after year. All is not lost, however. We have been in such a situation before, and with strong political and military leadership, we can rebuild the Sea Services.

Maritime Strategy for the 21st Century by Thomas Mahnken

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Getting Back On Top: How to Rebuild the Navy - USNI News

This year, the clean energy sector finally started grappling in earnest with one of its biggest challenges: how to get enough minerals to build solar panels, wind turbines, and big batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage. Figuring that out will be critical for escaping fossil-fueled ecological disaster. Itll also be crucial for policymakers and industry to move forward without throwing certain communities under the bus in the transition to clean energy.

Instead of cutting through landscapes with oil and gas wells and pipelines, clean energy industries and their suppliers will open up the Earth to hunt for critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and copper. Compared to a gas-fired power plant, an onshore wind turbine requires nine times more mineral resources, according to the International Energy Agency. Building an EV requires six times more minerals than a gas-powered car.

Its about time to scrutinize what that hunger for minerals might cause, given the recent boom in pledges from countries and companies alike to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Digging up the necessary minerals is already proving to be a minefield. Protests are popping up at proposed mines that no one really wants in their backyard. The conflicts that cropped up in 2021 are just the beginning of a challenging road ahead.

In May, the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a warning: the world isnt mining enough of the minerals that are the building blocks of a clean energy future. And supply chains for many critical minerals are vulnerable, according to the IEAs report. Left unaddressed, these potential vulnerabilities could make global progress towards a clean energy future slower and more costly and therefore hamper international efforts to tackle climate change, Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said in a statement at the time. This is what energy security looks like in the 21st century.

The cobalt used in EV batteries, for example, mostly comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. A majority of the worlds rare earth minerals, used in EV motors and wind turbines, are produced and processed in China. So if anything rattles production in those countries, the whole world might feel the effects. On top of that, the concentration of power over vital resources in specific countries and companies creates the potential for environmental and human rights abuses, which have plagued supply chains for cobalt and rare earth minerals. Investigations into cobalt mines that are essential suppliers to the EV battery industry have already found widespread labor abuses.

To make things harder, the COVID-19 pandemic has put even more pressure on clean energy supply chains. Rising shipping and commodity prices could delay or even cancel solar projects slated for 2022, according to research firm Rystad Energy. Soaring metal prices could slow down the entire transition to renewable energy throughout the decade, says the International Monetary Fund.

Regardless, Joe Biden has committed the US to halving its emissions from peak levels this decade. Longer term, hes pushing for a clean-energy grid by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2050. In order to reach those goals, the US will need large quantities of minerals, which is why the Biden administration has made securing them a priority since stepping into office this year. By June, Biden had announced a whole-of-government effort to shore up domestic supply chains, with a big focus on critical minerals and advanced batteries used for renewable energy and electric vehicles. As the administration sees it, domestic supply chains can help the US wean itself off dirty fossil fuels, while also minimizing its reliance on mining in other countries especially where labor abuses are a big problem.

But even in the US, clean energy-related mining can come with costs, and its already looking like Native Americans and other marginalized groups might bear a disproportionate burden of those costs. One high-profile tussle is building up at Nevadas Thacker Pass, the site of the largest lithium resource in the country. If a proposed lithium mine moves forward, it will dig up a potential gravesite thats sacred to members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes and other local tribes. Residents are also worried about how the mine might harm wildlife and use up water in a state suffering a historic drought. The Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho faces the prospect of a new mining project tearing up their landscape to produce gold, a key ingredient for many electronics, and antimony, that could be used in futuristic batteries. Then theres the proposed copper mine at Oak Flat in Arizona that would desecrate lands sacred to members of the San Carlos Apache Nation and other Indigenous peoples in the region. Copper is widely used across the grid and for solar and wind energy technologies.

