A six-firm consortium now is assembling loans for a $6.5-billion project to build a 377-kilometer-long, privately financed toll highway in Turkey. The project—from Gebze, near Istanbul, to Izmir—includes a suspension bridge that likely will incorporate the world’s second-longest span over the seismically active Izmit Bay. The Izmit bay crossing, with a 1,700 m span, “is still in the conceptual design stage,” says Simon Bourne, head of bridges at U.K.-based URS/Scott Wilson Ltd., Basingstoke. The firm, in a joint venture with AECOM, has a $15.9-million contract with the project consortium to supervise the bridge’s design and construction. The consortium Otoyol Yatirims
The U.K.’s construction sector found some solace in the Oct. 25 publication of the country’s first national infrastructure development plan. It was announced a few days after the government outlined huge cuts in infrastructure and other public budgets aimed at eliminating its deep budget deficit. Credit: ffice of The Prime Minister Prime Minister David Cameron’s budget cuts spare the Crossrail London railroad tunnel. Related Links: London’s Massive Rail Project Gains Favor How far the U.K.’s six-month-old coalition government and its conservative prime minister, David Cameron, will go to cut the deficit is shown by their willingness to pull back on
Workers floated out the last section of the old Willis Avenue Bridge on Oct. 26. The section will be moved on Nov. 2, decontaminated of asbestos and other harmful materials and transported to New Jersey for recycling. The new bridge section has been actively accepting traffic since Oct. 2, but construction of the $612-million project is scheduled to continue for the next two years, says Bill Nyman, project manager for Hardesty & Hanover LLP. “We’ve done this without affecting traffic,” says Nyman. “The project is on schedule, and there’s been limited impact.” Nyman says the project has caused quite a
A German consortium apparently has won a $1-billion concession to run San Francisco’s Presidio Parkway project for 33 years. The state of California, the California Dept. of Transportation and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority issued a notice of intent to sign a public-private partnership deal with Essen, Germany-based Hochtief Concessions. Meridiam Infrastructure, Luxemburg, is Hochtief ’s 50% partner on the Golden Gate Bridge southern access project’s design, construction, finance, operation and maintenance. The consortium’s construction team is led by Hochtief subsidiary Flatiron. The German firm set up Hochtief PPP Solutions North America in 2009 to bid on PPP projects
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has announced the winners of $600 million in in the second round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants for projects that supporters say will have significant national or regional benefits. Photo: King County, Wash. Replacement for Seattle's South Park Bridge gets $34-million TIGER Grant Related Links: TIGER II capital-grant awards and project descriptions The largest grant among the 42 awards was $47.7 million to the city of Atlanta to help finance a $72.2-million, 2.7-mile downtown streetcar line. Other big winners were a plan to unsnarl a freight rail bottleneck in Fort Worth, Texas,
Falsework is coming down this month after supporting the construction of what officials believe is the only transit bridge in the world to cross over an active taxiway. The 740-ft-long cast-in-place box-girder bridge is the centerpiece of a two-mile-long transit system that will connect two of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport’s terminals with off-airport transportation facilities. Photo: Courtesy of Austin Bridge & Road Officials think mass transit guideway at Phoenix airport may be the only one of its kind to cross through active airspace. The Phoenix office of Irving, Texas-based Austin Bridge & Road holds an approximately $6-million subcontract to
As accelerated bridge construction (ABC) catches on quickly in the United States—particularly in Utah—a former Federal Highway Administration engineer now at the Oregon Dept. of Transportation wants to create national standards for the practice. Rapid bridge replacement method may get standards. Benjamin Tang, ODOT’s bridge preservation managing engineer, says readily available criteria adaptable nationwide can help bridge owners establish when ABC construction makes sense. “We are trying to create something that addresses some of the criteria used by the owners to make choices that will result in the best selection,” he says. “Putting quantifiable data, when available, into the model
The tenuous fate of an estimated $8.7-billion trans-Hudson River rail tunnel exemplifies a dilemma faced by the American transportation industry as a whole: how to fund crucial megaprojects at a time when raising fuel taxes is political suicide and passing a multiyear transportation bill remains a pipe dream. + Image Photo: NYNJ Port Authority New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie (R) announced on Oct. 7 that he was killing the project, called Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) and in development for almost 20 years. But after a quickly arranged meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Administrator
President Obama has repeated his call for higher federal spending on infrastructure, stating that U.S funding has fallen behind levels in China, Russia and other countries and declaring, "We can no longer afford to sit still." Related Links: Full text of President Obama's remarks U.S. Treasury Dept. Economic Infrastructure Analysis In the latest in a series of statements pushing public-works spending, Obama said on Oct. 11, that "our infrastructure is woefully inefficient and it is outdated." His Rose Garden comments were accompanied by the release of a Treasury Dept.-Council of Economic Advisers report outlining the benefits of higher public-works funding.
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