Residents of two rural Southern Arizona towns are celebrating the reopening of a freeway bridge that had been severely damaged earlier this year after two semi-trucks caught fire during an accident. The bridge over Interstate 10 was demolished and rebuilt in only six months, alleviating a 10-mile detour for residents on either side of the freeway. Photo courtesy ADOT Crews install a new concrete box girder on the Mescal Road/J-Six Ranch Road Bridge over I-10 in southern Arizona as lighning lights up the night sky. Photo Courtesy ADOT The fire-damaged bridge was demolished just 24 days after the fire. Crews
Plans for federally controlled power lines to transmit solar power are moving ahead in the Southwest, but in the Northwest, lines to move wind power are being slowed while wind developments there are being re-evaluated. Photo courtesy of AP WIDEWORLD / Jae C. Hong MIXED MARKET Solar Southwest is strong, but the windy Northwest is weak. The Western Area Power Administration announced it will hire construction firms to upgrade and build parts of a $91-million transmission- line project in southern Arizona.The 109-mile Electrical District 5-to-Palo Verde transmission project includes a mix of new and upgraded WAPA-owned 230-kV lines as well
Caesars’ empire will soon grow a little larger. Caesars Palace, the Las Vegas Strip resort-casino, will open a $375-million, 668-room hotel tower addition on January 2, 2012. The project shell was completed two years ago, but the interior was mothballed due to reduced visitor demand. Photo courtesy Caesars Entertainment The shell for the 23-story Octavius Tower was completed two years ago, but the interior build-out was placed on hold until tourism levels rebounded. Photo courtesy Caesars Entertainment The Octavius Tower features 668 rooms designed by KNA Design, Los Angeles. The joint venture of Marnell Corrao Association, Las Vegas, and Keating
Battling monsoons, heat, live traffic and subpar soils, a joint-venture team expects to complete 30 miles of a Phoenix-area freeway expansion in just eight monthsadding another reason for the Arizona Dept. of Transportation to embrace design-build as it constructs projects to cope with growing traffic.A team of Kiewit Corp. and Sundt Construction holds the approximately $90-million contract to add 30 miles of high-occupancy vehicle lanes to Loop 101 between state Route 51 and Interstate 10.To do this many miles in [nine] months is pretty exciting, says Steve Mishler, ADOT project manager. Typically, this project would have been broken up into
SnapShot September 19, 2011 Submitted By: Dustin Krugel Public Information Officer ADOT, Phoenix A 285-ton oversize load inches across the Roosevelt Lake Bridge east of Phoenix on Aug. 16, carrying a massive anode used for copper refinement. The week-long, 380-mile journey began in Salt Lake City and crossed into Arizona on Aug. 9 via the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge. Hauled by two semis and a custom 18-axle trailer, the anode reached its final destination on schedule at the Freeport-McMoRan mine in Miami, Ariz. Photographer: Mike Poppe Precision Heavy Haul
Specialty contractors, whether steel or electrical or masonry, struggled through another year of steep revenue declines in the Southwest. The top 80 firms saw the value of work performed in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico drop 28% to $2.5 billion in 2010, compared with $3.4 billion in the previous year. And that was just the firms that were willing to report revenue—many chose not to, leading to the lowest participation for this survey in more than a decade. Arizona subcontractor revenue tumbled 28% to $1.4 billion in 2010, but it was Nevada that took the biggest blow, dropping below $1
While other Southwest subcontractors have struggled during these challenging economic times, Corbins Electric has prospered. The Phoenix-based company saw revenue rise 22% in 2010 to $42.8 million, one of the best performances by any regional subcontractor. The total includes $37.2 million from Arizona projects. Related Links: Corbins, which also has an office in Albuquerque, N.M., anticipates an increase of 28.5% in 2011 to $55 million, says Mark Fleming, president and CEO. In those roles since 2001 and a 25-year company veteran, Fleming estimates 2012 revenue of about $50 million.Despite the industry doldrums, the 268-employee company has thrived by effectively partnering
Routine work on a substation apparently led to a power outage that left more than 1.4 million customers – about 5 million people – without power for 12 hours Sept. 8 and 9 in Southern California, Arizona and Mexico. According to the Arizona Public Service, the outage began about 3:30 p.m. PDT Thursday when a major 500-kV line from Arizona to Southern California tripped off. The outage forced the automatic shut down of the San Onofre Generating Station, a nuclear powerplant. The powerplant and power imported from Arizona on the 500-kV line are the region’s primary sources of power. Without
MGM Resorts International intends to implode Foster + Partners’ unfinished Harmon Hotel due to “serious structural defects” and “public safety concerns,” the company announced on August 15. The news comes a month after the release of a report claiming the Las Vegas building was beyond repair. Image by Bill Hughes MGM hopes to demolish the 28-story hotel. Demolition is not a sure bet, however. County officials have to approve the demolition plans. Plus, MGM would have to get a Clark County district court to overturn an order that prohibits the company from touching the Harmon while civil litigation continues between
Las Vegas is crowded with performers, but few are as huge as Big Stan. Thought to be the world's largest truck-mounted drill, Big Stan is flexing its muscles south of the Strip on a $252.5-million, 7-mile-long widening of Interstate 15.Big Stan's tall stance originally sprang from deep roots. The 250,000-lb, 93-ft-high boring behemoth was built in 1986 by Anderson Drilling, Lakeside, Calif., now a part of London-based Keller Group PLC. The mega-machine, which cost $1.5 million to construct, is named after 6-ft, 3-in.-tall Stan Anderson, who retired as company president in 2006.It didn't take long to realize that what you
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