The Construction Thread

[Saint Peter]

Fucking rod burners.

 

[thør]

Fucking rod burners.

At least, there's a portable oven to keep yer sammich warm on a cold day.

 

[Saint Peter]

At least, there's a portable oven to keep yer sammich warm on a cold day.

I brought celery.

 

[tactful]

I brought celery.

Stuff it with peanut butter,
or cream cheese, next time.

 

[thør]

I brought celery.

you'll need it, once you hit the cushy chair......

 

[thør]

Speaking of cushy, check out this new covered bridge.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1390/5705868/19177456/377194075.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1390/5705868/19177456/377194074.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1390/5705868/19177456/377194073.jpg

 

[thør]

The AP (11/11, Fisher) reports, "One worker was killed and another injured Tuesday when a crane tipped over at the construction site of a Kansas City, Mo., performing arts center, police said." The victims "were in the bucket of the 100-foot-tall JLG Lift when it fell away from the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and landed across a platform of steel beams at about 1:40 p.m." They "were installing steel panels on the building for Detroit-based subcontractor Midwest Steel, said Kyle McQuiston, spokesman for Kansas City-based general contractor JE Dunn Construction Group," noting that "the construction site had no previous fatalities or injuries." JE Dunn president Dan Euston said that "workers were sent home for the day while investigators examined the site." Crane accidents, notes the AP, "kill up to 82 construction workers each year" in the US, according to official data."

 

[thør]

Radio Iowa (11/10, Danielson) reported, "Officials in Cedar Rapids (IA) say no one was injured when a 550-ton crane collapsed at the construction site for the new United States federal courthouse," and landed "on a portion of a nearby small office pod and larger office building." Emergency crews "determined that the crane operator was uninjured as the crane landed on its side with the cab portion of the crane upright." According to the article, "the crane was helping to set up a larger crane for construction of the Courthouse." Preliminary reports suggest "that the crane encountered some unlevel surface, causing the collapse. The fire department says there were 50 to 60 people on the site at the time of the crane collapse."
The AP (11/11) notes that "the federal courthouse is being built in Cedar Rapids to replace the existing one, which was inundated with flood water in 2008."

 

[rosco rathbone]

The AP (11/11, Fisher) reports, "One worker was killed and another injured Tuesday when a crane tipped over at the construction site of a Kansas City, Mo., performing arts center, police said." The victims "were in the bucket of the 100-foot-tall JLG Lift when it fell away from the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and landed across a platform of steel beams at about 1:40 p.m." They "were installing steel panels on the building for Detroit-based subcontractor Midwest Steel, said Kyle McQuiston, spokesman for Kansas City-based general contractor JE Dunn Construction Group," noting that "the construction site had no previous fatalities or injuries." JE Dunn president Dan Euston said that "workers were sent home for the day while investigators examined the site." Crane accidents, notes the AP, "kill up to 82 construction workers each year" in the US, according to official data."

I've done some hairy shit in those manlifts.

 

[thør]

Gonna be some work in Albany, NY

From TimesUnion.com:

"The 80-year-old Champlain Bridge, closed suddenly last month after the state found the concrete piers were rotting, is on the verge of collapse and too far gone to be saved, officials in New York and Vermont said Monday.
There is "no choice but to tear down the dangerously deteriorated bridge" and replace it, said Gov. David Paterson.

The state Department of Transportation has released no budget for a new bridge, although the office of state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, has indicated the project could cost $50 million.

Paterson joined with Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas to announce that emergency inspections of the bridge done since its abrupt Oct. 16 closure found imminent danger of "sudden, potentially catastrophic, bridge failure," only four years after the state last inspected its five underwater support piers and found no cause to make immediate repairs.

However, during those four years, the amount of rotted concrete at the waterline on the worst of the 10-foot-thick piers went from 10 inches to 3 feet, according to the state Transportation Department. DOT routinely inspects underwater bridge supports every five years, unlike the above-water superstructure of bridges, which are inspected every two years.

Rot in the piers, which rest on footings at the bottom on the lake, is now so pervasive that any workers near it would be in great danger, according to a joint statement from Paterson and Douglas.

"Now that the analysis is completed and the bridge has been found unstable, we can work quickly to demolish the existing bridge and accelerate the process for building a permanent replacement," said Stanley Gee, acting commissioner of the New York State Transportation Department.

A national expert on bridge failure told the Times Union on Sunday that the deterioration in the piers could have been detected earlier had the state used a $10,000 test that relies on ultrasonic signals to measure the overall strength of concrete. The state had been relying on visual inspections by divers, who measured cracks and deterioration on the piers' surface.

The states' decision to demolish the historic bridge relies on an engineering study from national firm HNTB, which has offices in New York City. A copy of the report was not available for review, but Marissa Shorenstein, a Paterson spokeswoman, said a copy would be posted at the DOT Web site later this week.

