More than two million Muslims travel to Mecca each year to participate in the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage, which takes place over six days. To improve traffic movement, the Saudi government will build an 18-kilometer-long monorail system linking the pilgrimage sites. Trains on four elevated tracks will carry up to 20,000 pilgrims per hour, transporting as many as 500,000 pilgrims every six to eight hours. According to a report issued by the Supreme Hajj Committee, once the monorail is operating it will allow for removal of 53,000 buses and other vehicles. The monorail is being built by China Railway Construction
Only the giant cruise ships sidled up against the riverbank offer any hint of what lies below Shanghai’s newest stretch of green along the Huangpu River in the resurgent North Bund district. The Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal Development Co. Ltd. wanted its 30,000-sq-meter passenger terminal, which had its soft opening last year, to disappear below grade, except for an iconic, 4,000-sq-m observatory on stilts that resembles either a bubble, spaceship or a giant bug. The public owner, part of the Shanghai port authority, wanted the world’s first underground cruise terminal to be topped by a park. Slide Show Photo:
Four big consortiums are due next month to begin calculating bids for the estimated $1.9 billion of tunneling work on the next 15.5-kilometer underground extension of Denmark’s Copenhagen metro, the Cityringen line. As arbitrators continue grappling with $385 million in claims for extra payment over the system’s seven-year-old first phase, Copenhagen officials plan to start work on Cityringen by next summer. By bidding construction of Cityringen’s 17 stations separately from the tunneling work, project owner Metroselskabet hopes to avoid the sort of dispute that reportedly impeded progress on early phases, says procurement project manager Jens Gravgaard. Photo: Metroselskabet More test
The economy may have curbed passenger traffic at many U.S. airports, but its effects on aviation construction so far have been minimal. The reason is the extensive amount of time required for airport construction programs to evolve, says Jayne O’Donnell, vice president of Turner Construction Co., New York City, and general manager of Turner’s aviation practice. Related Links: Contractors Play Waiting Game As Funds Start to Trickle In “Work is on schedule because it’s been scheduled for years,” O’Donnell says. Despite continuing turmoil among air carriers, “Airports are pretty skilled in planning and building for what’s probable, not what’s possible,”
An unexpected crack found in a section of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge delayed the planned Sept. 8 reopening only by about 90 minutes, rather than a full day, thanks to fast delivery from a fabricator and non-stop work by the contractor. Although the $140-million removal of a 3,200-ton double-deck section went as planned, California Dept. of Transportation inspection crews then reported a crack in an eyebar—a 2-in.-thick, chainlike steel piece—located on another section of the east span. Photo: AP / Wideworld Despite unwelcome discovery, bridge detour opened on Sept. 8 as planned. Over the Labor Day weekend, general contractor
Nobody loved Interstate 64 where it cut through the heart of St. Louis. It was a transportation bottleneck, with outmoded interchanges and crumbling bridges. Built largely between the 1930s and 1960s as U.S. Highway 40, it was rechristened I-64 by federal fiat in 1988 despite its failure to comply with Interstate standards. But when the Missouri Dept. of Transportation proposed in 2000 to rebuild it, worriers came out of the woodwork. And when MoDOT announced in 2006 that it would completely demolish and rebuild 10 miles of the central artery, public opinion went ballistic. Photo: Gateway Constructors Inc. More than
Congress’s fast action on the $787.2-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in February brought some much-needed cheer to the nation’s transportation contractors. With state DOT budgets withered by the recession, gas prices and financial market upheaval, contractors expected the influx of more than $49.3 billion in immediate highway, transit, and airport funding to reenergize the market and, hopefully, keep them busy until the larger economy begins to rebound. But more than six months after President Obama signed ARRA into law, many in the industry are still waiting for those hoped-for effects to kick in. Photo: Flatiron Washington, N.C., bypass
Applications are in for the first batch of federal high-speed-rail grants financed largely by $8 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. An unofficial round-one tally shows states are seeking about $6.6 billion. That is far below the $102.5 billion in “pre-applications” states filed in July, but it reflects the first round’s emphasis on individual projects that are ready to start. Moreover, with the construction industry struggling, the new applications represent a substantial amount of potential infrastructure work, including bright possibilities for engineering firms. The dollars are expected to be even larger in the next round of applications, which
A rancorous contractor bid dispute has held up a $100-million-plus four-lane widening of Las Vegas’ Interstate 215 Beltway. The contract has been twice awarded and twice taken to court. The Clark County Commission gave locally based Las Vegas Paving Corp. the job after disqualifying the apparent low bidder, Fisher Sand & Gravel Co., Dickinson, N.D., because two of its subcontractors lacked highway construction licenses. Under county rules, the design-bid-build project is typically awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. Fisher’s price was $112.2 million, or $4.6 million less than Las Vegas Paving. On April 22, Fisher sued Clark County over a
State transportation officials are avoiding weeks or even months of wait time in inspecting underwater bridge components by using the latest in sonar imaging technology. The method’s potential will become the focus of a federal study next year. Photo: Randalls Photography Advanced technology helped inspectors get images of underwater bridge piers and footings when diving was too dangerous. This spring’s record floods posed high risks for the 80-year-old Sorlie Bridge, which connects Grand Forks, N.D., and East Grand Forks, Minn. Flowing 30 ft higher than normal, the fast-moving Red River of the North engulfed the 605-ft-long, two-span truss structure’s timber
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