SHORTCUT - Engineering News-Record - McGraw Hill Construction

THE CONSTRUCTION WEEKLY
Engineering News-Record
April 27, 2009 enr.com
MUMBAI
SHORTCUT
After years of delay,
4.7 km viaduct will ease
chronic congestion

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April 27, 2009 Contents
COVER STORY
Mumbai Miracle
18 After years of delays, the new
Bandra-Worli Sea Link will cut a trip
across Mahim Bay in Mumbai, India,
from about 40 minutues to six. The
4.7-km viaduct with two cable-stayed
spans is slated to open to traffi c in
mid-May.
Cover photo courtesy of Swaminathan/Wikipedia;
photo right by Janice L. Tuchman for ENR
14 Military Construction: Guam needs
more U.S. funds to redeploy military, says
GAO
Buildings
14 Claims: Thornton-Tomasetti is cleared in
Indiana library defect suit
15 Materials: Problems continue to grow
with drywall made in China
DEPARTMENTS
5 Videos
6 Construction Week
9 Washington Observer
16 Construction Economics
24 Products
26 Pulse
28 Viewpoint
New emphasis on high-speed rail. Page 10.
PHOTO LEFT COURTESY OF THE CALIFORNIA HIGH SPEED RAIL; RIGHT COURTESY OF THE FLORIDA DEPT. OF HEALTH
NEWS
Transportation
10 High-Speed Rail: DOT sketches out
high-speed-rail plan
Business & Economics
12 Economic Stimulus: BuRec, EPA map
out $1.6 billion of new funding
13 Corruption: Illinois boosts project funding
but not without major reform
Engineering News-Record
SERVING THE INDUSTRY SINCE 1874
Drywall woes. Page 15
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enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 3

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Videos
View From Technology’s Frontier
Golden-i, a verbally controlled Bluetooth computer interface, wowed the crowd at the FIATECH
meeting. See how the device works on ENR.com this week.
How does FIATECH pursue its mission to find technology solutions to problems in construction
Find out by listening in as ENR Senior Editor Tom Sawyer interviews FIATECH Director Ric Jackson.
When ENR's Technology Senior
Editor Tom Sawyer picks up
his video camera, something
interesting is bound to happen. Browsers
on ENR.com will not be disappointed by
what he captured at the recent conference
in Las Vegas of FIATECH, a group that
concentrates on technology solutions
to construction problems, including
interoperability. Sawyer wondered if
technology would take a lower profile in
the middle of a recession. That is not the
case, from what we see here.
In one video, viewers can see the debut
of the Golden-i headset, a jobsite communications
device. “We’ve been coining the
phrase ‘information snacking,’ because this
is what Golden-i is about,” says Chris Parkinson,
Golden-i software consultant to
Kopin Corp., who demonstrated the device
to Sawyer. “It’s about getting the information
you need and getting back to your
work. You’re not meant to sit here and
watch videos for five hours at a go.”
FIATECH also showcased some of the
most important efforts aimed at industry
interoperability. Sawyer interviews Ric
Jackson, FIATECH founding director, who
described one advance. “What we’ve produced
is a mechanism to tie software together
and companies together, but we can
also tie standards together,” says Jackson.
We hope watching these reports will help
you tie your world together. Enjoy.
enrcom
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AND OTHERS, VISIT OUR WEBSITE, ENR.COM
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Engineering
News-Record
PRESIDENT, MCGRAW-HILL CONSTRUCTION
Norbert W. Young, Jr, norbert_young@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER
James H. McGraw IV, jay_mcgraw@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, INDUSTRY ANALYTICS, ALLIANCES &
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
Harvey M. Bernstein, harvey_bernstein@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Potoula Chresomales, potoula_chresomales@mcgraw-hill.com
SENIOR DIRECTOR, MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Katherine Malangone, kathy_malangone@mcgraw-hill.com
MANAGER, MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Erica Mileo, erica_mileo@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS SERVICES
Maurice Persiani, maurice_persiani@mcgraw-hill.com
GROUP CIRCULATION MANAGER
Joanne Rue-Policare, joanne_rue@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Timothy J. Ryan, tim_ryan@mcgraw-hill.com
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Gary Graizzaro, gary_graizzaro@mcgraw-hill.com
SENIOR DIRECTOR, FINANCE:
John Murphy, john_murphy@mcgraw-hill.com
FINANCE DIRECTOR:
Ike B. Chong, ike_chong@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, MEDIA SALES
Paul L. Bonington, paul_bonington@mcgraw-hill.com
ADVERTISING SALES
Northeast: Matt McLiverty, matt_mcliverty@mcgraw-hill.com
MidAtlantic: Charles Fagan, charles_fagan@mcgraw-hill.com
Southeast: Gary Merrill, gary_merrill@mcgraw-hill.com
Southwest/Central: Joel Gregg, joel_gregg@mcgraw-hill.com
Midwest: (Construction Equipment)
Steve Werschulz, steve_wershculz@mcgraw-hill.
Pacific: (Technology)
Roy J. Kops, roy_kops@mcgraw-hill.com
WORKFORCE/RECRUITMENT
Brian Monteleone brian_monteleone@mcgraw-hill.com
Diane Soister, Diane_Soister@mcgraw-hill.com
SPECIAL SECTIONS
Al D’Alessandro, al_dalessandro@mcgraw-hill.com
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 5

Construction Week
Environmental
Six States in Oil-and-Gas Zones
Get $500 Million for Coast Fixes
Six coastal states will receive nearly $500
million from the U.S. Interior Dept. to
help them alleviate environmental impacts
of oil-and-gas development, the agency
said on April 20. Louisiana tops the list
with $121 million, followed by Alaska at
$37.5 million, Texas at $35.6 million, Mississippi
at $23.8 million, Alabama at $19.7
million and California at $5 million. The
agency will distribute the funds in fiscal
2009 and 2010, the final two years of the
Coastal Impact Assistance Program,
which Congress created in 2005 for states
adjacent to oil-and-gas production on the
Outer Continental Shelf. Lawmakers authorized
the agency to distribute $250
million annually from fiscal 2007 through
fiscal 2010, using production proceeds.
“The funding we provide through this
program goes a long way to restore portions
of our coastline, and I look forward
to working with each of the states on their
upcoming projects,” said Interior Secretary
Ken Salazar.
Corruption
Probe of New York Utility Yields
Two More Construction Arrests
The U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y., announced
two new arrests related to an
ongoing probe of corruption on construction
projects of giant New York utility
Consolidated Edison. The sting had led
to charges filed in January against 10 cur-
rent and former Con Ed construction officials
for receiving $1 million in kickbacks
from contractors. Benton J. Campbell
said Russell Ball, CEO of Roadway Construction
Inc., Brooklyn, was charged on
April 16 with paying “tens of thousands
of dollars in bribes” to Con Ed officials on
water-main and utility-line construction
projects between 2002 and 2004. He made
the payments in exchange for the cooperation
of an unnamed Con Ed supervisor
in approving inflated invoices. The supervisor
also shared proceeds with other utility
managers. Charged on April 15 was
Joseph Lioi, a retired chief construction
inspector for Con Ed. Authorities allege
he solicited and accepted $24,000 in kickbacks
from an unnamed contractor on
utility projects in 2007. The defendants
could not be reached.
Lawsuits
Partial Settlement Announced
For 2006 Fatal Crane Collapse
General contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis
and structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic
Associates have settled a lawsuit
with the family of the man who died in his
apartment when the boom of a 210-ft
tower crane toppled while working on
Tower 333 in Bellevue, Wash. Details of
the settlement were not disclosed. An
LCL action against MKA, part of the suit,
remains unresolved. According to MKA
Chairman and CEO Jon D. Magnusson,
MKA designed the crane base assuming a
tie-in to the building frame in the initial
configuration, but the crane was erected
without a tie-in. The reason for this is the
subject of the dispute, he says. A citation
following the 2006 crane collapse issued
against MKA by the state Dept. of Labor
and Industries recently was vacated by the
state Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals.
The state labor agency also cited
LCL and fined it $5,600, for “failure to
obtain measurements to ensure cranebase
deflection limits were not exceeded,”
says Bill Lewis, LCL chairman.
Parks
Landscape Architects Seek
‘Makeover’ of National Mall
Calling the state of the National Mall in
Washington, D.C., an “international embarrassment,”
a panel of leading design
experts has recommended that the National
Park Service amend an improvement
plan unveiled earlier this year to
make it broader and more environmentally
sustainable. The plan calls for a ban
on new monuments and statues and a redesign
of the Union Square/Capitol Reflecting
Pool area. Angela Dye, president
of the American Society of Landscape
Architects, who facilitated the panel, says
the Park Service’s current plan would improve
the mall but does not go far enough.
The panel recommends the Park Service
hold a design competition and work with
the National Capital Planning Commission
and the Architect of the Capitol to
develop a more integrated, expansive and
sustainable plan.
enr.com
Engineering
News-Record
PRESIDENT, MCGRAW-HILL CONSTRUCTION
Norbert W. Young, Jr, norbert_young@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER
James H. McGraw IV, jay_mcgraw@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, INDUSTRY ANALYTICS, ALLIANCES &
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
Harvey M. Bernstein, harvey_bernstein@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Potoula Chresomales, potoula_chresomales@mcgraw-hill.com
SENIOR DIRECTOR, MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Katherine Malangone, kathy_malangone@mcgraw-hill.com
MANAGER, MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Erica Mileo, erica_mileo@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS SERVICES
Maurice Persiani, maurice_persiani@mcgraw-hill.com
GROUP CIRCULATION MANAGER
Joanne Rue-Policare, joanne_rue@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Timothy J. Ryan, tim_ryan@mcgraw-hill.com
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Gary Graizzaro, gary_graizzaro@mcgraw-hill.com
SENIOR DIRECTOR, FINANCE:
John Murphy, john_murphy@mcgraw-hill.com
FINANCE DIRECTOR:
Ike B. Chong, ike_chong@mcgraw-hill.com
VICE PRESIDENT, MEDIA SALES
Paul L. Bonington, paul_bonington@mcgraw-hill.com
ADVERTISING SALES
Northeast: Matt McLiverty, matt_mcliverty@mcgraw-hill.com
MidAtlantic: Charles Fagan, charles_fagan@mcgraw-hill.com
Southeast: Gary Merrill, gary_merrill@mcgraw-hill.com
Southwest/Central: Joel Gregg, joel_gregg@mcgraw-hill.com
Midwest: (Construction Equipment)
Steve Werschulz, steve_wershculz@mcgraw-hill.
Pacific: (Technology)
Roy J. Kops, roy_kops@mcgraw-hill.com
WORKFORCE/RECRUITMENT
Brian_monteleone@mcgraw-hill.com
Diane Soister, Diane_Soister@mcgraw-hill.com
SPECIAL SECTIONS
Al D’Alessandro, al_dalessandro@mcgraw-hill.com
6 ENR April 27, 2009 enr.com

