How often did John R. Hillman, founder and president of Chicago-based HC Bridge Co., LLC, think about giving up on getting the industry to accept his hybrid bridge beam of concrete and steel with fiber-reinforced polymer materials?
A funding delay, a cableway collapse and a death: Construction of the Hoover Dam Bypass is a challenge-filled saga that rivals the building of the historic dam itself. But the light at the end of the canyon is beckoning. North America’s longest single-arch concrete crossing, at 1,960 ft, now soars 870 ft over the Colorado River and is scheduled to open to traffic in November 2010. It will carry vehicles 1,500 ft downstream from Hoover Dam, spanning the Black Canyon at the borders of Nevada and Arizona and answering a need that dates back to the 1960s. Photo: Federal Highway
Thanks in part to design-build and a lane rental arrangement, a bridge over Interstate 75 near Detroit reopened to traffic on Dec. 11, less than five months after collapsing in flames. Photo: Bergmann Associates Michigan transportation officials and their contractor team credit a lane rental agreement process and design-build for speeding the rebuilding of an Interstate overpass, competed in under five months. The steel beams of the two-span Nine Mile Bridge in Hazel Park, Mich., melted on July 15 after a car hit a tanker truck on six-lane I-75, causing 14,000 gallons of fuel to erupt in flames. “The northbound
The Missouri Dept. of Transportation is building its second “diverging diamond” interchange design that requires motorists at an interchange to temporarily drive on the left side of the road. It was devised by an engineer in graduate school who wasn’t aware the concept already existed in Europe. The Federal Highway Administration has tested and presented the design, and a dozen states are considering using it Photo: MODOT Springfield, Mo., diverging diamond design moves left-turning traffic more easily. The design calls for the approach road on either side of the interchange to curve to the left, so the driver can easily
A funding delay, a cableway collapse and a death: Construction of the Hoover Dam Bypass is a challenge-filled saga that rivals the building of the historic dam itself. But the light at the end of the canyon is beckoning. North America’s longest single-arch concrete crossing, at 1,960 ft, now soars 88 ft over the Colorado River and is scheduled to open to traffic in November 2010. It will carry vehicles 1,500 ft downstream from Hoover Dam, spanning the Black Canyon at the borders of Nevada and Arizona and answering a need that dates back to the 1960s. Slide Show Photo:
New York State Dept. of Transportation officials swiftly are preparing design concepts for a new crossing to replace the Crown Point Bridge, abruptly closed in October due to unexpectedly high levels of pier deterioration. Meanwhile, contractors are racing to build temporary vehicular ferry-terminal facilities at Lake Champlain between New York and Vermont as a stopgap measure. Photo: AP/Wideworld New York-Vermont crossing was shut down abruptly on Oct. 16 after inspectors found unexpectedly severe pier deterioration, possibly due to ice pressure. + Image NYSDOT, in conjunction with the Vermont Agency of Transportation, on Oct. 16 shut down the 80-year-old, 2,184-ft-long steel
Gregory Kats is Senior Director and director of climate change policy at Good Energies Inc., Washington, D.C. (www.goodenergies.com), an investment firm emphasizing renewable energy and environmental technologies. He was a principal author of Green Office Buildings: A Practical Guide to Development (ULI, 2005) and is the author of the forthcoming book Greening Our Built World: costs, benefits and strategies (Island Press, 2009; www.islandpress.org/Kats. Photo: Gregory Kats KATS Tell me about your new book, Greening Our BuiltWorld. The official launch was in [mid-November]. It took two and a half years — a huge amount of original research went into it. It
Flooding has been a continuing and even predictable problem in Saint Petersburg, ever since Peter the Great founded the city that became the Russian capital in 1703 on low-lying land within the Neva River estuary. Now, after 30 years of planning, construction and delays, a $3-billion barrier fitted with floodgates and carrying one of the city’s major ring roads is nearing completion. Slide Show Photo: Halcrow Pivot gates are poised to swing together and meet in mid-channel to halt floods threatening Saint Petersburg. Photo: Halcrow The completed protection system is intended to prevent floods that regularly impact the city. The
“Grateful.” That was the reaction of Lester Robinson, chief executive officer for the Wayne County Airport Authority, upon receiving news this May of $15 million in stimulus funds for a crucial rehabilitation of a crosswinds runway in Detroit. Detroit, Mich. Photo: WCAA Reconstruction of crosswinds runway in Detroit will now be complete this year. Related Links: Stimulus: A Snapshot of Top Shovel-, Wrench- and Pencil-Ready Projects Five months later, Ajax Paving Industries Inc., Troy, Mich., is about 80% complete on the $34-million reconstruction of a 8,700-ft-long runway at Detroit Metro Airport. “The stimulus allowed us to accelerate construction to complete