Around the world, the race is on to find new sources of the minerals needed for clean energy. Mining companies are now eyeing patches of the seafloor that contain polymetallic nodules rich in cobalt, rare earth elements, and other metals. While companies argue that mining the seafloor is one way to avoid polluting communities near land-based mines, their eagerness to bring heavy industry to a largely unexplored environment has alarmed hundreds of marine scientists, who published a statement in September saying such activity could irreparably hurt deep-sea ecosystems. Despite their concerns, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which oversees activities on the high seas, is seemingly poised to push through new rules that could open up the worlds oceans for deep sea-mining after convening earlier this month.

There are ways to get the minerals the clean energy revolution needs while minimizing the impact on people and the planet. Startups are figuring out how to get better at recycling lithium batteries. Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to create millions of clean energy jobs while defending workers right to unionize, which might offer workers in US mines more protections. Tribes are entitled to free, prior, and informed consent to any project that might affect them or their territories, under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We can also boost energy efficiency, use more public transit, and consume less.

As renewable energy starts to outpace fossil fuels, it will need to avoid the ways coal, oil, and gas bulldozed through communities at great costs to people and the environment. And if decision-makers can chart a path for a just transition to renewable energy, they might be able to heal more than the damage our demand for energy has inflicted on the climate.

Continued here:

2021 was the year clean energy finally faced its mining problem - The Verge

A roll-on-roll-off ship recently arrived in Russia with a precious cargo of cars to be delivered to new owners. There was just one problem: much of the ship and its load of cars were encased in frozen seawater.

On December 27, Panama-flagged car carrier Sun Rio arrived in Vladivostok, Russias port. It departed Busan in South Korea just a few days earlier with a full load of cars, reports Russian news site VL. Many of them were new Hondas and other Japanese cars headed to dealerships and customers. The ship arrived with itself and its cargo covered in reportedly tens of centimeters of ice.

The Sun Rio was built in 1991 in Japanby Yamanishi Shipbuilding & Iron Works. At a gross tonnage of 7,578 tons, its substantially smaller than the car carriers that deliver cars to the States.

And in the Sun Rios case, some of its vehicular cargo rides out on an open deck completely exposed to the elements.

Sun Rio is among the many ships that deliver cars to Vladivostoks amazing car market, which includes the famous Green Corner where all kinds of JDM forbidden fruit can be found.

Sun Rio reportedly hit some extreme weather in the Sea of Japan, notes Marine Insight. A combination of high winds, cold air and rough seas washed water over the deck, which froze. Many of the cars on the deck were covered in ice so thick that they were unrecognizable. Since were talking seawater here, the salt is certainly not good for finishes, fasteners or really anywhere else.

Other vehicles were even more unlucky as the ice shattered windows, allowing interiors to fill up with water before freezing.

Area temperatures hung at about -2 Fahrenheit at the time, so sailors werent going to be able to wait for the ice to melt. Instead, theyre using reagents, fire hydrants and even crowbars to break the cars out of the ice.

Local ship Captain Pyotr Osichansky spoke to VL and indicated that the winds are stronger this year than usual, but this has happened before and the sailors can handle it. Employees of the aforementioned Green Corner tell VL that its common for cars to come into the country like this and its expected that some might get damaged.

Sun Rio remains docked at port. It is unclear what the future holds for these vehicles, but if theyre sold to buyers I hope those people get some decent rust protection.

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Cars Arrive At Port Covered In Salty Ice After Ship Sails Through Bad Weather - Jalopnik

NBC courted millennial and Gen-Z demographics with its New Years Eve centerpiece, Mileys New Years Eve Party, Hosted by Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson. The live special aired Friday, Dec. 31 from 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET on NBC, with a livestream on Peacock.

The Miami-based event opened with Davidson and Cyrus rapping a lengthy parody version of Will Smiths Miami, with Davidson joking that Bill Cosby and Kevin Spacey might show up to celebrate. Shots of fans moving their masks to the side to vape in the crowd immediately followed, setting the tone for the night.

