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April 28 2010 Vol. XLVIII • No. 9
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215/885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910 • www.ConstructionEquipmentGuide.com
Inside
Building to Withstand Imminent Earthquakes By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT
Binder Hosts Wirtgen, H a m m , V ö g e l e E v e n t… 2 6
Case Employees Show Support for Troops…30
Shown here are steel self-centering moment resisting frame (SC-MRFs) tests and steel self-centering concentrically braced frame (SC-CBF) tests performed at Lehigh’s NEES Equipment Site. These systems are new concepts developed at Lehigh University for new construction as well as for seismic retrofit. They enable the structure to remain undamaged under the design earthquake.
With earthquakes rumbling in places like Haiti, Chile, Indonesia, the Solomon Islands and, ominously, the Mexican peninsula right below California, Americans surely wonder when The Big One will strike the United States. The good news is that seismic engineers, architects and contractors are preparing for that day by see QUAKE page 44
Labor Fight Looms on Lake Champlain Bridge New Allegheny Bridge Project in Final Stage
The eastbound spans 1 and 2 take shape over Freeport Road and the Allegheny River back channel.
‘Backhoe Across America’ Makes Pit Stop…40
Table of Contents ............4 Truck & Trailer Section .... ..................................59-65 Crushing, Screening & Recycling Section ....69-91 Parts Section........104-105 Auction Section ..111-132 Business Calendar ......129 Advertisers Index........130
By Dave Gram
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) A $578 million transportation spending bill that included $5.5 million for the Lake Champlain Bridge moved through the House on March 26 without a whisper of opposition. But debate raged outside the chamber over a package of labor standards for workers on the $110 million project to rebuild a bridge that was demolished in December after being deemed unsafe. At issue is a project labor agreement that would require union work rules on the job site and union benefits for workers. Union leaders said
the rules would mean workers from the New York and Vermont sides of the lake would be treated the same. Dan Brush, lobbyist of the Vermont Building Trades Council, said the project labor agreement, or PLA, would require contractors on the job to give hiring preference to local workers, define work rules and benefits. Trades affected would include steelworkers, ironworkers, carpenters and others, he said. The bridge links Addison, Vt., with Crown Point, N.Y. Workers for Vermont construction firms, the vast majority of them nonunion, already are slated to receive the same wages as their
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) is heading a $190 million project to replace an aging span across the Allegheny River with the first major post-tensioned segmental bridges in the Commonwealth. The existing bridge is located 14 mi. northeast of Pittsburgh and the job is part of a project to reconstruct I-76 between mile posts 46.56 and 49.54, improving the highway and increasing traffic safety and capacity. Chicago-based Walsh Construction Company is handling the $193,837,705 job through its Canonsburg, Pa, branch. Notice To Proceed was issued in May 2007 and work began in July that year with
see CHAMPLAIN page 118
see ALLEGHENY page 14
By Mary Reed CEG CORRESPONDENT