Museum director Russell Panczenko says the new 86,000-sq-ft, three-story addition to the Chazen Museum of Art now being built at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wis., will be “a work of art in itself.” Its attention to detail includes a variety of exterior finishes that include copper and bronze cladding, limestone, curved concrete tiles, smooth and sandblasted concrete and two-story structural glass walls. The inside will have even more attention to detail in finishes. For example, copper used inside the lobby and visible through the glass curtain wall will be brought onsite to “weather” outdoors so it will match
It appears that 14 miles of 120-year-old sand-and-grass dike near Portage, Wis., has survived the flood-swollen Wisconsin River’s recent rise to a record-level 20.6-ft, or more than 3 ft above flood level. With the Wisconsin River&rsquos water level now dropping at about an inch an hour, the series of dikes, built by farmers in the 1890s and now maintained by the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources, appears to be essentially intact, according to the DNR. “The river has dropped to 18.7 ft this morning, and is going down at about an inch per hour,” DNR spokesman Greg Matthews said Sept.
Indiana and Kentucky have awarded the $103-million design-build contract to construct the replacement bridge connecting Milton, Ky., with Madison, Ind., to the team of Walsh Construction Co., La Porte, Ind., and designers Buckland & Taylor Ltd., North Vancouver, B.C., and Burgess & Niple Engineers, Columbus, Ohio. Photo: KY DOT New Ohio River bridge will feature an historic-looking superstructure. The project received a $20-million federal grant in February. The remaining $83 million of cost will be split evenly by Indiana and Kentucky. The cost is about 20% less than the original estimate of $131 million, according to a statement from the
On the heels of two high-profile oil- pipeline leaks in Michigan and Illinois and a high-pressure gas-pipeline explosion that killed at least four people and destroyed a neighborhood in San Bruno, Calif., U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Sept. 15 sent to Congress proposed legislation to beef up federal regulatory oversight and increase penalties for violations of pipeline safety rules. Photo: Courtesy of U.S. Government Technicians in protective equipment prepare pipe section before cutting and removing it from the Enbridge pipeline oil-spill site near Marshall, Mich. The segment was shipped to federal lab for analysis. The legislation the proposed bill
While the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration plans to revamp its outdated silica-dust standard, a voluntary partnership of asphalt-paving groups is closing in on recommended methods to cut down the amount of airborne silica dust generated by road-milling machines. Photo: Courtesy of Association of Equipment Manufacturers Members of an asphalt partnership last month evaluated different methods of reducing road crews’ exposure to airborne silica dust kicked up by milling machines on a highway resurfacing project near Shawano, Wis. A similar effort in the 1990s brought changes that cut fumes emitted by paving machines. “The goal is to determine exactly
Firms working on the $670-million Mississippi River Bridge in St. Louis have shattered geotechnical records related to one of the bridge’s drilled-shaft concrete foundations while verifying a time-saving, alternate pier plan. Photo: Courtesy MTA Joint Venture Record-breaking load cell makes its final descent at St. Louis. The test, performed this past June, consisted of drilling an 11.5-ft-dia shaft 43.5 ft under the riverbed, then cutting an 11-ft-dia socket more than 23 ft into the underlying limestone bedrock. An Osterberg load cell then was lowered to the bottom of the rock socket, and reinforced concrete was poured into the hole. When
A planned two-mile relocation of Chicago’s South Shore Drive, about 10 miles south of the city’s downtown, is spurring a $4-billion megaproject to turn the vacant 530-acre site of a former U.S. Steel mill on Lake Michigan into a new community with nearly 14,000 housing units. Photo: Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP/Sasaki Associates Inc. Chicago development set for site of former steel mill; officials have approved its first phase and committed $96 million in financing for infrastructure. A public-private partnership of U.S. Steel Corp., McCaffery Interests LLC and the city has sited the village at the South Works mill, closed
A new thermal-imaging device is helping contractors build better roads, and transportation owners are offering incentives to use it. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Available since last fall and officially rolled out at the World of Asphalt in Cincinnati in February, the new system, called Pave-IR, continuously monitors and records the location and temperature of asphalt as it is laid. Pave-IR helps contractors identify segregation, or weak spots, in the pavement as it happens. Manufactured by MOBA Corp., Limburg, Germany, the unit uses sensors and a display screen with colors that represent different temperatures. If the display shows a
Oklahoma is on a mission to ensure it never again wins the dubious honor of having the nation’s highest percentage of substandard bridges. The Oklahoma Transportation Commission this month approved a $4.3-billion, eight-year budget to fund 1,750 vital bridge and highway projects from 2011 through 2018. The transportation budget is the state’s largest ever, says Oklahoma Dept. of Transportation spokeswoman Terri Angier. Photo: Oklahoma DOT More than wear and tear, debris accumulation can accelerate a bridge’s structural undermining. In 2002, the non-profit organization The Road Information Program (TRIP) reported that Oklahoma had the country’s highest percentage of structurally deficient or
Companies working on the $670-million Mississippi River Bridge in St. Louis have shattered geotechnical records with a 36,067-ton load test on one of the bridge's drilled-shaft, concrete foundations. Photo: MTA Joint Venture Record-breaking load cell makes its final descent. Related Links: St. Louis Link Will Be Tough, Diverse, Green Osterberg Cell Transformed Testing Award of Excellence Winner Clyde Baker The test, performed this past June, consisted of drilling an 11.5-ft-dia shaft 43.5 ft under the riverbed, then cutting an 11-ft-dia socket more than 23 ft into the underlying limestone bedrock. An Osterberg hydraulic load cell was then lowered to the