Related Links: Second big lift on Huey P. Long Bridge A 2,648-ton truss was lifted 135 ft and attached to the Huey P. Long Bridge over the Mississippi River in New Orleans over 40 hours on Nov. 20-21. The lift of the 503-ft bridge segment, the second in a three-part series, is part of the $452.6-million superstructure erection portion of the $1.2-billion span widening. MTI—a joint venture of Massman Construction Co., Kansas City; Traylor Bros. Inc., Evansville, Ind.; Kansas City-based design firm HNTB and IHI Inc., a New York City-based unit of a Japanese industrial firm—completed the lift and opened
Concrete crashed onto a Washington, D.C., train station platform during the evening rush hour Nov. 17, but no one was injured. Investigators are checking why the chunks of concrete fell from the ceiling of the Farragut North Metro station in downtown Washington, D.C., an underground Metrorail station. The largest chunk was the “size of a human head,” says a Washington, D.C,. fire department spokesperson. The concrete fell approximately 25 ft to the platform, creating a debris field that was 20 ft across, he said. No one was injured. Investigators are homing in on the possibility that construction crews doing roadwork
The anticipated Nov. 30 opening of Israel’s longest tunnel marks the end of four years of construction and more than a decade of controversy. But completion of the 6.5-kilometer-long Carmel Tunnels, a $300-million build-operate-transfer highway project, will vastly improve traffic flow in the port city of Haifa and is the first major project in Israel for a Chinese contractor. Photo: Courtesy Of Carmelton Group Ltd. Photo: Courtesy Of Carmelton Group Ltd. Carmel Tunnels near Haifa during early construction will speed traffic flow in Israel’s third-largest city and was the country’s first major infrastructure collaboration with China. The project, involving major
Owner Brookfield Properties says the worst of several leaks during construction of a tunnel—under Route 9A linking the World Financial Center and the future World Trade Center development—is well under control and the site is secure. The Nov. 4 leak, 30 ft below existing grade in a section under Brookfield’s WFC, itself built on a relieving platform over the Hudson River, was a “minor issue,” says a spokesman for Brookfield. The tunnel’s contractor, Turner Construction Co., referred inquiries to the the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. The Port Authority attributes the leak, which flooded part of the
The lines on the developing U.S. high-speed-rail map have been barely penciled in, and now, after the Nov. 2 elections, at least two lines probably will have to be erased. Republican governors-elect in Wisconsin and Ohio vow to halt work on rail projects in their states, even though they won U.S Dept. of Transportation funds. Florida’s incoming GOP governor has promised to kill a proposed Orlando-Tampa line if state funding is required. Rendering: Courtesy of FDOT Florida's planned 84-mile-long line would run from Tampa to Orlando Rendering: Courtesy of FDOT Florida have four other stations, including one at the University
Bidding for the $700-million to $900-million design and building of Washington state’s new state Route 520 six-lane floating bridge—the world’s longest—now focuses on three teams. The prequalified design-build teams are Skanska-Flatiron-Traylor Bros.; Walsh Construction Co., PCL Construction Services and Weeks Marine; and Kiewit-General-Manson. All three were selected in November; bid proposals are due in spring 2011. The winner will be chosen in mid-2011, with construction beginning in 2012 and the new pontoon bridge between Seattle and Redmond opening for traffic in 2014. “Recently, we’ve seen competition driving down costs,” says Paula Hammond, state transportation secretary.
Poised to begin spending the first of more than $2 billion in federal dollars for America’s first high-speed rail project on civil work, Florida Dept. of Transportation officials brought together more than 1,500 people interested in participating on the project to inform them about the contracts to be let, the bidding schedule and requirements. However, as U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said in Orlando at the first day's session on Nov. 8, “a cloud of uncertainty” hovers over the Florida High Speed Rail Industry Forum in Orlando, with Gov.-elect Rick Scott (R) promising to kill a proposed Orlando-Tampa rail line if
Alabama voters turned down a proposed constitutional amendment on Tuesday to spend $1 billion over a decade to pay for road construction projects. About 57% voted against Amendment Three in the Nov. 2 election. If voters had approved the amendment, which was sponsored by Democratic Sen. Lowell Barron, up to $100 million a year would have been transferred from the Alabama Trust Fund and earmarked specifically for road construction. The transfers would have taken place annually through fiscal 2020. In the days leading up to the vote, Dr. Keith Malone, an economist at the University of North Alabama, released a
State departments of transportation have been hit with a double whammy in recent years. In lieu of a long-term federal surface transportation reauthorization bill, the federal government continues to dole out money through Highway Trust Fund extensions, making it difficult for DOTs to plan for the future. At the same time, the recession has tightened the screws on state coffers, leaving some to wonder if significant capacity work is even possible in the coming years. Photo: Courtesy of Pany/NJ New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie cancelled the $8.7-billion ARC Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel project between New Jersey and Manhattan, citing a lack
While the Washington Dept. of Transportation won't open the detailed bids for downtown Seattle’s Alaska Way Viaduct replacement project until mid-December, Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) nudged the long-awaited 56-ft-dia, two-mile-long bored tunnel one step closer to reality, when she announced on Oct. 29 that both teams submitting bids that day were at or below WSDOT’s estimate of $1.09 billion. The viaduct, which runs along Elliott Bay on state Route 99 in downtown Seattle, is nearly 60 years old. The 1989 Loma Prieta and 2001 Nisqually earthquakes pointed to the road’s seismic vulnerability. WSDOT spent $14.5 million in emergency repairs but
RSS
