Related Links: Europe's Largest Rail Project Ramps Up At Halfway Mark, $24-Billion U.K. Crossrail Project Back on Track Some 60 archaeologists in London have started excavating about 3,000 skeletons dating back to 1569 from the city's first municipal burial ground. The excavation will allow construction to start on a new entrance to the Crossrail railroad at Liverpool Street Station.Thousands of Londoners, many of whom were victims of plague, were buried up to the mid-18th century at the Bedlam burial ground, which took its name from the nearby Bethlem Royal Hospital for the mentally ill."There are up to 6 meters of
Photo Courtesy of Washington State DOT After 15 months of sitting stuck under the city, TBM Bertha has been rescued. Related Links: Divers Searching for Way To Get TBM 'Bertha' Moving Again Sinking Soils Further Impede Efforts To Extricate Alaskan Way Viaduct's Stuck TBM After sitting virtually stalled in her tracks for more than a year, Bertha, North America's largest-diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM), has finally been rescued. Before she can begin excavating again, contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP) must open up the 57.5-ft-dia cutter head to see how extensive repairs need to be.Bertha had sat under downtown Seattle since
Photo Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard February CSX derailment in West Virginia spilled oil into the Kanawha River. Tracks were inspected three days earlier, the railroad says. Related Links: Pipeline Advocates Question Crude-By-Rail Safety As Crude Oil Shipments Soar, Rail Carriers Step Up Safety A growing tally of oil-train derailments so far this year in the U.S. and Canada—some involving newer, supposedly safer tank cars—has called more attention to what politicians and environmental groups see as poorly maintained, aging infrastructure throughout North America's freight rail network. To address the public's concern, the American Association of Railroads says its members are
Photo Courtesy of Sundt-Slayden A bridge job employs prefabricated arches and nitrogen-cooled concrete. Photo Courtesy of Sundt-Slayden Related Links: Truss Travels On Teflon-Coated Track Prefabricated steel arches, liquid nitrogen-cooled concrete and two perched box caisson river piers are facilitating the construction of a new $307.5-million Sellwood Bridge in Portland, Ore.—the largest project of its kind in the history of Multnomah County.In 2013, crews with the Sundt-Slayden joint venture contractor moved a 1,100-ft-long truss span 66 ft north to serve as a temporary detour over the Willamette River. Since then, other techniques have kept the team busy. Crews are currently erecting
Photo Courtesy of Spectra Energy Last fall, Spectra Energy crews completed the Texas Eastern Appalachia to Market project. Photo Courtesy of Quanta Services Mears HDD, a Quanta Services company, prepares to install pipe at a job in Maryland. Related Links: Pipeline Specialists Profit From Safety, Not Shale Boom Bakken Oil-Shale Extraction Sparks a Construction Boom Welder Shortfall Fires Up Industry Training Programs to Work Overtime Collapsing crude oil prices and sagging prices for natural gas have left the North American energy sector reeling and led many hydrocarbon producers to plan sizable cutbacks in their 2015 drilling plans. But thanks to
Photo Courtesy of Sasol Ethane Cracker site requires installation of concrete piles. Related Links: South Africa's Sasol Moves on New Petrochemical Project in Louisiana Western Canada Eyes Gas-to-Liquid Production Facility Construction is underway on an $8.1-billion ethane cracking plant after its owner, Sasol Ltd., in January delayed a decision to invest in a neighboring project estimated to cost up to $14 billion. Crews for three construction contractors are now performing site preparation, piling and foundation work on the Westlake, La., site while four other contractors have been awarded contracts for later mobilization.Cajun Constructors Inc., Civil Construction Co. and James Industrial
Related Links: Best of the Best 2014 With demand rising for its H-47 Chinook heavy-lift military helicopter, the Boeing Co. sought to increase production and efficiency at its Ridley Park, Pa., campus while maintaining ongoing operations. The resulting five-year Chinook H-47 Focus Factory Conversion Program transformed the company's historic 85-year-old industrial helicopter production complex through several major capital renovation, modernization and new construction projects.More than 1,500 construction workers logged nearly 750,000 hours without disrupting the existing facility's 24-hour, seven-days-a-week assembly operations—often working less than 20 ft from a temporary demising wall. When completed in April 2014, the project boasted a
Related Links: Best of the Best 2014 ENR Northwest Best Projects Spending several days per week on site to resolve issues as they arose during erection, teams of designers took to the field during construction of the University of Oregon's 145,000-sq-ft Hatfield-Dowlin complex, home to an array of spaces for college football's Oregon Ducks. Prior to that, the design team crisscrossed the country to evaluate both college and professional sports facilities and used their observations to inform the programming and design of Hatfield-Dowlin, a facility that hosts weight rooms, video theaters, a player's lounge and a "war room" for Oregon's
Industry professionals from across the U.S. donated their time and expertise to help ENR identify and honor the pinnacle achievements in design and construction, reviewing projects completed in the U.S. and Puerto Rico between June 2013 and June 2014.
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