Photo Courtesy of MaineDOT The Maine Dept. of Transportation has erected a number of bridges using composite inflatable arches. The technology is gradually catching on in other states and overseas. Related Links: Bridge-in-a-Backpack Tech 'Blows Up' Next-Gen Bridges Dozens Of Test Projects Later, Advocates Still Have Durable Dreams Four years after the first lightweight bridge-in-a-backpack, or BIAB, composite bridge was erected in Pittsfield, Maine, the technology is gaining traction in the U.S. and abroad, despite some learning-curve challenges.So far, BIAB has been deployed for 13 bridges in four states and, completed in May, a 26-ft span for the Trinidad Ministry
Photo Courtesy of John Hillman A West Virginia bridge received HCB beams that only weighed 10 tons each. Related Links: First Composite Rail Bridge Undergoes Successful Testing Award of Excellence Winner 2010 John Hillman Five years after a fully loaded locomotive and 26 coal cars chugged over a 30-ft-long, 17-ft-wide span comprising eight hybrid composite beams (HCB) in Colorado, the technology has been used in nine states.An HCB consists of a glass-fiber-reinforced plastic shell with high-strength continuous steel fibers placed along the bottom flange and filled with self-consolidating concrete (ENR 4/12/10 p. 34). Like the Bridge-in-a-Backpack (BIAB)—another non-traditional construction technology
Related Links: Investor's Passion Launches Nation's First Privately Built And Managed Airport Missouri's Branson Airport has filed suit against its designers and builders, alleging improper execution of the foundation and other "reckless actions" led to the 2011 collapse of a runway two years after the facility was completed.The suit claims designer Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co., contractor McAninch Corp. and others failed to comply with regulatory and design criteria required to prevent subsidence. As a result, a large area of the foundation collapsed near the intersection of the tarmac and a 7,140-ft-long, 150-ft-wide runway, the lawsuit claims.Foundation construction involved excavating
Photo Courtesy of the Chicago Dept. of Aviation O'Hare Airport, Spring 2004. To build major new runways at O'Hare, contractors had to move a cemetery, a railroad, cargo facilities and a huge retention pond. Photo Courtesy of the Chicago Dept. of Aviation O'Hare Airport, June 2013. Related Links: O'Hare Operations Literally Buzz With Activity Airports Push the Green Envelope Reconfiguring an airport the size of O'Hare, including building four new runways—without disrupting the 68 million passengers that use it annually—involves challenging staging and logistics. The construction team had to relocate a railroad, a cemetery, cargo facilities and a stormwater retention
Photo By Nicholas Zeman for ENR 'Mobile lidar' is helping speed initial work on Louisville bridges. Related Links: $2.6-Billion Ohio River Spans Set For Award In December P3, Design-Build Planned For Ohio River Bridges Virtual-reality tools and ramped-up deadline goals are propelling the $2.6-billion Ohio River Bridges project out of the starting gate. Workers are driving piles now to reconstruct the ramps for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge and the interchanges at which Interstate 65, I-64 and I-71 intersect in Louisville, Ky.The interchange work is a $425-million portion of the project, which will entail building a second bridge that
Related Links: Saudi Arabia Upgrading Rail Passenger and Freight Service Demand In Middle East And Asia Drive Market For Building Projects Saudi Arabia is launching one of the world's biggest mass-transit construction programs. On July 29, the Riyadh Development Authority selected three international design-build teams for contracts totaling more than $20 billion for six lines on the new subway system in Riyadh. The development authority plans to compete negotiations regarding the contracts in the next few months.Extending more than 170 kilometers and including 87 stations, the government-funded program will entail some 600,000 tonnes of steel and over four million cubic
Image Courtesy of Metrolink Installation of positive train control technology on Metrolink trains will help prevent collisions and over-speed accidents. Related Links: American Companies Adopt Swiss Hardware for Railroad Surveying FRA Issues High-Speed Rail Guidelines Aimed at preventing rail disasters like the one that killed 79 people in Spain last month, Los Angeles commuter-rail operator Metrolink is installing a sophisticated control system along its 512 miles of track.The $210.9-million project involves a network of software, signal network updates and communications towers—known as positive train control (PTC)—that will interoperate with similar systems overlayed onto freight-railroad networks operated by United Pacific, Burlington
Photo courtesy of WSDOT Graphic courtesy of WSDOT Related Links: Fast Track Replacement Planned For Collapsed Skagit River Bridge US DOT Provides $156 Million More For Skagit River Bridge Repairs The new permanent below-deck girder bridge span to replace the 160-ft-long section that toppled into the Skagit River in May won’t have any vertical height clearance concerns. And soon the remainder of the 1,112-ft new Skagit River Bridge will have a more worry-free uniform vertical clearance to help reduce potential collisions.Washington State Dept. of Transportation officials announced this week a plan to eliminate the curves in the bridge’s current support
Related Links: Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh describes rail link project as the dream of the nation As part of a national project to link the harsh, mountainous Himalayan terrain of the northern Jammu region with the Kashmir Valley by a 293-kilometer-long, broad-gauge railway line—the J&K Rail Link Project—government-owned Indian Railway Construction Co. Ltd has released an invitation for bids for two packages with a combined expected cost of about $140 million.The packages, called T49A and T49B, are for the construction of tunnels, embankments and bridges for a 14.8-km-long link to be completed in 48 months. The last date
Photo courtesy of Toronto Transit Commission Seven months after almost simultaneously completing one tunneling segment, twin TBMs break through headwalls within a day of each other in mid-June. Related Links: Spanish Firms Will Help Build Toronto Subway Extension Toronto Subway Wins Some Funds Yorkie beat Torkie, but only by a day. After 945 meters of digging southward, the first 6.4-m-dia tunnel-boring machine broke through the headwall of the extraction shaft at what will be Black Creek Pioneer Village Station on June 13. The next day, its twin TBM, nicknamed Torkie, followed. The earth-pressure-balance TBMs did not match the unusual feat