Each morning, demolition workers don powered respirators with full hood assemblies, battery packs and air hoses to prevent exposure to the lead paint that covers most of the nearly 80-year-old steel structure of the East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Tight space constraints along a 4.3-mile light-rail expansion for the Sacramento Regional Transit District, or Sacramento RT, required engineers to modify plans and adopt new rail-damping technology to reduce noise in residential areas.
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) unveiled a significantly down- sized plan to restore his state's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a major water resource for both agricultural and urban users.
Some 150 tradesmen have converged on a "postage stamp-size site" in Anchorage to construct what its owner promises will be one of the most energy-efficient thermal generation powerplants in the world.
An engineer who as a college student left a major mark on masonry codes, a project manager overseeing work on CD5 Niqliq Channel Bridge in the North Slope of Alaska and a sustainability expert specializing in mixed-use and retail projects both domestically and abroad are among the rising stars selected as ENR Northwest's Top Young Construction Industry Professionals.
Jon Magnusson, senior principal with Seattle-based engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA) and son of a civil engineer, recalls visiting the construction firm where his father worked and eyeing a 50-lb box of nails, whereupon the 8-year-old inquired if he could pocket a handful of them.
While some parts of the Pacific Northwest are undergoing a boom of a magnitude rarely seen in the region, others may be heading for a bust of similar proportions.