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Whitewater Station, the project that will replace Jerrys 27th St. Market in Downtown Boise, looks closer to launching.

The project, also known as The Corner at Whitewater, will replace the Jerrys 27th St. Market, a former Islamic Center and a single-family home on the corner of 27th St. and Stewart Ave.

Four buildings will face Stewart Ave., with a series of 28 three-story townhomes. The homes will feature two and three bedrooms each and include a garage. The condos will also include outside decks and balconies.

A commercial space sits on the corner of 27th & Stewart, with a patio space. Plans indicate a retail or restaurant for the shop space. Blane Harvey with the group developing the site told BoiseDev in 2018 what they hope to see.

We would love to see a little coffee shop theres apatio out there too or maybe a specialty market with deli sandwiches, he said. (We want) something low use, not going to disturb tenants but provide a nice amenity for the neighborhood

Thirty-four parking spots inside the garages and 21 on-street parking spaces meet Boises guidelines. The project will allocate six spaces to the commercial space.

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Whitewater Station to bring condos to 27th St. in Boise, ID - boisedev.com

Downtown Dallas biggest development project the $450 million redo of the landmark First National Bank tower is headed toward completion later this year.

And the skyscraper has landed a high-profile tenant.

Since last year, developer Todd Interests has been working to restore the 52-story high-rise, which dates to 1965.

The iconic central business district building is being turned into a combination of office and retail space, apartments and a luxury hotel.

The ambitious project has been renamed The National.

Economic development group Downtown Dallas Inc. will be the first major tenant, taking space on three floors of the Elm Street building to house its headquarters and other operations.

We have been champions of this project, and it was a unique opportunity to put all of our operations under one roof, said Kourtny Garrett, president and CEO of Downtown Dallas Inc.

The organizations headquarters is now located in the Bank of America Plaza, and Downtown Dallas has other workers and operations housed in locations across the central business district.

Garrett said its office at The National will include a storefront on Pacific Avenue that will serve as an information center for downtown.

Its been one of our dreams to have that kind of a showcase space for downtown, she said.

Downtown Dallas, which has about 100 employees, will also have offices on the fourth and fifth floors of the building.

Developer Shawn Todd said Downtown Dallas has been one of the biggest proponents of the project, which stalled twice and faced foreclosure before Todd Interests took over the deal last May. We are excited to be able to have a facility that has the space to accommodate their needs, Todd said. There is no greater ambassador for our city than Downtown Dallas Inc.

Todd said the building will start opening in September and October.

There will be people living in this building in September, he said. The goal is to have the hotel open in the fall.

Its our goal to have everything completed by the end of the year.

The office tower, which sat vacant for more than a decade, will house a 219-room Thompson Hotel, 324 luxury apartment units, restaurants and retail, and offices.

Dallas Merriman Anderson Architects designed the renovations, and Andres Construction is the general contractor.

Todd Interests partnered with investor Moriah Real Estate to acquire the skyscraper after the previous developers couldnt obtain funding to continue the project.

The developers got $100 million in historic tax credits and $50 million in Dallas tax increment financing that made the huge renovation project viable.

Opened in 1965 as the home of First National Bank, the 1401 Elm St. tower was designed by noted Dallas architects George Dahl and Thomas Stanley.

The high-rise closed in 2010 when office occupancy in the building severely declined.

It has been the largest vacant building in North Texas and the last of the citys great skyscrapers to be repurposed.

This is the last vacant building of the 42 that existed 20 years ago, Garrett said.

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Downtown Dallas' $450 million First National Bank redo nears opening with new tenant - The Dallas Morning News

Theres certainly been no cease fire on the horizon in the office amenity war, but the condition of the overall space itself is also vitally important. Whether in the heart of the CBD or out in the suburbs, office users continue to show a proclivity for new or renovated spaces.

According to the latest Cawley Chicago data, compiling statistics for leases, sales and projects under construction in the Chicago metro, its clear that tenants continue to be drawn to high-end office spaces in the CBD. Cawley also compared the downtown Chicago office submarket with those in suburban Schaumburg and the eastern East-West Corridor to get an idea of how the markets perform in relation to one another.

