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470 Maryland Drive • Ft. ashington, 19034 • 215/885-2900 • To ll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910 • www.ConstructionEquipmentGuide.com May 20,W 2015 • Vol. LIVPA • No. 10 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910
Inside
Tunnels — Ancient Cure for Traffic Congestion By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT
OSC Inc. Weathers Extreme Circumstances…8
Limerick Township Purchases Case 621FXR…14
Urban planners and civil engineers need to get in touch with their subterranean resources. Beneath their feet, waiting to be tapped, is an integral part of the solution to traffic and other urban congestion, according to advocates of subsurface development. “From a public perspective, people general-
ly don’t think a lot about tunnels,” said Colin Lawrence, tunnel practice leader of Hatch Mott MacDonald, the engineering firm headquartered in Iselin, N.J., with 76 offices in the United States and Canada. “Tunnels are less prominent than other types of infrastructure such as bridges and landmark buildings. Tunnel work can be fairly anonymous in the public eye, but it is essential to the future of society.”
A Long History Actually, tunnels have been an essential part of the infrastructure for a very long time. From Roman aqueducts to canal barge tunnels in the years leading up to the industrial revolution to the English Channel train tunnel constructed in the late 20th century, engineers have carved out spaces beneath the surface to benefit society. see TUNNELS page 110
Judge Rules U.S. New Single-Span Bridge to Govt. Liable for Replace Obsolete MD 272 Some Flooding By Kevin McGill ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vermeer Hosts Opening Event in Brewster, N.Y. …44
Table of Contents ................4 Paving Section ..............57-73 Attachments Section 77-104 Parts Section....................123 Auction Section ......128-145 Business Calendar ..........136 Advertisers Index ............146
NEW ORLEANS (AP) Ruling in a nearly decadeold lawsuit, a judge in Washington said May 1 that the federal government is responsible for some of the catastrophic flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina and other storms — flooding blamed on a now-closed navigation channel. Judge Susan Braden of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington said the flooding was, in effect, a “taking’’ of property under the Fifth Amendment, for which the plaintiffs must be compensated. How much the government will have to pay in damages is unclear. Braden set a conference in New Orleans to determine whether an agreement can be reached to have damages assessed by a mediator. Also unclear is how many people will benefit. There are a handful of plaintiffs, but attorneys were seeking class-action status that could mean many people in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward. The judge’s ruling did not address whether class-action status would be granted. The ruling came in an October 2005 lawsuit filed by the government of St. Bernard Parish — adjacent to New Orleans — and several property owners. It focuses on the now-closed Mississippi River Gulf Outlet — a navigation canal built by the U.S. Army Corps of see FLOODING page 122
SHA photo
Workers apply concrete to improve ride quality to the bridge approaches on the MD 272 bridge over Amtrak Railway, North East, Cecil County, Md.
By Brenda Ruggiero CEG CORRESPONDENT
A new single-span straight girder bridge is being built on MD 272 over the Amtrak Railway in North East, Md., which is in Cecil County. The construction cost is $11.8 million, and the prime contractor for the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) is Mumford
and Miller of Middletown, Del., with Todd Willits serving as the project engineer. Both state and federal funding is being used. The existing MD 272 (Mauldin Avenue) Bridge is a three-span steel beam structure. Built in 1954, the bridge has 3-ft. (.9 m) wide sidewalks and does not have shoulders, making it functionally obsolete. The average daily traffic volume from U.S. 40 (Pulaski see BRIDGE page 124