Photos Courtesy of the Texas Dept. of Transportation TxDOT plans to mend torn-up roads, such as the I-37 frontage road in Live Oak County (above), by converting them to "high-end unpaved roads" (below). Related Links: Texas Department of Transportation Thanks to the energy boom in central and west Texas, heavy trucks carrying oil and natural gas are tearing up rural farm-to-market roadways that were never intended to bear such 100,000-lb loads. Since the Texas Dept. of Transportation doesn't have the funding to maintain more than 80,000 miles of roads across the Lone Star State, it plans to "unpave" 83 miles
Related Links: Israel Railway projects Tight Timetable and Historic Site Test Bridge Approach in Israel Israel Railways has resumed work on the country's two longest tunnels nearly three weeks after finding a 60-centimeter deviation from the planned route of the Tel Aviv-to-Jerusalem high-speed-rail line.The cause of the deviation in the twin 11.6-kilometer tunnels is still under investigation by Israel Railways, Israeli contractor Shapir Civil and Marine Engineering Ltd. and the Italian operator of the project's tunnel-boring machines."The solution ... involved a realignment of the TBM and will not have any impact on the route or project timetable," says Dror Sofro,
Danya Cebus Ltd. Construction of new 800-meter Motsa Bridge spans near Jerusalem will allow access to historic sites below. Archaeological excavations are under way of ancient military camps at project site. Related Links: Danya Cebus Ltd. website Website of Finley Engineering Group A major archeological site underneath and a tight timetable forced engineers to improvise solutions on a key bridge project that is part of the $800-million upgrade of Israel's main highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.Work on the two 800-meter-long precast spans on the Motsa Bridge along Highway 1 began in late August, part of a major rehabilitation and
RZD The work involved laying and ballasting the rail line, rebuilding a bridge and installing signalling gear. The northeast corner of North Korea, adjacent to China and Russia, is showing incipient signs of development. The Rason Special Economic Zone, where foreign investment is permitted, includes an ice-free port and offers potential as a trans-shipment point. China needs greater access to the sea to assist in moving cargo out of its landlocked northeast provinces. China leases one pier at Rason’s port to ship coal to southeast China and has offered to lease two additional piers. But Rason’s electricity grid is antiquated,
Related Links: Video of Panama Canal gates arriving ACP reports on expansion progress Crews this month wheeled ashore the first four of sixteen gates—each the size of a 10-story building—for the Panama Canal’s new locks, a major milestone for the $5.2-billion project. Mounted on self-propelled motorized wheel transporters, each of the 3,100-ton gates was off-loaded onto a temporary dock on the Atlantic side of the waterway, not far from the new locks that will be their permanent home.The gates, costing about $548 million to fabricate and install, are the centerpiece of the enormous third set of locks that is being
Somalian militants attacked the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu in late July, but the country remains committed to transportation projects there. Turkish development firms are building a new $10-million airport terminal in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Construction by three Turkish firms of a new $10-million airport terminal in Somalia and a 23-kilometer road connecting it to the capital city, Mogadishu, will continue to completion despite a deadly late-July embassy attack by a militant group linked to al-Qaeda.The July 27 attack on the Turkish embassy building in Mogadishu, which left one Turkish guard dead and three others seriously injured, has injected some uncertainty
Image Courtesy of Caltrans Steel shims inserted between bearings will dissipate earthquake energy. Related Links: San Francisco Bay Bridge Opening Delayed Until Broken Rods Are Fixed in December View a Brief Video of a Worker Installing a Temporary Shim The opening date for the San Francisco-Oakland East Bay Bridge has been moved back to the original date of Tuesday, Sept. 3. The bridge opening had been postponed until December to allow time for contractor American Bridge/Fluor Joint Venture to install permanent saddle braces to replace the clamping force lost when corroded steel bolts broke during tensioning in March.Shortly after announcing
Photo Courtesy of MaineDOT The Maine Dept. of Transportation has erected a number of bridges using composite inflatable arches. The technology is gradually catching on in other states and overseas. Related Links: Bridge-in-a-Backpack Tech 'Blows Up' Next-Gen Bridges Dozens Of Test Projects Later, Advocates Still Have Durable Dreams Four years after the first lightweight bridge-in-a-backpack, or BIAB, composite bridge was erected in Pittsfield, Maine, the technology is gaining traction in the U.S. and abroad, despite some learning-curve challenges.So far, BIAB has been deployed for 13 bridges in four states and, completed in May, a 26-ft span for the Trinidad Ministry
Photo Courtesy of John Hillman A West Virginia bridge received HCB beams that only weighed 10 tons each. Related Links: First Composite Rail Bridge Undergoes Successful Testing Award of Excellence Winner 2010 John Hillman Five years after a fully loaded locomotive and 26 coal cars chugged over a 30-ft-long, 17-ft-wide span comprising eight hybrid composite beams (HCB) in Colorado, the technology has been used in nine states.An HCB consists of a glass-fiber-reinforced plastic shell with high-strength continuous steel fibers placed along the bottom flange and filled with self-consolidating concrete (ENR 4/12/10 p. 34). Like the Bridge-in-a-Backpack (BIAB)—another non-traditional construction technology
Related Links: Investor's Passion Launches Nation's First Privately Built And Managed Airport Missouri's Branson Airport has filed suit against its designers and builders, alleging improper execution of the foundation and other "reckless actions" led to the 2011 collapse of a runway two years after the facility was completed.The suit claims designer Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co., contractor McAninch Corp. and others failed to comply with regulatory and design criteria required to prevent subsidence. As a result, a large area of the foundation collapsed near the intersection of the tarmac and a 7,140-ft-long, 150-ft-wide runway, the lawsuit claims.Foundation construction involved excavating
RSS