Ubers 463,000 commitment at the Old Post Officebrokered by CBRE, with The Telos Group representing the building owner, 601W Cos.was the largest new lease of the year. The rideshare firm was one of the earliest tenants to sign into the 2.8-million-square-foot behemoth, which is undergoing an $800 million renovation.

The largest transaction, however, was Uniteds renewal of 816,300 feet at the Willis Tower, with plans for refurbishing their space in phases and the addition of a 30,000-square-foot cafeteria and amenity deck. JLL brokered that deal for United and The Telos Group represented the Blackstone Group, which is nearing the completion of a $500 million capital improvement program for the iconic building.

Heading into 2020, we continue to see solid market leasing fundamentals mainly in the Class A and higher-end Class B asset classes, said Rawly Lantz, principal at Cawley Chicago. These underlying fundaments are especially true within those buildings who have recent renovations and more modern updates.

In the past 12 months, there were 5 million square feet of new space delivered to the market. Chicagos office sector had a 12.3 percent vacancy rate in the fourth quarter, up slightly from the 12.0 percent vacancy rate in Q3 2019. Over the past year, according to Cawley Chicago figures, office rents in the metro inched up by 0.9 percent.

There are another 7,140,000 square feet of new office space now under construction, 36.3 percent of which was pre-leased as of Q4 2019. These projects include BMO Tower (co-developed by Riverside Investment & Development and Convexity Properties) and Bank of America Tower (co-developed by Riverside and the Howard Hughes Corporation). Combined, these developments will add over 3 million square feet along the Chicago River.

Development hasnt slowed down in Fulton Market, either. Shapack Partners and Focus are nearing completion of 167 N. Green Street, a 17-story, 645,000-square-foot ground-up project. 800 W. Fulton Street, a joint venture between Thor Equities and QuadReal, isnt slated to open until next spring, but Aspen Dental Management has committed to 197,000 of the buildings 480,490 square feet.

The two suburban submarkets that Cawley Chicago highlighted in their report, the eastern portion of the East-West corridor and Schaumburg, saw their absorption dip into the red last year, with -645,000 and -502,000 square feet of net absorption, respectively. Rents shrank slightly in the Schaumburg area by -0.3 percent, though the eastern East-West corridor managed to eke out positive rent growth of 1.5 percent in the 12 months ending in Q4 2019.

For building owners, there is a clearly a positive rental rate advantage for those suburban markets closer to interstate infrastructure, train system and the city. We continue to see small and large companies alike wanting and needing a suburban presence but looking for the amenities they might see within the downtown Chicago market, Lantz said. This is true both within their leased premises, within the building common areas and in nearby restaurant and retail developments.

The only commercial office building under construction in the East-West corridor is a 135,000-square-foot build-to-suit for the expanding Hub Group. However, Hines has approval to begin work on Oak Brook Commonsa mixed-use development on a former McDonalds office site in Oak Brookthat will include more than 200,000 square feet of office space in addition to retail, multifamily and hotel.

Antunovich Associates is collaborating with Hines to develop the master plan for Oak Brook Commons. The 17.5-acre project is betting that amenities inside and outside will be a draw to office tenants; the plan calls for 250 apartments, 104 condos, a 252-room hotel, three restaurants, retail and park space, in addition to office space.

Link:
Downtown and in the suburbs, new office space continues to draw tenants - REjournals.com

Residents of south Fayette County, along with those from the Senoia area, will soon have another option for grocery shopping. The Senoia City Council on Feb. 17 approved a new shopping center at Ga. highways 85 and 16 that will be the location of a Publix grocery store and a number of additional retail stores.

Variances for four parcels totaling approximately 13 acres on the north corner of the intersection were approved by council members, with the shopping center wrapping around Marathon Gas and Isabel Mexican Grill located on the corner.

The shopping center will be accessed from both Hwy. 85 and Hwy. 16.

Site plans for the 10.33-acre grocery parcel included a 48,387 sq. ft. grocery store and approximately 14,700 sq. ft. of adjacent retail space for 10 retail store fronts.

Parking will accommodate more than 300 vehicles, the site plan noted.

