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June 7, 2017 • Vol. XXX • No. 12 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910
Bonner Bridge Project Marks Year Two By Eric Olson CEG CORRESPONDENT
Army Museum Honors Millions Who Served…8
Rob’s Hydraulics Celebrates 20 Years…12
Bishop to Serve as CEO of Ascendum in U.S. …68
Table of Contents............ 4 Paving Section.......... 36-49 Air Compressors, Generators & Light Towers Section........ 53-63
Heavy construction has moved into its second year on a long-awaited and vital bridge along North Carolina’s Outer Banks. When opened for traffic in the fall of 2018, the $246 million replacement for the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge will more easily move vehicles and people up and down N.C. Highway 12. Spanning across the Oregon Inlet, the new 2.8 mi. long bridge, like the one in use today, will connect Bodie Island and Hatteras Island. More significantly, the current Bonner Bridge and the highway are the only road links from the mainland and the northern Outer Banks to the more remote and famous southern areas, which include Cape Hatteras, Rodanthe and Ocracoke Island. The old bridge, built in 1963, passed its projected lifespan in the early 1990s and over the years has been pounded by the countless storms that move across North Carolina’s famed barrier islands to and from the Atlantic Ocean. Upgrades to the bridge have kept it functional, but the combination of wind, rain, surf and salt have eaten away at the structure. Start and Stop Finally, funds were secured to build a replacement and the North Carolina DOT awarded the contract to design-build the new bridge to PCL Civil Constructors Inc. in Raleigh in 2011. However, almost immediately, concerns over the structure’s impact on the surrounding ecosystem resulted in lawsuits by environmental groups to stop the project in 2013 before any on-site work began. The entire area is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the immediate bridge site itself is within the larger park’s eco-sensitive Pea Island National Wildlife
Heavy construction has moved into its second year on a long-awaited and vital bridge along North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Refuge. Those legal challenges were finally resolved, though, in the summer of 2015 and the bridge work formally began on March 8, 2016. Whistling Past the Graveyard The sleek new stainless reinforcing steel and high-durability concrete bridge is designed to
protect against corrosion and withstand the stormy seas that for centuries have caused enough shipwrecks for the area to be labeled “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.” The structure will utilize the typical pile beam and cap system across the majority of its length, but the main navigation span will be a pre-cast see BONNER page 94
Parts Section.............. 66
John Deere Plans to Acquire Wirtgen Group
Auction Section...... 89-96
Deere & Company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Wirtgen Group, a privately-held international company that is leading manufacturer worldwide of road construction equipment.
Business Calendar........ 95 Advertisers Index.......... 98
The purchase price for the equity is $4.88 billion (EUR 4.357 billion) in an all-cash transaction. The total transaction value is approximately $5.2 billion (EUR 4.6 billion) based on current exchange rates,
including the assumption of net debt and other consideration. The Wirtgen Group had sales of $2.91 billion (EUR 2.6 billion) in the year ending Dec. 31, 2016. Deere expects the transaction to be accre-
tive to earnings per share and currently expects to fund the acquisition from a combination of cash and new equipment operations debt financing. Detailed financial see DEERE page 24