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After a short joint monologue with jokes about COVID and crying along to Cyrus songs (who hasnt?!), the duo introduced an upbeat performance of Tap In and Icy Chain from Saweetie, complete with masked backup dancers. The music continued with a quick transition to Anitta performing Faking Love, with a return from Saweetie for the feature.

Davidson returned after the commercial to give a bit of standup about feeling out of place at such a cool event, and then kicked it over to performance from Cyrus and Brandi Carlile of the latters 2007 single The Story, and following up with a duet on Cyrus 2009 hit The Climb.

Jack Harlow continued with a performance of the lyrics-heavy SUVs (Black on Black), quickly transitioning into his enormous hit Whats Poppin and the Lil Nas X collaboration Industry Baby.

Davidson and Cyrus followed with a fun pretaped sketch about how their storied drug use and wild behavior (and Davidsons Staten Island heritage!) are a show for the cameras.

You cant tell anyone this: Ive never actually smoked pot before, Cyrus quipped, skewering her reputation as a major head. The two also confessed to having fake tattoos (These are like stickers I buy from Claires, Cyrus confessed of her copious body art). Im not even from Staten Island, responded Davidson, who toplined the 2020 autobiographical drama The King of Staten Island.

Story continues

Cyrus followed the sketch with a faithfully retro rendition of Blondies 1978 hit Heart of Glass and a rendition of her 2013 tune Plastic Hearts.

Rising rapper 24kGoldn, decked out in a pinstriped suit sprinkled with rhinestones, followed with a soulful rendition of his recent hit More Than Friends.

Cyrus returned to perform a duet with her younger sister, singer Noah Cyrus, on Dolly Partons haunting 1974 country classic Jolene. LIke Parton, the Cyrus sisters are natives of Tennessee.

As the clock ticked down at four minutes to midnight ET, Davidson took center stage to engage with audience members. Given the struggles of the past year with the pandemic and other ills, the SNL star suggested the crowd think back to 2009 and the big events of that year, which included the miracle on the Hudson plane landing in New York by veteran pilot Chelsey Sully Sullenberger and a hijacking drama on the high seas on a merchant vessel that ended with bravery by the crew led by Captain Richard Phillips.

We had nothing to worry about, Davidson joked about 2009. It was a great year for guys who would later be played by Tom Hanks, but a bad year for pirates and geese.

Cyrus then took the stage to perform her hits We Cant Stop and Party in the U.S.A. At one point, she had to run off stage briefly as her slinky halter top became loose, returning quickly with a jacket added to her ensemble. In the specials final quarter-hour, singer-songwriter Carlile delivered a crowd-pleasing version of Bonnie Tylers anthemic 1983 smash Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Miley delivered the closing showstopper and told the crowd that pulling off the special was all about flexibility.

Lets bring that into the new year with us, Cyrus said. The special closed with a chryon slate featuring the quote Every ending is a new beginning.

Mileys New Years Eve Party was crafted to capitalize on Cyrus and Davidsons outspoken personalities, with the former describing the special on a Jimmy Fallon segment as, Hell be funny and Ill be naked, and together weve got a show. Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer (and Davidsons boss) Lorne Michaels executive produced this special.

In addition to his work on Saturday Night Live, Davidson had a busy 2021, with appearances in James Gunns superhero film The Suicide Squad, the police procedural The Rookie and a leading voice performance in the animated comedy The Freak Brothers. Up next are roles in the slasher Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and the Kaley Cuoco rom-com Meet Cute. Meanwhile, Cyrus collaborated with a wide range of artists on new music in 2021, including Lil Nas X, the Kid Laroi, Elton John and Yo-Yo Ma.

Watch Cyrus and Davidson speak to Fallon about planning the special below:

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Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidsons Best New Years Eve Party Moments - Yahoo Finance UK

Mumbai: For nearly half a decade now, Mumbai has been a maze of construction sites due to several multi-crore infrastructure projects going on that promise to ease its traffic woes.

