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• Yesterday, General Electric Co. formally opened its new, advanced battery plant in Schenectady, N.Y., and announced plans to invest an additional $70 million to expand the facility, which is part of the company’s new Energy Storage business. The expansion will double the plant’s production. “GE Energy Storage was born in New York’s Capital Region from an idea that we turned into an advanced manufacturing plant and a global business that we expect will generate more than $1 billion in revenue annually in just a few years,” GE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt said in a prepared statement. “We’ll continue to expand the business into new areas beyond telecommunications to build the next generation of energy-efficient buses, locomotives and mining vehicles around the world.”

• New York Air Brake Corp. has named Michael Hawthorne president to succeed J. Paul Morgan, who retired. In his prior position as vice president and general manager, Hawthorne was responsible for technical and operational functions of New York Air Brake and its subsidiaries, including Knorr Brake Ltd., Train Dynamic Systems (TDS), Anchor Brake Shoe, Kansas City Service Center and Premtec. He joined the company in 1995 and became director of TDS in 2001. Hawthorne was promoted to VP and GM in January.

• Wabtec Corp. has obtained a $28 million contract to provide electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) braking equipment for 159 locomotives operated by international mining company Rio Tinto in Australia. The contract will include equipment, software, test benches and aftermarket support. In 2011, Wabtec signed a separate $21 million contract to provide ECP equipment for Rio Tinto to retrofit its fleet of iron ore cars.

• Harsco Corp. has secured an extended role in its ongoing support of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas’ light-rail project to refurbish the historic Main Street Bridge in Houston. Harsco will provide a combination of heavy-duty GASS shoring towers and Roll Shore castellated beams, which are engineered to provide support to the 400-foot bridge. The company also will ensure safe worker access during the refurbishment.

• Wood Creek Capital Management, Bowman Sales and Equipment and Milestone Trailer Leasing have acquired a fleet of 27,000 over-the-road trailers previously owned by Transport International Pool Inc. (TIP), a subsidiary of General Electric Capital Corp. The acquisition includes all of TIP’s remaining U.S.-based trailers. The majority of the trailers will be owned by Wood Creek affiliates, and managed and operated by Trailer Leasing and Alliance (TLA) and Quest Capital Group. TLA is a recently formed joint venture trailer leasing company owned by Milestone and Bowman. Quest is an existing operating partner of Wood Creek.

• Gannett Fleming has named Bryan Mulqueen national manager of the company’s transit and rail practice. He has more than 25 years of experience managing major transportation infrastructure programs and large multidisciplinary regional teams. His rail transportation experience includes work in all project phases. His new duties as practice manager will include daily operational management, business development, strategic growth and profitability of the firm for all transit and rail projects.