Related Links: Forest City Ratner Cos. Skanska USA After nearly a year of negotiations with the union locals and two months of prototyping in the factory, the developer of the $4.9-billion Atlantic Yards sports village in Brooklyn, N.Y., has given the green light for what is planned as the world's tallest modular building, the 322-ft B2 residential tower.The project is also the catalyst for the formation of a modular division within the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, which represents local unions. In a major departure from the norm, the trade council's new division will allow crews
Photo Courtesy of Turner Construction Co. All three shifts of Turner workers at Madison Square Garden paused for on-site talk. Related Links: Frank Gilbreth's Bricklaying Ergonomics Harvard Business Review: Lean Service Machine To drive home the importance of lean construction practices in project delivery as well as jobsite safety, Turner Construction Co. paused its 45,000-person staff and subcontractor workforce in North America for 30-minute to one-hour tutorials, delivered company-wide on Sept. 4 to all shifts. This year's "safety stand-down" is the eighth annual post-Labor Day event the contractor has held to push the message of job safety."This was a chance
Crystal Lagoons Corp. Lagoon-like structure on the Sinai Peninsula will use similar technology to one built by the same developer in Chile in 2006, but the Egyptian pool will be larger. Crystal Lagoons Corp. The pool, seen here in an early construction photo, will be the centerpiece of a luxury resort and residential development. What appears to be a dried-up pond in the middle of a vast construction site at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt could set a new record as the world’s largest swimming pool. Details are sketchy, but Crystal Lagoon is set to be the
Shams Gate's prime contractor, Arabian Construction, and its steel fabricator-erector, Eversendai, developed a scheme that relied on first erecting sections of the 300 meter-long, two-story penthouse on low-level platforms and then hoisting the structures into place. The scheme was considered safet than erecting the elements piecemeal at an elevation of about 245 m.
A former chief inspector of New York City's buildings department may have incriminated himself twice while testifying in a criminal case against a crane executive—who was also his former boss. That was the view of lawyers for the victims of a fatal 2008 Manhattan crane collapse, for which James Lomma is on trial. He is accused of negligent homicide and other charges in the high-rise accident that killed operator Donald Leo and sewer worker Ramadan Kurtaj.Prosecutors believe the crane supplied by Lomma had a poorly repaired turntable. In his testimony, Michael Carbone, the former regulator and onetime employee of a
No need to put the Statue of Liberty on a pedestal—it has been on one for 125 years. But there is a need to upgrade both the pedestal and the statue itself so that they are compliant with current life-safety codes, says the owner, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior's National Park Service. And when it comes to the Statue of Liberty, even something as mundane sounding as a life-safety upgrade is anything but ordinary. During the $27.3-million renovation, the mandate from the park service is to protect the historic fabric of the monument, which is located on Liberty Island
New York state's recently passed legislation to allow design-build delivery for certain infrastructure projects may be more a sign of the economically troubled times than a whole-hearted vote for this alternative project delivery system, say some industry players."We've seen quite a number of states in the last few years that have passed legislation allowing for public-private partnerships, and, if there are public-private partnership laws, design-build really has to be a part of them," says Mike Schneider, managing partner at Los Angeles-based InfraConsult LLC, which specializes in transportation consulting.Helping to drive this trend is the scarcity of federal infrastructure funding coupled
Photo Courtesy of AP Wideworld The Chamber of Turkish Engineers and Architects says 40% of Turkeys housing needs to be reinforced or rebuilt to avert disaster in seismic events such as the one that struck the province of Van. Scenes of collapsed buildings and rescuers pulling survivors from rubble once again show the acute need for seismic retrofitting and better- quality construction in Turkey.A sense of déjà vu envelops Turkey at the start of November, with 601 dead, 4,151 injured and 3,713 buildings destroyed or uninhabitable as a result of a 7.2-magnitude quake that struck the eastern province of Van
PHOTO BY ArcelorMittal Steel structural tower rises in London at Olympic Games site. The U.K.'s tallest sculpture—at 114.5 meters—reached structural completion on Oct. 28, when crews placed the top section of steel-tube diagrid. Designed as a permanent observation platform over London's emerging Olympic Park, the tower contains some 2,000 tonnes of steelwork. It was designed by local artist Anish Kapoor, along with structural engineer Cecil Balmond, former chairman of Arup Group Ltd., London. Steelcraft Erection Services Ltd., Dalton, is building the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower with tubular modules fabricated by the company's affiliate Watson Steel Structures Ltd., Bolton. The tower is
AP/Wide World Ercis, a town of 75,000 near the Iranian border, was the hardest hit. Related Links: A History of Turkish Earthquakes Turkish government agencies say the damage is widespread and severe from the 7.2 earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey on October 23.The quake destroyed 2,262 buildings, killing 366 people and injuring 1,301, according to AFAD, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management agency.Kockopru Dam, a 75-meter-high, clay core rock fill dam and hydro-electric powerplant on the Zilan River in the Lake Van Basin, withstood the earthquake with no damage. So did the other dams in the area, according to the State
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