Photo Courtesy of Schuff International, Inc. Concrete is the primary building material in all of Latin America, including Panama, but builders are starting to take advantage of steel on some projects, such as Torre V, a high-rise office building. Related Links: The Top 600 Specialty Contractors Arrival of Gates Marks Milestone in Panama Canal Expansion When the largest steel fabrication and erection company in the U.S. began looking for opportunities for growth, it expanded its horizons beyond the border."We could sense a slowdown in the U.S., so we started looking overseas," says Jay Allen, executive vice president of sales and
Work on the $1.4 billion expansion and upgrade to Interstate 35E north of Dallas launched this month with a groundbreaking ceremony on the shores of Lewisville Lake. Photo courtesy of TxDOT A photo illustration showing the southbound bridge and additional lanes to be built across Lewisville Lake as part of the project. Photo courtesy of TxDOT A map indicating the location of the 35Express project between Dallas and Denton. Related Links: Texas Department of Transportation I-35E Project The 35Express project extends 28.2 miles from I-635 in Farmers Branch to U.S. 380 in Denton, crossing eight cities in Dallas and Denton
Photo by AP Wideworld Power Down Fans at the World Cup basketball trials await illumination during the power outage. Related Links: Venezuelans Skeptical of Power Sabotage Claims Chavez Successor Must Pay Down Debt To Sustain Building Program Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, charging sabotage by his political opponents, is calling for a special security force to protect the country's electrical system after a failure on the power grid plunged more than 70% of the country into darkness this month.Opposition leaders, denying the allegation, said it was merely an effort by the government to shift blame for the incident, which happened shortly
Each and every work day more than 180,000 motorists endure the convergence of highways north of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Just a few years ago, the limited number of lanes and criss-crossing interchanges resulted in constant traffic congestion, which earned the stretch an unflattering nickname – The Funnel. Courtesy of the Texas Department of Transportation Eastbound SH 114 at Texan Trail, north of DFW Airport. Courtesy of the Texas Department of Transportation SH 121/International Parkway north of DFW Airport, including northbound International Parkway exiting DFW Airport (background) and the southbound SH 121 ramp to eastbound SH 114 (foreground). Related Links:
Related Links: Video of Panama Canal gates arriving ACP reports on expansion progress Crews this month wheeled ashore the first four of sixteen gates—each the size of a 10-story building—for the Panama Canal’s new locks, a major milestone for the $5.2-billion project. Mounted on self-propelled motorized wheel transporters, each of the 3,100-ton gates was off-loaded onto a temporary dock on the Atlantic side of the waterway, not far from the new locks that will be their permanent home.The gates, costing about $548 million to fabricate and install, are the centerpiece of the enormous third set of locks that is being
French firm Vinci Construction Grands Projets has won a contract to construct a $366-million cable-stayed bridge that will span the Panama Canal on the historic waterway's Atlantic entrance.
Related Links: Dramatic Digs Mark Panama Canal Expansion Progress A Shaky History in Panama Meeting the quality level called for in the Panama Canal's new locks while producing the massive volume of concrete required to finish the job by the expected fall 2014 completion date has called for extreme equipment solutions. For each primary process—batching, conveying and placing—the material is tightly controlled.The sheer volume of concrete—more than five million cubic meters—has to be built to meet the structures' projected century-long life span. As a result, the quality standards for the concrete are extremely high. The entire lock worksites on the
The quality standards set for the locks for the Panama Canal's Third Lane Expansion are enormously high, partly due to seismic risk. While the danger posed by earthquakes is perceived to be low, studies by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) found evidence of an active fault running next to the new locks on the Pacific side of the canal.