Time To Get Cracking Call Brandenburg.
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Industrial Service Company
Toll free 800.932.2869 | email@brandenburg.com | www.brandenburg.com

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EPA Takes Step Toward Regulating Carbon
While environmental groups
are cheering the Environmental
Protection Agency’s
April 17 announcement
that it has determined that
greenhouse gases could pose
a threat to public health and
welfare, critics charge that using
the Clean Air Act to regulate
greenhouse-gas emissions could
prove costly.
“Trying to regulate [greenhouse emissions]
under the Clean Air Act is going to
add costs and delays to transportation
projects,” says Nick Goldstein, American
Road and Transportation Builders Association
assistant general counsel and director
of regulatory affairs.
EPA’s “endangerment” finding, which
is subject to a 60-day comment period
before it becomes final, is not a formal
rule. But it could trigger regulation of
greenhouse gases for the first time under
the Clean Air Act if Congress does not
pass legislation to address global warming.
EPA’s endangerment finding, a reversal
of Bush administration policy, came in
response to the 2007 Supreme Court rul-
WAXMAN
ing in Massachusetts v. EPA. The court
concluded that carbon could be considered
a “pollutant” under the Clean Air
Act and ordered EPA to determine
whether carbon emissions
constitute an “endangerment” to
public health. Former EPA Administrator
Stephen Johnson said
during the final weeks of the
Bush term that using the act to
regulate greenhouse gases could
have a chilling effect on the economy but
left the determination of whether greenhouse
gases pose a potential health threat
to the next administration.
Environmental groups say the EPA
announcement lays the groundwork for
addressing the effects of climate change,
through the regulatory or legislative process.
Joe Mendelson, National Wildlife
Federation global-warming policy director,
calls EPA’s finding “a game-changer
for climate policy that has repercussions
domestically and abroad.”
Washington Observer
“ One way or another, powerplants are going
to be regulated.”
— DAN REIDINGER, EDISON ELECTRIC INSTITUTE
The Obama administration repeatedly
has said it would prefer that Congress
take action rather than have its agencies
issue regulations. In the House, Energy
and Commerce Committee Chairman
Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ed
Markey (D-Mass.) have released a draft
bill. They hope the committee will vote
on it by the Memorial Day recess.
Industry groups say they also prefer
legislation. “That is our strong preference,”
says Dan Riedinger, spokesman for
the Edison Electric Institute. But the genie
is out of the bottle. “One way or another,
powerplants are going to be regulated,
whether by agency or
Congress,” he says.
ARTBA’s Goldstein says
using the Clean Air Act to
regulate greenhouse gases
could push more counties out of attainment,
which could stall funds for transportation
projects. But David Doniger,
climate center policy director for the
Natural Resources Defense Council,
notes, “The Clean Air Act is intended to
adapt to new pollution problems as they
are discovered and recognized.”
By Pam Hunter
Stimulus: More
Than $3.3 Billion
for Smart Grid
Administration offi cials on April 16
outlined plans to distribute more
than $3.3 billion in smart-grid- technology
development grants and an
additional $615 million for smartgrid
storage through the American
Recovery and Reinvestment
Act. The grants will range from
$500,000 to $20 million for smartgrid
applications and $100,000
to $5 million for grid monitoring
devices.
“We need an upgraded electrical
grid to take full advantage of
the vast renewable resources in
this country,” said Vice President
Joe Biden. Commerce Secretary
Gary Locke said administration offi
cials will hold a meeting in Washington,
D.C., in May to discuss
the development of industrywide
standards to help make the smart
grid a reality.
NERC: Transmission
Grid Must be
Updated
A new study from the North American
Electric Reliability Corp., the
U.S. electric-utility watchdog
group, finds that the nation’s increasing
reliance on renewableenergy
power sources will require
policymakers to clear the way for
updating the nation’s transmissions
system. NERC says adding
high levels of wind, solar and
ocean energy, deemed “variable
generation” for their intermittent
characteristics, will require “signifi
cant transmission additions and
reinforcements” to ensure grid reliability.
NERC projects that more
than 145,000 MW of new variable
resources will be added to the
country’s bulk power system within
10 years. Denise Bode, CEO of
American Wind Energy Association
,praises NERC’s report, saying,
“These reforms are needed to
maintain system reliability.”
E-Verify: Deadline
Pushed Back
A Third Time
The Obama administration has extended
the deadline until June 30
for implementation of mandatory
E-Verify use by federal contractors
to determine employment eligibility
of their new hires. The policy
was set to go into effect on Jan. 15.
“The extension provides the administration
an adequate opportunity
to review the entire rule prior
to its applicability to federal contractors
and subcontractors,” says
the Dept. of Homeland Security.
—Compiled by Pam Hunter and
Cathy Cash
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 9

For $8 billion of Sti
News April 27, 2009
HIGH-SPEED RAIL
DOT Sketches Plan
For High-Speed Rail
First round of grant awards for ready-to-go projects is expected to be made by late summer
Drawing on $8 billion from the federal economic
stimulus, the Obama administration has laid out a
blueprint for developing high-speed rail in 100- to
600-mile-long corridors around the country. The
plan, which the U.S. Dept. of Transportation unveiled
April 16, does not say which projects will be
funded. DOT will start awarding the first
round of grants for ready-to-go upgrades
to existing routes by late summer. A second
phase would have a longer-range
focus. However, carrying out the plan’s
lofty aims will require much more than $8
billion. It is uncertain where that new
money will come from.
Still, it is clear is high-speed rail has
barreled to a top place on the federal
transportation priority list. Underlining
the plan’s importance, President Barack
Obama appeared at DOT headquarters
to endorse a program “to transform travel
in America with an historic investment in
high-speed rail.”
The plan encompasses new service at
speeds exceeding 150 miles per hour,
“emerging and regional” service between
90 mph and 150 mph on dedicated or
shared track and upgrades to existing service
running from 79 mph to 90 mph.
The 27-page DOT plan will be followed
by detailed program guidance, due
by June 17, and then by a National Rail
Plan mandated by a separate passengerrail
measure enacted last year.
10 ENR April 27, 2009 enr.com
Obama said an initial round of grants
“will focus on projects that can create jobs
and benefits in the near-term.” He added,
“We are talking about using existing infrastructure
to increase speeds on some
routes from 70 mph to over 100 mph [by]
improving tracks, crossings, signal systems.”
For now, DOT is not saying how
much of the $8 billion will be awarded in
The administration’s plan “is to transform
travel in America with an historic
investment in high-speed rail.”
— PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
grants for those shorter-term shovelready
rail-upgrade projects.
Shrinking Distances
According to the President, the next phase
will focus on “shrinking distances within
our regions.” He said there are “at least
10 major corridors...of 100 to 600 miles
in length with the potential for successful
high-speed rail systems.”
Jeff Morales, senior vice president with
Parsons Brinckerhoff in Sacramento, Calif.,
says the DOT plan indicates “they
really are looking at this not just as a onetime
shot of the $8 billion [for] economic
recovery but as a sustained program. To
me, that is something pretty significant
that states and local governments should
certainly take note of.”
The $8 billion, which is only available
through Sept. 30, 2012, under the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
does not require a state to put up matching
money. That is a great attraction.
Much of the competition for highspeed-rail
dollars will center on 11 corridors
that U.S. DOT secretaries have
designated since 1991 (see map). Officials
from states along those corridors
already are making a pitch
to be selected. California,
which envisions an 800-mile,
$46-billion set of lines, hopes
to win 40% to 50% of the $8
billion. In the near-term, the
state’s High Speed Rail Authority has
identified $3.6 billion of grade separations
and support infrastructure that already are
designed and ready to start construction
by March 2010, says Executive Director
Mehdi Morshed.
With a $9.95-billion high-speed-rail
bond issue that voters approved last November,
“We have already awarded millions
of dollars in contracts and will continue
with or without federal funds,”

