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
photo by ap worldwide SURVEYING DAMAGE Vermont Lt. Gov. Phil Scott (center) talks with Gov. Peter Shumlin (left) and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. Vermont was grappling with cleanup work after tropical storm Irene hit the state, leaving at least 42 dead and damaging critical infrastructure, property and cultural gems such as covered bridges. For the state's lieutenant governor, the infrastructure damage has a particular resonance.Lt. Gov. Phil Scott is co-owner of Dubois Construction, Middlesex, Vt. Some of Dubois' earthmoving equipment is now repairing infrastructure in central Vermont. “I'm not only trying to keep the business going, but also trying to
AP Photo/Jim Cole New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch meets with officials from the state's Department of Transportation on the Kancamagus Highway that cuts through the White Mountain National Forest, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011, in Lincoln, N.H. Flash floods from Hurricane Irene washed out part of the road. Citing high driver fatality rates, increasing energy- and agriculture-related freight movements and the recent devastation of Hurricane Irene, transportation construction officials are using a Sept. 1 report to emphasize the potentially devastating effects of delaying federal funding reauthorization on the nation’s rural populations.The nation’s rural roads and bridges are rapidly deteriorating, driving the
As London’s 2012 Olympic Games approach, the 8,425-sq-meter, curved roof over the new West Concourse at London's King's Cross railroad terminal is now fully exposed from the inside for the first time.
AP Photo/Tony Talbot A bridge on Route 73 in Rochester, Vt., lies in ruin in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene Related Links: For a Downgraded Storm, Irene Leaves Her Mark on Infrastructure In areas of the Northeast where infrastructure damage from Hurricane Irene was relatively minor, bridge engineers saw the storm—as well as the previous week’s 5.8 magnitude earthquake affecting the same area—as a dress rehearsal for future potential catastrophic events.Pennoni Associates, engineer-of-record and program manager for Pennsylvania’s Burlington County Bridge Commission, had installed sensors in 2007 on two moveable bridges—one, a 500-ft lift span and the other, a 280-ft-long
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia The government-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust plans to increase its draft from the current 12 meters to about 14.5 m in the first phase of its port expansion. India expects a $60-billion investment in its ports by 2020 to ease infrastructure bottlenecks. This expenditure would be part of the planned $1-trillion revamp of India’s choked transport and power networks.“The focus will be on awarding projects under the public-private-partnership mode, with [a] chunk of investments coming from the private sector,” B.K. Chaturvedi, a member of the Planning Commission, told a local newspaper. Currently, 74 projects have been
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