CEREDO — The year 2018 was one of the most successful for Huntington Tri-State Airport (HTS), which is now looking to build off that momentum in 2019.
In the past year, a number of improvement projects began and are expected to be completed within the coming year. In addition to cosmetic and safety improvements, the airport is also aggressively pursuing new destinations to offer customers in an effort to make traveling easier for area residents and to provide options similar to Yeager Airport in Charleston, located 63 miles east of HTS.
Allegiant Air - one of two commercial airlines offering service to a from HTS - this year announced the addition of a fifth destination for customers.
The airline announced mid-February that it will offer twice-weekly nonstop service from Huntington Tri-State Airport to the Florida Panhandle via Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport beginning June 6. Flights to and from the new destination will be on Sundays and Thursdays.
With the addition of this new route to a region that is called the Emerald Coast, Allegiant will now serve five cities from Huntington Tri-State Airport.
Huntington Tri-State Airport Director Brent Brown said he would continue to pursue a new direct route to Chicago after American Airlines declined to support one.
Brown, speaking at a Huntington Tri-State Airport Authority meeting in February, said he had been working with an airline consulting firm to secure a letter of support for nonstop flights to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Currently, American Airlines offers connecting flights to Chicago.
"At this time they don't want to offer a letter of support," Brown said. "If we were to get a new route, specifically Chicago, it will be several years out."
The ultimate goal is to allow for easier west-bound travel from Huntington Tri-State. Currently, all connecting flights are further east than the airports location, with heavy travel coming to and from Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. A destination like Chicago would eliminate backtracking and allow travelers a stop en route to final destinations in the Midwest and western regions of the country.
"It just allows our community to expand both incoming and outgoing. Being so close to Charleston, it allows people to compare prices. adding more routes give our customers more options to factor in to their decision on where to fly from."
Brown said airport records indicated HTS saw greater than 100,000 deplanements in 2018 - a number that factors in to the allowance of additional destinations, regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
"Airlines are able to use those numbers and figure out if a new route makes sense. What happens is, when they add a new route, they would pull an existing route to include us in their roster."
President and CEO of the Huntington Area Development Council (HADCO) David Lieving said the success of HTS has a direct impact on the local economy as well as future industry growth in parts of Wayne County and other surrounding areas.
"The airport has really improved, and its an important part of the economy here in this area. When we talk to international companies, they want to know where the closest international airport is located and how options on how to get from there to here," Lieving said. "We are a regional airport to Kentucky, Southeast Ohio, as well as part of West Virginia. We have to have good air service in order for us to grow economically."
Two major ongoing airports projects are expected to be completed by the end of summer 2019.
In May 2018, construction began on a dual elevator and covered stairwell with the goal of making the airport's entrance more accessible to travelers parked in the main long-term parking lot.
The $1.2 million project was originally expected to be completed in August or September of 2018, but according to Brown, construction was slow moving over the fall and winter months due to weather restraints, citing the significant amount of rain in the region has delayed progress.
Still, the dual elevator and stairwell is expected to be completed and in operation by late May or early June 2019. Construction plans now include an extension of the canopy in front of the airport that will connect with the new structure, which was not included in the original plans for construction.
"When we started the project, it was just an elevator. Now we've gone in and added a canopy that will extend from the existing canopy in front of the building and connect to the elevator building. Not only will it be a little more aesthetically pleasing but also will add some needed coverage to protect travelers from any foul weather or even the heat in summer months," Brown said.
The Taxiway Alpha Relocation Project, is also projected to be complete by the end of summer.
Brown said the relocation of the taxiway running parallel to the main terminal came about after administration learned the current location did not meet FAA safety requirements.
"We are reconstructing and relocating our current taxiway Alpha East," Brown said. "We are moving that taxiway 75 feet to the north, further away from the runway, which will give us the appropriate distance from the taxiway to the runway."
Work began in April 2017 and was initially planned to be completed in September 2018, but the timeline was also delayed by weather.
At a cost of $13 million, FAA grant money is being used to fund the project, as well as some assistance from state government.
Luke Creasy is a reporter for HD Media. Follow him on Twitter @HDcreasy.
About Huntington Tri-State Airport
SERVICES: Huntington Tri-State Airport handles commercial airline, air cargo, military and general aviation traffic.
LOCATION: Tri-State Airport is located approximately 9 miles west of Huntington in Wayne County.