mulus Money
High-Speed-Rail Corridors Competing
For $8 Billion of Federal Stimulus Money
KEY
MAP COURTESY OF U.S. DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION
Pacific Northwest
California
Designated High-speed Rail Corridor
Northeast Corridor (NEC)
Other Passenger Rail Routes
South Central
Morshed says. But he also notes the federal
stimulus funds would accelerate the
awarding of the first big rail-construction
contracts, including those for two bridge
projects, between San Francisco and San
Jose and between Los Angeles and Anaheim.
Those awards could come as early
as the end of the summer.
In Contention
Midwest officials also are in the game.
Governors of five states in the region
wrote to DOT Secretary Ray LaHood on
April 10 to promote three corridors: Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Minneapolis/
St.Paul-Chicago-St. Louis; Chicago-St.
Louis; and Chicago-Detroit-Pontiac.
States such as Illinois, Wisconsin and
Michigan have ready-to-go projects that
could qualify for the first round of rail
stimulus grants, says Rick Harnish, executive
director of the Midwest High
Speed Rail Association, Chicago. That
near-term work could include upgrading
existing track, adding passing sidings and
new signal systems, he says.
Chicago Hub
Network
Gulf Coast
Northern New England
Empire
Florida
Keystone
The Midwest also is in the running for
the longer-range corridor-funding round,
Harnish says. One possible candidate
route is Chicago to St. Louis, with a goal
of a trip of three and a half to four hours.
He says of current train service, “If it’s on
time, it’s five and a half.”
In Florida, voters sank high-speed-rail
plans in 2004, but advocates hope to revive
the idea and tap stimulus money. In
an April 1 letter to Florida High Speed
Rail Authority Chairman Lee Chira, state
DOT Secretary Stephanie C. Kopelousos
proposed updating rail environmental
documents and pursuing a federal record
of decision. But she also noted $9 billion
of transportation projects were deferred
over two years and said it is “unlikely that
new projects can be prioritized and [state]
funds committed to this effort.”
Amtrak also could be in the mix. “We
anticipate that states and Amtrak, either
in combination or separately, will be able
to apply for these funds,” says Amtrak
spokesman Cliff Black. The stimulus gives
Amtrak $1.3 billion for capital improvements,
and those funds are
committed to specific projects
(ENR 3/23, p.19).
Black adds, “We do have
other projects” that could
be eligible for some of the
$8 billion.
Fredric Berger, chairman
of The Louis Berger
Group Inc. in Washington,
D.C., was disappointed that
DOT’s plan did not actively
NEC embrace magnetic-levitation
technology, although it
does not exclude mag-lev
from funding. Berger says
Southeast mag-lev has energy-efficiency
and other advantages
over traditional rail. “It is
21st-century, and why
shouldn’t we be doing that”
he asks. But Berger says
DOT’s program will lead to
substantial design, regulatory
and other work.
The prospect of new
funds has charged up rail
planners from coast to coast, but the funds
will only take the plans part of the way.
“The intent of the $8 billion was never
that it would be the end-all and be-all for
the development of high-speed rail,” says
Peter Gertler, vice president and highspeed-rail
practice chairman for design
firm HNTB in Oakland, Calif. “More
monies down the road will be required for
the ultimate implementation,” he adds.
To keep the stimulus momentum going,
Obama has proposed an additional $1
billion a year for five years for high-speed
rail, starting in fiscal 2010. Even if Congress
approves that request, billions more
still would be needed to bring all the rail
plans to completion.
Peter Ruane, CEO of the American
Road & Transportation Builders Association,
has called for a new user fee dedicated
to high-speed rail. HNTB’s Gertler
says there is the potential that the next
multiyear surface-transportation bill will
include “a significant source for more substantive
funding” for high-speed rail.
By Tom Ichniowski and J.T. Long
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 11

News
ECONOMIC STIMULUS
BuRec and EPA Map Out
$1.6 Billion of New Funding
The amount of federal economicstimulus
work continues to grow,
with the April 15 announcements
that the Interior Dept.’s Bureau of Reclamation
has committed $1 billion to projects
throughout the West and that the
Environmental Protection Agency is dividing
$600 million among Superfund
projects at 50 sites.
BuRec included about 30 large
projects and an unspecified number
of smaller ones that it plans to
finance through the stimulus, the
title of which is the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act
(ARRA). California will receive
the largest share at $260 million.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
says California’s projects will expand
water supplies, repair aging
infrastructure and attempt to
mitigate drought effects. Salazar
says an additional $135 million is
available for water reuse and recycling
projects in the state.
California also has BuRec’s
largest single stimulus project, a
$109.8-million screened pumping
plant at the Red Bluff Diversion
Dam on the Sacramento River.
The new plant would give endangered
salmon and green sturgeon
species unrestricted passage upstream
and downstream.
BuRec’s Great Plains Region
will get $234.5 million, including
$59 million for water treatment
plants, an intake structure and
storage facilities at the Garrison
Diversion Unit in North Dakota,
as well as $56.5 million to accelerate
construction of a water-treatment
plant near Vermillion, S.D.
The Pacific Northwest Region
will receive $125.2 million, including
$50 million to build a siphon
complex near Moses Lake, Wash. The allocation
for the Lower Colorado Region
is $107.9 million, Upper Colorado Region
$28.3 million and the Central Utah
Project $50 million.
The bureau does not have a timetable
yet for getting the stimulus projects under
contract, says spokesman Kip White. He
Bureau of Reclamation Stimulus Projects
MID-PACIFIC REGION 260.0
Red Bluff Diversion Dam, Calif. (screened pumping plant) 109.8
Battle Creek, Calif. (salmon/steelhead restoration plan) 26.0
GREAT PLAINS REGION 234.5
Garrison Diversion Unit, N.D. (water-treatment plants,
intake structure, storage facilities)
Lewis and Clark rural water system, S.D., Minn., Iowa
(accelerate water-treatment-plant construction)
Fort Peck/Dry Prairie project, Mont. (finish water-treatment
plant, water-supply lines
LOWER COLORADO REGION 107.9
Pima-Maricopa irrigation project, Ariz. (canal mileage
and check structures)
Yuma area, Ariz. (repair, replace water-management and
-delivery facilities)
PACIFIC NORTHWEST REGION 125.2
Weber siphon complex, Wash. 50.0
CENTRAL UTAH PROJECT 50.0
Utah lake-system pipelines 41.0
UPPER COLORADO REGION 28.3
Animas-La Plata, Colo., N.M. (Navajo Nation pipeline,
other projects)
SOURCES: BUREAU OF RECLAMATION
Largest. Red Bluff Diversion Dam to get pumping plant.
says BuRec will measure projects against
several criteria, including how shovelready
they are as the agency moves into
the contracting stage. White says the
stimulus contracts will be managed by
BuRec’s five regions and the Central Utah
Project office. “That is the way all of our
contracting is done,” he adds.
EPA says its Superfund stimulus funds
will speed hazardous-waste cleanup already
under way and fund new projects.
It plans to use the aid on National Priorities
List sites, primarily on existing
contracts. New Jersey has eight sites on
the stimulus list, the most of any state.
More than $25 million per location
will go to sites in New Bedford
Harbor, Mass.; Camden/
Gloucester, N.J.; Florence Township,
N.J.; South Plainfield, N.J.;
Ottawa County, Okla.; Omaha,
Neb.; and Eureka, Utah.
59.0 One of the first beneficiaries
will be the Iron Mountain Mine
56.5 site near Redding, Calif., set to
receive $10 million to $25 million.
The money is expected to
40.0
cut the time needed to dredge,
treat and dispose of sediment in
the Keswick Reservoir’s Spring
36.8
Creek Arm from three years to 18
months. The stimulus also will
36.25
help finance pipelines and pump
stations to move contaminated
sediment from the Spring Creek
Arm to a disposal cell, construction
of which will begin in May.
The project has been divided
into four packages. Three covering
the pumping station, pipeline
12.1 and treatment plant already have
been put out for bid. Within the
next two months, EPA expects to
bid the final package, for dredging,
says Rick Sugarek, EPA’s project
manager.
Factors EPA considered in selecting
the ARRA-funded sites
include readiness, human and ecological
risk and opportunities to
trim costs and schedules.
By Pam Hunter
and Tom Ichniowski
BUREAU OF RECLAMATION
12 ENR April 27, 2009 enr.com

PHOTO BY AP/WIDEWORLD
CORRUPTION
Illinois Boosts Project Funding
But Not Without Major Reform
Scrutiny. Ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has pleaded not guilty to federal corruption charges.
With one former governor in federal
prison and another possibly
on his way, prosecutors have argued
that Illinois is perhaps the most corrupt
state in the nation. Fed up with the
scandals, lawmakers are promising
changes in the way contractors do business
with the Land of Lincoln.
In the wake of scandal and the economic
stimulus act, proposals for reform
measures are flowing through both chambers
of the statehouse in Springfield, Ill.
“We haven’t seen the final package yet,
but indications are they are comprehensive
and far-reaching,” says Rep. Kathleen
Ryg (D), who is sponsoring a bill to prioritize
transportation projects. Issues under
discussion include greater accountability
in the bid process, transparency of
contracts, public access to information,
inclusion and documentation of minority
and women-owned enterprises and tighter
restrictions on campaign contributions.
Industry supporters say they are encouraged
by the buzz. “We’ve struggled
too long under this cloud,” says Mike
Sturino, president of the Itasca, Ill.-based
Illinois Road and Transportation Builders
Association. “It has made the state less
competitive because businesses are hesitant
to relocate here, and the public is less
willing to support programs because of
suspicion of the government.”
Meanwhile, the state is ramping up for
increased infrastructure spending. If recently
appointed Gov. Patrick Quinn (D)
gets his way, the state will see its first
capital bill in 10 years. Called Illinois Jobs
Now, the $26-billion budget includes $14
billion for roads and bridges and $5 billion
for public transit. It will be funded
through a combination of state, federal
and local funds and fees. Authorization
for the first $3 billion came on April 3,
when Gov. Quinn signed into law HB-
289, also called the “Jump Start Capital
Plan” or the “mini-capital bill,” for critical
infrastructure improvements.
Illinois also has received $1.6 billion in
federal stimulus funds for infrastructure
enhancements and repair to existing
roads. The contracts were let for so-called
shovel-ready projects.
April 3 was the same day ousted Gov.
Rod Blagojevich, his brother Robert and
four others were indicted on federal corruption
charges for their fund-raising
activities (ENR 4/13 p. 9). Among them
are two construction executives: roofing
contractor Christopher Kelly and William
Cellini, head of the Illinois Asphalt
Pavement Association. All deny the
charges.
As for reforms, two panels are working
on recommendations. The Illinois Reform
Commission was assembled by Gov.
Quinn, and the Joint Commission on
Government Reform is made up of state
lawmakers. The governor’s office also
launched a new Website where people can
report wrongdoing, fraud and waste at all
levels of state and municipal government
(www.whistleblower.illinois.gov).
One legislative proposal gaining bipartisan
traction is Ryg’s HB-2359, the
Transportation Investment and Accountability
Act. The bill advocates forming a
new Illinois Transportation Policy Committee
that would prioritize capital projects
for the Illinois Dept. of Transportation,
provide greater transparency for
contracts and level opportunities for contractors
in different locations.
Not all cleanup efforts are legislated.
IDOT is conducting two assessments on
its own to develop a risk-management
plan. One specifically is aimed at stimulus
projects for financing, staffing and contracting
public works. Some high-risk
areas, such as subrecipient monitoring,
already have been identified and a mitigation
plan put in place, says Paris Ervin,
IDOT communication manager. In addition,
Illinois is one of 16 states whose
stimulus spending will be audited by the
federal government.
“Everyone is keeping a close eye on
how money is spent, and that’s the way it
should be,” says Daniel Gallagher, president
of Thornton, Ill.-based Gallagher
Asphalt Corp. and a board member for
the National Asphalt Pavement Association.
“We don’t want another Bridge to
Nowhere kind of thing.”
By Pamela Dittmer McKuen
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 13

