Construction is about to start on a 433-m-long bridge with a 117-m-long rising main span for shipping in France’s Garonne River, Bordeaux. Units of Vinci Construction, Paris, will design and build the $187-million bridge over 33 months for the city council. The 3,500-tonne central span will be able to be lifted up 80-m-tall towers. Photo: EGIS-JMI - Virlogeux -Lavigne Et Cheron Architectes - Hardesty & Hanover
Transportation industry executives and lobbyists clearly are frustrated at not being able to gain Washington’s attention to enact long-term funding legislation they claim is critical to improving the sector’s dire outlook, as reflected in new market statistics released on Nov. 13. Related Links: States’ Fiscal Crunch Could Stretch to 2012 The results were released by the Transportation Construction Coalition, a group of 28 contractor and supplier associations and unions in the transportation construction sector. They show that even with this year’s $27-billion federal stimulus infusion for transportation, 63% of 527 sector-company respondents say they have laid off permanent staff this
Smarting from a second emergency closure of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge in two months, the California Dept. of Transportation is exploring long-term repairs for a cracked eyebeam until the crossing’s $6.3-billion modernization is completed in 2013. Caltrans engineers are considering replacing part or all of the truss system that has a cracked eyebeam, discovered by inspectors on the 73-year-old cantilevered eastern span during a Labor Day closure. Rancho Cordova, Calif.-based C.C. Myers Inc. was installing a 288-ft detour ramp as part of the reconstruction when inspectors found the 1½ in. crack in a 2-in.-thick, chain-like steel beam. The cracked
Emergency teams worked to retrieve the bodies of four of five workers who died after falling 15 meters in a bridge falsework collapse on Nov. 7 in the tiny Pyrenees principality of Andorra. Six more were injured. The accident occurred at the western portal of the recently completed Dos Valires tunnel. The men were working on falsework for a twin-deck, partially cable-stayed bridge being built as an access to the 2.9-kilometer-long tunnel from an existing highway. Workers reportedly had been pouring concrete for several hours when the falsework collapsed. No official cause has been given as investigations continue. The bridge’s
The scheduled December groundbreaking of the first phase of the $5.5 billion Honolulu Rail Transit Project has been delayed by at least a month, says project spokesman Scott Ishikawa. “Based on the time needed to get participating agencies to review the draft environmental impact statement and the time needed for the federal and state level to approve the final EIS, we decided to push back construction until the end of January,” he says. In late October, the city awarded the $482.9-million first-phase contract to Omaha-based Kiewit Pacific Co. The 6.5-mile design-build project is expected to take three years to complete.
Expert crews are rappelling down a steep wall of jagged, unstable rocks above Interstate 40 in western North Carolina, beginning the cleanup and repair process of an Oct. 25 rockslide that shut the highway down. The repair could take four months and cost $10 million. The 500,000-ton rockslide on U.S. Forest Service land caused the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation to declare an emergency and Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) has asked the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to declare the rockslide a federal disaster area. Crews with contractor Phillips & Jordan Inc., Knoxville, Tenn., are working with rock stabilization specialists from
While the overall economy shows signs of slowly coming back to life, the airline industry continues to struggle. Over the past year, the combination of substantially lower passenger traffic, still-wobbly financial markets and nervous carriers has curtailed the revenue streams airports typically count on for major capital projects. Photo: McCarran International Airport Work on a $2.4-billion project at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas continues through 2009, even as other projects were put on hold. Photo: Denver International Airport Stimulus money came to the rescue of hundreds of airports with long-standing maintenance needs, including Denver International. Related Links: The Top
Omaha-based Kiewit Pacific Co. was awarded a $482.9-million contract for the first phase of construction for the 20-mile Honolulu Rail Transit Project. The 6.5-mile design-build project is expected to break ground in December and be completed in late 2012. The contract came in $90 million below the engineer’s $570-million estimate. “Because of the sluggish economy, construction bids are coming in much lower than anticipated,” says Scott Ishikawa, project spokesman. He says that has prompted the city to seek proposals now for the next phase of the $5.5-billion project.
Claimed as the world’s largest seismicly isolated building, Istanbul, Turkey’s new 200,000-sq-meter Sabiha Gökçen International Airport terminal opened at the end of October. Designed for a 7.5 to 8.0 moment magnitude quake and built in just 18 months, the roughly $600-million terminal sits on 300 isolators, according to lead designer Arup Group Ltd. Construction was by the locally based LIMAK–GMR Joint Venture. Photo: Arup Group
As 280,000 daily vehicles resumed using the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 2 after a six-day repair of a steel saddle that holds a cracked truss section in place, engineers and metallurgists were still investigating why the original Labor Day weekend fix failed so quickly. Photo & Diagram: Caltrans Bay Bridge closed down for nearly a week after steel members repaired in September fell into traffic. A second emergency contractor again addressed a cracked eyebar in the truss. The Oct. 27 failure occurred when a 5,000-lb crossbeam and steel connectors fell into afternoon traffic, causing one accident and a
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