When the astronauts operating the robot arms of the space shuttle lift the big modules into place to be fastened to the space station, motor-driven bolts will spin into captive nuts to make the structural connection. To ensure fit, only one nut in a pattern is fixed. The others have conical entries and can shift slightly along differing vectors to ensure alignment. (Drawing by Nancy Soulliard, based on image, courtesy of ZipNut) But even though those connections have been largely automated, there is a great deal of hand work to be done. The big, bulky space suits, which become nearly
As the world remains riveted to breaking news of the Middle East conflict, for some the reality hits closer to home. Keren Schwartz, a senior staff engineer at Langan Engineering and Environmental Services in New York City, checks the Israeli news every morning before calling her parents who live in Bat Yam, Israel, a small town south of Tel Aviv. She wants to know if terrorist attacks occurred near family and friends. Most mornings, her worries subside once she finds no incidents have occurred. But on June 25, violence escalated when Hamas-linked militants killed two soldiers and kidnapped a third.
On Your Mark. Workers at remote site in Equatorial Guinea gather for athletic competition. Worker shortages are everywhere in construction, and nowhere is this more acute than at remote project locations. To cope, employers are upping jobsite accoutrements these days to keep employees happy and in place, but not all site participants are treated equal. Bechtel Group Inc. encountered that challenge big-time at a $1-billion liquefied natural gas facility project it is building in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. It is the capital of the coastal African nation but located on a sparsely populated, densely forested offshore island. Up to 2,800 workers
Jane Williams is a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based safety consultant who has been trying to clean up U.S. construction sites for more than a decade. She is seeking changes in standards that would lead to revised U.S. regulations increasing the ratio of available toilets to workers and improving wash-ups where possible. Lately, she has made some gains that could force contractors to adjust. The current U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard requires one toilet for every 20 workers; one toilet seat and one urinal per 40 workers on sites employing more than 20 and one toilet seat and one urinal for
Privy-leges Appreciated. Laborer Kelly Patton (right) and colleague Cher Marascalco use keys to pink potties (below left) provided by contractor on a Las Vegas resort expansion project. (Photo by Tony Illia for ENR) Kelly Patton works out of laborers’ Local 872 in Las Vegas, where she is currently a flagger on the big MGM Grand project, and she’s giving the prime contractor on the job, Marnell Corrao Associates, high marks for an important part of her workday—the biobreak. “The contractor does a good job of keeping the restrooms clean, which is a big issue because the men’s restrooms can be
Vested Interests. President Haug (far left) and leadership director Maddox (middle) embrace a more subjective safety method. About two years ago, Randy Maddox, a project manager for Manson Construction Co., had joined 50 co-workers for a safety meeting at its Seattle headquarters when he heard a line in a video being shown that jarred his thinking forever on injury prevention: “Everybody deserves a future.” “That really hooked me because I was manager of a project that had some really tough injuries and guys got hurt,” says Maddox. “After I heard that statement I thought, ‘I’m going to listen.’” During the
Smooth. Loader controls and styling (top), compared with the 1990s (bottom) (Photos courtesy Volvo Construction Equipment North America Inc.). When Charles “Dub” Norris went to work as a heavy equipment operator in the early 1960s, he sat for hours each day muscling hoist levers and clutches in the open air through rain, snow, heat and dust. “You would blow your nose after 12 hours of work and get mud balls out,” says the 61-year-old risk manager for Memphis, Tenn.-based Barnhart Crane and Rigging Co. Today, Norris says, operating machinery is more “like sitting at home watching TV.” Equipment pilots are
Expanded. The $1.1-billion McCormick Place West Building is expected to become the largest certified “green” building in the U.S., in part because of a landscaped roof. (Photo courtesy of MC4West LLC ) Early on, the 2.3-million-sq-ft expansion of Chicago’s convention center had various warning signs of a troubled project. First, a bid-rigging scandal prompted the public owner to change construction managers. Then, a blustery Chicago winter threw a wrench in the work and schedule. All the while, wildly high prices threatened to send the steel-heavy project near Lake Michigan off the deep end. But the 10-member, design-build team constructing the
The sign on the office door of the 37-year construction veteran credited with keeping Chicago’s 2.3-million-sq-ft convention center expansion ahead of schedule reads, “COMMON SENSE IS NOT QUITE COMMON.” It might as well say: “Enter at Your Own Risk.” The atmosphere around Joe Salerno, the 60-year-old vice president of field operations for Mc4West LLC, is tense, yet open. “I never kept secrets from him,” says Bill Hanson, vice president of steel erector Danny’s Construction Co. Inc. of Gary, Ind. Salerno Salerno seems to know how to get 60 angry foremen on the same page; he’s had lots of practice. The
Accessible. High-reach lifts got workers in tight spots. (Photo courtesy of MC4West LLC ) When it bid steel erection on the McCormick Place expansion, Shakopee, Minn.-based Danny’s Construction Co. Inc. proposed an unusual combination of access equipment that its engineers believed would dramatically improve the ironworkers’ ability to move quickly and safely on the tightly scheduled project. As it turns out, the firm’s novel scheme of rolling scaffolds, falsework and mobile aerial devices caught the attention of project executives and local safety inspectors. ”It brought a whole new awareness of safety,” says Katie Twomey, vice president for design-builder Mc4West and
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