DESTINATIONS: HTS has two major airlines serving five non-stop destinations, including: Charlotte, Orlando, St. Petersburg/Clearwater, and Myrtle Beach. General Aviation services are provided by the Huntington Jet Center (FBO).
Mike clower,executive director of the contractors association of virginia
It's not very often that a state can go from last to first in any category without first undergoing years of struggle and clawing its way to the top; however, this is exactly what West Virginia did when it created an astounding number of construction jobs in 2017.
From January to December of 2017, construction jobs in West Virginia jumped by 4,300, an increase of more than 14 percent, making it the highest growth in the country, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of U.S Department of Labor.
Experts in this field point to the state's "Roads to Prosperity" bond referendum, as well as the advancement of several pipeline projects in the northern part of West Virginia as the reason for this growth.
In the oil and gas industry alone, employment has continued to rise, more than tripling over the first three quarter of 2018, rising from 4,276 to 14,476, according to data from the West Virginia Department of Commerce.
Prior to 2017, the number of jobs in the oil and gas industry in West Virginia hovered at or under 3,000.
While these two industries have picked up momentum due to ongoing projects, eventually those projects will be finished, begging the question of whether or not West Virginia will slip back down to the bottom of the pack once again.
Many with a stake in the construction business are working to ensure this momentum does not fade by pushing for investments in infrastructure to entice existing businesses to grow as well as new businesses to relocate to the Mountain State, while also encouraging more training in the construction field to school-age children in order to build a large workforce, which is already needed.
One of those individuals striking for this is Mike Clowser, the executive director of the Contractors Association of West Virginia, which serves the interest of contractors who perform commercial building, utility, industrial, highway and heavy construction throughout the state of West Virginia.
In February, The Herald-Dispatch spoke with Clowser about his thoughts on West Virginia construction industry, specifically where it's been, where it's going and how will it benefit those chose to call the state home.
Q: How did West Virginia go from being at the very bottom of the pack in construction employment to leading the country in construction employment growth?
A: West Virginia from 2011 to about 2014, out of the 50 states plus Washington, D.C, was ranking about 50th in the country in construction job growth. A couple of times we were 51st.
This is because West Virginia construction employment for a number of years was very lagging.
But then between January and December of 2017 construction jobs grew by 4,300, a growth rate of more than 14 percent, which made us the highest percentage of job growth in the country for 2017.
Here we were being national ranked 50th and 51st for a number of years and in 2017 we had the largest percentage of construction growth in the country taking us to number one.
A large part of that turnaround can be attributed to the construction activity from Gov. Jim Justice's road building campaign, including the "Roads to Prosperity" bond amendment and the West Virginia Legislature increasing funding for the West Virginia Division of Highways, which all happened in 2017.
What we saw was once funding was available and once the Division of Highways started getting projects out, not only did you see construction employment rising in the state, but we saw a number of other areas that supplied the construction industry - steel, aggregate, asphalt suppliers - we saw those people hiring.
We also saw engineering firms hiring additional people to design the projects, so with the highway funding bill plus the Roads to Prosperity bond amendment, we are seeing more construction employment in the state.
Another factor leading to West Virginia's number one ranking is the multiple natural gas line projects underway in the state. We have many contractors and subcontractors from supply firms that are working in the oil and gas industry designing and constructing well pads, retention ponds, access roads, water lines, everything associated with putting in a pipeline.
Also what we've seen is for the first time in a long time, our contractors are going back to work in the coal mines. A lot of our members routinely work at coal companies doing mine face ups, working on haul roads and other construction related activities.
The state also approved an $80 million bond package for improvements at state parks and recreation facilities around the state.
Q: Is this growth in construction jobs evenly disbursed throughout the state or is it clustered in certain areas?
A: We are seeing pretty much a dichotomy between the northern part and the southern part of West Virginia.
We have a lot of members north of Charleston, in Clarksburg, Morgantown, Wheeling and in the Eastern Panhandle section of the state, that have a lot of work going on. They are actually looking for employees.
But when you're looking at Charleston and going south into Mercer County and McDowell County, there is not a lot of construction activity going on in that part of the state that we see right now.
You have oil and gas construction in the northern part of the state, then there is a lot of work at West Virginian University, there is development going on in Clarksburg, Procter & Gamble in the eastern part of the state - you've got a lot more development activity there than what is going on in the southern part of the state.
