Indiana and Kentucky have awarded the $103-million design-build contract to construct the replacement bridge connecting Milton, Ky., with Madison, Ind., to the team of Walsh Construction Co., La Porte, Ind., and designers Buckland & Taylor Ltd., North Vancouver, B.C., and Burgess & Niple Engineers, Columbus, Ohio. Photo: KY DOT New Ohio River bridge will feature an historic-looking superstructure. The project received a $20-million federal grant in February. The remaining $83 million of cost will be split evenly by Indiana and Kentucky. The cost is about 20% less than the original estimate of $131 million, according to a statement from the
Libya has embarked on an ambitious course to build an extensive rail system that will offer both passenger and freight service. The major east-west route will parallel the coast, ultimately stretching 2,300 km from Ras Ejder on the border of Tunisia to Umm Sa’ad on the border of Egypt. Separate contracts have been awarded to Russian and Chinese contractors to complete certain segments. Since 2008 RZD (Russian State Railway) crews have been building a 554-kilometer Surt-to-Benghazi segment, which involves four major stations and 24 minor stations. The project is expected to take four years at a cost of $3 billion.
The Federal Highway Administration has given the Texas Dept. of Transportation a green light to proceed with construction of the West Rail project in Brownsville, an estimated $85-million effort to relocate a Union Pacific Railroad line out of the heart of the city and away from downtown Matamoros, Mexico. The project is a cooperative effort involving officials in both cities, the state agency, Cameron County and the Mexican government. On the U.S. side, improvements would relocate the existing railway from the U.S. 77-83 rail junction to a switching yard farther west, routing it south to the Rio Grande River just
Mounting an effort to combat the blackouts and brownouts that are familiar features of life in Cairo, the Egyptian government recently secured the final piece of financing for a new 1,500-MW, combined-cycle gas-fired powerplant designed to keep the capital city’s lights on longer. With Egypt’s electricity demand set to grow 50% by 2017, the planned $1.3-billion Giza North plant represents a small but critical step toward power sufficiency. A $384-million loan from the European Investment Bank completed financial requirements for the plant, which is 30 kilometers northwest of Cairo. The World Bank board of directors approved a $600-million loan for
Keen to reduce their region’s growing energy reliance on Russia, European financial institutions have thrown their weight behind the $10.3-billion Nabucco gas pipeline through Turkey. Map: Walter Kornegay And Sue Pearsall For ENR Nabucco pipeline would provide gas delivery route that avoids Russia. Russia is fighting back with two rival projects, the first already well into construction. Together, the three pipelines could pump 149 billion cu meters of gas per year into the continent. The 3,300-kilometer-long Nabucco pipeline will cross Turkey, continue through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, and terminate some 50 km inside Austria at Baumgarten. It is planned to
The multibillion-dollar, decade-long effort to restore the Florida Everglades has made tangible but slow progress; however, the effort is facing some difficult challenges ahead, says a new report from the National Research Council. Photo: Courtesy of South Florida Water Management District The Picayune Strand project, begun in 2003, was one of two CERP projects to receive ARRA funding to accelerate construction. The Tamiami Trail project also received ARRA funds. Those challenges include finding continued funding and balancing the need for meeting federal water-quality requirements with the restoration plan’s goal of increasing water flows, the study authors conclude in the NRC’s
An ill-starred effort to bore one of the deepest tunnels in the world has restarted in the mountains of northern Peru after months of delays due to rock bursts. The $247-million Los Olmos irrigation project was halted when the tunnel-boring machine at work on the 12.5-mile-long tunnel (with 6,890 ft of overburden) was damaged by rock bursts in April. On July 8, engineers with Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht were able to restart the TBM, but rock bursts continue to hinder progress. In August, work began on the tunnel’s opposite approach using conventional drill-and-blast methods. The tunnel breakthrough is now slated
Belgian dredging firm Jan de Nul has won the Panama Canal expansion’s last major contract, a $54.5-million job to dredge and excavate 4 million cu meters at the entrance of the historic waterway’s Pacific access channel. The contract will make way for construction of new and larger locks. + Image Photo: Courtesy of Panama Canal Authority Excavation work to build an access channel from the Panama Canal to new, larger locks at the Pacific entrance of the waterway is more than half completed. Photo: Courtesy of Panama Canal Authority Excavation proceeds at the canal’s Atlantic entrance for the new, larger
If New Zealand university professor Andrew Charleson has his way, giant rubber bands cut from used tires would strap together new and existing adobe houses the world over, saving lives and avoiding injuries by preventing the houses from collapsing in earthquakes. Having tested his belt-and-suspenders concept, Charleson intends to seek funding to implement the approach as soon as the construction manual for the banding, currently under review by the World Housing Encyclopedia, is finished. Photo: Andrew Charleson Rubber-strap wraps could be installed on adobe brick houses for about $500 per house, prof says. Photo: Andrew Charleson. Straps, from used-car tires,
Building-sector groups once again are decrying the Portland Cement Association’s revised requirements for sustainable buildings, which were released recently. The move came after a failed attempt by PCA—at code hearings in August 2009—to get any of the provisions of High Performance Building Requirements for Sustainability 2.0 adopted into the model International Green Building Code. Other organizations characterize PCA’s second attempted end run around the accepted model-code development process as a self-serving push for the use of concrete over rival structural materials through the local adoption of code provisions that have been consistently rejected at the national level. High Performance Building