Courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture If all goes as planned, the Kingdom Tower, which will be the future world's tallest building, will contain the world's most lightweight elevator system. Related Links: KONE's High-Rise Elevator System Called Breakthrough Technology Designers Apply Lessons from World's Tallest Tower to Improve Future 'Megatallest' KONE Corp. has won the contract for the vertical transportation in Kingdom Tower, a multi-use building that is planned for a record height of 1 kilometer. For the tower, under way near Jeddah, KONE plans to install its lightweight hoisting system, called UltraRope, which it introduced last year.If
Construction Recovery Picks Up Total construction starts in April rose 3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $533.7 billion, according to McGraw Hill Construction Dodge. The April numbers were lifted by a 14%rise in non-residential work and a 4% hike in home building, which were both muted by a 14% decline in non-building work. On a year-to-date basis, total construction through the first four months of 2014 shows no gain over last year's level (see chart). Winners of Rebuild By Design Competition Announced On June 2, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan named six winners of a
Photo by Bruce Buckley/ENR Crews at Sparrows Point, Md., are wrapping up six tunnel tubes that will create roughly half of the new Elizabeth River Tunnel. The immersed tube tunnel will link Norfolk, Va., and Portsmouth, Va. Crews for SKW Constructors built the tubes, which each consist of five reinforced concrete sections, in dry dock and installed temporary bulkheads for buoyancy. In June, with the aid of tub boats, the tubes will float 220 miles down the Chesapeake Bay to the construction site.
Photo Courtesy of the Golden State Warriors Arena's new site, nearly two miles south of the first location, is near San Francisco Bay but does not sit on its piers. Related Links: Golden State Warriors Snøhetta San Francisco's Golden State Warriors basketball team recently abandoned a 13-acre bayfront site along the Embarcadero at city-owned Piers 30-32 for the team's future arena. Instead, the team revealed, on April 22, a purchase deal for a privately held, 12-acre vacant parcel, 1.7-miles south in Mission Bay. The site is near but not over the bay.The move followed two years of development that was
Preparations have been finalized to demolish the first of four immense concrete chimneys at the historic Battersea Power Station in London. The stacks have formed the city’s dominant industrial landmark for decades.Rising more than 100 meters, the chimneys are in poor shape and due to be replaced by exact replicas as part of a multibillion-dollar,
Photo by Nadine M. Post/ENR World Trade Center Project's Shape Is Challenging To BuildThe complex above-grade form of Santiago Calatrava's WTC Transportation Hub, designed to resemble a bird of peace, is taking shape in Lower Manhattan. The main transit hall, which is 365 ft long, will contain more than 11,000 tons of structural steel in 600 members, some with as many as three field-welded connections. Challenges include the unique geometry and the connection engineering. The entire structure was modeled to determine a carefully staged erection sequence. The hub is scheduled to open some time next year. EPA Proposes $1.7 Billion
By Richard Pare Moscow's Shukhov radio tower, completed in 1922, has fallen into disrepair and is scheduled for dismantling. By Richard Pare Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov's hyperbolic tower is one of the superlative engineering feats of the twentieth century, according to the engineers and architects that want to preserve it. Related Links: Shukhov Tower Federation Motherboard: Architects to Putin, "Save Moscow's Eiffel! Internationally renowned structural engineers and architects are calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to save from demolition Moscow’s iconic Shukhov radio tower. Designed by Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov, who is credited with developing the hyperbolic-tower concept, the 92-year-old steelwork structure
Photo by Mike Verzella, Courtesy of L.F. Driscoll/Structure Tone Penn Medicine has allocated $1 billion in improvements to meet demand projections. Related Links: After Sandy, Hospitals Rethink Where to Put IT and Other Systems After Sandy: Rethinking, Recovering, Rebuilding Two separate conferences held in Manhattan recently emphasized two major themes in hospital and health-care construction: Project teams must be flexible as client demand evolves with changes in the marketplace, and hospitals themselves must be made more resilient to major weather events, such as Superstorm Sandy."The future is in ambulatory care," Gary Acord, executive director of planning, design and construction at
Colorado's U.S. 6 Closed for Bridge Demolitions.The Colorado Dept. of Transportation closed Denver's U.S. 6 freeway on the weekend of Feb. 14 to demolish the Knox Court Bridge and part of the Federal Boulevard Bridge over U.S. 6. During the full closure, crews from contractor Edward Kraemer & Sons Inc., Castle Rock, Colo., completed 20 nights' worth of work in 72 hours. Tasks also included a lane shift to allow for additional bridge work, says Kevin Sullivan, CDOT project director. The $98-million project will replace six obsolete bridges on U.S. 6 between Knox Court and Interstate 25 and improve traffic
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