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February 13, 2015 • Vol. IXX • No. 4 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910
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Inside
Flood Woes Ease With Bridge Replacement By Dick Rohland CEG CORRESPONDENT
Minnesota Equipment Welcomes Customers…10
MITA Hosts 12th Annual Conference, Trade Show…22
Alex Lyon & Son Hosts Florida Auction…102
Table of Contents ................4
Road closures and traffic disruptions caused by frequent flooding annoying thousands of south metro drivers of the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis for years should no longer be a challenge. After two years of digging, picking girders and pouring concrete, crews recently completed a 4,225 ft. (1,268 m) long bridge built to fend off 100-year flood episodes of the Minnesota River Valley. The bridge replaces a low slung causeway crossing the river valley near water level. It carried TH 101, a popular com-
muter and trucking route for local motorists heading out of Shakopee, Minn., towards the Twin Cities 30 mi. (48 km) further north. Complementary to the bridge work, crews constructed safety and capacity improvements to 2,700 ft. (810 m) of County State Aid Highway 61 (CSAH 61) at its intersection with TH 101 just north of the new bridge. This work included the construction of a large, 200 ft. (60 m) diameter, two lane round-about to replace the existing “Wye” intersection. Carver County and the Minnesota see BRIDGE page 78
Indiana Toll Road to See $200M in Improvements GRANGER, Ind. (AP) A section of the Indiana Toll Road, the 157-mi. highway that stretches across the northern portion of the state between Ohio and Illinois, will undergo $200 million in improvements including new asphalt and bridge work, the company that leases it announced Feb. 2. Work will begin next month on a 70-mi. stretch of the road from mile marker 20 in Lake Station to mile marker 93 in Elkhart, said Ken Daley,
chief executive of the Indiana Toll Road Concession Co. He called it “a critical investment in safety and service on the Indiana Toll Road.’’ The project will include removing the existing asphalt down to the concrete base and replacing it with a 5-in. (12.7 cm) layer of new asphalt. It also calls for improvements to interchanges, replacing road shoulders, work on 53 bridges and the installation see TOLL page 32
Crane operators run the controls of a pair of Manitowoc cranes for a girder pick while iron workers gently juggle them into place on the piers. Most of the pre-cast concrete girders weighed in at 80,000 lb. (36,000 kg) or more.
Excavator Section.................. ......................................33-74
Construction Firms Add 18,000 Workers in Jan.
Paving Section ............85-95
Construction firms added 18,000 workers in January, as the industry’s unemployment rate declined to a 17-year low of 8.5 percent, according to an analysis of new government data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials noted that the number of construction jobs added in January was down compared to the last three months of 2015 and could reflect either a slowdown in nonresidential construction activity or an inability of con-
Auction Section ......101-109 Business Calendar ..........103 Advertisers Index............110
tractors to find qualified workers. “While the construction industry continues to add jobs, the January figures mark a significant decline in the rate of growth compared to the end of last year,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “It will take a few months to evaluate whether firms are running out of people to hire or if broader economic uncertainty is leading to a decline in demand for many types of construction services.”
Construction employment totaled 6.6 million in January, the most since December 2008, and is up by 264,000 jobs compared to a year ago, a 4.2 percent increase. Residential construction increased by 20,100 in January and by 149,500, or 6.2 percent, compared to a year ago. Nonresidential construction employment declined by 2,300 jobs for the month but was up 115,000 jobs compared to last January, a 2.9 see AGC page 107