According to the report's executive summary provided in the news release, "If any major cracks were to develop diagonally in the pier, or deterioration reduces the contact bearing area between concrete segments, the pier could fail without warning. The risk and safety for personnel working in close proximity to the existing, fragile bridge is too great to permit rehabilitation in any form."

The loss of the bridge has hurt businesses and affected lives on both sides of Lake Champlain, where about 4,000 cars a day use the bridge. Ferry service has been stepped up, although some people are making a 75-mile one-way detour through Whitehall in Washington County.

Both governors announced that additional ferry service will be established near the existing bridge as "quickly as possible.'"

 

[rosco rathbone]

Someone drive a doublewide across that thing and put it out of its misery.

 

[thør]

I've done some hairy shit in those manlifts.

I'm not a fan of manlifts.

Someone drive a doublewide across that thing and put it out of its misery.

It's closed. It does bring up the question about other bridges, though.

 

[thør]

Jobs in Utah!

"The National Security Agency (NSA) will soon break ground on a data center in Utah that will reportedly cost $1.5 billion. The NSA is building the facility to provide intelligence and warnings related to cyber security threats, cyber security support to defense and civilian agency networks, and technical assistance to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
"Our country must continue to advance its national security efforts and that includes improvements in cyber security," Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said in a statement. "As we rely more and more on our communications networks for business, government and everyday use, we must be vigilant and provide agencies with the necessary resources to protect our country from a cyber attack."

The data center will be built at Camps Williams, which is a National Guard training center 26 miles south of Salt Lake City. The complex will comprise of the 1.5 million sq-ft-building on 120 to 200 acres of land. According to the budget, the 30-MW data center will be cooled by chilled water and capable of Tier 3, or near carrier-grade, reliability. The design of the data center also calls for the highest LEED standard within available resources.

The U.S. Army Corps of engineers will host a conference in Salt Lake City to provide further detail the data center building and acquisition plans. The project will require between 5,000 and 10,000 workers during construction, and the data center will eventually employ between 100 and 200 workers."

Link

 

[rosco rathbone]

"The National Security Agency (NSA) will soon break ground on a data center in Utah that will reportedly cost $1.5 billion. The NSA is building the facility to provide intelligence and warnings related to cyber security threats, cyber security support to defense and civilian agency networks, and technical assistance to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
"Our country must continue to advance its national security efforts and that includes improvements in cyber security," Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said in a statement. "As we rely more and more on our communications networks for business, government and everyday use, we must be vigilant and provide agencies with the necessary resources to protect our country from a cyber attack."

The data center will be built at Camps Williams, which is a National Guard training center 26 miles south of Salt Lake City. The complex will comprise of the 1.5 million sq-ft-building on 120 to 200 acres of land. According to the budget, the 30-MW data center will be cooled by chilled water and capable of Tier 3, or near carrier-grade, reliability. The design of the data center also calls for the highest LEED standard within available resources.

The U.S. Army Corps of engineers will host a conference in Salt Lake City to provide further detail the data center building and acquisition plans. The project will require between 5,000 and 10,000 workers during construction, and the data center will eventually employ between 100 and 200 workers."

Link

I've heard about that thing. That's where every email ever written will be stored and scanned by new Ais.

Fucking scary if you ask me.

 

[thør]

I've heard about that thing. That's where every email ever written will be stored and scanned by new Ais.

Fucking scary if you ask me.

$1000/SF

That's a spendy building.....

And they'll monitor Lit, too.

 

[rosco rathbone]

$1000/SF

That's a spendy building.....

And they'll monitor Lit, too.

THey had to make up a new unit of measure for that thing: "the yottabyte".

If you laid bytes end to end, one yottabyte would reach from here to Cleveland and back 27 times.

 

[thør]

Prospects aren't good in the UK

"Thousands more construction jobs are at risk as the recession in the industry looks set to deepen, the Civil Engineering Contractors Association has warned

The body’s latest workload trends survey, which was published on Wednesday, indicated the civil engineering sector was entering a second downward plunge in spite of signs of recovery in the wider economy.

At –64%, the balance between those firms reporting increased workloads in the past year (8%) and reporting reduced workloads (72%) is the worst result in the survey’s 13-year history.

Expectations of future workloads have also significantly worsened since the survey was last conducted in July. Half of all firms now expect to have less work this time next year than they do now, with just 9% expecting larger order books.

A third of firms surveyed expect to reduce headcount in the coming year, while 42% say they anticipate cuts to the number of site operatives. Just 3% expect to take on new staff and 6% to hire operatives.

