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June 11, 2014 • Vol. XXVI • No. 12 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910
Inside
After Years of Talk, I-20 Nears Completion By Lori Tobias
The need to widen Interstate-20 in the northeast Richland County of S.C. has been talked about for at least a decade, and in 2012 work finally got underway. Now, contractors are closing in on the August completion date on a job that’s called for expediency and smarts. “The traffic on this segment is very heavily traveled for a four-lane interstate,” said Paul Miller, project manager of the South Carolina Department of Transportation. The heavy travel, increasing traffic and accelerated schedule kind of made things difficult. It took some good thinking and coordination to get things done in a timely fashion.” The section of I-20 under construction runs through an area just north of Columbia. It is already heavily developed, with additional development continuing. The interstate currently sees about 61,000 vehicles daily, and that number is expected to rise to 117,000 by 2029. “The project is basically five projects in one,” Miller said. “The first is the widening project. That’s 6.3 miles of widening. We added an additional lane eastbound and westbound and reconstructed the concrete pavement. In addition to that, we demolished and reconstructed a 280-feet interstate bridge. We also widened another bridge to accommodate an additional lane of travel. We also installed a noise barrier wall for approximately 6 miles and intersection improvements on one of the exit ramps, where we added a dual left hand turn lane.” One of the main challenges of the job was maintaining two lanes of travel while constructing the new lanes. “It’s remodeling the house while you’re still living in it basically,” said Curtis Schwartz, project manager of Zachry Construction Corporation. To do so, the company cut the project into five stages, Schwartz said. Zachry Construction Corporation split the traffic so that it traveled on
CEG CORRESPONDENT
Palmetto Corp Grows Through Diversification…8
Sun Construction Builds a Strong Reputation…12
see ZACHRY page 78
PCCP Moves Forward in New Orleans…22
Crews split the traffic so that it traveled on opposite sides of the median and barrier wall.
Industry Employment Increases in 220 Metro Areas
Construction employment of federal employment data ment facilities and Hurricane appears to be rebounding in many Table of Contents ............4 expanded in 220 metro areas, released May 27 by the Associated Sandy reconstruction were con- parts of the country,” said Ken declined in 70 and was stagnant in
General Contractors of America.
tributing to job losses around
Simonson, the association’s chief
Air Compressors, 49 between April 2013 and April Association officials noted that fed- Washington, D.C. and New Jersey. economist. “Declines in federal Generators & Light 2014, according to a new analysis eral spending cutbacks on govern“Construction employment see EMPLOYMENT page 68 Towers Section ........38-46 Paving Section ..........47-57
Kobelco Presents Nearly $120,000 to WWP
Parts Section ..................58 Auction Section ........84-93 Business Calendar ........88 Advertisers Index ..........94
Kobelco Construction Machinery USA, a Houstonbased heavy equipment manufacturer, presented a check of nearly $120,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) on May 20 in Houston, Texas.
Kobelco created only five limited edition SK350LC crawler excavators wrapped in a patriotic/military design as part of a fundraiser for WWP. Kobelco is donating $100,000 to this nonprofit organization that supports a
full range of programs and services for this generation of injured veterans and their families. At the recent ConExpo/ConAGG construction industry trade show in Las Vegas, Kobelco displayed one of the five
limited edition SK350LC’s at its booth. Thousands of show attendees stopped by to have their picture taken with the awe-inspiring machine wrapped in patriotic graphics including the American see KOBELCO page 66