Mike Larson

Jim Stefanic, operations manager of Chilean drilling company Geotec Boyles Bros., led the drillers who successfully bored and then widened the “plan B” rescue shaft that became the path to life for 33 Chilean copper miners trapped for 69 days nearly a half-mile underground.

Dr. David Rempel led a team of researchers from the University of California in San Francisco and Berkeley that developed an 'inverted' drill press.

Gary Fore, a now retired vice president of the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), Lanham, Md., leads a voluntary partnership of asphalt-paving industry organizations that is researching and recommending ways to cut down the amount of silica dust generated by asphalt-milling machines in advance of federal safety and health regulations.

Gary Fore, a now retired vice president of the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), Lanham, Md., leads a voluntary partnership of asphalt-paving industry organizations that is researching and recommending ways to cut down the amount of silica dust generated by asphalt-milling machines in advance of federal safety and health regulations. Though Fore retired from NAPA in September, he remains active in helping lead the Silica/Milling Machine Partnership, a group developing design guidelines that manufacturers can use to build better dust controls into machines that grind off asphalt pavements. The partnership also is creating guidelines that will help workers cut down

Getting stakeholders to agree on a clean-air rule is no easy feat. So it may come as a surprise that the equipment industry is getting behind new federal greenhouse-gas targets for big trucks. Photo: Mike Larson Improved fuel efficiency will help defray the cost of meeting new environmental standards. Related Links: Forecast: A Weak Recovery Checks Inflation Confidence Index: Heads of Major Firms Believe Market Is Nearing Stability Lumber: Chinese Demand Props Up Prices International: Recession Relinquishes Grip On Global Construction Costs Asia: Overseas, Inflation Creeps Back Complete Report One reason for the lack of debate is economics. “The new,

Akey reconstruction of a major route in Kansas City is wrapping up this month, featuring a dramatic cable-stayed bridge. The Missouri Dept. of Transportation credits design-build, which it rarely has used, with slashing years off the $245-million “Interstate Connections” (kcICON) project. It was originally slated to finish next July and will be within its $245-million budget. Photo: Courtesy of MODOT New cable-stayed bridge rises over the Missouri River. Construction began in April 2008 on the project to widen and reconstruct the 4.7-mile-long Paseo Corridor that carries Interstate 29/35 from North Kansas City into the northeastern corner of Kansas City’s downtown

A relatively simple formula can predict how well buildings withstand earthquakes, according to lab work and research in Haiti by Purdue University. The studies suggest how to strengthen existing buildings at a low cost and how to make new buildings damage-resistant. Photo: Courtesy of Purdue University Purdue engineers tested their new seismic index theory by building and then shaking a three-story building in a lab. After the January 2010 earthquake, Purdue professors Santiago Pujol and Ayhan Irfanoglu, both civil engineers, surveyed 170 buildings in Haiti. They concentrated on two- to five-story buildings that were made with reinforced-concrete exteriors. About 40%

Chad Van Zee, president of a ready-mix concrete company in Rock Valley, Iowa, has pleaded guilty to fixing prices with another concrete supplier from northwestern Iowa between 2006 and 2009. The prosecutor for the U.S. Dept. of Justice filed a single-count felony charge against Van Zee on Nov. 30 in U.S. District Court in Sioux City, Iowa. The charge says Van Zee and Steven Keith Vandebrake, a former executive of a ready-mix company in Orange City, Iowa, violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by agreeing on annual price increases for ready-mix concrete and selling the product at collusive and non-competitive prices.

Seeking to meet mandated cuts for the discharge of nutrients into the nation’s largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay, a Maryland wastewater treatment plant and its design, construction and technology team are using what they say is the world’s largest application of a pollutant-reduction technology as part of a $138.7-million facility upgrade. Team officials at the Patapsco wastewater treatment plant in Baltimore say use of the “fixed-film denitrification system” for tertiary treatment at the facility will reduce nitrogen and phosphorous discharges into the Patapsco River by 83% and 85%, respectively. The waterway is a key tributary of the bay, now on