The City of Chicago is undertaking a $492-million, four-year program to overhaul a mass-transit line extending between downtown and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Beginning in mid-2014, the Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) Blue Line will undergo track and infrastructure improvements, in addition to signal, power and station house upgrades. Rather than complete track replacement, plans call for a series of track improvements along the 12.5-mile line, which consists of subway tunnels, elevated structures and ground-level track along I-90, an expressway linking O'Hare to downtown.Unlike recent renovations to a line extending between downtown and Chicago's South Side, the Blue Line will remain
Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin continued to see improving construction employment conditions in October while Illinois, Indiana and Ohio suffered setbacks during the same period, according to year-over-year comparisons compiled by Arlington, Va.-based Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Indiana lost the greatest number of jobs (-11,800, -9.5%) in the nation in October, both in raw numbers and on a percentage basis. Neighboring Ohio lost 1,100 jobs (-0.6). For months, both states have endured job losses due to slackening global demand for manufactured goods, according to industry economists.After several months of stabilization, construction employment dipped precipitously in Illinois (-4.500 jobs, -2.4%),
A civil jury on Thursday assigned the majority of blame to manufacturer Advanced Cast Stone (ACS) for the June 2010 collapse of a concrete panel that killed one and injured two others at a Milwaukee parking structure. The jury also ruled that Random Lake, Wis.-based ACS intentionally concealed and misrepresented a defect or deficiency in its installation of the panel to the O'Donnell Park structure, owned by the County of Milwaukee. During the trial, ACS indicated it received approval to employ an alternative method to install the 30-ft, 13-ton panel to the structure's facade. It also maintained that something must
Midwest Construction backlogs declined by 11.7%, from 6.97 months to 6.15 months, in the third quarter of 2013, according to year-over-year data compiled by Arlington, Va.-based Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). The period also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of declining backlogs for the region, a trend ABC attributes to softening activity in the industrial sector. Nevertheless, construction momentum is becoming increasingly divergent in U.S. regions, the Midwest included, according to ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “The middle states continue to be associated with the shortest average backlog at 6.15 months, even though construction activity has been robust in North
The newly renovated Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Cat Canyon is the venue's seventh facility and first animal exhibit to receive LEED-Gold certification, furthering the zoo's quest to become the most sustainable facility of its kind in the U.S.
Scaling of the 13-story, 532-room Hilton Columbus Convention Center Hotel not only responds to pedestrians but also nearby low-rise vintage structures and taller glass and steel-clad buildings that serve as a backdrop for the hotel.
Planners spent more than a decade preparing to rehabilitate the 100-year-old, 200,000-sq-ft St. Louis Library, an undertaking that encompassed full restoration of its Great Hall, foyer and large historic rooms and the refurbishing of the structure's exterior.
Expansion of the University of Michigan's Crisler Center, home to the NCAA's Michigan Wolverines, went into overtime, requiring double shifts and armies of tradesmen to complete the $38-million project in just 11 months, in time for a new basketball season.
Sediment remediation of the Sheboygan River required extensive coordination among regulatory agencies, consultants, private stakeholders, municipal and county governments and contractors.
A zoo habitat, an arts center, an art museum and a pair of federal buildings are among the construction work that captured top honors in ENR Midwest's Best Projects competition, an annual program recognizing outstanding design and construction in a variety of categories.
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