Published Nationally
$3.00
®
Western Edition
August 14 2010 Vol. VI • No. 17
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215/885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com
Inside
Super Crane Goes to Work on Construction Delicate Rural Utah Bridge Activity Rises Close to a million pounds of counter weight was needed to stabilize the crane for setting the precast panels into place.
JLG Introduces New G10-43A Telehandler...10
Cat Auctions Names Trettel New CFO...30
By Jennifer Rupp
CEG CORRESPONDENT
Vaughan Auctions Holds Texas Sale...40
Table of Contents ............4 Crushing, Screening & Recycling Section ....15-21 Truck & Trailer Section .... ..................................24-25 Business Calendar ........32 Auction Section ......37-43 Advertisers Index ..........42
When the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and prime contractor Granite Construction sat down to the design phase of the Eagle Canyon Bridge project, it realized that using a standard-size crane was not an option. Because of the bridge’s age and vulnerable state, it could not withstand the weight that a reg-
ular crane would impose upon it. The $5.29 million project consisted of a deck replacement on the eastbound bridge, with approach slab work and measures to stiffen the existing structure. Granite suggested subcontracting OlsenBeal, a Utah-based industrial construction and maintenance company. OlsenBeal owns one of the few Kobelco SL6000 cranes in the United States, and uses it to service most of the West and
by 0.1 Percent By Martin Crutsinger
AP ECONOMICS WRITER
WASHINGTON (AP) Construction spending in the United States edged up in June but all the strength came from the government. Private sector activity in both housing and nonresidential projects fell. Construction spending rose 0.1 percent in June, the Commerce Department reported Aug. 2. While that was better than the decline economists had forecast, the government sharply revised down its estimate of activity in May to show a drop of 1 percent rather than the 0.2 percent dip initially reported. The lackluster performance for construction was the latest indicator that the overall economy slowed in the spring, raising worries about the durability of the recovery that began a year ago. The government reported in July that total economic growth slowed to a rate of 2.4 percent in the April-to-June quarter, down from a 3.7 percent growth rate in the first three months of the year and a 5 percent growth spurt in the fourth quarter of 2009. Economists are worried that growth will
see CRANE page 8
see ACTIVITY page 28
Stimulus Transportation Investments a Bright Spot The highway investments in the stimulus law have been a bright spot for a transportation construction industry hard hit by recessioninduced cutbacks in state programs and decline in private sector work. But continued uncertainty about passage of a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill is hindering chances for a sus-
tained economic recovery. That was the thrust of the message delivered by Kevin Gannon, vice president of Appleton, Wis.based Northeast Asphalt Inc., at a July 27 House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee hearing on implementation of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Gannon, a director on the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) board, told the committee that recovery act-funded projects his company is working on have not wholly offset the 50 percent drop in private sector work in recent years. He said, however, that ARRA projects have allowed
them to hang on to the firm’s existing workforce. Gannon noted that as of July 16, more than 11,000 highway and bridge projects under the recovery act had moved to the construction stage and more than 3,000 were now finished, worth a total of $23 billion. see ARTBA page 28