The question that we have as CAWV is what can we do to jump start economic development and job creation on all parts of West Virginia?
A few things we looked at within our association is developing infrastructure. You have to have a safe and modern road system in order to get companies wanting to come into the area.
You have to have modern water and sewer facilities that not only let existing companies expand because if your water or sewer system isn't up to speed you can't add capacity.
Companies who are moving in also want a modern school system, so you need to look at those counties that need to upgrade their middle schools and high schools to make sure that the students there have safe and modern school facilities to go to.
We have historically looked at the state continually investing in its infrastructure for economic development and for jobs. What we have seen with the road bond amendment and the highway funding bill, we are seeing more employment, which is obvious from the number you're looking at.
There is a direct correlation between investing in infrastructure and job growth in the state of West Virginia.
One of largest increase of construction jobs (in the nation) was in the Weirton-Steubenville, W.Va. OH Metropolitan Statistical Area (which includes West Virginia's northern panhandle along with Ohio). It ranks third in the nation with a 21 percent increase in construction jobs from October 2017 to October 2018.
Out of 358 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (in the nation), the Huntington-Ashland MSA ranks 257. From December 2017 to December 2018, 100 construction jobs were added in the Huntington-Ashland MSA, (going from 7,700 construction jobs to 7,800).
There are a few things in Huntington that are beneficial. The retail construction going on there, we were also seeing some hospital expansion and road construction on (Interstate) 64. Marshall University is also doing new construction. Having Marshall down there is obviously a catalyst for that area. This is why it's been a little different from the southern West Virginia downturn.
Charleston is among the worst, ranking 354 in its MSA. From December 2017 to December 2018, it went from 7,100 construction jobs to 6,700.
Q: With the construction industry growing in recent years, what is the CAWV doing to entice more individuals to choose construction as a career option?
A: Workforce development, that is our number one objective for the CAWV for this year is getting more qualified people into construction in the state of West Virginia.
A lot of our members in the northern panhandle, their issue is finding qualified workers. Our board of directors, hearing the concerns our members have, voted to make workforce development our number one priority for the year.
We have made great strides since we started this back in November. We have been meeting with Steve Paine (West Virginia's Superintendent of Schools) and his staff. We were also invited to participate in the annual meeting of their vocational teachers at Morgantown.
The governor has proposed "Jim's Dream," which is his plan to bring at-risk individuals that may or may not have addiction problems, but to be able to take those types of people and put them in a training program and make them viable applicants for not only construction but manufacturing and coal.
He has proposed that at the Legislature and has directed Maj. Gen. James Hoyer (adjutant general of the state's National Guard) to get that program up and running and we have been working with Hoyer and his staff to see what construction curriculum needs to be in place.
We are very excited about that opportunity and looking forward to working with the governor and his team and see if we can put a lot of West Virginians to work in high-paying construction jobs.
Q: From my experience covering education, there seems to be a stigma associated with jobs such as these. Many feel that in order to have a successful career you have to attend a four-year college. How are you working to overcome these stigmas and show parents and students that there are alternative options that can yield just as successful a result?
A: That is probably one of the top issues that our workforce development taskforce is putting on the agenda.
Probably a lot of the counselors promote college prep or college entrance courses when a lot of these kids probably don't want to go to college or do not need to go to college or would have a great career making a lot of money and also have no debt when they walk out of school if we can train them.
That was one of the discussions we had with the vo-tech directors around the state.
How can we reach those students and show that construction is not working in a ditch with a shovel, it's working with technology and machines or working with design.
One of the key issues that out workforce development task force is charged with is how do we promote not only to the kids but to the parents, to let the parents know that their kids don't want to spend four years in college and four years racking up debt for a job that they may not want to do or will pay enough to pay off their college debt.
Q: What is the role of the Contractors Association of West Virginia in helping to aid the construction industry in West Virginia?
A: We are over 90 years old and we represent building contractors, water and sewer contractors, highway and bridge contractors - our members do industrial work, airports, hospitals and school office building and so forth. We like to think that (our members) build West Virginia.
If you look at the infrastructure in the state, if we did not have roads, if we did not have bridges, if we did not have water and sewer, obviously the quality of life would be much different in West Virginia.
Our members are the ones that go out and hire the individuals who go out every day, put those boots on and go out and build these projects.
What we try to do as the CAWV is to be the voice of construction, to advance our issue that we must invest in infrastructure in order to create jobs and economic development.