News
CLAIMS
Thornton-Tomasetti Is Cleared
In Indiana Library Defect Suit
In the latest twist in a long controversy,
an Indiana circuit court
jury on April 15 cleared structural
engineer Thornton-Tomasetti
Inc., New York City, of fraud
charges brought by the Indianapolis-Marion
County Public Library,
related to the troubled renovation
and expansion of the city’s
central library.
The library project originally
was budgeted at $103 million but
was completed two years late, in
December 2007, and as much as
$50 million over budget. Other
project contractors previously settled with
the library for a total of $21.5 million,
including its construction manager, a joint
venture of Turner Construction Co.,
Trotter Construction Co. Inc. and Shiel
Sexton Co. Inc. But the jury declined to
award the library $24.5 million from
Thornton-Tomasetti after a five-week
trial. It also awarded the firm $712,000
Done. Library’s structural engineer was sued by project owner.
sought in a countersuit. “In 30 years of
practicing engineering, including forensic
engineering, I’ve never heard a case like
that,” says firm CEO Daniel Cuoco.
The library says it “continued to seek
legal redress because we believed in the
validity of our claim that there were issues
with Thornton-Tomasetti’s work.” In
2003, cracks were observed in columns
and beams supporting a new two-story
underground garage, which also served as
a foundation for the six-story expansion.
Library officials claimed that Thornton-
Tomasetti contributed to the problem by
adding rebar to the gararge and misrepresented
its rationale for the change.
Cuoco contends that honeycombing
had formed—possibly
due in part to a lack of vibration
of concrete—after forms were
stripped in the post-tensioned garage.
He says the firm recommended
adding rebar to correct the
problem. “I wouldn’t say it was a
unique situation for a concrete
project,” Cuoco says. The project
was halted in March 2004 but eventually
was completed by Smoot
Construction Co., Columbus,
Ohio.
Mike Coghlan, capital projects
manager for the library, would not speculate
on why the other contractors agreed
to settle, and executives of those firms
could not be reached. Coghlan says the
library’s board of directors met in executive
committee on April 16 to discuss
whether to pursue further legal remedies
but did not announce any future step.
By Craig Barner
MILITARY CONSTRUCTION
Guam Needs More U.S. Funds To Redeploy Military, Says GAO
Even with billions committed
by the U.S. military to Guam
infrastructure upgrades to
support proposed troop redeployment
there, the U.S. Government
Accountability Offi ce says the tiny
island needs more U.S. government
help to cover its required share of
costs to expand ports and roads,
the power grid and water-wastewater
facilities needed to accommodate
a projected 15% population
increase.
GAO says that the U.S. Defense
Dept. is funding infrastructure
costs on Guam “directly related” to
the movement of 17,000 U.S. Marines
and dependents from the island
of Okinawa and from other
locations, as well as providing
“some funds toward civilian infrastructure.”
But the Guam government must
fund “civilian requirements related
to the buildup,” GAO says. Island
offi cials already have told the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources
Committee that they would request
at least $6.1 billion for fi scal 2010
to fund infrastructure work. According
to GAO, Guam’s wastewater
treatment plants are operating
at near capacity and face a 25%
demand increase, while its electric
grid is “inadequate.”
GAO contends that while a federal
governmentwide working
group coordinates Guam funding
needs, it does not have authority to
direct agency budget allocations.
GAO says only pressure from top
DOD offi cials “can marshal the resources
from member agencies”
needed to meet Guam’s infrastructure
needs.
GAO says construction on Guam
could start in fi scal 2010 to meet
the projected 2014 deadline for
troop movements, but military and
industry sources speculate that
overall funding issues in the U.S.
and in Japan, which is also set to
fund redeployment, could push
that date back. There also are delays
in completing required environmental
reviews.
DOD Deputy Undersecretary
Wayne Army concurs with the report
but says the time allowed for
its review was “compressed.” According
to Guam Congresswoman
Madeline Bordallo, DOD’s concurrence
with the GAO report’s conclusion
is “signifi cant.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF INDIANAPOLIS-MARION COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
14 ENR April 27, 2009 enr.com

PICTURES COURTESY OF THE FLORIDA DEPT. OF HEALTH
MATERIALS
Problems Continue To Grow
With Drywall Made in China
Amid a growing chorus of complaints,
two U.S. Senators have
introduced legislation to recall
Chinese-made drywall and to ban further
imports until federal safety standards are
developed. Meanwhile, Florida’s governor
has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to help the state develop and
implement chemical-testing strategies.
Senators Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and
Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) introduced
legislation on Mar 30 pressing the Consumer
Product Safety Commission to
recall Chinese-made drywall and work
with federal testing labs to determine the
exact level of hazard posed by off-gassing
from the drywall. The bill also calls for an
interim ban on imports. “This defective
Normal
Chinese drywall represents an attack on
our homeowners, a defrauding of our
homebuilders and another obstacle on our
road to recovery,” says Landrieu. “The
federal government now has a responsibility
to assess the full scope of the problem
and immediately prohibit further
importation.”
Since 2006 over 550 million lb of drywall
has been imported to the U.S., with
60% going to Florida, say the senators.
Nelson says about 60 million lb arrived in
Louisiana and 27 million lb in Mississippi
during that same period. Landrieu and
Nelson estimate between 60,000 and
100,000 homes may contain “potentially
defective drywall.” Other states affected
by the imported material include Virginia,
Abnormal
Puzzle. Chinese-made drywall could be the cause of household corrosion and sulfur smells.
Alabama and California.
Earlier this year, several lawsuits were
filed in Florida alleging products from
Knauf Gips KG, Knauf Plasterboard
Tianjin Co. Ltd. (KPT) and Taishan Gypsum
Co. Ltd. produced sulfur-smelling
gasses and corrosion of copper wiring and
piping (ENR 2/9 p. 15). KPT says its
half-inch drywall was imported between
January and October 2006 and represents
less than 20% of the Chinese plasterboard
imported between 2005 and 2007.
At least 289 complaints have been recorded
by the Florida Dept. of Health
(FDOH). On April 3, Florida Gov. Charlie
Crist (R) wrote the Environmental
Protection Agency and Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention requesting
assistance with chemical testing. He noted
that preliminary FDOH tests confirmed
“the presence of strontium sulfide and
elemental sulfur in drywall from China.”
Further, the testing confirmed that the
drywall generated hydrogen sulfide, carbonyl
sulfide and carbon disulfide when
exposed to high humidity or heat. “All of
these compounds are capable of causing
the type of corrosion identified in the
complaint homes and at sufficient concentrations
could pose a health hazard,” says
Crist. He wants a testing program to see
if a health advisory is warranted.
In late January, FDOH commissioned
an analysis of four drywall samples: one
American-made, one unmarked, one
marked Knauf and one marked Made in
China. The report from Unified Engineering
Inc., Aurora, Ill., noted there is a
distinct difference in drywall manufactured
in the U.S. and China. “The Chinese
samples contained traces of strontium
sulfide inclusions and more organic
material than the [U.S.] sample,” it said.
“However, it is not yet known if either
contributed to the odor. The Chinese
samples gave off a sulfur odor when exposed
to extreme heat and moisture.”
Different types of drywall may have
been used in the same house. “We are in
the process of identifying a lab for further
testing of indoor-air samples,” says Susan
S. Smith, FDOH press secretary.
By William J. Angelo, with Steven Setzer
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 15