Plans also included three outparcels, of approximately one acre each, fronting Hwy. 16.

There was no mention of anticipated construction or opening dates, said City Community Development Director Dina Rimi.

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Publix coming to Senoia's 85-16 intersection - The Citizen.com

Progressive CasualtyInsurance Companyhas signed a lease for 18,089 square feet of office space at The Offices at Victory Ridge, the first Class A speculative office development in Colorado Springs in over a decade.

Brad T. Bird with CBREsColorado Springs office and John Marold with CBREs Denver office represented the landlord, Mission Hill Capital.

Securing a commitment of this caliber pre-delivery is a major winfor the project and the market overall. The leasing of this space to a high-profile tenant provesthere is demand for new, quality product, stated Mr. Bird.

The Offices at Victory Ridge is located at 10855 Hidden Pool Heights, off Interstate 25 and Interquest Parkway in northColorado Springs, surrounded by retail and entertainment offerings. The property includes onefour-story office tower and two two-story buildings to the east and west of Icon Cinema, a luxurytheater brand that opened in November 2017 at Victory Ridge and is home to Colorados largestmovie screen. Victory Ridge is also the site of In-N-Out Burgers first Colorado retail locationand new distribution facility, currently under construction. In addition to its office space, thelarger complex is slated to include 221 townhomes, medical office space, at least one hotel andnumerous other restaurants and retailers.

Upon completion, The Offices at Victory Ridge will total 145,053 square feet of office and retail spacewith flexible suites ranging from 1,330 square feet to over 100,000 square feet of contiguous space. Designfeatures include dedicated garage parking, expansive windows with front range views, third andfourth floor balconies, and first floor patio spaces.

Headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio, Progressive is a national insurance company and hasadditional office space located in North Colorado Springs.The new Progressive office space will be built out over the next several months with occupancytentatively scheduled for August 2020.

Photo courtesy of CBRE

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Progressive Insurance Joins The Offices at Victory Ridge - milehighcre.com

Construction has topped out at Caton Flats, a 14-story residential tower in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The structure is located at 800 Flatbush Avenue and will eventually support a community of 255 affordable housing units and revitalize the long-running Flatbush Caton Market with 16,000 square feet of new space for a Caribbean marketplace and an economic development incubator.

The strong alignment between the real estate, community, and construction entities involved in this project enabled us to meet this milestone well in advance of schedule, said Meredith Marshall, co-founder and managing partner of BRP Companies, the lead developer responsible for Caton Flats. This project is a true partnership between many community groups and local leaders connected in their commitment to serving Flatbush, and were excited to be watching this vision come to fruition in real time.

While the site is under construction, the Flatbush Caton Market continues to operate out of a temporary location at 2184 Clarendon Road in Flatbush. Upon completion, the market will reopen at its original location with upgraded amenities for its existing small business owners, expanded space for food vendors including a bar, caf, and shared commercial kitchen, as well as flex space for the community.

Additional components include 5,000 square feet of supplemental community space owned and operated by the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) and 10,000 square feet dedicated to local retail.

The project is designed by Magnusson Architecture and Planning and developed in collaboration by BRP Companies, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Housing Development Corporation, and the CACCI.

The structure was expected to top out this spring, but achieved the milestone earlier this month. The entire project is expected to debut in 2021.

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Caton Flats Tops Out Ahead of Schedule at 800 Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn - New York YIMBY

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA) completes its third transaction of February by financing the construction of 1100 Eastern Avenue Apartments, 63 affordable apartments in Ward 7. DCHFA issued $13.9 million in tax exempt bonds and underwrote $9.8 million in low income housing tax credit (LIHTC) equity. "The Deanwood neighborhood is seeing a great deal of development and has become a sought after place to live, especially since being designated an Opportunity Zone. It is the Agency's goal to ensure that affordable housing remains a top priority amidst all of this development," stated Christopher E. Donald, Interim Executive Director, DCHFA.