We do that by working with the governor and his administration and working with the Legislature. We try to promote the fact that there will not be businesses moving in or jobs created until we build the necessary infrastructure that allows those companies to come in and flourish and to grow and be able to locate here.
We represent individual companies, and our roughly 450 members probably employ over 20,000 West Virginians throughout the state.
If there is something that is affecting the construction industry, our members are the first to know and most importantly our members are at the table on those issues affecting their companies, whether it's their ability to work or to compete or how they perform their work.
Any federal or state agency that puts out construction projects, we have a joint committee with them to where we talk about specifications and technical issues, methods of constructions - all of those discussions are centered around how can we build a better product at a lesser price for the taxpayers who ultimately fund these projects.
I think our members appreciate the fact that we're at the table participating in those discussions that foster and benefit the construction industry and ultimately we think it benefits the taxpayers of West Virginia with coming up with better and cheaper ways to build roads and bridges, schools, and water and sewer systems.
Q: Construction jobs in West Virginia have continued to grow over the past few years, but what is the likelihood that the state can sustain this growth?
A: That gets back to the purpose of the CAWV. We have historically promoted investing in infrastructure as a way to create jobs and as a way to create economic development in that state of West Virginia and we're going to continue to do that.
I think after this road program and after the oil and gas pipeline - obviously once those projects are done the question is how do you sustain that?
But one of the purposes of doing the Roads to Prosperity projects is to create more economic development opportunities for the state.
If we continue to promote good schools and money for upgrading our schools, if we continue promoting infrastructure development for companies to have a readily available site to come in and build and move into - as long as we keep investing in infrastructure, West Virginia will continue to grow, will continue to create jobs which will continue to be in construction to build and maintains those.
We think that there is always going to be a need for good qualified individuals moving into the construction industry.
I've always joked but I firmly believe it, the road to progress is always under construction and as long as we are doing construction in the state of West Virginia, we are going to continue to progress here.
President Donald Trump signs the first veto of his presidency in the White House on March 15. Trump issued the veto to protect his emergency declaration for border wall funding. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The local impact of President Trump’s decision to go around Congress in funding $8 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is starting to become clear.
When Congress funded only $1.4 billion of the $5.7 billion Trump wanted for the border wall, the president declared an emergency and said he would transfer money from other appropriated projects.
Defense projects were always thought to be likely sources for the emergency money, and that’s looking increasingly likely. Last week, we found out that Oklahoma military projects were among those that could possibly lose their funding.
An $8 million small arms range at the Oklahoma Air National Guard base in Tulsa, a $16 million fire rescue center at Altus Air Force Base and a $7 million diesel system at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant are all potential budget victims, according to a Pentagon memo.
The projects have all been approved by Congress but haven’t been awarded by the Defense Department, which is what makes them prime targets for wall funding.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe says the Defense Department list isn’t definitive, but we all know that if those projects don’t lose their money, others certainly will. The money has to come from somewhere.
We can’t say that we were breathlessly awaiting the construction of the Air National Guard’s small arms range, but that project is important, and it certainly has one thing going for it that the emergency declaration doesn’t — congressional approval.
Trump’s emergency declaration is under challenge in the federal courts and before Congress. It may well survive, but that doesn’t make it good policy. The president’s supporters need to remember that Trump’s emergency today sets the pattern for the next Democratic president’s emergency down the road, and that might not be a project that seems like such a good idea.
The only proper way to fund a wall is through the congressional appropriations process. Trump acknowledged that when he made his original request and when he included another $8.6 billion in wall funding in his most recent budget proposal. Trump should recognize that his emergency declaration is bad policy and continue his fight for the wall through the appropriate channels.
There was long applause as the two leaders met to witness the signature of the deals
Italy has become the first developed economy to sign up to China's global investment programme which has raised concerns among Italy's Western allies.
A total of 29 deals amounting to €2.5bn ($2.8bn) were signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Rome.
The project is seen as a new Silk Road which, just like the ancient trade route, aims to link China to Europe.
Italy's European Union allies and the United States have expressed concern at China's growing influence.
The new Silk Road has another name - the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - and it involves a wave of Chinese funding for major infrastructure projects around the world, in a bid to speed Chinese goods to markets further afield. Critics see it as also representing a bold bid for geo-political and strategic influence.