Construction Economics
Cost Indexes
Construction Cost Index
This month’s 0.1% decline in the CCI
also pulled down the index’s annual
infl ation rate by 0.1%.
APRIL 2009 % CHG. % CHG.
20-CITY: 1913=100 INDEX VALUE MONTH YEAR
CONSTRUCTION COST 8528.39 –0.1 +5.1
COMMON LABOR 18015.79 0.0 +5.4
WAGE $/HR. 34.23 0.0 +5.4
Building Cost Index
A 0.3% dip in materials costs cut the
BCI’s annual escalation rate from 4.3%
last month to 4.1%.
APRIL 2009 % CHG. % CHG.
20-CITY: 1913=100 INDEX VALUE MONTH YEAR
BUILDING COST 4761.05 –0.1 +4.1
SKILLED LABOR 8112.22 0.0 +4.1
WAGE $/HR. 45.02 0.0 +4.1
Materials Cost Index
Cement, steel and lumber prices all
fell, dragging year-to-year materials
escalation down to 4.1%.
APRIL 2009 % CHG. % CHG.
20-CITY: 1913=100 INDEX VALUE MONTH YEAR
MATERIALS 2713.54 –0.3 +4.1
CEMENT $/TON 100.91 –0.8 –0.4
STEEL $/CWT 44.83 –0.2 +8.4
LUMBER $/MBF 411.60 –0.7 –4.2
Public Works Keeps Head Above Water
While public sector growth has
slowed in recent months (see
chart), public construction this
February remained slightly ahead of
February 2008’s pace. On a
seasonally adjusted basis, total public
construction in February was running
at an annual rate of $301 billion,
which was up 0.8% from January and
3.4% from February 2008’s pace,
according to the U.S. Dept. of
Commerce. On a year-to-date basis,
total public construction through the
fi rst two months of the year totaled
$38.8 billion, or 0.9% above the same
period a year ago. This was better
than the 15% year-to-year decline
recorded for the private sector during
the same period.
The institutional offi ce building
market is off to a strong start, with
$2.37 billion in new construction
put-in-place through February. That
was 20.9% above 2008’s total. Public
school work accounted for $11.7
billion of all public works during the
fi rst two months of the year. That
market was up 5.2% above 2008’s
level. Highway construction appears
to be waiting for its stimulus push.
Through February, highway work was
running 2% below a year ago.
Sewerage work was down 3.4%.
$ BIL.
317
311
305
299
Total Public Construction
OCT. NOV. DEC. JAN. FEB.
2008–2009
SOURCE: U.S. DEPT OF COMMERCE. CONSTRUCTION PUT-IN-PLACE,
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED RATE IN CURRENT DOLLARS.
Public Construction
MARKET: YEAR-TO-DATE 2009 2008 % CHG. % CHG.
$ BIL. FEB. FEB. MONTH YEAR
TOTAL PUBLIC CONSTRUCTION 38.83 38.48 +0.6 +0.9
Residential 1.06 1.04 +4.2 +1.9
Office 2.37 1.96 –2.5 +20.9
Commercial 0.48 0.50 –8.4 –4.0
Health care 1.40 1.37 +3.1 +2.2
Educational 11.73 11.16 –0.5 +5.1
Public safety 1.92 1.62 –6.0 +18.5
Amusement and recreation 1.52 1.59 +4.7 –4.4
Transportation 3.24 3.31 +3.8 –2.1
Power 1.20 1.66 +10.0 –27.7
Highway and street 7.54 7.70 +2.1 –2.1
Sewage and waste disposal 3.35 3.47 –0.6 –3.5
Water supply 2.16 2.04 –0.9 +5.9
Conservation and development 0.74 0.81 0.0 –8.6
SOURCE: DEPT. OF COMMERCE, CONSTRUCTION PUT-IN-PLACE.
Structural Steel, Rebar, Building Sheet, Piling
ITEM UNIT ATLANTA BALTIMORE BIRMINGHAM BOSTON CHICAGO CINCINNATI CLEVELAND DALLAS DENVER DETROIT KANSAS CITY
STANDARD STRUCTURAL SHAPES: AVERAGE cwt 42.12 –45.00 56.17 43.56 +37.85 –45.00 48.50 41.35 39.97 38.92 65.48
Channel beams, 6” DEEP, 8.2 LB/LF cwt 43.44 –44.00 55.10 41.22 +37.00 45.00 50.83 41.00 37.42 42.97 62.65
I-beams, 6” DEEP, 12.5 lb/lf cwt 45.88 –48.00 61.45 44.60 +36.75 –45.00 46.23 38.92 42.10 37.65 68.65
Wide-flange, 8” DEEP, 31 LB/LF cwt 37.04 –43.00 51.95 44.85 +39.80 –45.00 48.44 44.12 40.38 36.14 65.15
REINFORCING BARS:
Grade 60, #4 cwt 41.70 –35.00 44.50 39.30 +38.52 28.00 40.00 38.35 40.55 39.00 62.00
Epoxy-coated cwt — — — 56.17 57.25 — 63.00 — 46.98 53.00 —
HOT-ROLLED CARBON STEEL PLATE:
12 gauge, 48” x 10’ cwt 39.00 –40.00 50.65 35.78 38.39 –35.00 74.80 42.15 40.37 68.12 49.00
EXPANDED METAL LATH:
Std diamond mesh, 3.4 LB/SY, GALVANIZED cwt 194.00 230.00 150.00 178.40 191.78 243.00 — 195.40 197.08 — —
Flat-ribbed, 3.4 lb/sy cwt 217.00 — 193.00 207.27 217.25 — — 223.25 201.12 — —
BUILDING SHEET & PLATE:
Aluminum sheet, 3003H14, 36” x 96” cwt 191.00 178.50 193.00 187.00 180.60 –180.00 220.90 193.90 197.00 220.00 —
STAINLESS STEEL SHEET:
14 gauge cwt 171.90 –110.00 197.00 134.00 137.37 –120.50 190.90 142.20 159.00 242.00 135.00
16 gauge cwt 167.31 –111.00 212.00 136.80 138.50 –122.50 230.30 146.00 165.00 240.00 136.00
20 gauge cwt 172.32 –119.00 246.00 142.46 145.65 –124.50 228.23 148.00 172.50 240.00 141.00
STAINLESS STEEL PLATE:
304, 1/4”, 72” x 240” cwt 175.80 –134.00 275.00 144.45 188.00 –198.00 152.50 176.15 185.00 250.00 184.00
316, 1/4”, 96” x 140” cwt 243.60 +275.00 — 277.29 206.95 –401.00 290.00 202.34 231.00 285.00 156.00
STEEL PILING: H-PILE
HP10 x 42 cwt 27.75 –55 69.20 25.88 25.34 58.00 24.75 25.53 28.10 25.20 —
+ or – denotes price has risen or fallen since previous report. Monthly market quotations by ENR fi eld reporters as of April 17, 2009. All prices are spot prices quoted from a single source. All prices
are FOB warehouse except metal lath, which is FOB city. Stainless steel sheet prices are for type 304, 2B fi nish, 48 x 120-in. Steel piles are high-strength A572. Some prices may include taxes or
discounts for prompt payment, etc. Product specifi cations may vary depending on what is most commonly used or most accessible in a city. All quantities are truckloads unless noted. Quotes for
16 ENR April 27, 2009 enr.com

Recession Cuts Into Rebar Prices
Growing weakness in the nonresidential
building market is cutting into prices for
concrete reinforcing bar. In April, ENR’s 20-city
average price for rebar fell 3.4%. The most
recent decline pushed rebar prices 10.1%
below last summer’s peak. However, the
market is still feeling the impact of a record
ENR’s Materials Price Indexes
1992=100
215
210
205
200
195
190
1992=100
157
156
155
154
153
Structural Steel, Rebar, Building Sheet, Piling
ITEM
WIDE-FLANGE
J A S O N D J F M A
2008-2009
During the last eight months
prices have declined 10.1%.
ALUMINUM SHEET
152
J A S O N D J F M A
2008-2009
Recent declines have pushed prices
0.9% below a year ago.
1992=100
215
210
205
200
195
SOURCE: MCGRAW-HILL CONSTRUCTION RESEARCH & ANALYTICS/ENR.
surge in prices during the fi rst half of last year
and ENR’s average rebar price is still 4.2%
above a year ago. That year-to-year escalation
rate should start to fall off in coming months as
prices continue to weaken and the market
moves “out of range” of the steep price hikes
posted in May and June of last year.
REINFORCING BAR
190
J A S O N D J F M A
2008-2009
Prices have fallen 10.4%
since last August.
1992=100
135 170
132 166
129 162
126 164
123 154
120 150
STAINLESS STEEL SHEET
J A S O N D J F M A
2008-2009
Prices held steady
after falling 10% below last year’s level.
20-City Average
enr.com
FOR A COMPLETE HISTORY OF COST
INDEXES, VISIT OUR WEBSITE, ENR.COM.
% CHG. % CHG.
ITEM UNIT PRICE MO. YEAR
STANDARD STRUCTURAL SHAPES: AVERAGE cwt 44.53 –0.7 +5.7
Channel beams, 6” DEEP, 8.2 LB/LF cwt 44.71 –0.4 +7.8
I-beams, 6” DEEP, 12.5 LB/LF cwt 45.05 –0.8 +4.5
Wide-flange, 8” DEEP, 31 LB/LF cwt 43.84 –0.8 +4.9
REINFORCING BARS:
Grade 60, #4 cwt 39.51 –3.4 +4.2
Epoxy-coated cwt 57.87 0.0 +6.1
HOT-ROLLED CARBON STEEL PLATE:
12 gauge, 48” x 10’ cwt 48.60 –1.5 +8.7
EXPANDED METAL LATH:
Std diamond mesh, 3.4 LB/SY, GALVANIZED cwt 201.43 0.0 –1.3
Flat-ribbed, 3.4 LB/SY cwt 217.82 0.0 +0.4
BUILDING SHEET & PLATE:
Aluminum sheet, 3003H14, 36” x 96” cwt 190.98 0.0 –0.9
STAINLESS STEEL SHEET:
14 gauge cwt 165.84 –0.3 –11.4
16 gauge cwt 174.56 –0.3 –9.5
20 gauge cwt 175.41 –0.2 –8.2
STAINLESS STEEL PLATE:
304, 1/4”, 72” x 240” cwt 183.97 –0.2 –4.5
316, 1/4”, 96” x 140” cwt 232.85 –0.3 +0.2
STEEL PILING: H-PILE
HP10 x 42 cwt 32.06 –1.5 +0.7
Canada
UNIT LOS ANGELES MINNEAPOLIS NEW ORLEANS NEW YORK PHILADELPHIA PITTSBURGH ST. LOUIS SAN FRANCISCO SEATTLE MONTREAL TORONTO
STANDARD STRUCTURAL SHAPES: AVERAGE cwt 45.49 34.06 40.04 51.60 46.13 44.80 +43.60 44.15 +36.90 +63.33 69.33
Channel beams, 6” DEEP, 8.2 LB/LF cwt 44.70 42.13 38.07 51.60 45.85 40.80 55.02 43.26 32.19 –50.00 70.00
I-beams, 6” DEEP, 12.5 lb/lf cwt 46.71 30.05 39.30 52.80 46.95 48.00 38.79 45.30 37.93 +85.00 73.00
Wide-flange, 8” DEEP, 31 LB/LF cwt 45.07 29.99 42.75 50.40 45.60 45.60 36.98 43.88 40.57 55.00 65.00
REINFORCING BARS:
Grade 60, #4 cwt 41.41 37.00 39.30 54.00 37.15 44.85 34.00 40.46 38.53 49.00 —
Epoxy-coated cwt 59.52 57.00 — — 51.48 57.50 70.00 57.74 — 82.00 —
HOT-ROLLED CARBON STEEL PLATE:
12 gauge, 48” x 10’ cwt 47.05 80.00 38.08 — 39.77 42.00 90.50 44.02 31.70 48.00 75.00
EXPANDED METAL LATH:
Std diamond mesh, 3.4 LB/SY, GALVANIZED cwt 198.10 112.50 194.41 — 268.15 — — 198.90 175.50 — —
Flat-ribbed, 3.4 lb/sy cwt 215.30 156.25 225.18 — 278.00 — — 216.01 187.75 — —
BUILDING SHEET & PLATE:
Aluminum sheet, 3003H14, 36” x 96” cwt 187.48 208.00 184.43 — 170.65 171.00 220.90 188.36 190.84 180.00 275.00
STAINLESS STEEL SHEET:
14 gauge cwt 175.99 238.00 162.55 — 137.85 154.00 238.00 182.81 155.80 93.00 274.00
16 gauge cwt 185.76 292.00 168.48 — 139.35 156.00 255.00 184.39 170.05 95.00 274.00
20 gauge cwt 180.94 251.92 171.55 — 142.00 164.00 239.00 182.11 159.55 97.00 274.00
STAINLESS STEEL PLATE:
304, 1/4”, 72” x 240” cwt 184.29 261.41 162.42 — 132.90 164.00 195.50 184.99 209.00 107.00 290.00
316, 1/4”, 96” x 140” cwt 230.78 270.00 192.15 — 143.70 200.00 262.00 231.81 193.60 104.00 330.59
STEEL PILING: H-PILE
HP10 x 42 cwt 28.99 25.20 27.40 — 25.15 — 23.80 29.36 26.31 +80.00 63.00
Montreal and Toronto are in Canadian dollars and a mix of metric and American units. The above prices are not intended to represent the prevailing or average price in a city but are designed to track
price movement from a single source for a given quantity and specifi cation over time.
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 17

