Related Links: Airports Peg Their Five-Year Capital Needs at $71 Billion Automation, Weather Will Influence Future Airport Designs In terms of NextGen air-traffic-control technology, U.S. airports are ready for takeoff, but the industry is still waiting on the tarmac for progress on a key goal: raising the per-ticket passenger facility charge (PFC) to $8.50 from $4.50, to fund infrastructure projects.Noting that, in the past five years, $5 billion has been invested in NextGen technologies nationwide, Edward Bolton Jr., the Federal Aviation Administration's NextGen assistant administrator, said, "This is a make or break time in the history of the program. The
Photo by Johanna Knapschaefer for ENR A mill fashions old-school rivets from hot-rolled steel for the century-old bridge. Photo Courtesy of MassDOT The Longfellow Bridge is nicknamed the Salt and Pepper Bridge for its shaker-like towers. Related Links: Salt and Pepper Bridge Slated For Major Rehab in Boston Boston's Callahan Tunnel Set for Three-Month Rehab Closure Restoration of the 106-year-old Longfellow Bridge, which spans the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge, evokes Rosie the Riveter's World War II era, when hot metal pins connected structural steel on bridges, skyscrapers and ship hulls.A joint venture of J.F. White, Skanska and Consigli
Construction of the $3.6-billion double-track standard gauge railway (1,435mm) linking Kenya’s Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi could pose a fresh challenge for railway operators in East Africa interested in connecting with the modern rail line.Railway transport experts say the 609-kilometre high speed railway line is being constructed in a region where existing railway gauges are predominantly meter-gauge (1000mm) and cape gauge (1067mm). Kenya and Uganda operates 2,351-kilometres of meter gauge rail network while Tanzania operates 2,600-kilometers of both meter gauge and Cape gauge. It may need additional investments to harmonize the gauges to enable a
photo courtesy of Port of anchorage Upgrade of city's port, key to state imports, is mired in a battle over its sheet-pile design. Related Links: CH2M Hill Now Will Run Troubled Port of Anchorage Expansion Job Anchorage Port Expansion Problems Spark Dissension on Project Team Even as it remains enmeshed in lawsuits against former contractors and even a federal agency over its problem-plagued port upgrade, the city of Anchorage—and its new project manager, CH2M Hill—are changing its design and scope to resume work on a project stalled since 2010 and at least $300 million in the hole.Work started in 2003,
Courtesy Foster and Partners Dubbed Boris Island, for leading booster London Mayor Boris Johnson, the Thames Estuary Scheme would require and investment of $200 billion by 2030, according to the airports commission. Related Links: New U.K. Airport Proposal Fuels Debate A Third Runway and New Terminal Are Approved for Heathrow An influential U.K. government commission on Sept. 2 excluded a vast scheme for a new four-runway hub airport in the Thames Estuary east of London from a shortlist of options to raise aviation capacity in southeast England.London Mayor Boris Johnson, the estuary airport’s biggest cheerleader, has vowed to continue championing
Photo Courtesy of J.D. Eckman Crews jacked the deck a quarter inch off its piers prior to realigning the structure. Related Links: DelDOT Making Fast-Track Repairs to Closed I-495 Christina River Bridge ENR Video Interview with DelDOT Chief Engineer Robert McCleary After 11 weeks of fast-track repairs, the Delaware Dept. of Transportation's emergency design and construction team reopened northbound lanes of the I-495 bridge in Wilmington on Aug. 23. The work allowed both sides of the 4,800-ft-long structure to be fully operational in time for the expected crush of Labor Day weekend traffic.The 40-year-old concrete-deck-on-steel-beam bridge, which typically carries about
Photo courtesy of TDOT Tanker collision on I-65 in Tennessee killed the driver of the truck and melted beams on two overpass bridges, causing one to be demolished and severely damaging the other. Related Links: Fast-Track Replacement Planned For Collapsed Skagit River Bridge Caltrans Scrambles To Fix Fire-Damaged Maze Fast Construction is underway on a replacement span over Interstate 65, near Franklin, Tenn., after a severe fire from a tanker-truck collision early on Aug. 15 destroyed a pair of bridges.With about 62,000 vehicles daily on I-65 and 11,000 on the state Route 248 crossing, traffic in that area shut down
Related Links: As Hong Kong-Macau Tunnel Progresses, Denmark Floats a Record Breaker Longest Sunken-Tube Tunnel Planned For Contractors and Their Advisers, A Sinking Feeling Is Good in Busan Chinese engineers had never built an immersed tunnel on the open sea, let alone one that, upon completion, would be the world's longest, at a total length of 6.7 kilometers, and one of the deepest, at almost 45 meters, under China's Pearl River Delta.The idea of directly linking the economic powerhouses of Hong Kong and Macau—shortening the three-hour drive to about a half hour—had floated around for almost 20 years. But it's
Photo by Tony Illia for ENR Flaking antimicrobial coating, which was possibly misapplied, has required project rework and a delay. Related Links: New Perch Being Readied for McCarran's Air Traffic Controllers McCarran Prepped for $2.4B Terminal 3 Grand Opening The nation's second-tallest federal air-traffic control tower, under construction at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, faces at least a one-year delay after an antimicrobial coating, which may have been improperly applied, flaked off from ductwork and became airborne. Project participants are staying mum about the problem and its origin, but legal observers speculate that corrective repairs could be expensive and
Related Links: Boomlet Prompts Oil Shipper's Plan To Increase Its Capacity Booming U.S. Energy Market Spurs Pipeline Net Expansion Canexus Corp., says it will start Canada’s first pipeline-connected crude oil rail terminal before the end of August, but the Calgary-based chemical manufacturing company and terminal operator is already considering the sale of the Bruderheim, Alberta, facility.Design issues, construction cost escalations and schedule delays related to expansion efforts at Bruderheim have depressed Canexus’ balance sheet and share price—even as demand for more Alberta crude shipping capacity is climbing.In 2012 Canexus pegged Bruderheim's construction costs at $125 million, but recent estimates have
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