Expert crews are rappelling down a steep wall of jagged, unstable rocks above Interstate 40 in western North Carolina, beginning the cleanup and repair process of an Oct. 25 rockslide that shut the highway down. The repair could take four months and cost $10 million. The 500,000-ton rockslide on U.S. Forest Service land caused the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation to declare an emergency and Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) has asked the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to declare the rockslide a federal disaster area. Crews with contractor Phillips & Jordan Inc., Knoxville, Tenn., are working with rock stabilization specialists from
While the overall economy shows signs of slowly coming back to life, the airline industry continues to struggle. Over the past year, the combination of substantially lower passenger traffic, still-wobbly financial markets and nervous carriers has curtailed the revenue streams airports typically count on for major capital projects. Photo: McCarran International Airport Work on a $2.4-billion project at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas continues through 2009, even as other projects were put on hold. Photo: Denver International Airport Stimulus money came to the rescue of hundreds of airports with long-standing maintenance needs, including Denver International. Related Links: The Top
Omaha-based Kiewit Pacific Co. was awarded a $482.9-million contract for the first phase of construction for the 20-mile Honolulu Rail Transit Project. The 6.5-mile design-build project is expected to break ground in December and be completed in late 2012. The contract came in $90 million below the engineer’s $570-million estimate. “Because of the sluggish economy, construction bids are coming in much lower than anticipated,” says Scott Ishikawa, project spokesman. He says that has prompted the city to seek proposals now for the next phase of the $5.5-billion project.
Claimed as the world’s largest seismicly isolated building, Istanbul, Turkey’s new 200,000-sq-meter Sabiha Gökçen International Airport terminal opened at the end of October. Designed for a 7.5 to 8.0 moment magnitude quake and built in just 18 months, the roughly $600-million terminal sits on 300 isolators, according to lead designer Arup Group Ltd. Construction was by the locally based LIMAK–GMR Joint Venture. Photo: Arup Group
As 280,000 daily vehicles resumed using the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 2 after a six-day repair of a steel saddle that holds a cracked truss section in place, engineers and metallurgists were still investigating why the original Labor Day weekend fix failed so quickly. Photo & Diagram: Caltrans Bay Bridge closed down for nearly a week after steel members repaired in September fell into traffic. A second emergency contractor again addressed a cracked eyebar in the truss. The Oct. 27 failure occurred when a 5,000-lb crossbeam and steel connectors fell into afternoon traffic, causing one accident and a
California Dept. of Transportation delayed opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge until federal inspectors sign off on the second bridge repair since Labor Day. The transportation corridor, which carries an estimated 280,000 cars per day, closed Tuesday evening after a steel bar cracked during a windy afternoon commute, dropping a 5,000-lb crossbeam and steel connectors into traffic. The incident caused a non-injury accident and an enormous traffic jam. Caltrans officials said they were doing all they could to open before the Monday morning commute, but were putting safety first. Photo: Caltrans Related Links: Update: Fix Of Bay Bridge May
As California transportation officials vow to increase frequency of inspections on the troubled San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, they had no firm estimate of when federal inspectors would okay its reopening to traffic. For the second time in two months, crews have worked non-stop to install an emergency eyebar repair on the critical crossing, which usually carries 280,000 daily vehicles. The original fix made over Labor Day weekend consisted of a steel saddle brace wrapping around a broken beam of the steel truss. That brace snapped during the windy Oct. 27 evening commute, dropping a 5,000-lb crossbeam and steel connectors into
Federal highway and transit programs will have their authorizations extended through Dec. 18, thanks to a stopgap spending package that Congress has approved. Final congressional action came on Oct. 29 when the Senate cleared the package by a 72-28 vote. That followed House passage earlier in the day, by a 247-178 tally. The measure also provides full fiscal year 2010 appropriations for Interior Dept. and Environmental Protection Agency programs and extends funding through Dec. 18 for many other accounts for which Congress has yet to pass 2010 spending bills. The new continuing resolution was necessary because Congress has passed only
For the second time in two months, crews are scrambling to install an emergency eyebar repair on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The original fix made over Labor Day weekend consisted of a steel saddle brace wrapping around a broken beam of the steel truss. That brace snapped during the windy Oct. 27 evening commute, dropping a 5,000-lb crossbeam and steel connectors into traffic and closing the bridge down indefinitely. Photo: Caltrans Photo: Caltrans Related Links: Unexpected Bay Bridge Crack Slightly Delays Reopening As of Oct. 28, crews with North Highlands, Calif.-based MCM Construction Inc. were dealing with high wind
Osceola County, Fla., has overhauled its troubled roadbuilding program by hiring firms that typically do vertical construction management. Staffing is the problem. Roadwork in the county had increased sevenfold while public-works department staff went from 240 to 190. Twenty months ago, the department was more than $386 million behind in putting projects out for bid and faced the prospect of returning impact fees to developers. Several projects were over budget or stuck at 30% design for years. “We have one of the most aggressive programs in the country, and we are passionate about construction management,” says new public-works administrator Ken
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