Published Nationally ®
Southeast Edition
September 21 2011
$3.00
Vol. XXIV • No. 19
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Inside
Congress Lags On Highway Bill By Pete Sigmund CEG EDITORIAL CONSULTANT
job site began in June 2010, said Construction Site General Manager David Empfield, speaking in a video update on the project posted on Mississippi Power’s Web site. Erosion control measures — which Empfield stated included installation of more than 60,000 linear ft. (18,288 m) of silt fencing and eight
In the words of Satchel Paige: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” For the construction industry, that something is many billions of dollars in overdue highway, bridge and transit funding, and an approaching deadline, which is critical for continued activity. Congress is now two years behind in reauthorizing a new six-year highway and surface transportation bill to replace the $286-billion SAFETEA-LU act, which expired Sept. 30, 2009. It also must reauthorize the federal gasoline tax, which supports the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), the main federal funding source for highway and bridge construction. This tax, last authorized in 2005, also expires Sept. 30. Without it, highway, bridge and surface transportation work would be largely unfunded, with much work grinding to a halt and more construction jobs lost. President Obama began his “national crisis” jobs speech to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 8 by spotlighting the critical situation, saying his $447-billion jobs bill “will provide new jobs for construction workers … and provide a jolt to an economy in trouble.” “Everyone here knows we have badly decaying highways and bridges all over the country,” he said, asking: “How can we expect our kids to do their part in a country which is falling apart?”
see PLANT page 54
see HIGHWAY page 14
Nortrax Breaks Ground on Miami Facility…16
Work proceeds on the steam turbine generator foundation for Mississippi Power Co.’s coal-gasification plant in Kemper County, Miss. Finding New Ways to Use Old Mater ials…33
Kemper County Power Plant On Target for Time, Budget By Kerry Lynn Kirby CEG CORRESPONDENT
Meeki ns Hold s Aucti on N.C. Contr actor …6 0
Table of Contents ............4 Truck & Trailer Section .... ..................................28-31 Crushing, Screening & Recycling Section ....33-43 Parts Section ................44 Attachment Section.45-48 Auction Section ................ ......................Starts on 59 Business Calendar ........63 Advertisers Index ..........66
A massive 582-megawatt power plant under construction about 20 mi. (32 kW) north of Meridian, Miss., will use a combination of intense heat and high pressure to convert locally abundant lignite coal into a cleaner-burning gas that is then used to produce energy.
Mississippi Power Co.’s new $2.4 billion Kemper County power plant is so far on target to be completed on budget and begin operation by 2014. Contractors are on schedule due to a construction timeline that planned for the extreme heat conditions and other weather-related issues they’ve encountered. Work on the 2,968-acre
Loss of Fly Ash Could Increase Building Costs The cost to build roads, runways and bridges would increase by an estimated $104.6 billion over the next 20 years if coal fly ash is no longer available as a transportation construction building material, according to a new study by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s Transportation Development
Foundation (ARTBA-TDF). Fly ash is a byproduct of coal combustion for electricity generation. It is widely used as a supplementary cementitious material in the production of concrete. Fly ash concrete is a mixture of choice for many state and local transportation departments and transportation engineers
because of its performance enhancing and costsaving benefits. It also has been praised for its environmental benefits as a “green” building material — putting to use an energy production byproduct that reduces demand for carbonintensive portland cement, requires less water in see ASH page 44