+ click to enlarge EMAAR Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s lead structural designer for the $1.1-billion Burj Dubai—already a 668-meter concrete- and-steel giant—is blasé about the complexity of construction, even at the upper reaches of the desert “cloudbuster.” But for most others on the unprecedented vertical expedition, the trek to the top—a rumored 800-plus meters—is as exciting as a trip to outer space. William F. Baker, SOM’s structural partner for the job, does not underplay the amount of effort poured into the design of the 479,830-sq-m vertical cantilever to keep it as simple and repetitive as possible. “You wouldn’t believe the
People who investigate rigging failures for a living say that all lifting devices should be inspected before they are put into service. Taking a minute to check over shackles, slings and hooks to make sure they are safe to use can save lives. Construction projects are moving faster than ever before, and that means that rigging should be inspected more carefully. “Our trades are much more mobile now,” explains Bradley D. Closson, president of CRAFT Forensic Services Inc., Bonita, Calif. Construction also is hard on rigging gear, typically wearing it out faster than other industries, adds Mike Parnell, president of
Industrial Training International INC Parnell investigated a West Coast sling failure caused by a worn-out lifting hook. Master rigger Mike Parnell walks up to a rack and picks up what looks like a giant rubber band. In reality, it is a 10-ft-long, 2-in.-wide lifting sling made of thin, yellow nylon webbing. Parnell runs his fingers over the pilled, faded, oil-stained surface. “Your hands will tell you more than your eyes,” he says, as he flips the material over for further inspection. Under the roof of a Chicago-area manufacturing plant, Parnell puts down the strap, wipes his hands on his jeans
Doalltech US Doalltech US Not all R&D is high tech. Refrigerator magnets fasten chips to steel. Korean academic researchers, with substantial South Korean government and industry support, are making a huge push to apply Radio Frequency Identification tag technology to construction. Now, they are bringing their success to the U.S. The DoallTech Corp. is com-mercializing technology developed in conjunction with Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in Suwon, South Korea, for an RFID-based project management system for daily labor control. It has been implemented at about 400 construction projects in South Korea and other countries. Sangyoon Chin, chief technology officer at DoallTech as
Vela Systems In New Jersey’s Meadowlands, a design-build team constructing a pro-football stadium in time for kickoff in 2010 is using electronic identification tags on thousands of pre-cast structural elements to track a just-in-time supply chain, from casting to shipping, delivery and placement. The virtual heart of the $1-billion project, whose lead contractor is Skanska USA Buildings Inc., Boston, is a Web-browser-accessible, color-coded, 4D building information model that tells the team at a glance the status of 3,200 precast risers being manufactured and assembled to form the bowl of the 84,000-seat stadium. The data is refreshed several times a day,
Common sense says a laboratory should cost more to design than a dormitory because its piping, ventilation and special use areas would require more hours of work, more drawings and more consultants than a dorm of equal size. Since 1866, when the American Institute of Architects first published professional guidance, designers considered it wise to charge higher fees for more complicated projects. But a new study by university researchers and facility planners throws at least part of this logic into question and shows several possible reasons why design fees vary. Published in January in the Journal of Management in Engineering,
OSTERBERG Twenty years ago, deep foundation work was forever transformed with the advent of the Osterberg Cell. Named after its inventor, Jorj O. Osterberg, this hydraulically driven bi-directional sacrificial load cell was the first practical and economical method to measure the full bearing capacity of a shaft. Comprised of a piston and pressure chamber, the O-cell is mounted between two bearing plates and cast into concrete at the bottom of a shaft. It is pressurized internally, creating equal upward and downward loads that can independently determine side-shear and end-bearing capacity of bedrock and/or soil. Measurements are logged and plotted by
STS Consultants Clyde N. Baker Jr. The heavy job of predicting how far the world’s tallest buildings will sink into the soil falls upon the shoulders of Clyde N. Baker Jr., who carries himself under all that pressure with surprising agility. Engineers the world over credit Baker with an enterprising pursuit of efficient foundations that result in lucrative savings for building developers, while giving builders the confidence to deal with the most troublesome soils. Above ground, Baker’s down-to-earth style builds a relaxed atmosphere of trust that puts people at ease from the conference room to the jobsite. Baker is a
South Florida Water Management District Everglades’ peat must be removed for reservoir construction. Hope is the most fragile natural resource in Florida’s Everglades. Its pioneer farmers’ hopes for bountiful yields from the rich peat soil were overwhelmed by Florida’s violent weather, which swamped them with floods from vast Lake Okeechobee. The hopes of its latter-day defenders for quick action to save the dying ecosystem have been ground down by the deliberate pace of planning and the failure of Congress to authorize funds for the plans. APPELBAUM Hope was trampled as competing visions of the Everglades’ future fought for supremacy. Finally,
Guy Lawrence / ENR As bad economic news continues to mount it is becoming increasingly clear that last year’s subprime mortgage crisis is spilling over into the overall economy and could eventually threaten still healthy commercial and public construction markets. At the same time, rising energy prices and a weak dollar are giving inflation a new boost. “Last fall the prospects that the U.S. economy would slide into recession were generally estimated to be about 30%, and that figure has since been revised up to 60% or higher,” says Robert Murray, chief economist for McGraw-Hill Construction, of which ENR is
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