However, to ensure that the city is less cluttered by construction in the new year, government authorities are trying to speed up some projects.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is implementing the bulk of these works, has put in place an acceleration plan to pare the setback to various projects caused by delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Major projects such as the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) connecting Sewri to Nhava Sheva, a coastal road being built from Marine Drive to Worli by reclaiming land, an underground Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro, and around nine other Metro lines a combination of elevated and underground are taking shape on Mumbais overcrowded roads.

The two Covid waves through 2020 and 2021 hit almost all these showpiece works with labour shortages, supply-chain issues and delays in coordinating with international experts critical to various components of these projects.

As a result, the city has become a jungle of concrete and iron. Arterial roads have been narrowed for traffic using barricades, countless buildings are covered in scaffoldings, and large cranes and construction workers shuffle around the streets.

A lot of these projects have multiple issues, starting from working amid day-to-day traffic, to getting the right of way, finding car depots etc. All these projects have been under construction for the last 4-5 years now. People have suffered a lot, S.V.R. Srinivas, metropolitan commissioner at the MMRDA, told ThePrint.

Hopefully, 2022 will be the year when the deliveries can begin, he added.

Also read: Infra projects to boost connectivity in 129 villages around Mumbai, MMRDA wants planning rights

In 2022, the MMRDA hopes to commission two elevated Metro lines in the western suburbs one 16.5-km line from Dahisar East to Andheri East along the Western Express Highway, and the other from Dahisar to D.N. Nagar in Andheri West, spanning 18.5 km.

The construction of the two elevated Metro corridors had started in 2016 and the original deadline for these projects was set as 2019 by the previous Devendra Fadnavis-led state government.

The MMRDA was eventually hoping to commission the lines by around May 2021, but the challenges due to the pandemic and lingering right-of-way issues threw the projects out of gear.

For the two Metro lines and the 22-km Sewri-Nhava MTHL, the construction of which is with the MMRDA, the authority has put in place an acceleration plan that involves working in multiple shifts and on multiple fronts parallelly, rather than sequentially.

Srinivas said they are calling it a catch-up plan.

We have asked contractors to employ more labour at one time and work almost round the clock in shifts. Contractors are focusing on multiple work sites at once. We are also tackling the various components of the project in parallel wherever possible, rather than waiting for one thing to get over and then moving on to the next, he added.

On MTHL, our labour is working on the high seas in three shifts, with work going on 24/7. Early 2021, the deadline for MTHL was being projected as 2024-end. We are now trying to complete it by 2023-end, he further said.

The MTHL, touted to be the countrys longest sea link, will be the main connector from Mumbai to the under-construction Navi Mumbai International Airport, and is also expected to boost commercial and residential development in Navi Mumbai.

Commercial operations at the Navi Mumbai airport are likely to begin in December 2024. The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) which is implementing the project in a public-private partnership completed the pre-development works, involving hill cutting and diversion of a water body, required for the construction of the airport in 2021.

The concessionaire, the Adani Group, started its share of the work at Navi Mumbai airport in August.

In 2021, the MMRDA also started work on a connector to the MTHL (at Sewri) from Worli, effectively connecting the trans-harbour link to the western suburbs through the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, and south Mumbai through the coastal road. Worli is where the coastal road and sea link meet.

According to Srinivas, in 2022, the MMRDA will also accelerate work on some other Metro lines under construction such as the 23.64-km D.N. Nagar-Mandale line, the 15-km Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli line, and the 32-km Wadala-Kasarvadavali line, among others.

Also read: A first in India: Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link to have special decks to make longer-span bridge

In 2021, construction of the 33.5-km Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro gathered pace.

The project, work on which started in 2017, has seen completion of 70 per cent of the total civil work, with 97 per cent of the underground tunnels having been bored, Ranjit Singh Deol, managing director (MD) of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), the implementing authority of the project, told ThePrint.

Work on 11 stations Cuffe Parade, Vidhan Bhavan, Churchgate, Hutatma Chowk, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai Central, Siddhivinayak, Mumbai airports Terminal 2, Marol, MIDC, Seepz is said to be 85 per cent complete.

