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Construction Junkie’s motto is that it’s not a party unless you gather up 115 of your closest friends and their excavators and wreak some havoc on a bused old highway overpass. Apparently, some people in China know how to party.
Read moreCranes are not only an extremely useful piece of equipment, but they’re also extremely dangerous if something goes wrong. Each year, there are several crane collapses and other crane related accidents that claim lives. Having said that, the last thing contractors need is for adrenaline seekers to start climbing and playing around on their cranes. The problem is, it’s already happening.
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3.1 miles of bridge does not equal 3.1 miles of on grade highway. In fact, it’s not even close. In order to build the new New York Bridge, which is replacing the existing Tappan Zee bridge that crosses the Hudson River, 14 miles of main span cables, 50 miles of foundation pilings, 300 thousand cubic yards of concrete, and 220 million pounds of steel are needed to complete the structure. Oh, it’s also going to take another 2 years to build, on top of the 3 they’ve already been working on it.
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If positioned the right way, paper is known to give some pretty mean paper cuts, so say to the office tethered thrill seekers of the world. Try to cut wood by running a sheet of paper against it, however, and you’ll end up a mangled piece of paper. But, perhaps we’ve been using paper the wrong way all along. Maybe it’s a metaphor for life, put an object or a person in the wrong situation and get poor results, but put them in the right situation and you’ll reap the rewards.
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Nobody likes traffic, especially when lane closures and construction are involved. Construction zones are prone to increased accidents, which also put construction workers in extreme danger. The best way to reduce traffic, accidents, and worker injuries is to reduce the on-site schedule, but how do you go about doing that?
The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT) needed to overhaul its highly trafficked Route 8 in Bridgeport, CT which included several bridges. The bridges, which were built in the 1970s, handled over 88,000 vehicles per day and had degraded to a point that the CDOT determined the bridges had reached the end of their useful life. The original estimated schedule for the bridge overhaul was 2 years, which officials determined would be way too long to displace that amount of traffic, so they looked for alternative methods. In the end, the CDOT opted for a Design-Build concept with Manafort Brothers, Inc. and Parsons Brinkerhoff which would ultimately reduce the total on-site work schedule to two 14-periods over the summer of 2016.
The $35 million project not only used Design-Build to shorten the schedule, but also employed the Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) technique. To further reduce the schedule, the ABC method utilized Prefabricated Bridge Units (PBUs), which were large sections of the bridge that were fabricated off site. Once substantial completion of the PBUs was reached, the on-sire work began. Each 14 day period wound up closing one direction at a time, which shifted traffic to the opposite side. The new bridges are close to being complete now, with a finish date set for September 2016 and the DOT is hoping that maintenance of the new bridge will be significantly reduced compared to the old bridge. According to the website set up for the Route 8 construction, the bridge design incorporated “modern weathering steel beams that require no paint or maintenance over their anticipated 75 year lifespan.”
While it’s not quite as fast as this this multi-lane overpass that was removed and replaced in 43 hours in China or this 230 foot long tunnel installed under a highway in the Netherlands in just 3 days, it’s definitely a step in the right direction for improving contractor efficiency and public safety.
You can watch a timelapse video of the demolition of the old bridges and the construction of the new, uploaded to Youtube by CME Associates, below:
via Youtube
First, let me formally apologize to our non-American readers for calling the sport Soccer, but, since it is Olympics time, I have to stay loyal to my country. As soccer is the world’s most popular sport, many would argue that no changes need to be made to improve it. Well, a group of people have taken it upon themselves to create a super intense and over-the-top version of the game that I think all of us Construction Junkies will enjoy.
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It doesn’t seem like any high rise flat is safe in the UK these days, as another set of them has been demolished to make way for a new housing complex. 6 high rises were demolished simultaneously in Glasgow Scotland last year, another flat in Glasgow was imploded in Glasgow this year, two more in England took several attempts to bring them down in April, and yet another flat was demolished in Glasgow in May, but that video was hilariously ruined by a bus.
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Wrecking balls got a big publicity boost in 2013 when Miley Cyrus released her hit song, but, they’re not really that popular with regards to demolition. Wrecking balls are slowly becoming extinct in the construction industry, making way for more precise hydraulic excavators and explosives. Made of forged steel, wrecking balls typically range between 1,000 to 12,000 pounds. Needless to say, they’re big, they’re heavy, and they don’t belong around operating streets and buildings. Which leads us to the video below…
Read moreA lot of safety discussions center around how to keep yourself from falling off or being launched from lifts, but not many safety discussions involve how to get off of them when you’re in danger. Just recently, two construction workers in Boise, Idaho had to make some quick decisions as their welding blanket caught fire while they were in the lift.
Read moreThe World’s first Ferris Wheel was designed and built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL in 1893 by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. Since then, the wheels have been a staple of many state fairs across the United States and many other places throughout the World. Much like tall buildings, the past few years has shown us that having the tallest Ferris Wheel is a strong source of pride for a city or country.
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On Tuesday morning, February 23, the Syracuse Fire Department responded to a call about a collapsed crane on a construction site near the university. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.