The apartments at 1100 Eastern Avenue will consist of 11 efficiencies, 30 one-bedrooms, 2 two-bedrooms, 16 three-bedrooms and 4 four-bedrooms. Thirteen of those apartments will be reserved for residents earning 30 percent or less area median income (AMI), and the remaining 50 apartments will be reserved for those earning up to 50 percent AMI. Twenty percent of the units will be Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) accepting Local Rent Supplement Program (LRSP) vouchers. Residents in the PSH apartments will have access to support services through Community Connections DC (CCDC), to include educational and vocational, psychiatric and behavioral, legal concerns, substance abuse and physical health and more.

The five-story $29.6 million building will feature 4,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, open-air courtyards, and a green roof. Additional amenities include an advanced security system with an intercom, video surveillance, key FOB access and on-site management. There will be a 16-space parking garage and 21 indoor bicycle storage units. All of the apartments will have new washers and dryers, refrigerators, garbage disposals, dishwashers and central air conditioning.

Additional funding for this project came in the form of an $11.4 million Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF) loan from the DC Department of Housing and Community Development. This is the Agency's third recent project in the Deanwood neighborhood, having financed the construction of the Strand Residences and Providence Place Apartments in August 2019.

Through its Multifamily Lending and Neighborhood Investment and Capital Markets divisions, DCHFA issues tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds to lower the developers' costs of acquiring, constructing and rehabilitating rental housing. The Agency offers private for-profit and non-profit developers low cost predevelopment, construction and permanent financing that supports the new construction, acquisition, and rehabilitation of affordable rental housing in the District.

The District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency is an S&P A + rated issuer in its 40th year of serving Washington, D.C.'s residents. The Agency's mission is to advance the District of Columbia's housing priorities; the Agency invests in affordable housing and neighborhood development, which provides pathways for D.C. residents to transform their lives. We accomplish our mission by delivering the most efficient and effective sources of capital available in the market to finance rental housing and to create homeownership opportunities.

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DCHFA Finances Third Affordable Apartment Community of the Month in Ward 7's Deanwood - Benzinga

Construction of commercial buildings should continue at record levels in Auckland and Waikato over the next couple of years, although the outlook in other regions is more mixed.

According to Statistics NZ, consents were issued for a record $682 million of new commercial buildings in Aucklandlast year, excluding the costs of land and other non-construction costs,and that comes after three very strong years in which commercial consents were well above $500 million a year.

The demand for warehouse space was one of themain drivers of that growth, with consents issued for a record 383,564 square metres of new storage buildings in Auckland last year, with a record value of $384 million.

Demand for accommodation in the hospitality sector was also a major factor, with consents issued for 85,434 square metres of new commercial accommodation space suchas motels and hotels, which was a 21 year record.

New factory space consented dropped back from 143,675 square metres in 2018 to 105,014 square metres last year, but remained substantially above the levels consented between 2009 and 2017.

Consents for new office space more than doubled to 93,470 square metres last year, compared to 43,461 square metres in 2018, but remained below the levels of 2014-2017 when more than 100,000 square metres a new office space a year was consented.

Retail went against the trend with a sharp decline in the amount of new retail space consented in Auckland last year,droppingback from the record 256,612square metres consented in 2018 to 107,572square metres last year.

However much the retail space consented last year was probably of higher value, with the average value of retail consents issued last year coming at $3496 per square metre. This was an all time high andmore than double the 2018 average of $1634 per square metre.

The Waikato is also experiencing a commercial construction boom, with a record $127.1 million of new commercial buildings consented in the region last year, more than double the $60.7 million consented in 2018.

That growth was mainly driven by big increases in consents for factories of $134.5 million (up 37% compared to 2018), offices $67.8 million (+78%) and retail space $59.3 million (+161%).

So tower cranes, concrete trucks and traffic cones are likes to remain features of the landscapes in Auckland and Hamilton for some time.

However drivers and pedestrians may get a bit of relief from construction activity in other centres.

In the Bay of Plenty the value of consents for new commercial space plunged dramatically,from $113 million in 2018 to $57 million in 2019, which was its lowest level in five years.

And commercial construction in the Wellington Region can be a bitlike its weather - changeable.

Last year consents for $57.2 million of construction work for new commercial spacewere issued in Wellington, up from $39.2 million in 2018 but the second lowest level since 2013, and less than a third of the value of the commercial consents issued in Wellington 2016.

