Published Nationally
Southeast Edition
® March 14 2018 Vol. XXXI • No. 6
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com
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Repairing America’s Highway Bridges By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT
Trifecta Services Company Starts Strong…8
Yancey Bros. Co. Opens FullService Location…22
Flint Construction Hosts Tech Event…32
Table of Contents ........4 Asphalt, Concrete, Paving, Compaction & Milling Section ......34-57
America’s highway bridges need repair. Everyone agrees more money needs to be spent on them. So many bridges are “structurally deficient” that every local TV news team gets to pose a nervous-looking reporter on a local bridge and infer that the structure is apt to collapse the next time they drive across it — if it doesn’t implode on camera under the weight of the reporter. In reality, of course, such collapses are extremely unlikely. Much of the consternation surrounding the nation’s bridges can be explained in the old saw about lies, damned lies, and statistics. That is, there are lots and lots of numbers attesting to the less-than-pristine condition of tens of thousands of highway bridges in the United States, but they do not necessarily add up to impending catastrophe. “It sounds very severe to a layman,” said Glenn A. Washer, a professional engineer and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Missouri. Washer is not a layman. Before he became a university faculty member, he worked for 14 years as a researcher at the Federal Highway Administration’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Va., where he practiced the science of bridge inspection. He knows bridges. He also is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the organization that periodically issues a report card on the infrastructure of America. The society’s 2017 report gave the nation a C+ for the condi-
Auction Section ....80-89 Business Calendar......85 Advertisers Index ......90
The Calcasieu River Bridge in Louisiana is on ARTBA’s top ten most structurally deficient bridges by state list. tion of its bridges. But wait … That means Uncle Sam is a whisker away from a B-. Many a student would kill for such a grade. Furthermore, the very first ASCE report in 1988 also graded highways and bridges with a C+. That may not be evidence of progress, but it at least suggests stability. What Crisis? With all due respect, where’s the crisis? A
look at the numbers in the 2017 ASCE report suggests that, while there is cause for genuine concern especially in respect to funding, the state of bridges in the United States is not as quite as dire as frequently portrayed in popular media. For a look at numbers, here is the summary paragraph from the ASCE report: “The U.S. has 614,387 bridges, almost four in 10 of which are 50 years or older. 56,007 — or see BRIDGES page 58
Savannah Harbor Deepening Nears Halfway Point By Russ Bynum
Parts Section ........60-61
Patrick Feller photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) A dredging ship on the Savannah River emptied another load of sand and mud capable of filling roughly 170 dump trucks as officials overseeing the $973 million deepening of the shipping channel to the Port of Savannah declared the project had
nearly reached its halfway point. Almost 2 and-a-half years have passed since dredging began along the 40-mi. stretch linking the nation’s fourth-busiest container port to the Atlantic Ocean. Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, which was hired to deepen the first half from the ocean into the Savannah River past Tybee Island, is scheduled to finish its job in
March. The Army Corps of Engineers, the agency overseeing the project, marked the milestone by giving reporters a tour on the water Feb. 28. The agency says if there are no delays, the Savannah harbor deepening could be finished in January 2022. “Really, we’re just over halfway” once deepening of the stretch
known as the outer harbor is complete, said Col. Marvin Griffin, commander of the Army Corps’ Savannah District. “We’ve made a huge amount of progress.” Like other East Coast seaports, Savannah is racing to dig deep and make room for larger cargo ships now arriving through the expanded Panama Canal. Until the dredging is see HARBOR page 70