It has already funded trains, roads, and ports, with Chinese construction firms given lucrative contracts to connect ports and cities - funded by loans from Chinese banks.
The levels of debt owed by African and South Asian nations to China have raised concerns in the West and among citizens - but roads and railways have been built that would not exist otherwise:
On behalf of Italy, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the populist Five Star Movement, signed the umbrella deal (memorandum of intent) making Italy formally part of the Economic Silk Road and The Initiative for a Maritime Silk Road for the 21st Century.
Ministers then signed deals over energy, finance, and agricultural produce, followed by the heads of big Italian gas and energy, and engineering firms - which will be offered entry into the Chinese market.
China's Communications and Construction Company will be given access to the port of Trieste to enable links to central and eastern Europe. The Chinese will also be involved in developing the port of Genoa.
Italy is the first member of the G7 group of developed world economies to take money offered by China.
It is one of the world's top 10 largest economies - yet Rome finds itself in a curious situation.
The collapse of the Genoa bridge in August killed dozens of people and made Italy's crumbling infrastructure a major political issue for the first time in decades.
And Italy's economy is far from booming.
The country slipped into recession at the end of 2018, and its national debt levels are among the highest in the eurozone. Italy's populist government came to power in June 2018 with high-spending plans but had to peg them back after a stand-off with the EU.
Mr Di Maio told a news conference: "Italy has arrived first on the Silk Road and therefore other European countries at this moment have taken a stance on our trade decisions.
"They have taken a critical view and they have the right to this opinion."
"We do not want to override our European partners. We firmly remain in the Euro-Atlantic alliance and we remain allies of the United States in Nato," he added.
There is, however, dissent within the Italian government. Mr Di Maio's coalition partner, the other Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, who heads the right-wing League, was conspicuously absent from all official ceremonies.
Mr Salvini has warned that he does not want to see foreign businesses "colonising" Italy.
"Before allowing someone to invest in the ports of Trieste or Genoa, I would think about it not once but a hundred times," Mr Salvini warned.
What's in it for China?
Italy's move is "largely symbolic", according to Peter Frankopan, professor of Global History at Oxford University and a writer on The Silk Roads.
But even Rome admitting the BRI is worth exploring "has a value for Beijing", he said.
"It adds gloss to the existing scheme and also shows that China has an important global role."
"The seemingly innocuous move comes at a sensitive time for Europe and the European Union, where there is suddenly a great deal of trepidation not only about China, but about working out how Europe or the EU should adapt and react to a changing world," Prof Frankopan told the BBC.
"But there is more at stake here too," he added. "If investment does not come from China to build ports, refineries, railway lines and so on, then where will it come from?"
Explorer Marco Polo's travels along the Silk Road were immortalised in the "Book of Marvels"
The "made in Italy" label carries a reputation for quality worldwide, and is legally protected for products items processed "mainly" in Italy.
In recent years, Chinese factories based in Italy using Chinese labour have been challenging that mark of quality.
Better connections for cheap raw materials from China - and the return of finished products from Italy - could exaggerate that practice.
The agreements signed in Rome come amid questions over whether Chinese firm Huawei should be permitted to build essential communications networks - after the United States expressed concern they could help Beijing spy on the West.
That was not part of the negotiations in Italy.
But a little over a week before the deal was due to be signed, the European Commission released a joint statement on "China's growing economic power and political influence" and the need to "review" relations.
As President Xi toured Rome, EU leaders in Brussels considered their approach for relations with China.
"Our aim is to focus on achieving a balanced relation, which ensures fair competition and equal market access," Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, said.
In March, US National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis pointed out that Italy was a major economy and did not need to "lend legitimacy to China's vanity infrastructure project".
Maggie Boepple, the director of the Ronald O. Perelman Center for the Performing Arts in Lower Manhattan, stood in front of a beam stored in New Jersey that will become the main anchor for the center.
Words are written on it, steelworkers’ words like “OK to weld” that do not speak to what happened in the place where it is going.
They are written on the last steel beam for one of the last major construction projects at the World Trade Center site, brand-new metal bound for a place where 18 years ago ruined girders became symbols of destruction.
At some point in early April, truckers will haul the 374,000-pound, 34-feet-long, 12-feet tall beam over the George Washington Bridge and down the West Side Highway under a police escort. It has been lying on its side on a trailer in a parking lot in New Jersey. One of the trucking-company executives involved in the move said the tolls would probably cost about $700.
