Photo Courtesy of Sundt-Slayden A bridge job employs prefabricated arches and nitrogen-cooled concrete. Photo Courtesy of Sundt-Slayden Related Links: Truss Travels On Teflon-Coated Track Prefabricated steel arches, liquid nitrogen-cooled concrete and two perched box caisson river piers are facilitating the construction of a new $307.5-million Sellwood Bridge in Portland, Ore.—the largest project of its kind in the history of Multnomah County.In 2013, crews with the Sundt-Slayden joint venture contractor moved a 1,100-ft-long truss span 66 ft north to serve as a temporary detour over the Willamette River. Since then, other techniques have kept the team busy. Crews are currently erecting
Related Links: FHWA ET-Plus webpage (with links to summaries of latest rounds of tests) Six senators seek GAO study of guardrail issues (press release) A type of roadside guardrail that has sparked controversy about its safety has passed a set of crash tests, and states can continue to seek federal reimbursements for the cost of purchasing it, the Federal Highway Administration says.The test results, which FHWA officials announced on March 13, aren’t the last word, however, on the ET-Plus guardrail end caps, made by Dallas-based Trinity Industries Inc. FHWA officials say that they will continue to review additional information about
Related Links: Best of the Best 2014 Aviation Improvements Squeeze Into San Diego Green Build Expansion at San Diego Airport Two design-build teams squeezed $907 million worth of construction into one of the world's busiest single-runway airports, managing to modernize and expand an 85-year-old terminal and related facilities while shaving a collective $45 million off the budget and pumping $415 million in contracts to local businesses as part of the San Diego International Airport's Green Build Expansion.The 460,000-sq-ft Terminal 2 expansion also makes it the world's first commercial airport terminal to receive a LEED Platinum rating, says Bob Bolton, director
The Texas Transportation Dept. late last month said that a $1-billion public-private partnership (P3) proposal from a Spanish-Israeli-US team to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a toll road in Harris County, the first such project type in the Houston area, is "best value," according to a March 3 announcement by the Israel-based team contractor Shikun & Binui.It is part of the Blueridge Transportation Group, a consortium vieing for the SH 288 toll lanes project that also includes Spain-based ACS Infrastructure Development Inc., InfraRed Capital Partners, ACS unit Dragados USA Inc. and Arizona-based Pulice Construction Inc.The apparent win would be
Photo Courtesy Kiwi Rail Aging rail bridges and trestles are being replaced across New Zealand. Photos Courtesy Kiwi Rail Rail bridge replacements on the South Island have to be completed on tight schedules to minimize interruptions in service. A 5.6-magnitude earthquake on January 5 gave South Island New Zealanders a sharp reminder of the devastating quakes which damaged much of Christchurch in 2010 and 2011. It also brought much of the rail network to a temporarily standstill while engineers checked the system’s safety.KiwiRail, New Zealand's rail operator, declared Christchurch's North Line, South Line and Hokitika Line, clear to reopen after
Hemmed in on one side by the ocean shore and on the other by a major live rail line, the NZ $50-million, or U.S. $37.5-million, Ngauranga to Aotea Quay Upgrade is finally coming to grips with one of the nation’s most congested stretches of highway.New Zealand’s State Highway One (SH1) is the nation’s most important road, linking the capital, Wellington, to Auckland and running the entire length of the North Island. Traffic engineers are unplugging a number of bottlenecks to reduce journey times and improve safety as the country’s population grows and traffic increases.One urgent project is repairing a notorious
Related Links: Full Competition Gallery The 10 Longest Arch Bridges in the World From fantastic to conventional, designs for a new pedestrian bridge over London’s River Thames have flooded the offices of the Borough of Wandsworth in response to its international ideas competition. The council is now displaying the 74 entrants for public comment before a panel of judges draws up a shortlist this March.With the competition attracting the “biggest names in architecture and engineering” as well as more humble designers, officials are keeping all the submissions anonymous to maintain a level playing field.“We challenged the world’s designers to come
Image Courtesy John Laing A Laing consortium started work in late 2014 on the 25-year DBFO for a new 60,000-seat stadium in Perth. Global infrastructure owner-developer John Laing plc., London, recently stepped up its Australian operations by closing a $1.7-billion deal to design, build, finance, operate and maintain (DBFOM) a light rail project in Sydney.Laing is “hopeful” about its Australian prospects, noted chief executive Olivier Brousse, following the February 12 partial initial public offering of the company in London.For its latest Australian venture, Laing took up just under a third of the shares in ALTRAC Light Rail Partnership, which reached
Photo Courtesy of NOCoE The National Operations Center of Excellence was launched in January. Dennis Motiani, executive director, and the NOCoE board of directors commemorate the occasion at the 94th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C. From left: Shailen Bhatt, Jeff Lindley, Laurie Matkowski, Dennis Motiani, Doug Wiersig, John Barton, Don Hunt, Greg Johnson, Harry Voccola and Abbas Mohaddes. Related Links: DOTS Slow to Change DOT Moves to Streamline TIFIA Loan Decisions A new era of transportation is right around the corner—one where driverless, autonomous vehicles cruise public roadways utilizing ever-advancing mobile and location-based electronics to
Related Links: CMAP Site Chicago Infrastructure Trust Passes First-Ever Financing Deal Chicago To Rehab Blue Line in 2014 The Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning (CMAP) this month launched a website that aims to help the public become more involved in identifying and prioritizing infrastructure investments.The CMAP site, allows taxpayers to "peek under the hood" of the Chicago transportation system, says CMAP spokesman Tom Garritano. Chicago loses $7 billion in fuel and productivity because of congestion, bad roads and missed transit connections. Old rail infrastructure causes about 7,800 hours of delay each weekday for more than 380,000 motorists, says CMAP.CMAP's criticism
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