Related Links: The Ten Most Noteworthy Rail Projects: Overview and Related Stories Comprehensive National Rail NetworkCost: $5.6 billionConstruction period: 2008-12 (original estimate)Libya's civil war has halted an ambitious plan to build an extensive $5.6-billion rail system designed to bolster both passenger and freight service.The major east-west route would parallel the coast, ultimately stretching 2,300 kilometers from Ras Ejder on the border of Tunisia to Umm Sa’ad on the Egyptian border.The regime awarded separate contracts to Russian and Chinese contractors to complete certain segments. In 2008, crews from RZD, the Russian state railway, began building the 554-km Surt-to-Benghazi segment, which had
The world's busiest land port crossing, at San Ysidro, Calif., reopened its 24 northbound travel lanes from Mexico on Sept. 18, five days after a 50-ft by 50-ft temporary wood platform, meant to catch demolition waste on a $577-million border station renovation, collapsed and rained heavy debris on vehicles and personnel. One construction worker was seriously injured, and 16 other people also were hurt, including three laborers. Concrete, metal supports, wooden planks and a large black tarpaulin damaged 15 vehicles. Rescuers extracted three people from the wreckage.Miller Environmental Inc., Anaheim, Calif., was removing plaster from an administration building set for
Photo courtesy of Geocomp A sampling of one of the sensors on the Twin Span Bridge. Related Links: New Orleans Bridge Raises Bar On Embedded Sensor Technology Well before embedded instrumentation delivered data from a February 2009 lateral load test of a bent and pier of the I-10 Twin Span Bridge in New Orleans—and long before the sensors begin a life of service as long-term structural-health monitoring aids this October—devices cast into the bridge's structure were presenting a wealth of data to the industry.“The instruments that are in the pile foundations had to be placed in the rebar cages for
Photo Courtesy of Caldecott/ Tutor Perini Tutor Perini bores a $214.8-million two-lane Caldecott tunnel. The weak economy has squeezed transportation budgets to the limit. Still, firms that work in the transportation market are finding ways to push forward, diversifying their businesses by sector and region and looking to alternative delivery methods, such as public-private partnerships.Richard Cavallaro, president of Skanska USA Civil, Whitestone, N.Y., says it is hard to plan ahead not knowing when a federal transportation bill will be enacted and with states being financially strapped. While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has helped sustain active projects, he says
The construction of a casting facility in Aberdeens harbor is a vital component of Seattles planned bridge replacement. Photos courtesy of Washington DOT Crews are nearing completion of the casting basin. A joint-venture team began reconstruction work this month of the longest floating bridge in the world, while two of its members also near completion on a key related facility to build massive pontoons.Omaha-based Kiewit Corp., General Construction Co. of Federal Way, Wash., and Manson Construction, Seattle, began work on Sept. 2 on its $586.5-million contract to rebuild Washington's state Route 520 floating bridge over Lake Washington—the longest in the
PHOTO COURTESY OF SUNDT CONSTRUCTION INC. A 30-mile project is rapidly adding HOV lanes to a Phoenix-area freeway. Battling monsoons, heat, live traffic and subpar soils, a joint-venture team expects to complete 30 miles of a Phoenix-area freeway expansion in just eight months—adding another reason for the Arizona Dept. of Transportation to embrace design-build as it constructs projects to cope with growing traffic.A team of Kiewit Corp. and Sundt Construction holds the approximately $90-million contract to add 30 miles of high-occupancy vehicle lanes to Loop 101 between state Route 51 and Interstate 10.“To do this many miles in [nine] months
Related Links: Highway, FAA Extensions Advance in House FAA Contractors Resume Work After Stopgap Extension Passes Aviation Bill Fight Shuts Down Airport Grants The path wasn't smooth, but Congress has approved a measure extending federal highway, transit and aviation programs--and the taxes that finance them. President Obama signed the measure on Sept. 16.Final congressional action came less than 24 hours earlier, when the Senate passed the measure by an overwhelming 92-6 vote.The bill had sailed through the House on Sept. 13, on a unanimous voice vote.The bill's enactment will continue a pattern of living by stopgaps for state transportation and
Photo courtesy of Zellcomp Despite hiccup, the nations largest FRP deck proceeds in Portland, Ore. The U.S.'s largest installation of a fiber-reinforced polymer bridge deck can now continue thanks to the resolution of disputes between the contractor and Multnomah County, Ore. Ridgefield, Wash.-based Conway Construction Co. expects to resume its $6.7-million contract in mid-September on the 55-year-old Morrison Bridge after a summer of delays.The new 17,000-sq-ft, 50-in.-thick deck was to be ready for 33,000 daily vehicles by December, but now completion is unlikely until next year. Over the summer, the county ordered two work stoppages. The owner was dissatisfied with
Photo courtesy of Walbridge / Rob Pepple Walbridge Co. is CM-at-risk on this solar-panel plant for Twin Creeks Technologies South East LLC. Contractors in the manufacturing sector are finding work through a proliferation of facility retrofits and renovations as cash-strapped manufacturers scramble for cost-saving efficiency, flexibility in buildings management and sustainability.In the telecommunications market, voracious consumer demand for new technology and services is pumping up markets with an explosion of small cell-tower and related infrastructure projects.Although greenfield projects are few and far between, contractors in auto assembly plants and solar-panel factories report ample work, even as the current markets present
Photo Courtesy of Hank's Truckforum Great Lakes Concrete truck delivers a load; firm and CEO pleaded guilty to price-fixing. A federal antitrust probe has snagged a handful of Iowa ready-mix firms in a price-fixing scheme spanning more than three years.Great Lakes Concrete Inc., Spencer, violated federal antitrust law, which carries up to $100 million in fines, for bid-rigging and price-fixing ready-mix sales in northern Iowa, the U.S. Justice Dept. says. The firm pleaded guilty to one felony count on Aug. 24. The company plea follows a similar plea last year by its president, Kent R. Stewart. He was sentenced in
RSS
