Ohio planning $2.3B of road and highway projects this year
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT)
announced Tuesday
it will spend $2.35 billion on almost 1,000 road and bridge projects across the state this season, according to an ODOT press release.
ODOT officials said 90% of every dollar the agency invests this year is going toward repairing and maintaining its infrastructure. The agency said it will replace 5,645 miles of pavement this year and work on 1,040 bridges. Last year, the ODOT spent $2.3 billion on roads and highways, completing work on almost 1,100 projects.
Ohio has the fourth largest interstate system by lane miles, and the ODOT said it is responsible for the upkeep of 43,211 miles of roads and 14,095 bridges. Ohio officials said the state's transportation system is their most valuable man-made asset and, since 2011, it has invested $16.4 billion across almost 8,000 projects.
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Corridors of Opportunity: Developers hail new era of re-industrialization to come from Royal Dutch Shell’s cracker plant
A lifelong resident of Beaver County and a developer,
Chuck Betters
has as close a view as anybody of the economic changes coming to his community from the ongoing construction of Royal Dutch Shell’s $6 billion cracker plant in Potter Township.
“What I’m watching them doing is incredible, both down on the site and the amounts of materials rolling in from all over the world,” said Betters, principal of CJ Betters Enterprises, who has become a major industrial landlord for Shell in Beaver County. “There are 50 trucks a day coming into two or three of our sites.”
Those trucks are bringing with them not only an ongoing stream of supplies for the construction of Shell’s new cracker, but also a dramatically changing outlook for the economic future of Beaver County. Betters explored the changing prospects of Beaver County and its new re-industrialization in a panel discussion along with development colleague
Pat Nardelli
, principal of
Castlebrook Development Group
, and
Darrin Kelly
, president of Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, PA AFL-CIO at the Corridors of Opportunity: Beaver County event held on April 4 at the Dome at the
Community College of Beaver County
.
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New Wellsburg-to-Brilliant Bridge Construction Could Begin This Summer
Construction of a bridge spanning the Ohio River between Brilliant and south of Wellsburg is expected to begin in mid-summer, according to Gus Suwaid, West Virginia Division of Highways District 6 engineer.
Suwaid provided updates on the bridge and other road projects on Wednesday while meeting with the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission. Suwaid said the start of the $131 million bridge project is awaiting the issuance of permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard and others.
Once those are approved, easements for property in the area will be pursued, he said.
Suwaid confirmed much of the adjacent property is owned by the state, which was one reason it was favored as the span’s future site.
Two BHJ studies showed the need for the new bridge, citing the advancing age of the Market Street Bridge and the since-demolished Fort Steuben Bridge and the distance between the newer Veterans Memorial Bridge and bridges in the Wheeling area.
Officials have suggested the span would encourage economic development in the southern ends of Brooke and Jefferson counties while offering another transportation artery in areas that have been plagued by rock slides.
The Flatiron Corp. was selected as the general contractor after submitting the lowest of three bids and a proposal that reduced the anticipated completion date by a year. To complete the bridge by spring 2021,
the company plans to build the span in segments elsewhere, then ship them by barge to the project site.
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Rapid bridge replacement program uses design-build strategy to success
When facing what seemed like an overwhelming backlog of bridges badly in need of repair, a never-before used tactic was taken in 2014.
“This was the first large transportation public private partnership project in Pennsylvania and its the first of its kind nationally,” said
George McAuley
Jr., deputy secretary for Highway Administration for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
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Why construction companies should embrace technology
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While technological advancement is rapidly expanding in the construction world, many companies are still conducting business in a similar way they did decades ago. In a
2017 global survey conducted by KPMG
, findings showed that even though 72% of the engineering and construction executives surveyed stated that technological innovation played a role in their vision, less than half had a clear strategy in place to integrate those advancements.
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An
Emergency Response Plan
can be a highly effective way of ensuring that the proper protocols are followed in the event of a workplace accident or other crisis. The recent bridge collapse in Florida underscores the importance of such plans for construction operators. If you are interested in emergency response planning. OVCEC member Ben McFarland of Steptoe & Johnson offers the following He can be reached at
Ben.McFarland@Steptoe-Johnson.com
.
THE DETAILS:
On Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, signaling six more weeks of winter. Given the likely bad weather, these six weeks of “down time” are the perfect opportunity for construction professionals to develop, review, and implement their companies’ emergency response plan.
The United States Department of Labor reports that in 2016, 21.1% of all fatal accidents in the workplace were reported in the construction industry. With the passage of the road bond amendment, and the expected increase in heavy construction in West Virginia in the coming years, workplace incidents are apt to increase. Time is of the essence to put into place – and to test -- an emergency response plan to protect your workforce, as well as your bottom line.
The primary goal of a well-constructed emergency response plan is to provide a detailed roadmap to help a company navigate the immediate aftermath of a crisis occurring when someone is injured or dies on a jobsite. Thereafter, the secondary goal of an emergency response plan is to reduce the interruption of business operations by allowing a construction company to resume operations promptly once the crisis has been resolved.
Click here
to learn what your emergency response plan should encompass.
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7 Ways HVAC Service Companies Succeed by Texting
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As an HVAC service company, you’ve got a lot going on. You’re trying to get new customers while servicing current customers, and make everyone happy.
Then you’ve got technicians to manage, budgets to keep up with, and various technologies to monitor so everything runs smoothly. Add the high level of competition for HVAC services in your area, and it’s a lot to handle!
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10 Ways to Make Life at Work Substantially Easier
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We spend more time working and thinking about work than anything else. So if we can make life at work easier, life in general will get better, too.
Sometimes difficult tasks and situations do help us grow, so easier doesn't always mean better. But today we're talking about removing unnecessary stressors that will make things both easier and better.
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Ohio Valley Construction Employers Council
Ginny Favede, Executive Director
21 Armory Drive Wheeling West Virginia 26003
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