Cover Story Bridges
By Janice L. Tuchman in Mumbai with Neelam Mathews
LONG ROAD TO

Reality
Long-awaited link across
the bay will ease traffic and
create a signature gateway
to Mumbai
After years of legal delays, monsoons, heavy lifting
and a lot of fancy formwork, the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, a 4.7-
kilometer viaduct with two cable-stayed spans, made its final connection
on April 20 and is slated to open to traffic in mid-May. When
it does, the bypass over the sea will cut the time of a trip across
Mahim Bay in Mumbai, India, from about 40 minutes to just six.
Drivers who had to suffer through 23 traffic lights to make the
trip from Bandra in north Mumbai to Worli in the southern part
of the city will face only four on the new route, planned by the
Maharashtra State Road Development Corp.
Hindustan Construction Co. (HCC)
started work on the project in 2000. It
faced a one-year delay because the developer
could not gain access to the site. An
original 1998 design by Jacobs Sverdrup
called for the original cable-stayed span’s
twin decks to share pylons. This design
was modified in 2003 by Dar al-Handasah
Shair and Partners, London. MSRDC
had decided to build one of the twin decks
ahead of the other, hoping for an earlier
start for toll revenue, so Dar al-Handasah
revised the structure so that each deck was
independently supported by its own pylon.
But more delay was ahead. The Bandra
cable-stayed section was planned so that
fishing boats from the Mahim fishing village
could pass below the bridge without
getting shattered by monsoon waves. The
original design had only one 500-meterlong
cable-stayed section, with 50-m transition
spans on both sides. Then, after the
contract was awarded to HCC, the Worli
fishing village at the other end protested.
Villagers went to court claiming they
should not be forced to go all the way to
Bandra to pass through the channel. The
courts agreed, and the design was sig-
Inclined. Two four-legged pylons lean
together, creating a formwork challenge.
nificantly altered by adding the second
cable-stayed bridge, which is 350 m long,
including transition spans. Environmental
objections to the project also went all the
way to India’s Supreme Court, resulting
in moving the alignment 200 m farther
away from shore.
Through all this, HCC stuck with the
job, its leaders say, not just because they
had invested so much in specialized equipment.
“Apart from investing our money,
we had invested our heart and soul. We
are confident we will be long remembered
for having brought ease to Mumbai’s commuters,”
said Jimmy Mogal, HCC’s vice
president of corporate communications.
Rough Seas
The work then faced its natural challenge:
the tides and storms of India’s west coast
on the Arabian Sea. Santosh Rai, HCC
planning manager, says the contractor had
to plan the job around monsoons, where
winds range from 70 or 80 kilometers per
hour up to 120 kmph. The bridge is designed
to withstand 264 kmph winds at
the top of the towers and 150 kmph at the
bridge deck level. At some parts of the
site, “we had to stop work during every
monsoon for five months,” Rai says, because
the authorities do not allow naviga-
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 19
photo by janice l. tuchman for enr

Cover Story Bridges
tion during monsoons. Workers, materials
and equipment move out to the farthest
piers each day by boat. Work also faced
the daily challenge of the area’s high tides.
To overcome this problem, HCC built a
temporary bridge and used it to move
crews, materials and equipment out to the
pylon area.
HCC chief engineer D.K. Sharma says
this is the first cable-stayed bridge built
under sea conditions in this part of the
world. “We had storms where we did
have to stop work,” he adds. During a
storm last September, for example, HCC
had to send crews into refuge areas built
into the piers. “For three days, we were
able to provide food, water and facilities,
but we could not get them out,” he says.
Boats got close enough to throw in supplies
but could not land without damaging
the structures.
Even in calmer weather, logistics were
a huge issue. HCC had to transport 10 or
12 segments per day and supply materials
to 30 different work locations. Crews
worked in shifts, with 800 to 900 workers
dispatched to different locations each
morning. “Then, through the day, food
had to be supplied to each and every person,
giving tea breaks, for example. We
had to arrange so many things for so many
locations,” Rai says. Equipment on-site at
the peak of construction included 22
barges, four tugboats, five jackup platforms,
34 smaller cranes and seven tower
cranes.
Exposed Rock.
K.R. Visvanath, HCC’s vice president of
construction, says the job also faced highly
variable geotechnical conditions and a
highly uneven foundation bed of basalts,
volcanic tuffs and breccias overlain by
completely weathered rocks and residual
soils. The strength of the rock varied from
extremely weak to extremely strong, complicating
foundation work. “The intertidal
zone on the Worli side was all exposed
rock at low tide,” he said. Foundations
included more than 600 large-diameter
piles, with a rock-socketed length up to
34 m. Tests for the piles were conducted
using the Osterberg load-cell method,
with test loads of up to 5,600 tonnes.
The pylons for the cable-stayed towers
were challenging to construct both above
and below the bridge deck. Sharma says
the inspiration for the shape of the pylon
was the traditional Indian greeting, or
“namaste,” where hands are put together
with forearms forming an inverted V. He
adds that the shape “also provides stability.”
The 129-m-tall towers have a curving
profile, which makes them even more
human-like. The bridges have two fourlegged
pylons. The legs are inclined toward
one another above the bridge deck
until they merge into a single tower head
at 98 m.
To cast the inclined upper tower legs,
HCC worked with automatic climbing
formwork experts from Doka to custom-
Tower Head. Anchorage boxes were
fabricated on-site to close tolerances and
assembled in sections, with care for the exit
angle of the guide pipes for the stay cables.
Western Freeway Gets Sea Link
South Mumbai
Mahim Bay
20 ENR April 27, 2009 enr.com

PHOTO LEFT AND INSET BOTTOM BY JANICE L. TUCHMAN FOR ENR; PHOTO RIGHT AND BOTTOM COURTESY OF HCC
ize a system for the job that could be
adapted to the varying cross sections and
angles of inclination. It has several different
platform levels, allowing rebar to be
placed a casting section ahead of the pouring
operation. Merging the legs into the
tower head took extra attention “to keep
the forms from colliding with one another,”
Sharma adds, and to reconfigure
the climbers to the new cross section. The
forms also had to produce the pylons’
fluted architectural finish and be stripped
without damaging it. Anchorage boxes
THE BANDRA-WORLI LINK
shortens the journey from
Lovegrove Junction to Mahim
Junction in Mumbai.
Before After
Distance (in km) 7.7 4.7
Traffic signals 23 4
Travel time (in minutes):
Morning peak 35 6
were fabricated on-site in halves with tolerance
on the main plates of only 0.125
degrees. The assembled units were transported
and installed atop the towers.
The pylon legs converge again below
the bridge deck in one plane, creating a
diamond cross section; installing the 140-
ton precast segments for these lower legs
was particularly tricky. HCC devised a
construction method that used a pier table
so workers could lift segments from bobbing
barges in rough water and set them
with 5-millimeter tolerances. The system
Evening peak 38 6 Bandra Cable-Stayed Span
600 m
Worli
Total Project
Length
4.70 km
350 m
Worli Cable-Stayed Span
used a lifting boom to pick up a segment
inside a steel frame. Pins were fixed below
the segment, allowing workers to slide it
out onto a trolley and transfer it into position.
“It took us four months to test the
prototype.” Rai says.
The cable-stayed deck sections were
built using the balanced-cantilever
method. The central pier supports spans
on either side. VSL Singapore Pte. Ltd.
partnered with HCC early in the job to
design the launching truss, able to carry
precast box girders that weigh up to 2,000
Pylon Height
Pylons have four legs, each
inclined at a 10° angle and
merging at a height of 98 m
126 m
Bandra
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 21