When it arrives in Lower Manhattan, it will play an important role at a performing arts center, holding the place up — literally. It is to be the linchpin of a building that will have three theaters close to 1 World Trade Center, so close that the beam will be fitted into two slots in the concrete foundation of that 1,776-foot-tall tower.
The designers say the beam and six smaller ones already in place will act like massive stilts, distributing the weight of the new arts complex, officially known as the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center.
The beam has a name. “Big Boy, we sometimes call it,” said Maggie Boepple, the president of the arts center. “Who was the Greek god who held up the world? Big Boy is our Atlas. Unfortunately, he’ll be in the dark very soon. He will be covered by concrete and very expensive fire-retardant paint and some foam.”
Ms. Boepple was so excited about the beam that she went to New Jersey for a first look with colleagues on the arts center team. “I spent two years looking at things thing on a piece of paper,” said Matthew Wilson, the construction manager. “It’s good to see it.”
Ms. Boepple said she was “almost weepy, and I’m not like that.”
Unlike the office towers and the Cortlandt Street subway stop on the No. 1 line, which was buried under debris on Sept. 11, 2001, the arts center is not a replacement for something that was destroyed. The trade center complex never had an arts center.
But Daniel Libeskind’s 2003 master plan for the site called for one, and the architect Frank Gehry did two mock-ups, a building that was a series of rectangular shapes, like shoe boxes stacked atop one another. There was talk of possible tenants, including the New York City Opera, the Signature Theater and the Joyce Theater.
The City Opera filed for bankruptcy, the Signature moved to West 42nd Street, the Joyce stayed put in Chelsea, Mr. Gehry’s blueprints were put aside and the arts center seemed slow to evolve.
Ms. Boepple said it could not have taken shape sooner, because it will occupy space that had been used for a PATH station until Santiago Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub opened in 2016.
But according to Frank Sciame, the chairman of the construction company that will build the Perelman structure once the beam is in place, it had an influential champion: John C. Whitehead, a well-connected former investment banker who was the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, a state entity that was given the mandate to rebuild the trade center site.
Mr. Sciame said that when stakeholders were wrangling over real estate and federal aid, tax breaks and insurance payments, Mr. Whitehead told him, “Do not touch the performing arts center. Without the performing arts center, ground zero and Lower Manhattan will never be revitalized.” (Mr. Whitehead died in 2015.)
The current plan was eventually created by the Brooklyn-based firm REX and its principal, Joshua Ramus, who was formerly a partner of Rem Koolhaas. The marble-skinned cube will be a flexible performance space with maneuverable walls that can be joined in different ways, forming three small-to-medium-size theaters, or a single 1,200-seat one. There are 13 possible combinations.
When the project is completed in 2021, there will be a restaurant and cafe in the lobby. Ms. Boepple said she had heard from people who work in the office towers at the trade center that “what they wanted was a place to come and hang out and get away from the corporate atmosphere.” She said she was borrowing “the whole concept of hanging out” from the Young Vic Theater in London. “It’s open all day long,” she said, “and it’s always full.
So far, the center has raised 84 percent of the $390 million construction cost. Mr. Perelman, a billionaire, jump-started the project with a $75 million donation in 2016, less than a year after he stepped down as chairman of Carnegie Hall, where he had clashed with its staff and other board members. (He said in 2016 that his donation was not related to his departure from Carnegie Hall.)
Last year, the center hired an artistic director, Bill Rauch of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, who has a reputation for commissioning intriguing projects. Some arts executives say one challenge the Perelman could face is standing out, considering the competition for audiences from spaces like the Shed, in the new Hudson Yards complex.
The project is unusually complicated because the theater will sit not on the ground but on top of a structure owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Ms. Boepple said it houses nine kennels for Port Authority police dogs and a messenger center for 1 World Trade Center, among other things.
For the beam, the New Jersey parking lot, down the road from a landfill and a truck-overhaul garage, is a stop on a journey that began in Columbia, S.C., where it was fabricated. John McCafferty of J. Supro and Son, the company that will carry the beam into Manhattan, said it had taken eight weeks to negotiate a route. City agencies turned down several possibilities, he said, and the clearance on some turns will be tight.
“There are times where you’re talking about an inch,” Mr. McCafferty said.
Ms. Boepple walked around the beam in the parking lot, delighted. “Over and over, the structural engineers did these calculations, and we had all the naysayers — ‘Can’t be done, can’t be done,’” she said.