Rosemary Beales, national director of the CECA, said: “The Bank of England may think the worst is behind us, but this is clearly not the view of the civil engineering sector.”"

Building.co.uk

 

[thør]

"Beacon Power Corp. broke ground today on a 20-megawatt, energy-storage facility in southeastern New York," which will be "the first in the nation to use a 'flywheel' frequency regulation system to balance electricity supply and demand. ... The $69 million facility would store electricity as kinetic energy in a matrix of massive discs when grid supply outstrips demand." Beacon President and CEO Bill Capp said in a statement that "the ability to move power in and out of the system and maintain proper electricity frequency -- about 60 cycles per second -- will make the nation's electricity grid 'smarter.'" Said Capp, "Our flywheel systems provide an essential grid-stabilizing service, and they do it faster and much more efficiently than today's conventional methods.""

New York Times

 

[rosco rathbone]

"Beacon Power Corp. broke ground today on a 20-megawatt, energy-storage facility in southeastern New York," which will be "the first in the nation to use a 'flywheel' frequency regulation system to balance electricity supply and demand. ... The $69 million facility would store electricity as kinetic energy in a matrix of massive discs when grid supply outstrips demand." Beacon President and CEO Bill Capp said in a statement that "the ability to move power in and out of the system and maintain proper electricity frequency -- about 60 cycles per second -- will make the nation's electricity grid 'smarter.'" Said Capp, "Our flywheel systems provide an essential grid-stabilizing service, and they do it faster and much more efficiently than today's conventional methods.""

New York Times

50,000 rpm--that's no joke.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Cool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_bearing


Imagine if that failed at 50,000 RPM.

 

[thør]

Imagine if that failed at 50,000 RPM.

Ouch!

 

[SkAoUt]

Cool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_bearing


Imagine if that failed at 50,000 RPM.

From that article:

"Because of this complexity, the magnetic bearings also typically require some kind of back-up bearing in case of power or control system failure."

Still I could only imagine how long they'd (traditional bearing) last at those revolutions.

And further still, interesting the number of applications it affects.

 

[rosco rathbone]

From that article:

"Because of this complexity, the magnetic bearings also typically require some kind of back-up bearing in case of power or control system failure."

Still I could only imagine how long they'd (traditional bearing) last at those revolutions.

And further still, interesting the number of applications it affects.

I think the backup refers to the magnet system, not a mechanical bearing.

 

[thør]

China State Construction nets $100m NYC subway deal

""China State Construction Engineering Corp, the largest contractor in China, has bagged a subway ventilation project worth about $100 million in New York's Manhattan area, marking the construction giant's third order in the United States' infrastructure space this year.

The contract was given to China Construction American Co, a subsidiary, the Wall Street Journal quoted a source as saying.

"The new project, along with the $410-million Hamilton Bridge project and a $1.7-billion entertainment project it won earlier this year, signals China State Construction's ambition to tap the American construction market," said Li Zhirui, an industry analyst at First Capital Securities.

Li, however, said the order came as no surprise as the US government is spending massively on infrastructure projects.

The three orders only account for about 4 percent of the value of its total orders this year, Li added.

In the first three quarters of this year, the Chinese construction giant signed more than $2 billion worth of contracts in the US market. China State Construction was also the contractor for a high school, a railway station and the Chinese embassy in the US.

Despite the progress made in the US market, the Middle East, Asia and Africa remain the State builder's key markets. The value of its contracts in Algeria this year increased 32 percent year-on-year, exceeding $800 million, and the value of its contracts in the Middle East surged 62 percent year on year, also exceeding $800 million.

The domestic market is still the largest contributor to China State Construction's revenue, mainly due to strong property sales and infrastructure sector projects.

China State Construction said it reaped 41 billion yuan in revenue from the property sector in the first 10 months of this year, up 83.2 percent over the same period last year. Orders from the infrastructure construction business were boosted by 90 percent largely due to the fiscal stimulus allocated to China's infrastructure sector.

Citing the company's recent performance, Shenyin & Wanguo Securities has given China State Construction a "buy" rating for the first time.

According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Commerce, China's overseas project contracts have increased 22.7 percent to $100.15 billion in the first 10 months of this year."

Link

 

[thør]

Canada To Fund Construction Of World's Largest CCS Pipeline

"Canadian government announced Tuesday that it will provide C$558 million (US$528.1 million) in funding for the construction of the world's largest carbon-capture and storage pipeline in Alberta. The Alberta Carbon Trunk Line will capture emissions from the energy industry, which will then be pumped beneath old oil fields for the dual purpose of re-pressurizing the declining fields and preventing the emissions from entering the atmosphere. The pipeline will have the capability to transport up to 14.6 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions per year, once it reaches full capacity 10 years after its scheduled 2012 start date for operation."

Dow Jones Newswire