Plans are moving forward for the first, $750-million, 25-mile section of the long-awaited $4.5-billion Baton Rouge Loop transportation project. Slide Show Photo: put photo credit here photo caption here The overall project includes an 80- to 90-mile controlled access toll roadway that will encircle Louisiana’s capital city metro area and alleviate congestion by providing additional capacity to Interstates 10 and 12 and alternate routes for local traffic. The first 25-mile section “has been broken out into an independent project,” which means it can advance ahead of the rest of the job,” says Bob Schmidt, assistant vice president and BR Loop
JLG has reinvented the aerial work platform with its new LiftPod, which sets up in about 30 seconds, offers 14 ft of working height and weighs just 145 lb. Last month, ENR tried out the featherweight lift while it made a stop near Chicago as part of JLG’s national road show. Related Links: The New Ladder? Featherweight Lift Introduced last year, the LiftPod is McConnelsburg, Pa.-based JLG’s answer to short-to-medium ladders. It hauls easily in a pickup truck and has few moving parts. A 63-lb base, 49-lb mast and 33-lb basket comprise the basic unit; it can be assembled by
At an Oct. 14 conference in Charlotte, N.C., for power-users of 3-D design technology, executives and developers from Bentley Systems Inc., Exton, Pa., unveiled a tool they call an i-model, which they described as both an “elaboration” of a DGN file and as a “container” for encapsulating, circulating and re-incorporating 3-D design information and other project data of any format involved in a workflow of review and collaboration. Related Links: Containing Data: Dynamic Collaboration Unlike other 3-D model combining, viewing and reviewing tools, an i-model’s components retain their original geometric precision and “provenance,” or self-describing information about their formats, standards
Oregon, which is implementing the first statewide electronic building permitting system in the U.S., is moving slowly ahead with system development, having recently enhanced its Website and added some services. But the 10-year program, funded by a 4% surcharge on permits, is at least a year behind schedule because of a significant drop in permit applications. Photo: The Los Angeles Department of Building And Safety Better software and improved interoperability are supporting the trend toward electronic permitting. For some states and most large jurisdictions, full-blown e-permitting, which includes digital filing, permit and plan tracking, plan review, payment, permit issuance and
For more than 30 years, the oil, gas and chemical process industries have successfully used virtual design and construction to ensure engineering and procurement specifications are in order, and all clashes are resolved before construction begins on the enormous, complex and expensive facilities the industry requires. But VDC, as a planning and construction management tool made necessary by the high stakes and great risks involved in the creation of the plants, turns out to be not enough. Plants are undergoing constant maintenance, refurbishment and change. Keeping on top of the activity and associated data is of vital importance to keep
For more than 50 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has extended the frontiers of human experience, with audacious landings on the moon, the research of Skylab, the far-seeing eye of Hubble and the reduction of space travel to something so routine a successful space-shuttle launch rates little more than a minute of the evening news. Now, NASA is exploring a frontier it has never encountered before: possible budget shortfalls. When NASA shuts down the shuttle program next year, astronauts wanting to do their part on the International Space Station will have to hitch a ride on a Russian
No one has misplaced Guantanamo Bay, but the half-century-old U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba has made the Communist-ruled island nation “terra incognita” on the world’s telecommunications map. The White House’s new policy of opening the door to travel and telecommunications links with Cuba could soon sketch in the country. Branching units on cables will permit connection to Cuba. “I think there’s a tremendous potential opportunity there,” says Tom Soja, Boston-based vice president of Ocean Specialists Inc., an engineer and contractor for subsea cables. Fiber-optic cables snake all around and through the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. But
Researchers in Blacksburg, Va., are testing snakelike robots that may prevent slips and falls. The Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech unveiled them last spring and has been racking up awards since, most recently last month at a Korea design fair where the 3-ft-long critters took the grand prize. Photo: Virginia Tech Robot that crawls, twists and rolls is designed to work at heights. “These are really wicked cool robots,” says Dennis Hong, lab director, adding that the robots are designed to climb scaffolds, buildings and other high places that might pose risks to construction workers. Using built-in sensors