Enlarge Related Links: Senate Panel's Highway Bill Wins Praise (ENR 6/29/2015 issue) [subscription] ARTBA analysis of DRIVE Act With another surface-transportation extension likely this month, construction officials continue to push for a longer-lasting measure to end the dribs-and-drabs funding they have endured for several years. They welcome the six-year, $277-billion highway bill that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee cleared unanimously on June 24. But they are acutely aware that the Highway Trust Fund is about $90 billion short of the money to fund the bill fully. Where to find the dollars remains a mystery.As they look at the
Two 17.6-meter-dia tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are now driving a 4.2-kilometer-long highway link between Hong Kong's Lantau Island, site of the territory's international airport, and the New Territories.The second TBM set off on June 15, two months behind the first, on twin drives of Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok road tunnel.The Dragages-Bouygues joint venture of France is building the tunnel under a contract valued at nearly $2.4 billion. According to Bouygues, the TBMs, supplied by Germany's Herrenknecht A.G., are the world's largest and can map the rock face in real time plus remotely detect cutterhead damage, reducing manual inspections under compressed
Photo by Tudor Van Hampton / ENR Three towers reaching over 20 ft will support cable-stayed structures. Photo by Tudor Van Hampton / ENR Improvements to the 'Spaghetti Junction' interchange will facilitate the flow of 125,000 daily vehicles in and out of Louisville. Related Links: Dynamic Duo: Ohio River Bridges Rise In And Around Louisville $2.6-Billion Ohio River Bridges Project Ramps Up In Louisville Scope, Schedule Pose Challenges On Ohio River Bridges Project Jeremiah Littleton, section engineer with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), recalls a public meeting held early on in the process of getting the $1.2-billion Downtown Crossing underway.
Photo Courtesy of California DOT Caltrans crew, pictured in 2013, penetrates cap beam in preparation for an earlier bolt fix. Related Links: Bay Bridge Errors Put Caltrans Under Fire Plan Enlists Custom Steel Saddles to Repair Broken Bay Bridge Bolts Seismic anchor rods used for the $6.4-billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are once again under scrutiny. Inspectors' discovery last month of stripped threads, loss of protective coatings and micro-indicators in three galvanized-steel units—installed in 2007 at the base of the bridge's 525-ft-tall east self-anchored suspension span (SAS) tower—have triggered a new probe.Although the investigation is ongoing, Caltrans believes the presence
Image courtesy of TJPA Financing strategy lets transit-hub neighbors go taller, but they cannot exceed the 1,070-ft Salesforce Tower, planned as the city's tallest. Nineteen projects are underway. Related Links: Transbay Transportation Hub Will Be a Safe Haven Developing the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco has been a nearly two-decade crusade for Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan, executive director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority. She spearheaded the agency's method for funding the project, which, in turn, lifted real estate development in the so-called South of Market area.The plan got a boost when the State Dept. of Transportation transferred 19 acres to
Related Links: Transbay Funding Plan Lights Fuse on Area Building Boom San Francisco Creates Special Tax District For Major Projects San Francisco To Build West Coast's Tallest Tower A crane on a trestle lifts an architectural steel assembly, including a 9-ft-tall cast node, into place along the perimeter of the $4.5-billion Transbay Transit Center, which is taking shape in seismically active San Francisco. The node picks, followed by more steel tubes that link to form a four-and-a-half-block-long exoskeleton, is repeated more than 300 times. The lateral-load-resisting system will allow immediate reoccupancy of the 1,425-ft x 171-ft "groundscraper" after the "Big
Related Links: Press release from Gov. Hogan's office Purple Line project web page Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has given his tentative approval to a 16.2-mile, 21-station light-rail Purple Line project across Washington, D.C.'s northern suburbs, but the go-ahead hinges on increased contributions from counties on the route and a revised funding strategy for a P3 project originally estimated to cost $2.4 billion.In announcing his favorable decision on the Purple Line project on June 25, Hogan also delivered disappointing news to advocates of a second light-rail project, saying he isn't endorsing a proposed 14-mi. line in Baltimore.Hogan has insisted since
Related Links: Losing Bidder Protests Big Texas Tollway Award Bergstrom Expressway Project Overview The award last month of a $581- million design-build contract to a Fluor-Balfour Beatty team to build a new expressway near Austin is not sitting well with the losing team or with local contractors. Texas firms say they are being squeezed out of competition by mandatory design-build procurement rules on large projects, while the losing bidder on the Bergstrom Expressway, led by Spanish giant Ferrovial Agroman, has challenged its loss in a bid protest.The Ferrovial Agroman team claims that the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority graded its
Related Links: Washington State Pulls the Plug on Advisory Panel Shocked and disappointed: That's how Patricia Galloway, chair of the three-member expert review panel for Washington state's $2-billion Highway 99 bored-tunnel project, described the panel's scrapping by state lawmakers.State legislators apparently perceived the panel as a legal risk and wanted to retain a clear distinction between the roles of the state and the contractor, avoiding any appearance that the state-named panel was providing recommendations to the contractor. Neither the Washington State Joint Transportation Committee, which appointed the panel, nor its coordinator would comment beyond confirming the panel's demise.It remains a
Related Links: Low and Slow Across America's Infrastructure The Low and Slow team reaches Salt Lake City, and gets an exclusive construction tour of an expanding SLC International Airport.Click the photo to begin the slide show.
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