PHOTO COURTESY OF Indiana Dept. of Transportation Discovery of a long-term crack in an Ohio River crossing prompted a federal advisory to inspect similar bridges using a certain type of steel that was common decades ago. The Federal Highway Administration is advising state transportation departments that oversee fracture-critical bridges constructed of T1 steel to inspect butt welds, just in case they have cracks similar to those recently discovered on the Interstate 64 Sherman Minton Bridge between Kentucky and Indiana. On Sept. 9, the Indiana Dept. of Transportation closed the 49-year-old bridge—a double-deck structure spanning the Ohio River with two 800-ft

An 850,000-sq-ft LEED-Platinum corporate headquarters, a center for homeless youth and a cable-stayed bridge spanning the Missouri River are among the projects a panel of industry professionals have awarded top honors in ENRMidwest's Best Projects 2011 competition, an annual program recognizing outstanding design and construction in a variety of categories.

Robert Mortimer and Michael Gould have been named senior vice presidents with Chicago-based contractor James McHugh Construction Company. Randy Bullard, Peter Campagnolo, Brian Fish and John Kelly were named vice presidents with the firm. John Tuisl has been named vice president of safety and risk management with Northbrook, Ill.-based contractor Kenny Construction Co., while Tom Lubas Jr. has been named assistant risk manager for the firm. Kenny recently combined its safety and risk management departments. Kenny is the only construction company to have been awarded the National Safety Council's Green Cross for Safety. Kurt Jaeger has been appointed vice president

In the warm, waning days of summer, mechanical crews are replenishing their ranks in a push to bring the $1-billion Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago on line by late fall. “We peaked with 80 workers or so, then got really skinny for awhile,” says Scott Tranter, group vice president with The Hill Group, the project's Franklin Park, Ill.-based mechanical contractor. “Today, we're back up to about 25.”The task at hand is almost a project unto itself, one of several Hill has tackled as the 23-story structure has taken shape on the campus of Northwestern Medical Center,

Rather than wait and see whether modest gains in construction activity this summer heralded a return to economic stability, many builders in the Midwest and elsewhere are heading for the exits. Related Links: Although national construction employment inched to a 15-month high in July and remained virtually unchanged in August, “unemployed workers are leaving the industry at seven times the rate they are finding jobs in it,” says Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Arlington, Va.-based Associated General Contractors of America.“We need a recovery to market to the prospective work force,” says Anirban Basu, chief economist with Arlington, Va.-based Associated

Joint-venture contractors on the 12.3-mile Hiawatha light-rail line in Minneapolis-St. Paul have agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle federal charges that they fraudulently reported use of disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) on the $715-million project, completed in 2004. Parsons Transportation Group, part of the project's design JV, says it was mistakenly named as a pact participant in the Justice Dept.'s Aug. 24 announcement. The firm and other designers were not targets of the government subcontracting probe nor did they “review or approve” DBE activities, a spokeswoman says. Justice did not return calls for comment.Project JV contractor Minnesota Transit Constructors Inc.

The team selected materials based on availability and delivery time. One of the replacement schools was a supermarket that had been empty for 10 years. Another structural conversion reconfigured a warehouse. It took just minutes for a tornado packing 200-mph winds to level a third of Joplin, Mo.'s public schools last spring. In a remarkable turnaround, it took less than three months to bring the schools back on line in time for the new school year.On  Aug. 17, classroom sessions resumed on schedule in Joplin, even as construction crews continued cleaning up from the May 22 tornado, an EF5 event

Photo Courtesy of Barton Malow Co. DOE is offering a $730-million loan to Severstal to fund steel plants, such as this one, for fuel-efficient vehicles. DOE also has issued grants for more than 30 battery and component plants in 19 states. If the Obama administration can engineer it, one million hybrid and electric vehicles will hit American roads by 2015. The president's goal is to accelerate construction of manufacturing plants with federal loans and grants.In July, the U.S. Dept. of Energy made a $730-million loan commitment to Dearborn, Mich.-based Severstal North America to fund the construction and modernization of finishing

DePaul University is taking a break from brick. Image Courtesy of DePaul University DePaul University is constructing a new glass-enclosed theater building. In a departure from the climbing vines that define its Lincoln Park setting, the Chicago-based university has broken ground on a $69-million Theatre School Building whose translucent facade seeks to open a window to the world of the performing arts.The architect is New York City-based Pelli Clarke Pelli rather than longtime DePaul collaborator Antunovich Associates, a local firm whose masonry-oriented architecture complemented both the campus and its surrounding neighborhood.The Pelli concept, which locates a window wall on the

One of the Midwest's mightiest construction firms is on the move.