The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has added the high strength, corrosion resistant reinforcing steel grade, ASTM A1035, to British Columbia’s Bridge Standards and Procedures Manual Supplement to the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC) S6-14. The steel will be used on Ministry concrete bridge structures and is produced by Cascade Steel Rolling Mills, Inc. for MMFX Steel Corporation. The steel is corrosion resistant and manages over 690 MPa of yield strength.

 

“The Ministry of Transportation has taken a definitive step in upgrading its infrastructure by updating its corrosion protection design standards to include the full line of ChrōmX products,” says Tom Russo, CEO of MMFX Steel, in a press release. He adds, “since rebar corrosion is the main cause of bridge deterioration, the use of ChrōmX reinforcing steels will result in longer bridge service lives.”

 

The Ministry agrees. ASTM A1035 is used for many of its bridges and despite rebar being a small percentage of the bridge’s overall cost, the material is what ultimately defines how useful the bridge will be during its lifespan. Since using ASTM A1035 steels, the Ministry has concluded that taxpayers pay less for maintenance and repairs over a much longer service life, which also helps to lower life cycle costs and traffic disruptions.

 

British Columbia’s Ministry is just one in a group of Canadian ministries of transportation and U.S. departments of transportation using MMFX ChrōmX reinforcing steels as a corrosion resistant reinforcement for corrosion prevention.

 

Seattle’s Tim Croll Joins HDR as Solid Waste Planner
Tim Croll has joined HDR as a senior solid waste planner after spending 23 years working in solid waste for the City of Seattle.

 

Previously, Croll helped Seattle increase its recycling rate by 95 percent, jumping from nearly 25 percent in 1987 to 58 percent in 2015. While under Croll’s leadership, the Seattle Solid Waste Utility received recognition from The Ford Foundation and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government with an award for innovation in state and local government.

Tim Croll holds a bachelor of science degree in geology and mineralogy from The Ohio State University and a masters of science in geological sciences from the University of Washington.

 

Slayden Constructors, Inc. Awarded Contract by the Joint Water Commission
Joint Water Commission recently awarded a $25-million water treatment center expansion contract to Slayden Contractors to make safety, maintenance and capacity improvements at the water treatment facility in Forest Grove, Ore.

 

Construction is scheduled to begin in February 2017 with substantial completion expected in May 2019. Preconstruction services already began in August of 2016.

 

“Slayden has extensive knowledge and a strong history of working with local water commissions, like the JWC. Our team is dedicated to the communities where we live and work and are proud to help bring clean drinking water to Washington County,” says Slayden Vice President Steve Flett.

The project will include two separate construction packages with the first being a series of safety and maintenance improvements for existing structures, and the second being an 85 million gallons per day increase to the facility’s water capacity in order to meet the demands of Washington County.
 

To execute the project, Slayden will be working with the Joint Water Commission as well as CH2M in order to prevent treatment plant interruptions and meet the agreed upon completion dates.

Erika Murphy, project manager for City of Hillsboro, which is the managing partner for the JWC, says in a press release, “JWC is the primary supplier of drinking water in the area, and it is responsible for treating, transmitting, and storing potable water for more than 365,000 people. We have assembled a qualified team of professionals to ensure constructability of the Water Treatment Plant Expansion Project and to ultimately improve and increase the capacity of clean drinking water in Washington County.”

 

Transportation management and engineering firm DKS Associates and Moonshadow Mobile have partnered up to pursue the development and use of autonomous vehicles and other applications that will utilize data-heavy applications.

 

Moonshadow’s DB4IoT technology will offer the ability to track and display the GPS location, vehicle health, diagnostic, and other sensor data from tens of thousands of moving objects simultaneously over interactive maps. This provides the ability “to track, monitor, and analyze data collected from moving objects such as cars, trucks, buses, trains, shipments, people, and more,” according to a joint press release. DB4IoT lets users visualize travel data from a range of vehicles over maps in real time against historical data and provides tools for analysis. Moreover, DB4IoT reduces the in-memory data footprint by up to 90 percent.

 

“Our partnership will allow Moonshadow to work closely with DKS to deliver innovative technology for intelligent transportation and connected-vehicle solutions that push the envelope of what is possible and cost-effective for the private and public sectors,” says Moonshadow Chief Executive Officer Eimar Boesjes.

 

The American Society of Civil Engineers published an update to Standard 19 on Guidelines for Steel Building Cables. Standard ASCE/SEI 19-16 is titled Structural Application of Steel Cables for Buildings and includes a new appendix with information on small diameter cables and updated nomenclature.

The publication addresses shop drawings, design, cable materials and coatings, shipping and receiving, fabrication, erection, post construction issues and inspections.