Cover Story Bridges
PHOTOS LEFT COURTESY OF HCC; PHOTO RIGHT BY JANICE L. TUCHMAN FOR ENR
Mighty Seas. The Asian
Hercules, a barge-mounted
crane, moved the 1,200-
tonne launching girders
(top) across the Bandra
channel during favorable
high tides. To install the
140-tonne precast segments
for the lower legs,
HCC used a pier table so
workers could lift segments
from bobbing barges in
rough water and set them
in place within 5 mm tolerances
(above). HCC worked
with automatic climbingform
experts from Doka to
customize a system to cast
the varying cross sections
and angles of inclination
for the upper legs of the
pylons (right). A precast
segmental approach bridge,
800 m long, on the Bandra
side leads to north Mumbai
(far right).
22 ENR April 27, 2009

tonnes. One of the bigger challenges was
moving the launching truss across the
Bandra channel for the second span. This
was done during a favorable high tide using
a barge-mounted crane called the
Asian Hercules, brought in from Singapore,
which can lift up to 1,600 tonnes.
Second Link
The second phase of the Western Freeway
Sea Link is expected to start only after
India’s general elections in mid-May.
Called the Worli-Haji Ali Sea Link Project,
it will be a continuation of the existing
sea link. The extension will involve a
3.2-km-long precast segmental viaduct
with 50 m spans, connecting Worli and
Haji Ali.
At Worli, connectors in a cloverleaf
formation over the sea will facilitate access
to and from the bridge. The sea-link extension
will have a bored-pile foundation
and precast segmental superstructure.
“No large spans are envisaged for this
project,” says Sharma.
The second phase will be let as a buildoperate-transfer
project, and bids have
been received from only two bidders:
HCC and Reliance Infrastructure. Reliance,
whose bid is expected to be significantly
lower, already is the contractor on
a section of the Mumbai metro. The Haji-
Ali link is expected to take 42 months
from start of construction. The winner of
the concession will pay Maharashtra State
Road Development Corp. $327 million
toward the cost of all five work packages
of the overall sea-link project. The concession
period is 40 years, and tolls will be
collected to recover the cost of acquiring
the first phase and the construction of the
second.
The Bandra-Worli Sea Link Project
and later phases of the Western Freeway
have the potential to bring about enduring
changes in the travel patterns of the
area, linking the island city of Mumbai to
its western suburbs. A third phase is also
planned to take the sea link across Back
Bay to Nariman Point. But that area’s
prominent hotels and famous views have
prompted MSRDC to study a combination
bridge-and-tunnel option.
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 23

Products
CAPTURE EVERY DETAIL: Robotic Total Station
The TS30 Robotic Total Station is the latest update to Leica’s line of surveying devices,
and boasts ½-in. angle accuracy and 0.6-mm distance accuracy using prisms. It can
achieve a distance accuracy of 2 mm at 1 km using only natural surfaces. The station can
be fitted with a global-positioning antenna for logging exact coordinates during surveying.
Its new Piezo technology allows uninterrupted surveying in changing environments with
only one operator. A low-power mode during non use provides longer service intervals.
Leica Geosystems; 770-326-9500; www.leica-geosystems.us
FASTER PIPE CONNECTIONS: No Loose
Parts Means Less Time Needed
The QuickVic Style 107 rigid coupling allows fast joining of
grooved carbon and stainless pipes without the need to disassemble
the coupling. The coupling gasket is lubricated, fi tted
onto the pipes and tightened. The EHP gasket has a raised
middle ridge that provides fast alignment, and the material is
rated from -30°F to 250°F. The bolt pad connection is
metal-to-metal for a quick visual indication that the coupling
is properly positioned. The coupling is rated up to 500 psi and
is available in sizes ranging from 2 in. to 6 in. Victaulic;
800-742-5842; www.victaulic.com
Precision Coring: Starting Aid Keeps Core Bit on Target
HDMB Core Bits feature a starting aid for faster, more precise dry coring of brick
and concrete block as well as softer, more abrasive materials. The bits are slotted
for extra cooling. They are available in diameters from 1 in. to 6 in., and all have a
10-in. working length. The bits fit Hilti DD110-D, DD130 and DD100 core drills
as well as other brands. Hilti;
800-879-6000;
www.us.hilti.com
Auto-Darkening
Welder Helmet:
Stands Up to the Heat
The Titanium Elite
auto-darkening welder
helmet is designed for work
in high-heat environments
involving welding applications
of 300 amps or more.
The helmet reflects the
heat to keep the wearer
cool, and has an aluminum
shield to protect the
auto-darkening mechanism
from the heat. The 9-sq-in.
viewing area has a shock
absorber to protect it from
falls. Miller Electric Mfg.;
Co. 920-734-9821; www.
millerwelds.com
COMPACT TELEHANDLERS: Maneuverable
on Tight Jobsites
The JLG 619A and JLG 723A compact telehandler are highly
maneuverable even during lift applications. The 619A has a
lifting capacity of 6,000 lb at its maximum reach of 19 ft, and the 723A
has a lifting capacity of 7,000 lb at its maximum reach of 23 ft. Both
models have all-wheel steering and a single-joystick control
setup. The control’s lift-loader mode allows the operator to
quickly switch from control of the boom’s telescoping to
control of the tilt or dump of the attachment. JLG Industries
Inc.; 717-485-5161; www.jlg.com
Info Box
Select the product information
you want and contact the
manufacturer at either the Website
or phone number provided.
Manufacturers can send information
on new products to
ENR_Products@mcgraw-hill.com
24 ENR April 27, 2009 enr.com

Pulse
Planning
MICHIGAN The City of Allen Park
announced that a $146-million film and
television production studio is to be built
in Allen Park. The 750,000-sq-ft Unity
Studios complex will include four
24,000-sq-ft soundstages and four
11,000-sq-ft soundstages. It will be situated
on 104 acres located at the intersection
of Southfield Rd. and Enterprise Dr.
The first phase of construction is to begin
in May will encompass 40-acres of the
site. City of Allen Park, 16850 Southfield
Rd., Allen Park 48101.
Bids/Contracts/Proposals
HAWAII Design Partners Inc. has been
awarded a $7-million firm-fixed-price,
indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity
architect-engineering contract for various
Navy and Marine Corps facilities within
the Naval Facilities and Engineering
Command Hawaii area. The contract
covers preparation of plans, specifications,
cost estimates and design analysis. Work
also covers preparation of design-build
request-for-proposal contract documents,
field investigation, engineering and geotechnical
studies. Design Partners, Inc.
1580 Makaloa St. Suite 1100, Honolulu,
96814.
KENTUCKY Burns & McDonnell was
awarded a contract by East Kentucky
Power Cooperative to provide preliminary
engineering and detailed design
startup services for a $324-million project
to install new clean air equipment at the
325-MW John Sherman Cooper powerplant
in Pulaski County. Unit 2 at the
powerplant will undergo a retrofit with
the installation of a dry flue-gas-desulfurization
unit, featuring a circulating fluidized-bed
scrubber. Selective catalytic
reduction equipment will also be installed.
Engineering design work has begun, with
construction expected to begin in spring
2010 for completion by 2012. Burns &
McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc., 9400
Ward Parkway, Kansas City, Mo. 64114-
3319. DR# 08-00891514.
26 ENR April 27, 2009 enr.com
LOUISIANA Wilco Pipeline Contractors
was awarded a $9.5-million contract
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for
the construction of a pipeline in Cameron
Parish. The permanent pipeline will carry
dredged material from the Calcasieu River
Ship Channel to the marshes of Cameron
and Calcasieu parishes. The pipeline is
only one component of the 907-acre Sabine
Marsh Creation Project, which seeks
to create a new marsh in the Sabine Wildlife
Refuge using materials dredged from
the Calcasieu River Ship Channel. It is
one of four marshes to be created under
the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection
and Restoration Act. Two of the
marshes are already complete. Completion
of the pipeline is set for April 2010.
Wilco Pipeline Contractors, 402 Service
Rd., Rayne 70578.
MARYLAND Forrester Construction
Co. has been awarded a $14-million design-build
contract for the complete restoration
and modernization of an athletic
building at the U.S. Naval Academy in
Annapolis. Building 260, also know as
Hubbard Hall, is home to the U.S. Naval
Academy’s crew teams. Work on the
three-story boathouse includes hazardous
material abatement, repair of deteriorated
foundation pilings and the existing wharf,
interior reorganization, repairs to the
building structure and enclosure and the
replacement of all HVAC systems. A temporary
tension-fabric boat-storage shed
will be erected for the duration of the
project. Related work includes utilities,
paving, curbs and gutters, parking, storm
drainage, landscaping and site improvement.
The project is expected to be complete
by January 2010. Forrester Construction.
Co. 12231 Parklawn Dr.,
Rockville, 20852. DR# 09-00402741.
MARYLAND Clark Construction Co.
has been selected as general contractor for
the $51-million Rockville Science Center
at Montgomery College, Rockville
Campus. The four-story, 140,000-sq-ft
structural-steel building will be integrated
with the college’s existing Science East
building. The building will have classrooms,
offices and laboratory space for
biology, chemistry, physics and engineering
programs. The building will also have
a greenhouse and an a rooftop observatory.
The project intends to seek LEED
Gold certification, and will include photovoltaic
panels and a green roof. The
contract also covers the renovation and
expansion of the campus’ stormwatermanagement
facility. Construction is expected
to begin later this year, with completion
estimated for spring 2011. Clark
Construction Group, 7500 Old Georgetown
Rd. Bethesda, 20814. DR# 02-
00854662.
TEXAS Texas Sterling Construction
Co., a subsidiary of Sterling Construction
Co., was selected by the City of San Antonio
to provide construction management-at-risk
services on a $25-million
road-widening project. Bulverde Rd. will
be widening from four to six lanes from
Loop 1604 to Evans Rd. Work consists of
design consultation and construction
management of the roadway improvements.
Texas Sterling Construction Co.
2819 Woodcliffe St. Suite 203, San Antonio,
78230-5143. DR# 07-00732900.
Bid/Proposal Dates
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 5/1
Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission,
1629 K St. NW Suite 801, Washington,
D.C. 20006-1670, National
Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. The
memorial, designed by Frank Gehry of
Gehry Partners, will be located on a fouracre
site at the intersection of Maryland
Ave. and Independence Ave. in Washington
D.C., spanning two blocks from 4th
St. to 6th St. The memorial will have a
plaza-type layout with a partial canopy.
Work also includes construction of a
2,500-sq-ft support building for the memorial.
The design also calls for a significant
electronic component to the memorial.
Project is currently estimated to cost
between $55 million and $65 million.
Gehry Partners, 12541 Beatrice St., Los
Angeles, Calif. 90066-7001. DR# 08-
00787216.

