Three years after the state of Connecticut failed to generate any bids on the nation’s first extradosed bridge project—a hybrid cable-stayed, box-girder structure—three firms now are competing for the superstructure work. The low bid is about $33 million below engineers’ estimate. Photo: URS Corp. Reduced bid package helped generate three bidders for Q bridge superstructure work. When bids were opened on June 3 for the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, known as the Q bridge because it spans the Quinnipiac River, the joint venture of Walsh Construction Co., Sharon, Mass., and PCL Civil Constructors, Tampa, Fla., was the apparent low bidder
The Highway Trust Fund is in trouble again. Last September, Congress rescued the fund’s highway account with an $8-billion injection. Now a new shortfall, estimated at $5 billion to $7 billion, is looming in August. The picture is even darker for 2010, when an additional $8 billion to $10 billion will be needed. The search is on for more revenue, but the White House is insisting that any new money for the trust fund must be offset, presumably by spending cuts or a revenue-raising mechanism. Source: Federal Highway Administration Ending balance for FY 2008 includes $8.017 billion transferred from the
Anearly 7,000-ft-long railroad bridge is undergoing an extreme $35-million makeover over the Hudson River, thanks to hundreds of precast concrete panels, community zeal and the windblown determination of engineers and contractors. When completed by October, the revamped 121-year-old Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge may be the world’s longest pedestrian bridge at 6,768 ft, say officials. Photo: Bergmann Associates Old railroad bridge will become a soaring walkway over the Hudson River when it opens later this year. Photo: Bergmann Associates Work in high winds over the river was a challenge. The historic bridge’s 3,094-ft-long, 25-ft-wide main span consists of seven trusses supported on
Much to the relief of Miami officials, the Florida Dept. of Transportation and the Miami Access Tunnel (MAT) consortium have reached agreement on commercial terms for the revived $1-billion Port of Miami Tunnel project. MAT, led by Paris-based Bouygues Publics Travaux, brought in a new French partner, Meridiam Infrastructure Finance, after its original 90% equity partner, Australia’s Babcock & Brown, bailed out late last year. FDOT approved the switch in early May. “We signed an agreement to proceed; now they have to find financing,” says Dick Kane, FDOT spokesman. The state has set a deadline of Oct. 1 for financial
Federal water-pumping in California’s Central Valley Project jeopardizes the continued existence of several threatened and endangered species, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Fisheries Service. Changing water operations to reduce the threat will reduce water available for drinking, irrigation and industry by an estimated 5% to 7%. The cutback could lead to higher water-use rates and, depending on the level of drought, further rationing. The Bureau of Reclamation’s pumping operations will not be immediately affected.
Engineers are getting better at picking up the pieces after hurricanes and reducing the next-flood risk in devastated areas. But places vulnerable to catastrophic events generally must wait until they have been wrecked before significant risk-reduction measures are planned, funded and applied. Grand Isle berm rebuilt around geotube core. As the 2009 hurricane season opens, $14.3 billion worth of levee repairs and new defense construction is roaring ahead in the area smashed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Construction began in May on a massive, roughly $1.8-billion surge barrier to protect the southeastern flank of New Orleans, where the Corps of
While the owner of the 2.6-million-sq-ft Empire State Building gears up for a $500-million renovation, designed to cut energy costs by 38% and be a model for other green office-building retrofits, a construction firm that recently moved into its green ESB offices is releasing hard data on the 24,000-sq-ft retrofit. Skanska USA Building, which moved into its 32nd-floor space in November, reports it has reduced its energy bill by 46% over its smaller, previous offices elsewhere. Photo: Guy Lawrence / ENR Building landlords target $4.4 million in yearly savings. This fall, Skanska expects to be awarded LEED Platinum status for
Architect Ellerbe Becket, Kansas City, has been retained by Nets owner and Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner, of Forest City Ratner Cos., to come up with a new design for the long-delayed and controversial Atlantic Yards basketball and entertainment arena in Brooklyn, N.Y. Ellerbe Becket replaces Gehry Partners. Other key designers, New York City-based structural engineer Thornton-Tomasetti, and mechanical-electrical-plumbing engineer, WSP Flack + Kurtz, will remain on the project. Forest City Ratner says it hopes to unveil new images of the arena, named Barclays Center, in late June and that it intends to break ground later this year in anticipation
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the Obama administration will propose a remedy for the projected shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund by mid-August, but adds that the White House wants any revenue infusion to the fund to be "paid for," or offset. He also expressed confidence that the problem will be resolved. "It's going to get fixed," he says. Key Senators have said DOT and Office of Management and Budget officials told Democratic congressional staffers the trust fund will need an injection of $5 billion to $7 billion by August or federal highway payments to state DOTs will have to
The green revolution may be a much-ballyhooed fixture with architectural, engineering and construction cognoscenti, but what happens when the revolution actually arrives on the doorstep of the traditional blue collar, Irish Catholic, family-oriented stronghold of South Boston? Wicked Delicate Films' production of The Greening of Southie successfully explores that theme with a hip blend of time-lapse photography, great music and on-point dialogue as a young management team leads skeptical tradesmen through the experience of assembling an 11-story, 144 unit condominium project called the Macallen Building. Photo: Wicked Delicate Films Related Links: Preview of The Greening of Southie Southie, of course,
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