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“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” July 28, 2012 • Vol. VIII • No. 15 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215/885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com
Inside
Federal Grant to Go for Database for Road Work
Pocono Raceway Pavi ng Work Earns Raves...10
Company Wr ench Earns Prestigious Award...31
The Galena Creek Bridge is one of nine bridges included in the I-580 expansion project.
I-580 Extension Project Recognized by AASHTO By Jennifer Rupp CEG CORRESPONDENT
Ritchie Bros. Holds Sale in Houston...52
Table of Contents ................4 Attachment Section ....15-17 Truck & Trailer Section22-25 Crushing, Screening & Recycling Section ........31-41 Auction Section ..........48-55 Business Calendar ............50 Advertisers Index ..............54
The extension of I-580 from the Mt. Rose Highway to Bowers Mansion cutoff will connect Reno and Carson City, effectively completing I-580 in Washoe County. NDOT has been planning for several decades to improve I580 to freeway standards for its entire length in Nevada. Piece by piece, the long-range plan is
taking shape. This new freeway segment covers 8.5 mi. (13.7 km) and is scheduled to officially open to traffic in mid-August 2012. Development of I-580 in Washoe County has been a work in progress since 1957. The first segment of the freeway constructed was from the Carson City/Washoe County line to Lakeview in 1964, followed by the Lakeview to Winters Ranch segment, which opened in see PROJECT page 20
HONOLULU (AP) Traffic officials will be using a federal grant to develop a high-resolution image database of Oahu to help determine where to best use road repair and maintenance resources. Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle announced July 6 that a $1.05 million grant to the city will be used for a so-called Pavement Management System database. The database also will be used to develop recommendations for rehabilitation and reconstruction of city roadways. The city is contracting with Sam O. Hirota Inc., a local surveying and construction consulting company, to use a car equipped with mobile 3-D mapping technology to establish the database, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported. “Our goals are to make good roads last longer and stop potholes before they even start and to make sure bad roads are identified early and schedule for proper repairs,” Carlisle told the newspaper. The technology was developed with the help of NASA and captures high-resolution 3-D images at normal driving speed, said Dennis Hirota, the company’s president. The technology is similar to street-mapping camera systems used by Google, and is being used in only a dozen locations around the world, Hirota said. A complete survey of Oahu roads is expected to be completed by the end of the year, he said.
Construction Hits Two-and-a-Half Year Peak in May Construction spending in May reached the highest level since December 2009 as widespread gains in private nonresidential construction, single-family and multifamily homebuilding more than offset a continuing downturn in public construction, according to an analysis of new federal data released July 2 by the Associated General Contractors of
America. Association officials said they expect the disparity between private and public construction is likely to persist, although enactment of a federal highway and transit bill will cushion the decline in public spending. “It is encouraging to see such a broad-based pickup in private construction,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist.
Simonson noted that private nonresidential spending climbed for the third month in a row and was 19 percent higher than in May 2011. Residential construction surged 3 percent for the month and 8 percent year-over-year, with new multifamily construction leaping 6 percent and 50 percent, respectively, and singlesee REPORT page 53