Photo Courtesy of WSDOT Settlement of more than an inch has hampered excavation efforts to rescue TBM Bertha. Enlarge Related Links: Divers Searching for Way To Get TBM 'Bertha' Moving Again Seattle Tunneling Behemoth Bertha Awaits Repairs to Bearing Seals Differential settlement of more than an inch has temporarily shut down efforts on the already-stalled Alaskan Way Viaduct project under downtown Seattle. Excavation had been underway on an access pit that was designed to repair "Bertha," the stuck tunnel-boring machine (TBM), as crews continue to monitor the movement on surrounding buildings.The 57.5-ft-dia machine has been stuck since December 2013, just
Photo Courtesy GSA / Benjamin Benschneider The Peace Arch Land Port of Entry redo in Blaine, Wash., includes 10 primary-inspection lanes and double the capacity of the 1976 facility. Related Links: $741M Overhaul of San Ysidro Land Port of Entry Burdened by Myriad Site Constraints After a funding lull, U.S. General Services Administration appropriations are bouncing back for "land ports of entry" projects.In the newly enacted spending bill for the rest of fiscal year 2015, GSA's account allotment for its new-construction includes $216.8 million for the San Ysidro project and $98.1 million for a port in Calexico, Calif. Those were
Related Links: U.S. Land Port of Entry Funding Rebounds San Ysidro Land Port's Team Tames the Logistical Monster Miller Hull Partnership Hensel Phelps With the most unsettling work done, all is calm at the world's busiest border crossing—the 40-acre San Ysidro Land Port of Entry, which is nearly four years into a three-phase $741-million transformation. Once worrisome, the incessant hum of the 50,000 vehicles that line up each day to cross into California from Mexico is now music to the ears of the members of the SYLPOE team, who, for three-plus years, had to keep more than 24 lanes of
Related Links: Mammoth Lock Takes Shape in Belgium Belgian Diabolo Project Opens On Schedule Although Europe's second-largest port in Antwerp, Belgium, has more than 1,000 kilometers of railroad tracks, it moves only 8% of its throughput by rail. To help increase train use, the country’s railroad infrastructure manager, Infrabel N.V., has just completed the nation’s longest freight tunnel linking the port’s two halves on either side of the River Scheldt.The $1.1-billion Liefkenshoek freight tunnel includes roughly 6 km of new 7.3-meter-dia twin bores under the river, bypassing a 20-km route around South Antwerp, says Infrabel’s chief spokesman Frédéric Petit. With
Enlarge Map by Jeffrey Cox/ ENR This new line will extend rail service to Calabar. China Railway Construction Corp. will export $4 billion worth of construction machinery, trains and steel products to Nigeria for the construction of the $11.97-billion Coastal Railway Project, whose final contract was signed in the West Africa nation’s capital, Abuja, in November.The Chinese firm said that, under the contract, the largest single award for any Chinese company overseas, a single track of 1,402-kilometer-long standard-gauge railway will be constructed to link the commercial city of Lagos to the eastern port city of Calabar on the Nigerian coast.CRCC
Image Courtesy of Louis Berger Concrete cable-stayed bridge across the canal's access channels will boast the world's longest span of 530 m when it opens in 2016. Related Links: $5.25-Billion Panama Canal Expansion Program Moves Into the Final Leg While post-Panamax ships boost the global economy by moving goods through the Panama Canal's third set of locks, a striking new cable-stayed bridge will support local business by transporting materials overland. The 1,050-meter-long third crossing over the canal has a 530-m-long main span that, when completed in 2016, will be the longest in the world for a four-lane concrete cable-stayed structure.
Indian Railways The high-speed-rail current plan involves linking two major cities, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, in western India. Related Links: Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Link Plan Draws Global Interest Collapse of China Track Section Highlights Flaws in High-Speed-Rail Program Japanese rail companies, once considered high-speed-rail pioneers, have allowed Chinese rivals to overtake them to win more major contracts in recent years. Suddenly, though, Japan is aiming to gain back lost market share by competing against China on a new, unexpected battlefield: India.This September in Tokyo, for instance, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shook hands with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on a
Israel Ports Development and Assets Co. Chinese contender was the low bidder on a planned Haifa private port but could not win the job because it is building another big port in Ashdod. Related Links: Europeans Avoid Big Israel Port Bids Amid Palestinian Boycott Threats Haifa Port workers call wildcat strike An all-Israeli consortium has beaten out an Israel-Belgium team to build a new private port in the northern city of Haifa.Shafir Civil and Marine Engineering Ltd. and Ashtrom Properties Ltd. won the Israel Ports Development and Assets Co. contract for the new port, beating out Israel’s Shikun U’Binui Holdings
Photo courtesy of Bouygues Construction Ivory Coast's new bridge will be Africa's first lagoon crossing. Rendering courtesy of JICA Tanzania's first cable-stayed bridge is facing a six-month delay due to unexpected soil conditions. Related Links: European, U.S. Firms Still Dominate Africa Infrastructure Market Africa Poised for LNG Boom Bridge-building is booming in Africa. Key projects are being unveiled or are under construction to give the region vibrant, efficient and economic transport corridors and boost the incomplete integration of their associated economies.Botswana and Zambia are hoping to commence construction of the delayed $259-million Kazungula Bridge over the Zambezi River, a critical
Related Links: State DOTs Taking Controversial Guardrail Model Off Approved List FHWA Releases Trinity ET-Plus Guardrail End Terminal Re-testing Plan Vowing that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will “leave no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of this issue,” agency acting administrator Gregory Nadeau told reporters Nov. 12 that re-testing of the ET-Plus 4-in.-wide guardrail end device manufactured by Trinity Products will commence the week of Nov. 17 at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.The FHWA will determine by early 2015 whether the 4-in. version will “pass” or “fail.” If the latter, it will no longer be
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