Construction has begun on a novel bascule road bridge that has a 19-meter-long, diagonally split opening span at Poole Harbour, England. Hochtief U.K. Ltd., Swindon, has some 20 months to complete the 140-m Twin Sails bridge under a $28-million contract. Rendering: Poole Council Unique design features overlapping box girders in lieu of a conventional bascule. The roughly 30-m-long opposing tapering steel-box-girder spans will pivot upward to allow boats to enter the harbor. When closed, the tip of each 1.5-m-deep span will cantilever over the opposite support by about 10 m. This arrangement overcomes the need for pins to connect a
Sweden’s parliament narrowly voted on June 17 to end its long moratorium on new nuclear plants. The move follows last month’s separate decision by Finland to approve in principle proposals for two new plants. Rendering Courtesy Of TVO. Site in Finland envisioned for new boiling-water or pressurized-water reactors. With 174 votes in favor and 172 against, the Swedish parliament reversed a 1980 decision to close two reactors and halt all new nuclear construction. Concerned about carbon dioxide emissions and reliance on imported fossil fuels, the government initiated new legislation allowing more nuclear power last year. Thirty years ago, public opinion
In Venice, all eyes are on dramatic work at three lagoon inlets to hold back flood tides that repeatedly assault the historic Italian city. But along the mainland shore, engineers from the same construction consortium quietly are stemming more insidious flows of industrial pollution from Porto Marghera into the 550-sq-kilometer lagoon. Photo: Peter Reina Massive caissons will support 78 steel gates that weigh 300 tonnes each. Photo: Peter Reina Project Manager Roland Bastian with interlocking, Z-section sheet piles recycled from scrap metal. Related Links: Stemming Venice Lagoon Pollution: Barriers sheet piled at Porto Marghera About two-thirds of a 57-km-long “fence”
A green transportation policy combined with years of underinvestment is spurring a boom in Denmark's railroad infrastructure. Among projects steaming ahead is a $3-billion installation of new signaling technology across the Scandinavian nation's 2,300-kilometer network. Photo: Peter Reina Major rail projects, including on Copenhagen’s system, are under way. Denmark early last year launched its so-called Green Transportation Policy through 2020. With the government shifting investments from roads to rail, "2009 was a historic year for us," says Palle Beck Thomsen, managing director for Atkins Danmark A/S, the country's largest railroad design firm. Intensifying emphasis on rail is doubling the sector's
The U.K.’s new government has begun slashing public budgets, but enough cash remains for a $1-billion upgrade of London’s Victoria subway, or tube, station. Construction is due to begin next year, with a 2018 completion deadline. Photo: Transport For London. Victoria subway-station upgrade will include new entrance. Transport for London (TfL) on June 10 signed a construction contract for the major tube station with the Vinci BAM Nuttall Ltd. joint venture. The same team won a $730-million contract to upgrade the system’s Tottenham Court Road station last December. Used by some 80 million people a year, the Victoria tube station
Despite the financial crisis in southern European Union countries, the Portuguese government has launched construction of a $1.9-billion high-speed railroad to the Spanish border. But it has delayed bidding for a 13-km-long bridge that would carry the line north into Lisbon over the Tagus River. Map: RAVE Photo: RAVE The financial crisis has delayed bids on 13-km-long Tagus River crossing. Portugal’s first high-speed line will extend 165 km from Poceirão, some 34 km south of Lisbon, to Caia, halfway between Elvas, Portugal, and Badajoz, Spain. Due for completion in about four years, the line will carry trains running up to
With steelwork fabrication about to start, designers for the world’s largest offshore wind farm are scrambling to redesign the first 175 turbine foundations. A generic foundation fault at several European wind farms is the latest squall the U.K.’s 1,000-MW London Array must navigate. Image: London Array Ltd. The U.K’s massive offshore wind project survived financial troubles. It now requires design tweaks. + Image U.K. Offshore Wind-Farm Projects Related Links: Building Cape Wind Won’t Be a Breeze “We have been asked to change the design,” says Jasper Jacobsen, project director at ABJV, the development’s construction joint venture. The team includes Denmark’s
Starting under a disruptive cloud of fine volcanic ash, Germany’s triennial construction equipment show, Bauma, ended on an optimistic note in Munich last week. Flight bans reduced the show’s visitor numbers, but global equipment sales are reviving, report exhibitors. “What a difference a year makes,” says Mike DeWalt, director of investor relations at Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Ill. From fast-falling sales in last year’s first quarter, now “demand for our products is rising,” he says. Last week’s show, held on April 19 to 25, was the biggest-ever Bauma in terms of sheer space, say officials at organizer Messe München GmbH. Braving
Commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) for coal powerplants moved closer to reality in April after the U.K. approved legislation to subsidize four large-scale CCS demonstration plants. The nation’s Dept. of Energy and Climate Change recently committed “millions” to support front-end engineering and design by two utilities competing to secure subsidies for the first of those plants. Two utilities are competing for construction of demonstration “green” coal plants in the United Kingdom. DECC aims next year to decide whether E.ON U.K. plc., Coventry, or a team led by ScottishPower plc, Edinburgh, will get backing for a large demonstration unit able
The team of European engineering firms which last month won a $200-million design contract for a nuclear-power research complex to be built in southern France, with a cadre of global sponsors, already is starting work, officials say. The engineering award for the $13- billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is the project’s largest contract awarded to date and one of the largest design awards of any kind in Europe. Photo: ITER A-TeamCardache complex in France will be built by a Franco-British-Spanish team. Photo: ITER Power ParkThe 42-hectare site has been prepared for foundation work to begin next spring. Photo: ITER
