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Southeast Edition $3.00
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” November 30, 2011 • Vol. XXIV • No. 24 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com
Inside
Crews Widen Fla.’s U.S. 17 By Cindy Riley CEG CORRESPONDENT
Flagler Cons truction Equipment Adds to Staff…8
For the steel erection work, RSC Equipment Rental supplied the cranes. Sumter Steel Erector cranes also did the work of putting the metal studwork in place.
Salty Seaside Spurs Two Span Replacements…14
Crews Serve Up a ‘Cookout’ From the Ground on Down By Peter Hildebrandt CEG CORRESPONDENT
Capi tol Ch rist mas Tree Makes Way t o D.C. …38
Table of Contents ........4
Atlantic Restaurant Concepts LLC, Duncan, S.C., has had good luck constructing a growing number of Cookout Restaurants
around the Southeast — most in 90 days or less. These restaurants are now going up in Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas. The Cookout being constructed in Rock Hill, S.C., joins others in the state being built in Columbia,
Sumter and Hartsville. Robert Dancy, superintendent on site for Atlantic Restaurant Concepts explained how this site had what he terms “bad dirt” or a clay substance most likely see SOIL page 24
Despite a series of weather delays, construction work is on schedule along U.S. 17 in Florida, involving roughly 4 mi. (6.4 km) of a four-lane divided rural roadway to replace a two-lane undivided highway. According to Ralph Bridger, project manager of general contractor Better Roads Inc., his company is responsible for all phases of construction on the $14 million Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) project to widen the 4.65-mi. (7.5 km) segment of U.S. 17 from two to four lanes from the Charlotte/DeSoto county line to SW Collins Street in Fort Ogden. see FLORIDA page 42
Concrete truck on new two-lane bridge spanning the Thornton Branch Creek.
Trailers Section .............. ..............................27-37
Highway Overhaul Gaining Bipartisan Momentum
Paving Section ......47-58
By Joan Lowy ASSOCIATED PRESS
Parts Section ........59-61 Auction Section ....75-87 Business Calendar ......78 Advertisers Index ......86
WASHINGTON (AP) A Senate panel cleared legislation Nov. 9 overhauling federal highway programs, prompting lawmakers to talk of a looming bipartisan consensus that would end years of stalemate on repairing and expanding an aging transportation network. In a rare show of bipartisanship, the 18 members of the Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee pushed the legislation forward for further action, even withholding, for now, amendments that hadn’t been agreed to in advance by both parties. The two-year transportation plan was drafted by the committee’s Democratic chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, and its senior Republican, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma. The bill’s co-sponsors include the Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic chairman, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, and its senior Republican, Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana,
who are trying to find the money to pay for the plan. “I don’t think there is any question, if you look at the four of us, that this is the definition of bipartisan work,” Vitter said. “This is a jobs bill, this is an infrastructure bill that is designed to succeed, that can succeed.” Despite the Senate’s defeat of President Barack Obama’s $50 billion infrastructure jobs bill, momentum is building for congressional passage of a long-term transportation plan to see PLAN page 70