Bong-Hyun Cho, manager of the immersed tunnel site for the $1.8-billion Busan-Geoje fixed- link project, finally can get some sleep. Six of 18 concrete tunnel elements, 180-m long and 45,000 tonnes, have been towed successfully from a dry dock 35 km away, sunk into the turbulent depths of the Pacific and placed atop specially designed gravel beds with tight tolerances. "If the gravel beds fail, the project fails," he says. "I was so anxious." Slide Show Photo: Halcrow Korea’s 8.2-km-long sea link will connect the mainland to Geoje Island through three islets. After a rocky start with glitches in the
Rail, marine and airport officials are pragmatically waiting for the final version of a stimulus bill. Everyone would like more stimulus project funds, but they would also like policy and programming changes. Such changes could be reflected in attempts to reauthorize the six-year transportation trust fund and the airport improvement program later this year. At a Transportation Research Board session held earlier this month in Washington, D.C., Maryland State Highway Administrator Neil Pedersen said many officials were calling the stimulus request process a “dress rehearsal” for reauthorization. Related Links: Proposal in House Fires Up Debate Does Massive Spending Help or
Since he was involved in the watershed $1.5-billion design-build widening of Interstate 15 and managed operations for the Utah Dept. of Transportation during the 2000 Olympics shortly thereafter, it is not surprising that Jim McMinimee has Olympian ambitions regarding construction.
When Birchard Ohlinger supervised Maysoon Ishtar Tawfik in Iraq in 2004, he saw her both as someone who “let me see inside the Iraqi mind” and as an embodiment of the American “can-do” spirit, he recalls.
Warren Schlatter, county engineer for Defiance County, Ohio, recalls his staff’s initial reaction when Michael Adams, Federal Highways Administration research geotechnical engineer, told them about using geosynthetic-reinforced soil technology to replace bridge abutments faster and cheaper.
Elie H. Homsi will never forget the first day that his brainchild, a pile-driving, girder-launching gantry system, went to work on a $192-million contract to build the Washington Bypass, a six-mile alternative route to Highway 17 in North Carolina.
Ten-mile hikes, wasp nests and forest fires marked an almost unfeasible feasibility study for a potential world-record road tunnel. Engineering geologists with Kleinfelder Inc., San Diego, are now working on a report, due by fall, for the Orange County Transportation Authority and Riverside County Transportation Commission. It will assess the possibility of building a pair of 50-ft-dia tunnels almost 12 miles long under the Cleveland National Forest in Southern California. Photo: Klienfelder Rugged test sites required a full-time helicopter. Engineers say tunnel-boring technology is not quite there yet, but might be by the time the agencies find funding and complete
As the highlight of a $1.8-million, four-year federally funded research program, academic and industry researchers have begun testing multiple types of bridge-cable sensors in a chamber generating real-world-based corrosive conditions at Columbia University in New York City. The six-month test, launched on Dec. 23, has the world’s only cable mockup tested under 1.2-million lb of tension, say Columbia officials. Photo: Parsons Betti (left) and Khazem handle prefabricated parallel wire strands built for the mock suspension cable that will be subjected to real-life corrosion factors. The 20-ft-long mock suspension-bridge cable has a diameter of 20 in. and is made of nearly
New Mexico’s engineers and contractors are ready to expedite the bidding of $1.2 billion worth of construction projects in the wake of an economic stimulus package. Mike Gibson, executive director of the Associated Contractors of New Mexico, believes the national focus on infrastructure could also stimulate New Mexico’s Legislature to allow design-build, Construction Manager-At-Risk and other alternative project delivery methods in 2009. Related Links: New Mexico Projects Questions Swirl On Stimulus Plan �Ready to Go� May Be The Stimulus Ticket “Some concerns of industry leaders are that all 50 states will be competing for resources to deliver their respective lists