West #24 2011

Page 1

$3.00

Published Nationally ®

Western Edition

“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” November 19, 2011 • Vol. VII • 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

Questions Raised on Calif. Ritchie Bros. Bay Bridge Seismic Tests Tops $5B in Online Sales

Where an empty Weyerhaeuser log yard once stood, hundreds of workers now toil amid towering concrete walls and metal reinforcements. Dozens poured concrete panels or set rebar Nov. 3 while others constructed wooden forms or ran excavators. Spokesman Joe Irwin with the state Department of Transportation looked out over the bustling construction site shortly after the

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers reached and exceeded $5 billion of online equipment sales in the fourth quarter of 2011. Ritchie Bros. hit this significant milestone on Oct. 6, 2011, at an unreserved public auction at its auction site in Hartford, Conn. Ritchie Bros. introduced its real-time online bidding service in March 2002 as an enhancement of the live auction experience. The usage of the service has grown steadily, and in April 2010 the company introduced online bidding in six additional languages. Today close to 50 percent of the people bidding at Ritchie Bros. auctions participate online in real time; the others participate in person at the auction site. “The idea in designing the online bidding service was to give people an online experience that comes as close as possible to matching the live experience,” said Bob Armstrong, chief operating officer, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. “When you’re participating online you can see the assets being sold, you can hear the auctioneer, you can see the numbers changing right before your eyes. It’s as close as possible to being there without the smell of diesel.” In April 2010 Ritchie Bros. launched a new 21-language Web site at the Bauma trade show in Germany. The new rbauction.com features current inventory and equipment search in 21 languages, auction results in 14 languages and live online bidding in seven languages, which has opened up online bidding to an entirely new group of Ritchie Bros. customers around the world. “What I love about the online bidding service is the ability it provides me to bid at many auctions, all at once, and from a single location,” said Luis Carlos Iglesias, owner and managing director of Tractores y

see HIGHWAY page 10

see SALES page 16

Kirby-Smith Receives Crane Award...8

Vaughan Auctions Group Holds October Sale...48

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A California Department of Transportation technician responsible for crucial seismic tests to ensure the safety of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge span is under investigation in connection with testing for major transportation projects through-

out the state, The Sacramento Bee reported Nov. 13. The newspaper said it uncovered falsified safety tests by the technician, who has been put on administrative leave and whose previous work on see BRIDGE page 15

Table of Contents ..............4

Highway 520 Project Taking Shape in Old Aberdeen Log Yard

Paving Section ............23-29

By Jacob Jones

Sales Strong for Cat Auctions Services...52

THE DAILY WORLD

Trailers Section ..........33-38 Auction Section ..........48-59 Business Calendar............50 Advertisers Index ............58

ABERDEEN, Wash. (AP) Construction crews at the Highway 520 pontoon project in Aberdeen closed off the mouth of the massive casting basin Nov. 3, using a 300-ton (272 t) crane to lower two 50-ton (45 t) sections of gate into place and setting the stage for crews to finish a channel running from the basin to the Harbor.


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