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October 1, 2017 • Vol. IX • No. 20 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215/885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910
Alaska’s Eilson Air Force Base Nevada Quake Constructs Flight Simulator Lab Tests New Bridge Design
By Cindy Riley
CEG CORRESPONDENT Caltrans Builds New Roadway Over Monumental Slide...15
RDO Holds Grand Opening at Riverside Store...16
ROMCO Opens New Corporate HQ in Texas...26
Table of Contents ................4 California Section ........15-22 Off-Road Trucks Section ........ ......................................43-55 Paving Section..............57-65 Auction Section ............68-75 Business Calendar..............72 Advertisers Index ..............74
At Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, construction is under way on a $22 million F-35A Lightning II flight simulator facility. The simulator will allow the initial F35 pilots, who arrive at Eielson approximately six months before the first aircraft arrive, to maintain many of their flying currencies and skills. It also enables them to train against modern threats in a highly-realistic environment. In 2015, the Air Force tapped Eielson Air Force Base to become the first operational overseas location for the F-35A Lightning II. In March 2017, an official ceremony was held. “The groundbreaking for the flight simulator is the first major military construction project in the F-35 beddown,” stated 1st Lt. Brett Brunner, the 354th Civil Engineer Squadron F-35 construction project manager chief. “The ceremony is both for this facility and the entire project at large.” “The F-35A Lightning II flight simulator facility groundbreaking marked the beginning of construction projects to support the F-35 mission,” said Kevin Blanchard, 354th fighter wing F-35 program integration office director. “It was attended by the Eielson airmen, the project’s general contractor, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Fairbanks-
By Scott Sonner ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District photo
The F-35 flight simulator has a scheduled completion date of September 2018. Earthwork and deep dynamic compaction are complete.
Northstar borough leaders.” In addition to the F-35 flight simulator building project, roughly three dozen buildings will be built or renovated, adding more than 420,000 sq. ft. of infrastructure in the overall base. Fiscal year 2017 will include renovations to current hangars and two additional hangars, renovating squadron operations, weapons storage facilities and missile mainte-
nance facilities. “So far, two military construction projects have been awarded,” said Blanchard. “The F-35 simulator building project was awarded to Watterson Construction, and the Munitions Storage Facility project was awarded to Callahan-Watterson joint venture.” Alaska District, USACE, is the Air Force’s construcsee SIMULATOR page 40
RENO, Nev. (AP) Scientists at a Nevada earthquake lab recently tested new bridge designs with connectors they said are innovative and created to better withstand violent temblors and speed reconstruction efforts after major quake damage. University of Nevada, Reno, engineers performed the experiments on a giant “shake table” to simulate violent motions of an earthquake to rattle a 100-ton (91 t), 70 ft. (21 m) bridge model to determine how well it would hold up. The tests, conducted a day after a big quake struck Mexico, shook large concrete columns and beams back and forth for about 30 seconds at a time, displacing some nearly a foot before returning largely to their original spot. Graduate students measured and marked indications of tiny fractures but no major structural damage was observed in the initial review of the experiments. “The bridge has done better than we expected,” said Saiid Saiidi, a professor of civil and environmental engineering who served as the project leader. He’s done related research for more than 30 years. Bridges are already designed not to collapse in earthquakes but often are unsafe for travel after big quakes. He said the designs that were tested employed special types of connectors to link prefabsee QUAKE page 56
University of Nevada, Reno photo
Grad students inspect damage on bridge.