The Michigan Dept. of Transportation will find out on March 17 how many developers, investors, lenders, design-build contractors and operators are interested in building a new $2.26-billion international bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. That’s the final day for interested private-sector companies and teams to respond to a request for proposal of interest (RFPOI) sent out in late January. + Image Map: MDOT Proposed new crossing would provide an alternative to the Ambassador Bridge + Image Image: MDOT Contractors will be asked to choose between cable-stayed or suspension designs. MDOT will use the non-binding responses in its May 1
Kenya, east Africa’s largest economy, has begun the $960-million process of constructing and upgrading two key roads in the capital of Nairobi through public/private partnerships as part of the multinational Northern Corridor Transport Improvement Project (NCTIP). On Feb. 24, the country signed an agreement with G8 member-country Japan for partial funding of the construction of the Nairobi Western Ring Road. Japan gave Kenya an initial $420,000 grant for the project. NCTIP is a multibillion-dollar road and air-transport program that aims to link the Great Lakes countries, with an estimated combined population of 120 million, to Kenya ’s seaport of Mombasa.
Thanks to bipartisan support, London’s $24-billion government-sponsored Crossrail project seems to have a secure future even as public spending cuts loom. Having already signed up all the design teams, Transport for London’s project company, Crossrail Ltd., is now procuring the last tunneling contract. Photo: Crossrail Ltd. Wide-scale demolition at Tottenham Court Road for one of Crossrail’s largest underground hubs. Related Links: Brazil Plans High-Speed Rail for Olympics China-Hong Kong Rail Line Costs Deepen The project includes 21 kilometers of twin tunnels under central London. Crossrail Ltd. set a March 24 deadline for firms to lodge prequalification bids for a contract
The Louisville, Ky., district of the Army Corps of Engineers allowed resumption of Ohio River traffic through the 1,200-ft Markland Lock chamber on March 1 after an expedited 155-day, $6-million emergency repair operation. Corps crews worked two 12-hour shifts each day through “wretched weather conditions to get this lock back in operation,” says Col. Keith Landry, district commander. A malfunctioning control-valve solenoid is blamed for allowing excessive water flow that wrenched one of the chamber’s 450-ton leaves from its mountings and damaging its partner during a locking operation on Sept. 27. Corps employees Sean Bennett (front) and Charles Smith endured
Federal highway and transit programs are back in business, but only through March 28, thanks to enactment late on March 2 of a delayed stopgap funding measure. But state and industry officials noted that the respite is brief. They are hoping that Congress soon will pass a further highway-transit extension, through Dec. 31. The newly enacted stopgap bill, which also extends unemployment insurance and COBRA health benefits for several weeks, gained final congressional approval with Senate passage on a strong 78-19 vote. President Obama signed the bill later on March 2. The action marks an end to a two-day shutdown
The Tom Bradley International Terminal at the Los Angeles International Airport on Feb. 22 kicked off construction of the new $1.5-billion Bradley West modernization project. The project comprises 1.25 million sq ft of new building area, including food/beverage and retail concessions, new premium lounge space, enlarged federal inspection/customs and border-protection facilities, and 15 new boarding gates. Enlarged passenger-seating/holding-room areas will be sized to accommodate the newest generation of aircraft, including the Airbus A380 super-jumbo jet and the Boeing B787 Dreamliner. Fentress Architects of Los Angeles designed the upgrade, and Walsh Austin Joint Venture of Los Angeles will construct it. The
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation awarded $1.5 billion in grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to 51 projects in 41 states and the District of Columbia on Feb. 17, underscoring the Obama administration’s transportation priorities. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery funds, known as TIGER grants, target projects that USDOT identified as being “major national and regional transportation projects that are in many cases difficult to pursue through other government funding programs.” Although a mix of transportation modes received grants that range from $3.15 million to $105 million, freight-rail and transit projects received the largest individual grants. Unlike
A massive highway renovation is unfolding only minutes away from Vancouver’s Winter Olympics, and the centerpiece will be a new cable-stayed bridge crossing the Fraser River from Surrey to Coquitlam. Photo: Transportation Investment Corp. Staging area adjacent to new bridge where pieces of the structure are arranged. At 1.2 miles in length including approaches, the bridge will be one of the longest of its kind in North America. Part of a 22.9-mi, $2.33-billion overhaul of Highway 1, the principal corridor in the greater Vancouver area, the project is designed to ease congestion, especially on the existing Port Mann Bridge. Financing
German investigations into faulty underground construction suspected to be linked with last year�s collapse of a building in Cologne were extended today to a section of elevated rail over 400 km away, completed nearly four years ago by the same contractor. Related Links: Prosecutors Search for Fraud in Rail Project �We want to make sure that works have been carried out correctly at all projects where similar technologies were used,� says Herbert Bodner, Chairman of Bilfinger Berger A.G., Mannheim. Suspicions by the investigators of the Cologne collapse prompted the new probe of work on the high-speed line. In parallel, diaphragm
Even as slimmed down as it is, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s new jobs bill has provisions that construction officials like, but the $15-billion measure is much less generous to public works than the $154-billion version the House passed in December. With Democrats’ Senate majority no longer filibuster-proof and GOP votes hard to get, Reid faces a tough fight to get his bill approved. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Reid’s bill has an incentive for companies to hire new workers, plus an expanded bond program and an extension for a depreciation break. The Nevada Democrat’s proposal, introduced Feb. 11,
RSS
