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Roadbuilding

September 1, 2010

Causeway collapse forces Saskatchewan highway closure

A section of causeway on a highway in Saskatchewan has collapsed into a lake, causing a crane that was being used for repairs to crash into the water.

August 19, 2010

Construction begins on new railway at Port Metro Vancouver

Port Metro Vancouver has started construction of a new railway bridge and underpass to relieve a transportation bottleneck and upgrade infrastructure at port facilities in North Vancouver.

August 17, 2010

Nova Scotia completes Highway 101 widening

Motorists on one of Nova Scotia’s most-travelled highways are benefiting from a new four-lane section of twinned road between St. Croix and Three Mile Plains on Highway 101.

August 13, 2010

U.S. sustainable roadbuilding program takes cues from LEED

There’s a roadbuilding project under way in central Oregon that looks like so many others in recent years — creating a four-lane separated highway with a grassy median and wildlife underpasses from a four-lane road without separation.

August 3, 2010

Construction begins on Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge in Ottawa

Construction has started on the Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge, a project that is expected to take pressure off existing bridges at Hunt Club Road and Bridge Street (Manotick) and support improved transit and transportation in the south Ottawa urban community.

July 20, 2010

Aecon Group selling stake in cross-Israel highway

Toronto-based Aecon Group Inc. has signed an agreement to sell its 25 per cent interest in the cross-Israel highway to a consortium headed by private equity fund Israel Infrastructure Management for $77.8 million.

July 14, 2010

Paved shoulders can improve air quality: report

New dust suppression methods on roadways and at construction sites in the Oakville-Clarkson area should be explored, a report to Ontario’s environment ministry recommends.

July 2, 2010

Families of Minneapolis bridge collapse victims seek extra damages

Victims of the deadly 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse took legal steps June 28 to seek punitive damages against an engineering firm that evaluated the bridge’s structural integrity before it fell.

June 25, 2010

Girder cracks, twists during bridge construction in Balzac, Alberta

A construction crew erecting a bridge on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway near Balzac, Alta. found out the hard way about the serious risks involved in this type of work. “While installing the last girder of the bridge over the southbound lanes, the girder cracked and twisted in final placement,” said RCMP Const. Francine Hennelly.

June 21, 2010

Ontario’s Bridge Training program to assist workers trained overseas

A $30-million boost to the province’s Bridge Training programs will help IBEW Local 353 tap into a pool of internationally trained electricians wanting to work in Ontario.

February 26, 2010

Major revamp for Windsor-Detroit ‘hazmat’ ferry dock

Despite its four-month construction time frame — and November start date — by late January more than half the work had been completed at the Detroit-Windsor truck ferry dock in Windsor’s Ojibway Industrial Park.

February 26, 2010

Build better roads starting from bottom up

Apparently thicker is better — at least when it comes to paving roads — according to an MTO expert.

February 26, 2010

Brampton, Ontario road expansion project scores two goals in a single shot

The $32-million two-lane widening and reconstruction of a seven- kilometre section of Queen Street East in Brampton is the largest single road contract project ever undertaken by Peel Region and is also helping to improve public transit connections.

February 26, 2010

Ontario Ministry of Transportation getting concrete results from pre-cast tests

Typically, road crews have a limited range of options to repair concrete roads on busy highways. Conventional concrete takes time to set, impeding traffic. Repairs completed with hot mix asphalt and fast track concrete can get traffic moving quickly but sacrifice durability.

February 26, 2010

Get hip to Reclaimed Ashpalt Pavement, roadbuilders urged

Roadbuilders and owners need to sing from the same song sheet about RAP, attendees at the Ontario Hot Mix Producers Association’s annual seminar heard.

February 26, 2010

Transparent noise barrier pilot program launched on QEW

Monolithic noise barriers have become a regular feature of Ontario highway construction.

February 26, 2010

London, Ontario hopes roundabout will improve traffic flow and safety

In rail travel’s golden era, the round house was key to helping a locomotive reverse direction. That idea comes full circle in a unique structure intended to improve safety and ease road traffic flow over CN rail tracks in London, Ontario.

February 26, 2010

Canadian Construction Association, B.C. road builders join forces to push for regulation changes

The B.C. Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association and the Canadian Construction Association are challenging the federal government over the definition of an inter-provincial carrier.

February 26, 2010

Highway 406 a perpetual paving testing ground

When it comes to designing pavement and engineering road building specifications, there’s nothing like a real world test lab to prove out ideas — the highway itself.

February 26, 2010

Grade separation will release traffic knots in Windsor, Ontario

When it comes to traffic and railways, Windsor is just a little different from other Canadian cities. And when it comes to building a road underneath one of those train lines things are different again.

February 26, 2010

International Snowplow Championship packed them in

It’s a mid-winter competition that has attracted contestants from around the world to Canada this February. The Vancouver 2010 Olympics?

February 26, 2010

‘Nasty’ terrain just one of the challenges on Port Mann Highway 1 project

The Port Mann Highway 1 (PMH1) project has involved working on some of Vancourver’s Lower Mainland’s most “nasty” terrain, meeting stringent environmental guidelines, and avoiding stiff penalties of up to $800,000 per hour for being on site past daily deadlines, recounts Don Jacobsen, project manager for Peter Kiewit Sons.

February 26, 2010

Nighttime is the right time for road works in Toronto

Decades ago, the idea of construction crews working on road building projects after dark was the exception, rather than the norm. Traffic be damned, construction work took precedence over commuters.

February 26, 2010

Column: Green theme popping up again and again for road builders

Green Again was the theme of the 83rd Ontario Road Builders’ Association (ORBA) convention February 1-2 in Toronto.