One batch of calculations showed that the beam could bear a load of more than 6,600 tons. Another, less essential set showed that 6,600 tons was slightly more than the weight of 900 elephants.
“Big elephants,” Ms. Boepple said. “We’re not talking about babies. Adults.”
ADNOC is building the world's largest underground oil storage project, with a capacity of 42mn barrels of crude oil, in UAE emirate Fujairah, a global industry storage and trading hub. It awarded a $1.21bn engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to South Korea's SK Engineering and Construction Co (SKEC) for the project.
SKEC will construct three underground storage caverns, each with a capacity of 14mn barrels, deep below ground level.
“Importantly, developing this strategic oil storage mega facility in Fujairah will also support and further enable our broader trading ambitions, strengthening our ability to respond efficiently and competitively to the needs of our customers, while also providing ADNOC with greater flexibility to proactively respond to market needs and commercial opportunities," ADNOC Group CEO Dr. Sultan Al Jaber said.
Works commenced in 2018 and the first phase of the ADNOC Fujairah Underground Storage, involving the construction of an access tunnel, has been completed. When complete in 2022, the ADNOC Fujairah Underground Storage will be one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world and able to store three different types of crude oil, providing ADNOC with increased flexibility to export crude through Fujairah’s Arabian Sea oil terminal.
The EPC contract award followed a tendering process that included a rigorous assessment of how much of the contract value would support the growth and diversification of the UAE’s domestic economy through ADNOC’s In-Country Value program. ADNOC says up to $600mn (50%) of the contract spend will feed back into the UAE economy through ADNOC’s In-Country Value program.
In November, ADNOC signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) to explore storing ADNOC crude oil at ISPRL’s underground storage facility at Padur in Karnataka, India. This agreement followed the arrival of the final shipment of the initial delivery of ADNOC crude to be stored in another ISPRL underground facility in Mangalore, earlier the same month.
ADNOC also stores up to 6.29mn barrels of crude oil at the Kiire oil terminal in Kagoshima, southern Japan, under an agreement with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
In the upstream, Korea’s GS Energy was awarded a 3% stake in the ADNOC Onshore concession in May 2015, while Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) and GS Energy hold a 40% stake in the Al Dhafra Petroleum concession area, where first crude oil production is expected in 2019.
Jones Engineering is playing its part in building Riyadh's Metro system
Known as the ‘The Hands That Built America’, the Irish have had a role in building and designing some of the most iconic structures around the world.
The home of the President of the United States, the White House, is the brainchild of Irish architect James Hoban, while Irish immigrants played a pivotal role in building Chicago from the ground up.
Two Irish men feature in the ‘Lunch Atop a Skyscraper’
Their work spans the globe from Sydney to Paris. It was once the focus across the pond too.
In the 1960s, special camps were even set up in Bristol to house the many Irish men working in construction.
The next stop along that history is Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
The traffic jams in Riyadh would put the Jack Lynch Tunnel at 8am and Lough Atalia Toad at 5pm to shame.
Cars fill highways daily, swerving in and out of three, maybe four, sometimes five lane highways. Riyadh's roads are alarmingly dangerous with near misses at every corner.
Statistics are there to prove it too, with more than six million car accidents every year. More than eight out of ten crashes are on the highways and blamed on mobile phone usage.
There's one major reason for the high number of cars. The Saudi capital is a city with eight million people with no public transport system.
It is a well overdue solution as the population is set to increase by 30% by 2030.
The plan is part of the royal family's ‘Vision 2030’, pumping money into a luxurious skyline but also a transport system.
The country's first metro and bus system is an ambitious project with a hefty price tag of $30bn.
Thirty metres underground, an Irish company is playing its part in building it.
Jones Engineering has been in Saudi Arabia for nine years working on major projects across the kingdom and now they are part of one of the biggest in the world.
At the station known as '1b2' (the name before a sponsor snaps it up), the Irish contractor has been providing the mechanical and electrical aspects for the past year.
Around 330 driverless trains are planned to travel along the lines over the coming years, carrying more than 3.2 million people a day.
Standing on the track of a new line and decked out in hi-vis, goggles and a hard hat with the Saudi swords embellished, General Manager of Jones Engineering in Saudi Arabia, John Hartnett said it was "prestigious" to be working on "one of the biggest metro projects worldwide", and the only Irish contractor to do so.
