Florida’s Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapsed in 1980, killing 35 motorists. An Amtrak bridge in Alabama failed in 1993, resulting in 47 deaths. The Queen Isabelle Causeway in Texas collapsed in 2001, killing eight people. And the Interstate-40 Bridge in Oklahoma collapsed in 2002, resulting in 14 deaths. In all these seemingly unrelated disasters, ships or barges deviated from shipping channels, striking the bridge and causing the collapse. In the last 25 years, straying vessels caused five high-profile U.S. bridge collapses, causing 105 deaths. So what can engineers do? A recent study of collapsed bridges found that engineers designed piers adjacent
Thomas Ryan Tired of hearing about “paradigm shifts” from business gurus? So am I. So I’ll just call my idea for construction employers a suggestion. Instead of reducing costs by cutting employee benefits, how about looking to improve your management systems to increase profits? Here’s what I mean. The end of a year is the time when many companies look at health and fringe benefits. With the out-of-this-world cost of health insurance, many company owners and senior managers look at alternative providers of health insurance. Although it is good stewardship—a word that is incorporated into the name of our company—to
SCHULTE The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Oct. 26 released the final report on its investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center. Having studied and written extensively on the collapse, I agree with Rep. Sherwood Boehlert�s (R-N.Y.) statements at the time that the NIST investigation goes �far beyond� the collapse of the towers as a result of terrorist attacks and that �the protection of life is the highest responsibility of public officials.� It is for these reasons that I am opposed to implementation of most of NIST�s 30 recommendations for improving the way high-rise buildings are
Delony Recent data suggest that half, if not more, of our nation’s historic spans have been lost in the last 22 years–two decades in which transportation and preservation awareness reached unprecedented levels. This is an alarming and sobering statistic. Bridge building paced the evolution of building technology but had a much more enduring impact on engineering, manufacturing and the settlement of the U.S. Surviving bridges are tangible evidence of this legacy but we are fast approaching the point of no return in saving some prime examples. On Aug. 10, 2005, President Bush signed the $286.4-billion transportation bill funding roads, bridges
FOX This is a "what if" story. What if engineers working in design or construction at home or abroad had whistles in their pockets and a hotline to call when they saw instances of corruption? What if members of a hundred engineering societies and construction organizations around the world were empowered by new codes of ethics to be whistleblowers? What if all those scores of engineering and construction-related organizations espoused zero tolerance for bribery, fraud and corruption in design and construction? And what if all their ethics codes required reporting violations? Might Transparency International then rate construction as the most
BRODERICK Moving toward year’s end, there is no better time to reflect on how physically demanding our business can be. The routine rigors on most jobsites can be daunting even for the youngest and fittest workers. But more of the bodies beneath those hardhats are getting older. And our industry’s overall approach to health and safety needs to get smarter. Despite efforts to draw younger recruits into the industry, the construction work force continues to age. There already were nearly 1 million construction workers aged 55 or older in 2001. Older workers mean greater national health problems because construction employs
Scott Schneider I 'm sure that many of the large contractors moving in to do clean up work after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will have good safety programs and properly protect their employees. But many of the smaller contractors may not. We know temporary construction labor agencies are recruiting in the Gulf Coast region with advertisements for basically warm bodies with little or no construction experience or training. What will conditions be like for people doing home clean ups and renovations? How many injuries and illnesses will these workers suffer? As director of occupational safety and health for the laborers'
DARNELL Imagine for a moment a brilliant future for the construction industry. Imagine an industry that is completely service-oriented and customer-focused, where there are zero defects and total customer satisfaction. Imagine an industry where there is trust, communication and teamwork. Imagine an industry where projects are brought in ahead of schedule and well within budget. Why isn’t the industry like that now? How can the industry transform itself? There are many seemingly unsolvable problems but I believe that the root causes relate to something called emotional intelligence. It can be defined as social competence, people skills, or soft skills. After
VLAHOS Sitting on an ocean beachfront watching children building sandcastles, one lesson is clear even to a child: If you build too close to the water’s edge, your work is destined for disaster. When Jean Baptiste le Moyen de Bienville decided in 1718 to establish his settlement, now known as New Orleans, in the swamplands of the Mississippi Delta, little consideration was given to future problems. This lack of foresight resulted in placing yet another American city at risk. When Katrina hit New Orleans, it cut power to the pumping stations and, without a reliable backup system, the city’s protection
Ellis Workers often are blamed for their own fatal falls because there always seems to be a rule that they didn't follow. The victims alive or dead are a convenient target because they can't effectively answer back. Now there is evidence showing that, no matter how careful you are, falls are inevitable with some exposures or hazards. I call these hazards Human Fall Traps, or HFTs, and they typically produce serious injury and death. There is no defense against HFTs because we can't perceive them until it is too late. This is because we are human; a good analogy might
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