In Otago the outlook for commercial construction is basically flat, with $54.5 million of commercial consents issued last year, up just 2.2% compared to 2018.

Not surprisingly the big downward move in consents issued for new commercial space last year was in Canterbury, where theirtotal value was $128 million last year, down 49% compared to 2018 anddown million last year and down 80% since the 2014 peak of $636 million.

That puts Canterbury within a hair's breadth of being overtaken by Waikato for having the second highest level of new commercial consents issued in the country.

Acrossthe entire country the value of consentsissued fornew commercial space was $1.211 billionlast year, down just a smidgen from the $1.243 billion issued in 2018. Thatmeans the overall contribution to theeconomy from commercial construction is likely to stay around existing levels for at least the next year or two, although it's likely to be increasingly concentrated in the upper North Island.

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A boom in commercial construction in Auckland and Waikato is compensating for the wind down of construction activity in Christchurch - Interest.co.nz

Silenos Energy will turn over technical management of the plant to the Munich municipal utility.

Stadtwerke Mnchen (SWM) is one of the largest energy and infrastructure companies in Germany as a municipal energy expert in the state capital of Munich.They provide the city with electricity, natural gas, district heating, district cooling and fresh drinking water in a safe and climate-friendly manner and they operate the 18 indoor and summer pools.

Oliver Friedlaender, technical director of Silenos Energy, said, The decisive factor for us is SWM's many years of extensive expertise in the use of geothermal energy.The existing know-how of SWM, which guarantees safe, legally compliant operation as well as maintenance and repair, convinced usto have found a very good partner for the future. "

Helge-Uve Braun, technical director of SWM, commented," SWM has been operating five of its own geothermal plants for more than 16 years and have already successfully taken on operational management tasks for third-party plants.We will bring our experience from construction and operation into the Bruck geothermal plant as a strong partner.We thank you for the trust that Silenos Energy has placed in us and are convinced that we can meet or even exceed the expectations placed in us.

In Garching an der Alz, SWM will ensure the fully automated, technical operation of the geothermal plant.This includes permanent monitoring, regular system checks, the organization of maintenance work, troubleshooting and repair work.Thanks to the cooperation between Silenos Energy and Stadtwerke Mnchen, the partners not only exchange valuable experience and knowledge, but also work together for safe and reliable renewable energy supply in Garching an der Alz and in Munich.

Silenos Energy is a joint venture between RAG Austria AG, Austria's most traditional exploration and production company, and STRABAG, the European technology company for construction services.In its core business, Silenos Energy combines the expertise of companies in power plant and plant engineering (STRABAG) and in deep drilling technology (RAG) for the development, construction and operation of geothermal plants.

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Geothermal - SWM Will Take Over Technical Operational Management Of Geothermal Power Plant In Bruck - Renewable Energy Magazine

A recent Coordinating Committee for Automotive Repair webinar explained both danger and precautions associated with what is likely to be an increasingly electrified fleet.

OEMs are committing to sell more models with at least some electrification as the decade progresses. This might range from merely a hybrid powertrain like a Prius, a plug-in hybrid like a Volt, or a fully battery-electric car like a Model 3. All three categories of powertrain can pose a threat of shock or fire, according to CCAR safety content author Bob McGinn. Volvo, for example, has pledged every one of its next-gen models will be at a minimum a hybrid.

McGinn said the Feb. 5 webinars content would pretty much apply to any electrified vehicle, be it a 20-year-old Prius to a modern Tesla. However, he said an older Prius probably used a nickel-metal hydride battery, which doesnt pose the risk of fire he described for a lithium-ion battery.

Heres a little extra context: The current-generation Prius began with the 2016 model year and featured lithium-ion batteries in most versions, which Toyota called a change from the prior-gens Ni-MH and smaller, lighter. The OEM introduced an electric all-wheel drive model for the 2019 model year which used Ni-MH since nickel batteries are inherently resilient to extreme temperature change, Toyota wrote in 2018. All the front-wheel drive 2019 Priuses were lithium-ion, Toyota said.

