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“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” May 19, 2012 • Vol. VIII • No. 10 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215/885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com
Inside
WTC Is Back on Top in New York City
Hawthorne CAT Showcases Cat CT660... 32
Weighing In...
$100M Station Project Under Way in Okla. By Sean Murphy ASSOCIATED PRESS
Contractor Takes on Grand Canyon Project...41
AP Photo/Pool, Mark Lennihan
Ironworkers Jim Brady and Billy Geoghan release a steel cable after connecting a steel beam between two columns at the top of One World Trade Center to make it New York City’s tallest skyscraper.
By David B. Caruso ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ritchie Bros. Holds Sales in Fort Worth...52
Table of Contents ........4 Wheel Loaders, Tool Carriers & Attachments Section ..................13-27
NEW YORK (AP) One World Trade Center, the giant monolith being built to replace the twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, layed claim to the title of New York City’s tallest skyscraper on April 30. Workers erected steel columns that made its unfinished skeleton a little over 1,250 ft. high, just enough to peak over
the roof of the observation deck on the Empire State Building. The milestone is a preliminary one. Workers are still adding floors to the so-called “Freedom Tower” and it isn’t expected to reach its full height for at least another year, at which point it is likely to be declared the tallest building in the United States, and third tallest in the world. Those bragging rights, though, will carry an see WTC page 12
Highway Bill Destined for Complicated Homestretch
Paving Section ......41-47 By Joan Lowy
Auction Section ....50-57 Business Calendar ......54 Advertisers Index ......58
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) Defying expectations, Congress has reached the homestretch on a major overhaul of federal transportation programs that is critical if the nation is to avoid steep cutbacks in highway and transit aid.
The bill is driven partly by election-year politics. Both Congress and President Barack Obama have made transportation infrastructure investment the centerpiece of their jobs agendas. But the political imperative for passing a bill has been complicated by House Republicans’ insistence on including a man see BILL page 40
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) The first of nine new weigh and inspection stations for heavy trucks entering Oklahoma has opened for business, and state officials are pushing ahead with a nearly $100 million project to build the rest, the head of Oklahoma’s Department of Transportation said May 7. The first station along Interstate 35 near the Kansas border opened April 27, and a second station along Interstate 40 in far western Oklahoma is scheduled to open in a few months, ODOT Director Gary Ridley said. Eight permanent, manned stations are being constructed at key ports of entry into Oklahoma, along with a ninth unmanned “virtual” station that will allow regulators to use special equipment to weigh and check trucks as they move along the highway, Ridley said. Stations will be built along interstates 35, 40 and 44, U.S. Highway 69 in Bryan County, and U.S. Highway 271 in Choctaw County. The remote station will be along U.S. Highway 412 in Delaware County. “The whole idea is to allow the trucks free flow of movement without interruption, providing they are hauling a legal load or they have a permit to haul the load,” Ridley told members of the Oklahoma Transportation Commission during its regular meeting May 7. Each station will cost about $11 million to build, with most of the money coming from a 1-cent assessment on the wholesale purchase of gasoline and diesel fuel. The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority will be see PROJECT page 29