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October 10 2009 Vol. V • No. 21
“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
Constructing Healthy Look at Health Care
Inside
By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT
HOLT Crane Hosts Open House in Houston…8
Horrocks Engineering and H.W. Lochner Engineering are the designers and Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction is the general contractor. Some of the bridges were transported as much as a mile and a half which is “a good distance,” Montoya said. “That was significant. There are a fair amount of projects where you move a bridge a couple hundred feet but we actually moved some of them a mile and a half.” The bridges that were moved vary in length from 85 to 173 ft. (25.9 to 52.7 m) and were 43 to 94 ft. (13 to 28.6 m) wide, Carlye Sommers, public involvement manager for Lochner, said. The largest weighed in at 1,350 tons (1,220 t). The SPMTs that moved the bridges had approximately 250 wheels and moved at an average speed of five miles per hour, Sommers said. The only route crews could move the bridges down was the same one they were working on so
Health care reform in the United States has been beaten nearly to death this year by advocates and critics alike. Yet as the debate moves into October, the final shape of “reform” remains elusive and elastic with construction industry executives anxious about its impact on their companies. Any change in the system definitely will have impact on contractors and a sweeping change could upend smaller firms — and most construction companies are small-tomedium-sized. The truth of the matter is the reform model in which government would provide most health care services would dramatically change the way every business operates, large or small. It is impractical to hope that health care reform will be tailored to the construction industry. Nevertheless, small businesses consistently favor certain reform initiatives over others. Were Washington to institute reform along the lines general contractors might lay down, the following features would be among the legislated changes: • New authority for associations to negotiate insurance packages for their members. Besides gaining clout in negotiating benefits, association insurance negotiators could win lower premiums, if given the opportunity. Associated Builders and Contractors noted that private insurance carriers must mark up premiums as much as 35 percent when dealing with small groups in order to meet profit targets and offset overhead. Whereas associations can provide the same administrative services for their members at a cost of 15 percent or less — if, that is, members are allowed to buy insurance through small business
see UDOT page 37
see REFORM page 28
The bridges that were moved vary in length from 85 to 173 ft. (25.9 to 52.7 m) and were 43 to 94 ft. (13 to 28.6 m) wide. The largest weighed in at 1,350 tons (1,220 t). Scott-Macon Holds Grand Opening in Dallas…14
Reconstruction on Schedule for UDOT’s $139M Project By Kathie Sutin CEG CORRESPONDENT
Cashman Supports Start Us Up USA! in Vegas…39
Table of Contents ........4 Crushing, Screening & Recycling Section ..19-23 Business Calendar ....20 Truck & Trailer......33-35 Parts Section ............37 Auction Section....41-45 Advertisers Index ......46
Work on a Utah freeway reconstruction project so unusual it was featured as National Geographic Channel’s “World’s Toughest Fixes” is heading for an on-time, on-budget completion at the end of the year. What made work on a 2-mi. (3.2 km) stretch of I-80 in Salt Lake City project extraordinary was the Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) method using Self Propelled Modular Transports (SPMT) to construct six of 12 bridges and one of two ramps in the project. The $139 million project along a 2-mi. stretch from State Street to 1300 East through Salt Lake City includes construction of the bridges and ramp “not at their final location,” John Montoya, project manager, said. Instead, the girders and decks were constructed on the ground at a “bridge farm.” Massive transporters moved them to be lifted into place along the expressway.