The construction of 10 more stations Mahalaxmi, Science Museum, Worli, Dadar, Dharavi, BKC, Vidyanagari, Santacruz, Terminal 1 of Mumbai airport, and Sahar Road is 75 per cent done.

Work on five other stations Girgaon, Kalbadevi, Grant Road, Shitaladevi, Aacharya Atre Chowk is at the 50 per cent completion mark.

It is noteworthy that two trains are ready, another is in process and more than 15 per cent of the tracks have already been laid, which means work is progressing, Deol said.

The fate of the project, however, currently hangs in the balance, with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance government having decided that it wants to move the car depot for the line from its original location, the ecologically sensitive Aarey Milk Colony in Goregaon.

The location of the car depot for the metro project has been a bone of contention between estranged allies Thackerays Shiv Sena, which leads the MVA government, and the Opposition BJP, which is in power at the Centre.

The Thackeray-led state government had decided to move the car depot to a plot in Kanjurmarg, but the Centre has stalled the move, claiming ownership of the land. The matter has been in the Bombay High Court since December last year, and is still sub-judice.

The infrastructure project that was least impacted by the pandemic was the coastal freeway from Marine Drive to Worli.

For other infrastructure projects, reverse migration of labour during the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 considerably slowed down the pace of work. But reclamation of land for the costal road progressed well as it was not very labour-intensive.

As 2022 begins, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has almost completed the reclamation required for the project, with works such as construction of sea walls likely to be wrapped up by June.

The coastal road includes the countrys first undersea tunnel with a diameter of 40 feet. The BMC expects the tunneling to be completed by January or February 2023, Ashwini Bhide, additional municipal commissioner, told ThePrint.

Bhide said that, overall, the project is likely to be completed by December 2023. The deadline, she said, is conditional to BMC being able to resolve the woes of fishermen who are protesting against the project, hampering work on an interchange that will connect the coastal road to the Worli-end of the sea link.

The protesting fishermen are insisting that the span (distance between two pillars) be 200 metres long, which is not logical. We have kept three spans of 60 metres for navigation. We have met all regulatory compliances, but during construction there can be some livelihood loss. We have employed the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to study this and have also shown our willingness to give them ad hoc compensation, Bhide added.

The agitation by the fishermen remains the only major challenge in the project that needs to be resolved in 2022. If it is not resolved, the coastal road will not connect to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Bhide said.

Barring the coastal road, all infrastructure projects in Mumbai were hit by a severe labour shortage on account of Covid-19. There was a scarcity of skilled workers and technicians for specialised work, while workers tested positive for Covid.

MMRDA metropolitan commissioner Srinivas said they undertook a special drive and accelerated the vaccination of their workers.

Now most of them are double-vaccinated. Secondly, technical people were working from abroad. That was a big constraint to remotely work without meeting them, especially for the two lines that are to be commissioned in 2022. They were here only 10 per cent of the time, he added.

Delivery of components, especially those coming from foreign countries such as Taiwan, Japan, and Malaysia, was also delayed, Srinivas said.

MMRC MD Deol said that despite Covid, they have executed works worth more than Rs 5,000 crore between April 2020 and December 2021.

The project has progressed even during this period, but a lot of effort and planning has gone into it. We may state that sans pandemic the project figures could have looked much better than what they appear, he added.

While the authorities are looking forward to ramping up work and starting inaugurations of certain projects in 2022, their optimism comes with a note of caution.

Let us not forget, the pandemic continues and it made us and the project suffer. There will be restrictions on work, manpower, skilled workforce, supply chains, experts and general speed of the work, said Deol.

People are affected psychologically and are weary of unknown fears. But despite these limitations, all stakeholders are committed to deliver their best and keep the progress going, he added.

This is an updated version of the report.

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)

Also read: Mumbais Rs 14,262 crore trans-harbour link may get more expensive over design changes, delays

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2022 could be year Mumbai begins to shed under-construction look, authorities have a plan - ThePrint