Just as ships from all over the world converge on the Panama Canal, so are construction groups clustering in and around the canal's $5-billion expansion project. The centerpiece of the project—the $3.25-billion third set of locks—is 22% complete, while the Pacific- and Atlantic-side programs are nearing the finish line.
When the Expo line opens this month, trains will bypass the Farmdale Station, which is still under construction. Courtesy ECA Still unfinished, Culver City Station is the last station included in phase-one work. Related Links: Rail Ramps Up as Global Development Tool Expo Line Official Website After years of fits and starts, Los Angeles' Exposition Light Rail Line is set to open on April 28.
Fourteen months after a 110-lb light fixture fell from the ceiling of Boston's O'Brien tunnel, Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation highway officials have announced a $54-million plan to replace all of the tunnel's 25,000 lighting units with new light-emitting diode fixtures to assure long-term safety in the Central Artery system.The fixture recommended by the Boston-based office of engineering consultant HNTB is an 8-ft-long sealed unit that has a fiberglass housing, an acrylic lens cover and a three-row LED array board.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is once again defending his October 2010 decision to kill the nearly $9-billion Trans-Hudson Express passenger-rail tunnel project that was, at the time, the country's largest public-works project.The federal Government Accountability Office released on April 10 a report claiming that Christie—a vocal anti-debt Republican—had exaggerated New Jersey's share of the tunnel's cost.The tunnel, nicknamed the Access the Region's Core (ARC) project, was expected to double commuter-train capacity between New Jersey and Manhattan. In September 2010, Christie shut down construction, which had started a year before, to conduct a 30-day review of the project. Less
A construction project in the Aleutians is no paradise. The remote island chain off the Alaskan coast has become well known for its dangerous high seas and unpredictable weather through the popular reality television show "Deadliest Catch." However, the Alaska Dept. of Transportation, or ADOT, took up the challenge when the state decided the growing Aleutian island of Akutan deserved an airport.Akutan is the site of a large seafood processing plant that operates year round and employs more than 900 workers. Boats and small seaplanes are used to transport people and cargo, but island and state officials have long sought
Photo by Jeff Rubenstone for ENR San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge project hit a major milestone this month when workers pulled into place the final strand of the cable that supports the bridge's self-anchored span. var so = new FlashObject ("http://construction.pb.feedroom.com/pb-comp/construction/custom1/player.swf", "player", "299", "196", "8", "#FFFFFF"); so.addVariable ("SkinName", "custom1"); so.addVariable ("SiteID", "construction"); so.addVariable ("SiteName", "Construction Online"); so.addVariable ("ChannelID", 'ddbece80fa300acfee86311d89c2f6b86bdda260'); so.addVariable ("StoryID", 'd8adeb32506ead080b3eecef1cdde107b0689388'); so.addVariable ("Volume", ".5"); so.addParam ("quality", "high"); so.addParam ("allowFullScreen", "true"); so.addParam ("allowScriptAccess", "always"); so.addParam ("menu", "false"); so.write ("flashcontent"); Video By Jeff Rubenstone Bay bridge hits milestone. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge project hit a major milestone this month when workers
The $3.25-billion effort to build massive new locks on both entrances of the Panama Canal has been delayed by six months beyond the previously announced schedule, said officials with the Panama Canal Authority, the agency that oversees the canal.The international consortium handling the lock's construction, Grupos Unidos por El Canal, notified the authority—known by its Spanish-language acronym, ACP — of the new altered schedule on April 3.The delay follows a weeklong work stoppage in January organized by SUNTRACS, one of Panama's largest construction labor unions. The walkout, which only affected workers for Grupo Unidos por el Canal, ended when the
Faced with mounting opposition over the immediate use of tolls to begin financing the $2.1-billion Midtown Tunnel P3 project, the Virginia Dept. of Transportation has negotiated an amendment to its comprehensive agreement with Elizabeth River Crossings LLC, or ERC, potentially delaying tolls for two years until construction of the parallel tube is substantially complete.The delay is contingent upon Virginia's ability to find an alternative funding source for the approximately $125 million in revenue expected to be generated if the existing Midtown and Downtown tunnels between Norfolk and Portsmouth begin collecting tolls as scheduled this summer. Construction of the four-year project
Photo Courtesy Florida Dept. of Transportation A $1.4-million project will knit 70 miles of managed lanes, toll facilities and turnpikes in Florida into a regional network to improve traffic flow. The Florida Dept. of Transportation is preparing to knit 70 miles of managed lanes, toll facilities and turnpikes in multiple jurisdictions into a regional network to improve traffic flow. In February, HNTB Corp., Kansas City, began a $1.4-million, 15-month project to develop a "regional concept of transportation operations," or RCTO, for South Florida.In use for a decade, managed lanes open to different types of traffic at varying toll rates, depending
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hopes to pass a two-year highway-funding bill which includes provisions to increase domestic oil and gas drilling. Just two days before a threatened March 31 shutdown of highway programs, Congress approved yet another stopgap that will keep surface-transportation funds moving, but only through June 30. While construction and state transportation officials were relieved that the bill, which President Obama signed on March 30, averted a funding cutoff, they were unhappy that Congress still couldn't approve a long-term highway-transit measure.The 90-day stopgap is the ninth since Sept. 30, 2009, when the