So even if youve been fixing hybrids for 20 years, dont assume theres nothing to learn about modern electrified powertrains. You might have merely gotten lucky or worked with a different battery chemistry than OEMs are using today. Which means OEM procedures and education like CCARs webinar are vital.

A presentation slide described the webinar as related to hybrid and battery-electric vehicles that may have been compromised, not those under normal handling or diagnostics. A collision repair fell into the former category, as did students handling the vehicle, salvage yard operations and repairs to the electric drive, according to the presentation.

Extraordinary events like a crash or penetration of the battery containment, a fire or a flood could lead to extremely dangerous events, McGinn said. He said such events could also be not necessarily collision, such as the chassis being grounded by striking a pothole or a loss of battery cooling.

Electrified vehicles typically initiate a protection strategy automatically in a crash, but an inability to remove stored energy still creates two major hazards for first responders and auto technicians, according to McGinn.

The first is electric shock, which can happen due to a breach of the batterys protective case, according to McGinn. He said technicians should approach a hybrid with the mindset the battery poses an imminent danger of shock. It should be presumed unstable until inspection in a detailed fashion deems otherwise.

Both Ni-MH and lithium-batteries can produce shocks of up to 800 volts or more, McGinn said. Contact with anything protruding from the battery also has to be avoided, he said.

Repairers can prevent being shocked by using the one-hand and live-dead-live rules mentioned above, according to McGinn.

The one-hand rule means that the user only manipulates a high-voltage device with a single hand, McGinn explained. Only a single hand should be touching a lead, the vehicle or the ground at any time, he said. This prevents you from making a contact circuit and sending electricity through your body if isolation is lost, he said.

The live-dead-live rule involves confirming that a hybrid or electric vehicle battery ostensibly powered down to 0 volts is truly dead. We need to know that zero actually means zero, McGinn said.

Touch the meter leads to an alternate source like a 12-volt battery or other item with the appropriate test spec to see if the meter reads 12 volts, McGinn said. If it does, then immediately test the high-voltage power source thats supposed to be at 0 volts. If it reads 0 volts, test the 12-volt battery again to make sure the meter is still working correctly, he said.

Meters should be tested and used in the same range for live-dead-live and system voltage absence tests, McGinn said.

Repairers will also need personal protective equipment. This should include voltage-appropriate rubber gloves covered by a pair of approved leather gloves (which will minimize damage to the rubber ones) and boots of sufficient electrical protection, according to the presentation. A presentation slide suggested an institution might require a face shield able to provide both NFPA 70E arc Class 2 and ANSI Z87 impact protection. McGinn said work goggles alone werent sufficient.

McGinn also suggested storing anything able to activate the vehicle (key fobs or keys, fuses, service plugs, etc.) in a box secured with two separate locks. Each lock requires a distinct key, and the two keys are held by two separate parties. (For example, a teacher and a student or an owner and technician.) The materials are only removed when everyone agrees the vehicle is ready for them.

Lithium-ion batteries also pose a risk of fire. He said repairers should watch out for popping, hissing, leaking, dripping, smoke or sparks coming from the battery.

They probably mean something significant, McGinn said.

If theres damage to the battery case but no thermal event (fire) yet, a shop should still take precautions like isolating the vehicle outside, 50 feet away from flammables or combustibles, according to McGinn.

The repairer would use a noncontact infrared or thermal imaging to determine if the battery is trending hotter or cooler, McGinn said. If its cooling or stable at ambient temperatures, than the repairer might proceed to further operations, he said. Trending or growing warmer is not a good thing, he said.

The battery should also be monitored for changes in the thermal state during removal from the vehicle, according to McGinn. Your expectation should be that the part is poised to experience a thermal event at any time, he said. A removed battery should be stored outside with the 50-foot radius described above but also protected from the elements, according to McGinn.

CCAR most strongly recommended auto body shops follow OEM handling and repair procedures for any compromised batteries contacting the automaker directly for help if necessary, according to McGinn.

McGinn said you might wonder Is this guy crazy?' But the out-of-control blaze of a thermal runaway demands this level of paranoia, he said.