ILLINOIS 5/1 U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Chicago District, 111 N. Canal
St. Chicago, 60606-7206, Chicagoland
underflow plan and redesign. The
project calls for heavy civil work to be
performed on the waterways serving the
greater Chicago metropolitan area in
Cook County. Specific civil work includes
site preparation, excavation, grading,
slope-shaping, geotextile placement, rock
placement and removal and earth fill and
compaction. Project also includes the installation
of retaining walls, erosion and
seepage control measures, roadway repairs,
drainage installation and stormwater
pollution-prevention planning. Project
is currently estimated at $25 million.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago
District, 111 N. Canal St., Chicago,
60606-7206. DR# 09-00481527.
WASHINGTON 5/4 City of Spokane
Purchasing, 808 West Spokane Falls
Blvd., Spokane 99201-3333, bridge demolition
and reconstruction. Both the
northbound and southbound structures
of the Freya Street Bridge on Springfield
Ave. in Spokane are to be demolished and
a replacement span is to built in their
place. The 71-ft wide, 300-ft-long concrete
bridge will serve as the new link.
Civil work includes approximately 7,000
cu yd of excavation and embankment,
2,000 sq ft of retaining walls and 18,000
sq ft of structural earth walls. Related
work includes 1,200 ft of storm sewer, 22
drainage structures, sidewalk construction,
11-in.-thick concrete pavement, as
well as necessary utility adjustments and
relocations. The project is currently estimated
at between $9 million and $10 million.
City of Spokane Purchasing, 808
West Spokane Falls Blvd., Spokane
99201-3333. DR# 09-00500175.
NEW YORK 5/5 New York State
Dormitory Authority Contracts, 515
Broadway, Albany, 12207-2916, hospital
patient pavilion. Phase 3 of the Harlem
Hospital Center on Lenox Ave. in New
York City calls for the construction of a
new six-story, 150,000-sq-ft patient pavilion.
The building will provide more space
for the hospital’s emergency department,
diagnostic center and surgery department.
It will feature 32 intensive-care beds along
with integration of emergency, inpatient
and outpatient services. Contracts available
currently cover demolition and asbestos
abatement work on the project,
with contracts for general contractor and
electrical-plumbing-HVAC to be awarded
May 20.Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum
(HOK), 620 Ave. of the Americas, New
York City, 10011-4609. DR# 05-
00631045.
NEW YORK 5/5 Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey, 3 Gateway
Center, Suite 3, Newark, N.J. 07102-
4000, bridge rehabilitation. The contract
covers steel and concrete rehabilitation
and repairs on the George Washington
Bridge in New York. Work covers the repairs
and replacement of corroded steel
and spalled concrete throughout the span
and its facilities, which includes the replacement
of missing rivets with highstrength
bolts. Contract valuation is currently
estimated at between $5 million
and $10 million. Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey, 3 Gateway Center,
Suite 3, Newark, N.J. 07102-4000.
DR# 09-00466278.
OHIO 5/6 Ohio Dept. of Transportation,
Office Contracts, 1980 W Broad St.
Floor 1, Columbus, 43223-1102, highway
construction. The new four-lane segment
of U.S. Highway 24 will have a new interchange
at State Route 295 and will involve
the construction of overpasses at County
Route 109 and Jeffers Rd. in Lucas
County. Work will include embankments,
guardrails, erosion control, drainage, paving,
cofferdams, bridge repair and related
work. Project estimated at $72-million.
Ohio Dept. of Transportation, Office
Contracts, 1980 W Broad St. Floor 1,
Columbus, 43223-1102. DR# 08-
00656757.
Much information for Pulse is derived from McGraw-Hill
Construction Dodge. For more information on a project in
Pulse that has a DR#, or for general information on Dodge
products and services, please call 1-800-393-6343 or
visit our Website at www.dodge.construction.com.
enr.com April 27, 2009 ENR 27
American Recovery And
Reinvestment Act Project
Amtrak Request for General
Contractor Qualification Information
Replacement of Existing River Road
Railroad Bridge, Madison, CT
Introduction: Amtrak intends to accept Letters of
Interest (LOI) for this solicitation which is an
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Project.
Responses are to include qualification information
that is requested/stated below. Amtrak, at its sole
discretion and without discussion, will determine
which firms are to be added to its bid list. Only
interested Contractors that can meet the
minimum qualifications listed below should
e-mail a Letter of Interest on company letterhead
indicating the qualifications stated below to:
Michael McGraw, Senior Contracting Agent
Amtrak/National Railroad Passenger Corporation
E-mail: mcgrawm@amtrak.com
Description: Amtrak proposes to replace an
existing double track two span structure over River
Road and Hammonasset River. The bridge to be
replaced is located on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor
Main Line at Milepost 94.83 in Madison,
Connecticut. The bridge carries both passenger
and freight rail traffic on two tracks with an
overhead electrified catenary system (OCS). The
scope of work includes replacement of the existing
superstructure and ballast deck with a new
superstructure and concrete ballast decks, utility
relocations/protection, grouting and repointing the
abutments and pier, removal of the existing spans,
and maintenance and protection of railroad traffic.
All work will be performed on the railroad during
Amtrak determined track outages.
The construction is to be complete
by February 17, 2011.
Qualification: Qualification will be based on
demonstration of:
• Comparable GC project experience with
$2M-5M projects
• Qualified list of experienced construction
personnel
• Approved QA/QC program
• Relative experience in railroad bridge
construction
• Financial resources/capability
• Qualified safety program and proven
safety record
• Minimum 5 years relevant railroad
environment work experience
Please limit letters with brief narratives
addressing the above qualifications to no more
than seven (7) pages + cover letter.
Letters of Interest and accompanying
correspondence must be received at Amtrak by
close of business (5:00 PM EDT) Thursday, May 7,
2009. It is anticipated that a Bid Solicitation will be
issued during the second quarter of 2009 and that a
contract will be awarded in the third quarter of 2009.
Important note: The information contained herein
may not be reissued or redistributed in any form or
manner in whole or in part without the advanced
expressed written consent and permission of Amtrak.

Viewpoint
Management By Perry Daneshgari
Productivity Is Key
To Profitability
Recently, Lean Construction has been celebrated as the new fad
among construction-management gurus. In reality, it is not the
leanness of the construction that matters but rather its agility
and responsiveness to change. That is why the National Institute of
Standards and Technology and ASTM International are working on draft
productivity protocols that support
a new process called Agile Construction.
One of the most misunderstood
concepts in the construction industry
is the difference between profitability
and cash flow. Due to the
nature of accounting principles used
to manage company profitability,
most measurements of job
progress really are measurements
of production,
not productivity. This distinction
has a direct impact
on the cash flow of
both the project and the
company. Recognition of
the distinction between production
and productivity will help contractors
become much more agile in
their responses to a jobsite’s changing
needs.
Much of the distinction is based
on tax law. In the Tax Reform Act
of 1986, construction law was
changed to help contractors better
manage their financial assets and
cash flow through progress billings.
Previously, revenue was recognized
only at project completion, which
caused cash-flow problems and essentially
forced contractors to subsidize
most of the work, leading in
many cases to bankruptcy.
Further tax legislation promulgated
via the Technical and Miscellaneous
Revenue Act (TAMRA) of
1988 enabled contractors to process
bills based on either a cost basis,
DANESHGARI
unit price or observed percent age
of completion. Due to the lack of
objective methodology, progress
billing is most often cost-based. According
to the Construction Financial
Management Association’s 2007
annual report, up to 89% of all contractors
in the U.S. base their billings
on cost. This method leaves
much to be desired.
In Agile Construction, a tracking
system that is driven by jobsite
dynamics and compatible with
building information modeling
(BIM) systems supports progress
billing based on actual construction
put-in-place (CPIP). Until recently,
CPIP measurement was not easily
achievable, but a new methodology
called Job Productivity Measurement
(JPM), based on the application
of statistical process control, is
now available and being used as the
basis for the developing ASTM
standard.
Agile Construction recognizes
the bottom-line impact of three
sources of cost drivers: money,
materials and manpower. Visible
means of measuring job progress,
labor productivity, profitability,
cash flow and materials handling
enable an Agile Construction company
to effectively apply BIM as
part of its daily project operations.
Responsiveness to the changing
jobsite environment is the key to
profitability for any contractor.
Profitability results from operating
as a low-cost provider. But to be a
low-cost provider, contractors need
to know the situation, its cost drivers
and its productivity. To manage
profits, the costs need to be visible.
Correct allocation of a contractor’s
fixed costs to the customer, project,
subcontractors and resources will
allow the contractor to be more
agile and profitable.
Contractors that apply daily or
weekly agile job tracking will be
able to improve their cash flow and
profitability. Since TAMRA allows
contractors to bill the larger of the
recognized revenue based on cost
or observed percentage of completion,
contractors are able to better
manage their cash flow by connecting
the CPIP measurements to the
project.
Managing projects based just on
costs results in unpredictable outcomes.
Contractors often have to
wait until the end of the job to find
out whether expected profits will be
earned. As a result, using accounting
data without really knowing
project productivity does little to
help contractors improve their cash
flow and profitability. Billing based
only on costs leaves productivity on
the table. Correctly measuring the
job allows the contractor to switch
from using only the rearview mirror
of cost accounting to using the
rearview mirror in conjunction with
the full front view through the
windshield of JPM.
The bottom line is that the only
useful measurement of productivity
is the one that will allow instantaneous
correction in the field, hence
the development of JPM for ASTM
as a standard practice.
Perry Daneshgari is president and
CEO of MCA Inc. Flint, Mich. He can
be reached at perry@mca.net or 810-
232-9797
If you have an idea for a column, please
contact Viewpoint editor William J. Angelo
at william_angelo@mcgraw-hill.com
28 ENR April 27, 2009 enr.com

Using building information
modeling (BIM), architects,
engineers and contractors
can collaborate to make
informed design and
construction decisions
much earlier in the process.
Through the process of BIM
and integrated project delivery,
structural and MEP engineers
can avoid expensive clashes
using Revit ® software and
Autodesk ® NavisWorks ®
software to analyze beams,
pipes, HVAC, and electrical
systems. All before ever
breaking ground.
By working together, architects
and contractors can use
management features to
create accurate construction
schedules and arrange
necessary materials – so no one
is left guessing.
HOW BIM TAKES THE
GUESSWORK OUT OF DESIGN
AND CONSTRUCTION.
autodesk.com/PowerofBIM
Autodesk, NavisWorks, and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk
reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at anytime without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

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