Jalopnik: construction

Chinese Road Construction At The Speed Of Light

The Auto Insider — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EDT

MDOT road crews began clearing away the remains of the Nine Mile Rd bridge from Wednesday's tanker truck explosion. Pretty quick, right? Not really. Want to see quick construction? Head to Shijiazhuang, China and see how quickly an intersection's built.

Shijiazhuang is the captial of Hebei Province and contains an ever growing population of 9.3 million people, 2.3 million of which live in the city center. The rapid urban growth that this once small, unknown village has seen in the past two decades has been helped by an extremely dedicated and quick workforce who's been responsible for this ever growing populace. Take a peak at the gallery of images below to see just how quickly this intersection is torn down and completely redeveloped. [via SkyScraperCity]

February 2009

Note the dirt pit at the bottom right hand corner of the image while looking through the gallery.

March 2009

Tearing out the old road? Meh, U.S. transportation authority can do that in a month's time.

April 2009

What's this? Two months in and there's already a structure up? Note the base of the building on the bottom right.

May 2009

It's quickly starting to look like something now.

June 2009

Bet you didn't notice this before now — There's a new lower section that allows travel underneath the intersection, necessitating the raised center.

July 2009

Five months and it's completed along with half of a new multi-storied building — Damn they're quick! But will it all last?

Who Needs Ramps? Bobcat Loads Itself Onto Flatbed

Travis Hudson — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:40:00 EDT

When there's a problem, there's always an ingenious way to solve said problem (usually ball bearings). Case-in-point is this Bobcat. Using maneuvers reserved for the most agile gymnasts, the Bobcat manages to balance itself on two wheels, prop itself onto the truck and use a combination of movement from the Bobcat and the flatbed truck to load itself. That's pretty spectacular, but how do you get the Bobcat off the truck? [Neatorama]

Big Dig Finally Dug?

Ray Wert — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:15:00 EST

Maybe it's just because we're from Detroit, Michigan, a land with two seasons — winter and construction — but we thought Boston's notorious "Big Dig" was already over. Seriously, we were just there in May and despite a few areas with some construction, we really thought the nation's most complex and costly highway project, was already done diggered. Apparently not. The AP is telling us when the clock runs out on 2007, Boston will officially mark the end of the $14.8 billion multi-decade "Big Dig" project. But don't worry, despite the cessation of federal and state funding, the lawsuits will still go on...

...over last year's death of a motorist crushed by falling concrete panels. Civil and criminal cases stemming from the July 2006 tunnel ceiling collapse continue, though on Monday the family of Milena Del Valle announced a $6 million settlement with Powers Fasteners, the company that manufactured the epoxy blamed by investigators for the accident. Lawsuits are pending against other Big Dig contractors, and Powers Fasteners still faces a manslaughter indictment. But, at least December 31st marks the end of the joint venture that teamed contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority — and gave us the worst traffic of the century. [AP via Digg]

How to Take a Bulldozer Front End Loader Up on Two Wheels

Ray Wert — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:45:00 EST

Who knew hoonage with construction equipment could be so much fun? Actually, we kinda did. So basically what you need to do to get a ~~bulldozer~~ front end loader up on just two of its four wheels is to load up the shovel with as much dirt as humanly possible, raise the lift arm right about as high as you can take it, go really fast....and then Stop! You've just taken a loader to the limits. Hopefully you didn't take it one step beyond the limits because, well, then you'll be explaining why your CAT is sitting cab-smack against the ground.

Death-Proofing The Golden Gate

Davey G. Johnson — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:00:00 EDT

The Golden Gate bridge, for the deaf, blind and comatose people who haven't noticed, is an icon recognized for its beauty; a symbol of all that is good and wonderful about the Golden State. And it's also most-definitely an engineering triumph. So let's face it, if one's despondent and wants to end it all, why wouldn't one choose to meet one's final fate in view one of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous vistas on the planet, using one of one of man's great engineering feats as a springboard? For years, however, authorities have gone back and forth on how best to prevent folks from using the bridge as the embarkation point for a quick journey to their own personal terminus. Frankly, we say, if they've got the guts to get out there and do it instead of just dumping a bottle of reds into their bellies at home, let 'em go. If barriers must be installed, do not let them ugly up the bridge. Also, all jumpers who clog traffic deciding whether to do so or not should be pushed. Everybody hurts sometimes, but that doesn't mean you have to screw it up for everyone else. – Davey G. Johnson

Suicide barrier wind test [SFGate]

Related:
The Mighty Bay Bridge [Internal]

Metro Detroit Roundabout Freak-Out!

Ray Wert — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:50:08 EST

Here in Metro Detroit we'll be getting some of our first roundabouts and the Freep's Matt Helms has been kind enough to let us know the first of them will be part of what used to be our daily drive — the Northwestern connector area around West Bloomfield and Farmington Hills. Mmm, nothing sounds like more fun to us than a bunch of elderly gals from West Bloomfield trying to figure out a roundabout at Maple and Orchard Lake. Pardon us if we're a bit leery of the whole idea. Still, he's directed us to the official project site for tips on what we should expect when construction starts. Well, check that — if construction ever starts. We just checked out the "project status" page, and it's telling us to expect "Part I" to begin in late 2006 or early 2007, yet we're not seeing any construction beginning. Hmm, maybe we should be thinking of this as a multi-year project, and just stay the hell away from our old stomping grounds until like, umm, 2009 or something. – Ray Wert

Freaked out by roundabouts? [Freep]
Northwestern Connector [nwconnector.com]

Blacktop Cadence: It's Tarmac!

Davey G. Johnson — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 21:45:00 EST

You've walked on it. You've most likely skinned your knees on it while playing kickball or four-square. We're willing to bet you've hooned on it. Yes friends, it's the reason we're not all driving Land Rovers today: it's tarmac! An evolution of John Loudon McAdam's road-building system, which involved breaking rocks in the hot sun, tarmac — introduced by E. Purnell Hooley as a way to cut down on dust produced by the vacuum created by fast-moving vehicles — used a crushed-stone aggregate bound with tar.

However, what we refer to as tarmac today is asphalt. Rather than a process, asphalt is correctly the binding substance of the aggregate; the term for the road-surface material itself is "asphalt concrete." There you go. The tarmac your Yokohamas love is most likely actually asphalt concrete. Who knew that we'd been lied to all along?

Asphalt Concrete [Wikipedia]

Oh Noes! It's Road Construction Season!

Ray Wert — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 16:05:31 EST

The joke has always been Michigan's the kind of place that gets two seasons of driving..."snow" and "construction". While we feel that's a humorous oversimplification of the beauty of the changing seasons here in Michigan, we are most certainly entering the time of year when road construction hits its peak...

...Being the conscientious drivers we are, it only makes sense for us to remember to always look out for the people who help maintain the safe roadways for us to tear up during the warm summer months. How very tragically unlike the following incident from this morning when a fatal crash of a minivan and a Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) road crew closed a stretch of Michigan's Interstate 94 for several hours.

It appears, according to the boys in blue, a GMC minivan hit one of MDOT's arrow trucks. The minivan was occupied by seven people, one of whom was killed in the crash. As if it couldn't be any worse, the occupants of the van were from a local adult handicapped facility. Saddest. Road construction story. Ever.

Let this be a lesson to you kiddies. Don't do drugs! Stay in vegetables! Eat your school! And for G-D's sake, slow down when you see little blinkie lights. Unless it's a strip club, in that case you should stop.

I-94 Crash Turns Fatal (with video) [ClickOnDetroit]

Related:
Jalopnik - accident [internal]