Wolffkran GMBH Wolffkran GMBH Wolffkran GMBH German maker Wolff made the first tower crane in 1910. Not all tower cranes are created equally: Some resist fatigue, lift and cost more than others. But all are built under similar engineering principles linked by a common history. While most mobile cranes evolved from steam shovels, all cranes harken back to the earliest lifting devices, which were simple derricks and gantries fitted with gears, ropes and other tackle used by the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans to move heavy stones needed to build structures. It wasn’t until the first tall-building boom at the
Peter Reina/ENR Ancient ships and shoddy modern buildings have stalled Turkey’s $3-billion Marmaray railroad project under the Bosporus channel between the Asian and European sides of Istanbul. Engineers spent two decades planning the world’s deepest sunken tube tunnel, some 60 meters below water. But the critical path has been strewn with surprise obstacles beyond the engineers’ control. Turkey began fulfilling a 19th-century vision of a railroad under the 1.4-km-wide Bosporus when it secured Japanese funding in 1998 and signed a construction contract four years ago. But a routine archaeological dig unearthed remains of a 1,000-year-old Byzantine port, halting work at
Enka Construction Russia’s building market is still growing for Enka. Istanbul-based Enka Construction & Industry Co. Inc. is Turkey’s largest construction conglomerate, reaching that pinnacle with projects almost all outside the country’s borders. Now among the world’s most international contractors, Enka is particularly well-situated some 1,800 km miles away in Moscow as one of Russia’ biggest builder-developers, a market its executives say is still going strong. “We do about $1 billion of contracts yearly there, and demand is growing,” says President Haluk Gercek. “We have about 350,000 sq meters of A+ office space in Moscow.” Russia and other new democracies
The global construction market continues to boom and large international contractors are reaping the benefits. The demand for big-ticket projects, from petroleum production facilities and powerplants to major infrastructure upgrades and signature buildings, has made the demand intense for world-class contractors with the size and expertise to deliver these projects. As a result, big firms around the world are scrambling to grow, either organically or through acquisition, to meet this demand. The scope of the hot market can be seen from the revenue figures provided by ENR’s Top 225 International Contractors. The Top 225, as a group, generated $310.25 billion
Michael Goodman /ENR Long sleeves keep moisture close to a worker’s skin. Randy Mullins remembers all too well what it was like suffering heat exhaustion eight years ago. It was a windless day in Phoenix, and he’d just eaten lunch. “It just sneaks right up on you,” he recalls. “It hurts. I was cramped up. I [vomited] and passed out. It was the worst feeling I’d ever had.” He spent the night in a hospital with an IV. Mullins, now a foreman with Kiewit Western Co., Phoenix, keeps a close eye on the crews working on a $200-million Interstate 10
Soaring fuel prices are crippling the aviation industry and airlines are cutting back on their infrastructure plans. But plenty of construction is still taking off at the airport serving one of America’s literally hottest regions. Aileen Cho /ENR Airport traffic requires night work. Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport had planned a $2.9-billion expansion over five years, but has stretched that out to 2020, says David Hensley, deputy aviation director for design and construction. This year, there are two major expansion projects: a $580-million, 2-mile on-airport people mover system that will connect to the area’s light rail line, and a security checkpoint
Michael Goodman /ENR Wide brims provide shade. The $200-million expansion of Interstate 10 from six to eight lanes in Tucson reflects growing commuter traffic with Phoenix, 120 miles to the north. The 3.5-year A+B contract, held by a joint venture of Kiewit Western Corp., Phoenix, and Sundt Construction Inc., Tempe, Ariz., represents the largest single Arizona Dept. of Transportation highway expansion contract ever let, says Roderick Lane, ADOT senior resident engineer. Work began in 2007, when the contractor shut down the 4.5-mile stretch that handles 140,000 vehicles daily. Tucson residents preferred a three-year closure rather than the original plan to
Doug Bonds Aerial Innovations Of TN, Inc. When air ambulances take off from or land at adjacent helipad (below), crane operations shut down for up to 20 minutes, reducing crane efficiency by 13%. Every 15 to 20 minutes at the site of a 328,779-sq-ft addition-renovation for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the hum of the tower crane engine is replaced by the “hum” of a helicopter taking off from or landing on the roof of the neighboring operating hospital, just 102 ft away from the crane. The silencing of the crane is the most noticeable work disruption at the 10-level infill
HANSON There is no shortage of hazards that can kill you on a construction site, but you never think it is going to be a flying chunk of concrete. That is how laborers’ foreman Michael Hanson, 42, was fatally injured on Nov. 26, 2007, while working at the Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. A project foreman whose crew was using a rough-terrain forklift to pry loose a temporary concrete slab, Hanson stood in front of the fork tine extensions that had been slid under the slab. He was leaning over, assisting in prying material loose, when
Every day, craft workers with sun-baked faces and calloused hands ready themselves for another shift of construction on the Las Vegas Strip, trading jokes before toting their plastic coolers onto the site. The favorite uniform is a short-sleeved cotton T-shirt suited to the 100°-plus temperatures. AP/Wideworld String of fatalities led to walkout by union workers at Las Vegas projects. The workers face hazards even more dangerous than the sun, and over the past two years, 13 never made it home. One was Dustin “Doobie” Tarter, 39, who was crushed by a crane counterweight system at the CityCenter project on May
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