Photo Courtesy of Port of Long Beach Crews use a novel surface casing removal process to remove old oil wells. Related Links: Long Beach's Long-term View Long Beach, Calif., Approves $1-billion Bridge Replacement Project As the Port of Long Beach, Calif., moves forward with its 10-year, $4-billion modernization program, two of its largest components are seeing sharp cost increases. The $1-billion Gerald Desmond Bridge project faces a 15% budget increase, while the price tag on the $1.2-billion Middle Harbor project has now risen by $29.5 million.Much of these increases occurred because the port was built on an oil field, with
Related Links: Redesign Required For $4.1-billion Project's Pontoons Cracks Delay Work at Floating Bridge Project in Washington State Construction of 77 concrete pontoons for the replacement of the world's longest floating bridge has reached the halfway point. Redesigned cycle 3 pontoons are floating toward the Seattle jobsite.The new $954-million, 7,710-ft-long State Route 520 bridge connecting Seattle to points east across Lake Washington is part of a larger $4.13-billion project.Joint-venture prime contractor Kiewit-General-Mason is following a sequence of six pontoon cycles. Tugboats began towing the first two cycle 3 pontoons to the lake in mid-October, with others right behind. Cycle 3
Related Links: Airports Peg Their Five-Year Capital Needs At $71 Billion Frustated Airport Officials Call Out Feds, Airlines With sequestration and a government shutdown looming last month, U.S. airport officials kept their focus on their major goals: increasing passenger facility charges (PFCs) for airport construction and garnering public support for Next Generation satellite-based technology for air traffic control.At their annual meeting, held late last month in San Jose, Calif., members of Airports Council International-North America fretted over the possibility that the shutdown might usher in a repeat dip into the Airport Improvement Program, which is meant to fund improvements at
Related Links: Transit Builders Buoyed By Ridership Figures Frustration With Politics Flavors Transportation Expo Like their bridge and highway counterparts, U.S. mass-transit builders are catching the public-private partnership bug. But some issues pose challenges, such as the environmental permitting process and the uncertainty of long-term federal funding."State-of-good-repair projects are good candidates for P3s, but the private sector needs clarity of timeframes," said Karen Hedlund, the Federal Railroad Administration deputy administrator. Speaking to attendees of the American Public Transportation Association, she noted that transit agencies might offer stipends for unsolicited proposals to "telegraph serious intent" about pursuing P3s.Unlike highway projects, on
Related Links: Engineers Puzzle Over Cause, Fixes for Sagging Wisconsin Bridge Leo Frigo I-43 bridge sinks another half inch; emergency funds approved The I-43 bridge in Green Bay, Wis., has a 2-ft-plus sag because pier pilings buckled from corrosion, state investigators say. Meanwhile, findings from monitoring equipment installed on the Leo Frigo Bridge show that Pier 22, which settled 2 ft on Sept. 25, settled another half-inch on Oct. 3. Supported by 100-ft-deep H-pilings, the pier is not the only one showing corrosion, says Tom Buchholz, the investigation team's leader."We also went to the adjacent piers—Pier 21, Pier 23, Pier
Related Links: U.K. Launches $52-Billion Rail Plan CH2M Hill Tapped To Advise On $26.5-Billion Line in England Speculation is rising that political forces in Great Britain may thwart initial funding for the country's ambitious HS2 high-speed-rail program, now budgeted at more than $80 billion. The Labour Party's shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, questioned whether the money might be better spent on other projects. But U.K. Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander told a civil engineers' transportation conference in London on Sept. 25 that the current government intended to push the project forward and that it was "absolute folly to neglect its long-term
Photos Courtesy of WisDOT Motorists are being rerouted to other roadways, while investigators use sensors to inspect the pilings on the bridge. The Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge on Interstate 43 in Green Bay, Wis., is closed indefinitely after a pier settled early on Sept. 25, causing a more than 20-in. sag across the four-lane roadway.State and federal structural and geotechnical experts have been joined by consultants from Michael Baker Jr. Inc. and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. to examine the bridge and develop a plan of action.No one has determined the cause of the settling, any estimated time for repairs
Photo Courtesy FDOT The incident severely damaged a structural beam on the bridge's central span. Related Links: Fast-Track Replacement Planned for Collapsed Skagit River Bridge In Wake of Washington Span's Collapse, Federal Bridge Funding is in Focus The Florida Dept. of Transportation scrambled to award an emergency contract for repairs to a downtown Jacksonville bridge after a U.S. Navy cargo ship struck the 60-year-old, steel-truss structure's central span on Sept. 26. FDOT announced on Oct. 1 that Superior Construction, Jacksonville, submitted the apparent low bid, with a price of $1.07 million, plus a potential $500,000 in bonuses. FDOT estimates the
Related Links: Ten Minutes With Elaine Dezenski Of WTS Officials: Transportation Needs Many Options, Funding Transportation officials are calling for greater unity among modes and emphasis on infrastructure as an economic development tool in order to increase public support for funding."Transportation is increasingly about place-making," said U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, addressing members of the Women's Transportation Seminar in Washington, D.C., during a day-long symposium on Sept. 17. He added, "We have to husband our resources to be as efficient as we can."For example, he noted that ramping up use of construction methods such as warm-mix asphalt could
Related Links: Time-Lapse Video of Skagit Bridge Replacement Oregon Bridge Truss Travels On Teflon-Coated Tracks Time was of the essence: It was even built into the bidding process as a key factor in the $8.5-million project to replace the collapsed Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in northwest Washington state.On Sunday, Sept. 15, crews from winning contractor Max J. Kuney Co., Spokane, made good on the firm's bidding commitment by sliding into place the state's first lightweight concrete bridge, with a 19-hour closure of the four-lane interstate connecting Seattle to Vancouver, B.C.Everything about the project was fast-tracked following a