Thermal runaway is accelerated by increased temperatures, which release energy that in turn raises the temperature further, McGinn said. He said theres no time limit for when it could happen after the battery is compromised.

Thermal runaway could take place weeks after a collision or extraordinary event, McGinn said. It can happen without warning and as a result of many conditions, such as physical damage including crushing, tears or punctures; water intrusion; or the ignition or reignition of the battery after a fire, according to McGinn. Hybrids can contribute to the problem by providing another fuel source, he said.

Once runaway happens, the ability to prevent the blaze quickly is extremely difficult, McGinn said.

Typical Class A-D fire extinguishers simply do not possess the ability of water to cool such a blaze, according to McGinn. And even then, it can take more than 2,500 gallons of water to fully cool and extinguish a runaway battery, he said. The only option is to evacuate and let firefighters handle the battery, he said.

(Electricity and water seems like a bad combination. However a Massachusetts fire departments testing determined it was OK to fight an electric vehicle fire with water because the ground and positive are built into a single container, McGinn said. Theres no completion of the circuit, unlike a structure fire to a building with utility electricity where a path of return would exist, he said.)

Lithium-ion batteries can reach a specific energy of 185-200 Watt-hours per kilogram in terms of how much juice they hold, McGinn explained. But depending on the type of battery and, most importantly, its state of charge, the enthalpy of combustion can reach 1,388-5,500 Watt-hours per kilogram, he said. That number refers to the batterys ability to release heat, according to McGinn who called it a big jump from the 185-200 Watt-hours of specific energy.

If the battery is on fire, all chemistries have the ability to expel much higher heat energy than the amount of electrical energy they contain, McGinn said. Testing of one vehicle battery type found a release of 5,200-8,200 Watts of heat energy per second, he said.

For comparison, a birthday candle burns at 60 Watts per second (and 1,600 degrees), McGinn said.

The more juice a battery has remaining, the sooner a thermal runaway occurs, he said.

Three types of battery failures can produce a thermal runaway, according to McGinn. Thermal instability refers to factors like a fire or elevated temperature without the ability to cool itself. Electrirical instability can involve situations involving an overcharge, reversed polarity or a short circuit. Mechanical instability considerations can include the battery being dropped, involved in a collision or immersed in water.

The magic number for a thermal runaway appears to be 374-392 degrees Fahrenheit, McGinn also observed.

McGinn explained that heat generation is exponential, while dissipation is merely linear. This means the battery can increase in temperature very quickly but only cool gradually, McGinn said.

Three types of runaways can occur. The first is preferred and benign, McGinn said. The reaction begins and might get close to thermal runaway but lacks get up and go the battery sheds heat more rapidly than it gained it. The battery cools, and the incident might not even set off a warning light on the vehicle, he said.

An acceptable outcome might see one battery cell entering runaway, venting and exploding but countered by enough heat dissipation that the adjacent cells dont reach the runaway point, according to McGinn. This would definitely set a warning light, he said.

An unacceptable outcome could start with a battery cell heating less than a degree a minute and rising until magically, at 374 Fahrenheit, that line goes straight up. The adjacent cells hit runaway, and a cascade failure burns up the entire battery, he said.

A submerged vehicle presents a different risk scenario, according to McGinn. The water might not deplete all of the batteys charge, and electrolysis gases can arise as the battery arcs and shorts. McGinn suggested taking steps like opening the hood, trunk and windows to ensure such gases dont accumulate. We dont want any boom in the shop, he said.

Shock and thermal runaway also are risks with a submerged vehicle, McGinn said. Just because the waters gone doesnt mean everybodys safe, he said. Submerged vehicles at a body shop or in storage still need to receive temperature monitoring and isolation until the compromised battery is extracted, he said.

Electric Vehicle Safety webinar 02 05 2020

Coordinating Committee for Automotive Repair YouTube channel, Feb. 6, 2020

NASTF OEM repair procedure portal

Featured image: Hybrid and other electric vehicle batteries should be monitored to avoid being caught up in a thermal runaway, according to the Coordinating Committee for Automotive Repair. (sankai/iStock)

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CCAR shares threats, precautions for working on hybrid, fully-electric cars - Repairer Driven News