Courtesy of Balfour Beatty Deputy CEO Andrew McNaughton moves into U.K. contracting giant's top spot in April. Related Links: Balfour Beatty and Parsons Brinckerhoff Seek Their Sweet Spot as a Global Infrastructure Firm In a planned succession, Ian P. Tyler, a chartered accountant who has led U.K.-based Balfour Beatty PLC since 2005, will step down as CEO on March 31, the firm announced on Jan. 7.Set to replace him is his deputy, chartered civil engineer Andrew J. McNaughton, 48.Tyler presided over Balfour Beatty's tripling in size, including its foray into the U.S. market.The firm acquired, in 2007, Centex Construction, the
Photo courtesy Trevi S.p.A. For the trial, the Trevi team chose a site containing calcareous marl. Related Links: Foundation Flaws Make Wolf Creek Dam a High-Risk Priority Tiger SC-200 Hydromill Specs By excavating a slurry-trench panel 100 meters deeper than ever before, an Italian contractor hopes to grab a bigger share of the market for repairing leaking dam foundations. Trevi S.p.A. engineers claim the 250-m-deep trial wall, recently excavated near the company's Cesena, Italy, headquarters, sets the stage for the potential increased use of deep remedial cutoffs at troubled reservoirs.Trevi's aim for the trial on its new Soilmec Tiger SC-200
Related Links: Tappan Zee Bridge Bidder's Cold Feet Costs Team $2.5 Million The internationally expansive contractor ACS Group, Madrid, has tightened its control of German contractor Hochtief A.G. with the Nov. 20 appointment of Marcelino Fernández Verdes, a former executive of the Spanish firm, as the German company's new CEO.His predecessor, Frank Stieler, held the post for only 19 months since replacing former Hochtief boss Herbert Lütkestratkötter, who quit after unsuccessfully resisting ACS's acquisition of a controlling interest in the German firm.Fernández Verdes, whose appointment was unanimously supported by Hochtief's executive board, led the German firm's Americas division since joining
Related Links: Ill Winds Blow Through Huge U.K. Wind Farm Project Proposals for Massive Irish Wind Farms Rankle Some A U.K. arbitration panel surprised Fluor Corp. and its investors last month with a ruling against the contractor's $480-million claim for additional compensation from owners of the Greater Gabbard wind farm off the coast of England. As a result, Fluor said on Nov. 17 it will take a $400-million charge in the fourth quarter but says the action will not materially affect cash flow."Fluor delivered a quality project, and we are extremely disappointed with this unexpected decision," said company Chairman and
As ships get bigger and faster, their wakes are putting increasing stresses on moorings of nearby vessels, causing some to break free—with potentially disastrous consequences. Now, an international group of organizations has gathered in the Netherlands to develop software to calculate and mitigate wash effects of passing ships to improve port design and operations.With the three-year Research on the Passing Effects of Ships (ROPES) project now two-thirds finished, engineers in Rotterdam plan to validate it with a final set of full-scale ship trials later this month. The Port of Rotterdam is one of 26 organizations— including design firms, other port
Battered by the global banking crisis, the Irish Republic could find some answers to its economic woes in the wind. Ambitious plans to build two wind-energy projects, which would lay a total of 8,000 MW of power-transmission lines across the Irish Sea, could generate jobs and revenue while plugging some of the U.K.'s green-energy gap.
Photo Courtesy of DIA Holding DIA Holding completed the 2.7-million-sq-ft mixed-use Flame Towers project in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2012. The project is designed as a first step in transforming Baku into a high-tech center Related Links: Comprehensive Text, Analysis, Charts. Rankings and Revenue (purchase or subscription required) ENR's Top Lists ENR's Top International Contractors Despite some global upheavals and uncertainty, the world construction market showed surprising strength for large contractors in 2011. After being flat in 2009 and 2010, revenue for large international contractors grew last year. However, big contractors working in the international market are expressing some caution about
Major European contractors have flocked to London for a piece of the 21-kilometer Crossrail tunnel project now advancing at more than 40 sites across the city.
Related Links: A Russian Cable-Stayed Transformation The World's Top 10 Longest Cable-Stayed Bridges Whatever else Russia achieves with the planned Pacific Rim economic summit in Vladivostok in September, its legacy will include construction of the world's longest cable- stayed bridge span and a big boost to this sleepy Far East fishing port.The Russky Island bridge will extend the span record to 1,104 meters and include seeds of a new high-wire system to dampen vibrations of cables. Bridge design engineers are addressing the challenge of cable-induced vibrations as modern cable-stayed spans grow in size.Construction of the island span and, five kilometers
U.K. nuclear power ambitions took a big step forward with the 18 June award by French government-owned EDF Energy plc., London, of a roughly $3.2-billion civil work contract (£2b) at its planned new plant in Somerset.