Breaking ground on Feb. 28 in a ceremony attended by Turkey Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a 5.4-kilometer twin-deck tunnel crossing beneath the Bosphorus’ seabed will join the European and Asian sides of Istanbul at a cost of $1.4 billion. Istanbul is the largest metropolitan city in Europe and third-largest city in the world, with a population of 13.2 million. The Istanbul Strait Road Tube Crossing, or the Eurasia Tunnel, will be designed, built, financed and operated by Avrasya Tüneli Isletme Insaat ve Yatirim Anonim Sirketi (ATAS), a partnership of Yap? Merkezi from Turkey and SK E&C, Kukdong, Samwhan Corp. and
India is developing an ambitious plan to boost the country’s fledgling airport infrastructure. Economic planners estimate the voracious appetite for commercial air travel will require an investment of about $30 billion by 2020. Now at 100 million passengers per year, traffic is expected to reach 180 million by 2015 and 300 million by 2020, according to Ministry of Civil Aviation estimates. More than 20 proposals are currently under consideration for greenfield airports, and some $3 billion is expected to be spent on the sector in the next three years. The to-do list includes the newly approved Mumbai Airport, expected to
Construction is poised to start in July on Uganda’s first-ever toll road. China is financing the $350-million project, which will be built under a public-private partnership for highway transportation management. Photo: Courtesy UNRA The current road to Entebbe Airport has heavy vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Map: Justin Reynolds The new toll road will connect the city of Kampala with the Entebbe International Airport. The 54-km highway, which will link the capital city of Kampala to the Entebbe International Airport, is set to start in July with financing from the Export-Import Bank of China. Construction is pending approval by the Ugandan
The state of Massachusetts is seeking damages from the manufacturer of a 110-lb light fixture that fell onto a Central Artery tunnel roadway in early February. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority informed the public about the incident last week. “One of the 23,000 light fixtures in the Central Artery Tunnel system fell onto the roadway on the morning of February 8,” says a spokesperson for the MBTA. Although there were no injuries or property damage, the incident has reignited concerns about safety of the $2 billion project. The Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation claims it immediately began to inspect all of
The Government of the Northwest Territories, Canada, has reached a settlement with individuals from the Deh Cho Bridge Corp. over questions of unpaid work on the failed design of the Deh Cho Bridge, a 1,045-meter span crossing the Mackenzie River near Fort Providence. After work was delayed one year due to a substandard design, Andrew Gamble, former project manager, and Jivko Jivkov, former design adviser, were removed from the project when the government took over from the private Deh Cho Bridge Corp. They filed a claim for $1.3 million. Earl Blacklock, a government spokesman, says the mediated settlement, while undisclosed,
With a winning bid more than 10% below the lowest official estimate, a consortium including American Bridge Co., Coraopolis, Pa., has been named preferred bidder for a $1.3-billion contract to design and build Scotland’s new Forth highway bridge.
Citing the recent Japanese earthquake, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn (D) called for elected officials to reevaluate their decision to leave the seismically vulnerable Alaskan Way Viaduct (State Route 99) intact until 2016 as part of the deep-bore tunnel program schedule. + Image Map: WashDOT Photo: WashDOT State will spend $20 million to stabilize downtown Related Links: WashDOT interactive simulation of constructon schedule Ron Paananen, Wash. Dept. of Transportation viaduct program administer, couldn’t disagree more. Echoing sentiments of the majority of the Seattle City Council and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D), Paananen says, “To simply close the viaduct without a reasonable
The California High-Speed Rail Authority is expected to meet an Oct. 2 deadline to apply for a portion of the $8 billion set aside for high-speed train development under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The authority’s board approved an application for more than $4.5 billion in federal stimulus funding for engineering, design and construction of the state’s high-speed train system—generating an investment of $9.1 billion when state matching funds are added. Included in the authority’s so-called Track 1 projects list is a request for $400 million in ARRA funds for construction of a Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, the
The new $21.5-million Norridgewock Bridge—one of only two modern tied-arch concrete bridges to be built in the U.S.—is taking shape over the Kennebec River in northern Maine. Photo:Courtesy Of Kleinfelder New Maine crossing replicates concrete tied-arch design, only one of two in the U.S., according to the owner. The new bridge includes a 300-ft center span and two 150-ft approach spans. Four of six transverse braces are now in place, along with 19 intermediate floor beams and three end beams. When opened this fall, it will replace a four-span concrete tied-arch bridge built in 1928, which was one of the
As states around the country prepare to apply for shares of the $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail aid that Florida's governor rejected, two recently released ridership and financial estimates show that the now-cancelled Tampa-Orlando line would have been profitable in its first year. According to preliminary data released in early March by the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT), the $2.7-billion system would have generated $62.9 million in revenue in 2015, its first year of operation, and posted an estimated $10.2-million profit. By its 10th year of operation, the latest estimates indicate revenue would rise to $91.8 million in revenue
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