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
The government of Kenya and the African Development Bank have signed agreements totaling $366 million in financial aid for two projects: a geothermal steam field and a road upgrade, which will open landlocked Ethiopia to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa.
When the U.S. Coast Guard questioned a request for a Section 9 bridge permit for the $3.5-billion Columbia River Crossing project—a proposed 10-lane Interstate 5 bridge connecting Portland, Ore., to Vancouver, Wash.—CRC officials were surprised that years of planning needed to be revisited.
A major interchange is undergoing a role reversal in Arizona's second- largest metropolitan area. Designed to solve traffic headaches and a dire safety problem, the Interstate 10 interchange project in Tucson is "flipping" the grade of Prince Road so that it will pass over, instead of under, I-10.
State transportation departments wishing to replace bridges faster using accelerated bridge construction, or ABC, techniques will soon have a standardized design tool kit as a reference.