Square Building in a Round Hole
Integrating virtual construction and geospatial technologies into design-build projects reduces risk and improves control costs. It’s hard enough to build a complex industrial structure 12 stories tall. Putting the structure into a deep, concrete-lined hole is even more difficult. And then you’ll need to do it twice. That’s the challenge facing Abe Torres and his colleagues at PC Construction. When the job is finished, however, they will have helped solve a problem more than 200 years...
112-Foot-Tall Reinforced Soil Slope Project Challenges Bay Bridge Construction Team
There are many aspects of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s recent reconstruction that could be considered engineering wonders. After nearly 12 years of construction, engineering challenges and cost overruns, the new eastern span opened in September 2013 to replace a seismically unsound portion of the structure that was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The new self-anchored suspension bridge, with a final price tag of $6.5 billion, was designed to withstand the strongest eart...
Real-Time Reporting: Information Management Keeps $1 Billion Light-Rail Project on Track
Traditionally, the construction and engineering sectors have been somewhat reticent to adopt new technology. However, with the prospect of a U.S. government infrastructure bill in the works, which could trigger spending of $200 billion in federal money during the next decade to spur an additional $1.3 trillion in spending from cities, states and private companies on major projects, this is changing as firms look to modernize and improve efficiency and collaboration. Leveraging a cloud-based n...
Bond ... 54 Bond Street: NYC Building Restoration Wins Prestigious Award
54 Bond Street in Manhattan is a circa-1874, corner cast-iron building in the French Second Empire style. Its recent facade preservation and restoration project in Manhattan received a 2018 Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award, the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s highest honor for preservation excellence. “The $4.5 million project was phased, with the first phase being the facade restoration, and the second, final phase being the reconstruction of the sidewalk, which is currently being completed...
Emergency Operations: Loyola University Medical Center Upgrades Stormwater Mitigation System After Dangerous Flooding Event
By Bill Wood, P.E. The year 2013 typically isn’t remembered for its storms. There were no Hurricane Harveys or Marias, no Superstorm Sandys, and no Katrinas. However, while not given names, smaller storms still can severely impact communities and cause major damage and disruption at local and regional levels. This was the type of storm that hit the Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC) Campus in Maywood, Ill., just west of downtown Chicago, in April 2013. On the heels of weeklong...
Hilton Head Airport Extension Sustainably Overcomes Environmental Concerns
Residents of Hilton Head, S.C., have long been sensitive to the island’s environment. The island covers more than 69 square miles, but nearly 40 percent of it is water. The island includes 12 miles of Atlantic Ocean beachfront and has grown in popularity among tourists, retirees and people seeking vacation homes or a full-time residence on or near the shoreline. Harbour Town Village, the island’s primary shopping and resort destination, opened in 1969 when 2,500 residents lived full-tim...
Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge: Innovative Design Wins Awards, Moves More People
The original “Q Bridge” was built over the Quinnipiac River in New Haven, Conn., in 1958, but within 30 years its six lanes were insufficient for the growing traffic. Shortly before it was officially dedicated as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in 1995 (to commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbor), local officials had decided it was time to replace the structure with a new bridge. For two decades the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CONNDOT), the Federal Highway Administration, t...
A Tunnel That Improves Automated Vehicles
Willow Run, a manufacturing complex located near Ypsilanti, Mich., was built by the Ford Motor Company in 1940 as one of the first facilities dedicated to the mass production of military aircraft, primarily the famous B-24 Liberator heavy bomber, the most produced American military aircraft of all time—at its peak, Willow Run produced 650 B-24s per month. The airport built to support this production is considered by some historians to be the first modern airport. Though no longer used to m...
A High-Visibility Project: Examining the Historic and Beautiful New Portageville Bridge
By Mark Scacco, P.E. In 1852—the year women were being arrested for wearing pants (Emma Snodgrass in Boston) and the first edition of Peter Roget’s Thesaurus was published—the Erie Railroad Company built the first bridge to cross the Genesee River Gorge in what would eventually become Letchworth State Park in Western New York, about 60 miles east of Buffalo. Claimed to be the world’s largest timber bridge, it served the rail line until it burned to the ground in May 1875. In June a...
The Right Tool for the Job: Multiple Tools Complicate Reality-Capture Landscape
When it comes to capturing existing conditions, the first question in everyone’s mind seems to be “to scan or not to scan?” With all the technologies out there, the next question is usually “which tool is best for the job?” Complicating the ability to answer these questions is the accelerated pace at which new technology developments and commercially available products enter the market. When overwhelmed by choices—especially new, unproven and expensive options—we’re often moved to inaction...
Video: New Roundabout Under Construction at McIver and Old Florence Roads in Darlington County
Promenade at The Point
June Issue 2026
.jpg?width=225)