Related Links: U.K. Crossrail Project Hits Halfway Mark With a price tag of around $66 billion, the U.K.'s next high-speed-rail project is pressuring engineers to minimize costs while maintaining quality. As they prepare to procure the $28.1-billion first phase between London and Birmingham, officials are urging the international construction community to bring innovative ideas to the 10-year program.MCNAUGHTON"Here is a stream of work that gives you the incentive to invest in techniques, construction equipment and in skills of people at all levels," says Andrew McNaughton, technical director of High Speed 2 Ltd, the government's project company. "Things like tunneling have
Related Links: Shale Plays Pump Up Pipeline Sector Bakken Shale Field Pushing East Coast Rail Terminal Projects Some are calling for the progress of pipeline projects in the aftermath of the Dec. 30 derailment and explosion of a Burlington Northern Sante Fe freight train carrying crude oil from the Bakken shale formation through Casselton, N.D. It was the fourth such incident in North America in 2013.In October, the Fraser Institute, a public-policy think tank in Calgary, Alberta, released a report titled "Intermodal Transport in the Safety of Oil," written by Kenneth Green. "Truck and rail have a higher rate of
Related Links: Steel Pipe Found Stuck in Bertha's Cutterhead When North America's largest tunnel-boring machine pushed a 50-ft-long, 8-in.-dia steel pipe seven feet out of the ground on Dec. 3, joint-venture contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners and Washington State Dept. of Transportation officials didn't think much of it."Bertha," the 57.5-ft-dia machine, kept churning its state Route 99 tunnel path below Seattle at faster-than-predicted paces. But only for three more days.Now, that pipe—a well casing put in place in 2002 to measure groundwater movement following the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the very same earthquake that serves as the catalyst for Bertha boring a
Related Links: African Airport Work Poised for Takeoff Court Ruling Endangers Start of Stalled 53-km Serengeti Road Project More than a year after its originally planned start of construction, Kenyan officials broke ground this past November on the $650-million Greenfield Terminal project at Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi, Kenya. Two Chinese contractors, Anhui Civil Engineering Group (ACEG) and China Aero Technology Engineering International Corp., will lead the construction of the 178,000-sq-meter terminal, designed by Pascall+Watson of London.Lucy Mbugua, acting managing director with project owner Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), said the new terminal will "increase the [airport's] suppressed
Related Links: Home Crises Drive More Spanish Contractors Abroad Australia Boosts Infrastructure As Mining Sector Loses Steam A highway project in one of Australia's fastest-growing regions has broken tunneling speed records, excavating up to 163 ft in a day. The $1.33-billion Legacy Way project (formerly known as Northern Link) in Brisbane is currently running six months ahead of its scheduled mid-2015 completion, say officials.To build the 2.9-mile-long parallel tunnels between Brisbane's Toowong and Kelvin Grove, the two 41-ft-diameter, 361-ft-long Herrenknecht double-shield pair of tunnel boring machines (TBMs) excavated more than 35.3 million cu ft of spoil, consisting predominantly of Neranleigh
Photo Courtesy of Acciona Two of four tunnel boring machines arrived in Brazil in November. Photo Courtesy of Acciona 210-ft-long earth pressure balance TBMs will dig new subway route. Related Links: Two Years To World Cup Kickoff For Brazilian Stadiums Architects, Commerce Dept. Embark On Trade Mission To Brazil As demonstrated by this summer's fare-increase riots—which caused an estimated 1 million protesters in São Paolo and other Brazilian cities to take to the streets—public transportation is a crucial issue for the burgeoning country. Next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games will add tremendous strain on the country's infrastructure.
Photo Courtesy of CMRL TBMs may or may not be culprits in building damage. Photo Courtesy of CMRL Related Links: Fatal Pier Collapse Mars India Metro India Chips Away At Massive Urbanization Ills An investigation is pending into cracks detected in more than 200 buildings in Chennai, India. While they are attributed to the construction of the first phase of the 90-kilometer-long, $3-billion Chennai Metro project, it is not clear whether the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are the direct cause.Administered by Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL), a joint venture between the Indian government and the southern state of Tamil Nadu,
The construction of the first phase of a major metro project in Chennai, India, may be causing cracks in more than 200 buildings in the city, and the buildings’ owners are calling for a formal investigation. Federal Minister for Urban Development Kamal Nath recently stated that as part of precautionary measures, strengthening and even temporary evacuation was being conducted for structurally weak buildings to ensure safety. “In the event of significant impact on any building, the repair works are undertaken based on the recommendations given by the experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai,” Nath said.Some residents have
Related Links: Infrastructure Investors Are Willing To Pound the Pavement LBJ Work Progress To Excavation Phase The population of the Lone Star State passed the 26-million mark this year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The 3.6% year-over-year growth rate shows no sign of slowing. While new arrivals are welcomed, the problem, as Texas officials wryly note, is that they "don't bring new roads with them."(click here for slide show)The Texas A&M Texas Transportation Institute estimates the state faces a $4-billion funding gap to meet the transportation needs of the growing populace. To make ends meet, the Texas Dept. of
Photo and Map Courtesy of NCDOT Crews delivered repair components to bridge site in late November. The lawsuit aims to protect an adjoining wildlife refuge. The Herbert C. Bonner Bridge on North Carolina's Outer Banks has reopened after the discovery of excess scour around underwater pilings forced a two-week closure. The closure isolated more than 4,000 full-time residents on Hatteras Island and added fuel to the long-simmering debate over replacing the half-century-old, 2.5-mile structure spanning Oregon Inlet.Because of the highly volatile and dynamic nature of the inlet's currents between the Atlantic Ocean and Pamlico Sound, the North Carolina Dept. of
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