"I've been working in Saudi Arabia since 2010. We've done quite a number of projects in different sectors. We've worked across the country mainly in Jeddah, up in Ha'il and the eastern province as well and recently we've completed some projects over in Bahrain," he said.
After carving out 36km of tunnels, teams are now working to test the trains, build high spec stations and install 10,000 security cameras for buses, trains and stations.
There are more than 250 construction sites around the Saudi capital at the moment, with the Irish team comprising six project managers, engineers and supervisors.
More than 3,000 Irish people live and work in a range of sectors across Saudi Arabia.
An opportunity for "experience" is how Operations Manager for Jones Engineering Richard Coughlan describes it.
The Cork man moved to the Middle East a few years ago and said working on an significant project like this is an opportunity you would not get at home.
"The benefits are the experience working on an infrastructure project like this that you might not necessarily get back home, so from an engineer perspective it's the experience. It's positive from our side definitely." Mr Coughlan said.
Some of the Irish workers are taking working abroad as an opportunity.
Sean from Limerick and local man Sultan giggle and joke with each at '1b2', both telling me of their love for GAA and Munster rugby. The two men live together and watch sport every weekend.
In a surprise move, Sultan hasn't been infected by Sean's Limerick influence and All-Ireland win, and supports 'The Cats'. However, he stays loyal to Sean's Munster rugby and he has even learned a cúpla focal.
Mr Harnett said this rail project will bring something new to the changes in Saudi Arabia, where both men and women will be mixing more, which is "a massive cultural change for this country".
Jones Engineering's involvement in this massive project is a further example of an Irish group abroad making an impact in a time of change and working Ireland further into the DNA of another country.
Normally, it takes 10 Marines five days to build a traditional barracks out of wood.
The Additive Manufacturing Team at Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) and Marines from I Marine Expeditionary Force recently teamed up at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center to 3D print a barracks.
The team used a computer-aided design model on a 10-year-old computer, concrete, and a 3D printer to create the 500-sf building. The job took 40 hours, but the Marines claim if there was a robot to do the mixing and pumping, the building could easily be created in one day. Typically, it takes 10 Marines five days to build a barracks out of wood.
According to Capt. Matthew Friedell, AM project officer in MCSC’s Operations and Programs/G-3, nothing like this has been done before. “People have printed buildings and large structures, but they haven’t done it onsite and all at once. This is the first-in-the-world onsite, continuous concrete print,” Friedell said in a release.
Courtesy Marine Corps.
Not only does using a concrete printer expedite barracks construction, but it can also help keep Marines safe. “In active or simulated combat environments, we don’t want Marines out there swinging hammers and holding plywood up. Having a concrete printer that can make buildings on demand is a huge advantage for Marines operating down range,” says Friedell.
The Marine Corps is currently staffing a deliberate urgent needs statement and concept of employment for this technology. The results of the field user evaluation will inform future requirements to give the Corps a concrete construction additive manufacturing program of record.
The Dubai Future Foundation recently announced the Dubai 3D Printing Strategy.
Dubai is going all in on 3D printing. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, recently launched the “Dubai 3D Printing Strategy,” an initiative that will set up Dubai as a leading hub of 3D printing and technology by the year 2030.
Among the many sectors the initiative focuses on is the construction sector. Lighting products, bases and foundations, construction joints, facilities and parks, buildings for humanitarian causes, and mobile homes will all see a shift towards 3D printing. The goal is for 25% of every new building in Dubai to be 3D printed by 2025, based on Dubai Municipality’s regulations. This will begin in 2019, starting at 2%, and gradually increase to meet the goal by 2025.
According to the Dubai 3D Printing Strategy, 3D printing technology will cut construction costs by between 50% and 70% and labor costs by 50% to 80%. It will also reduce waste produced in construction operations by up to 60%.
Other major sectors the initiative will focus on are the medical products sector and the consumer products sector. By 2025, the Dubai 3D Printing Strategy believes the 3D printed consumer products market will be worth 2.8 billion AED (about $762 million) and the 3D printed medical products market to be worth 1.7 billion AED (about $462 million).
Courtesy COBOD
Saudi Arabian construction company Elite for Construction & Development, Co. recently purchased the world’s largest 3D construction printer, the BOD2, from Copenhagen-based COBOD. Elite for Construction & Development made the purchase in response to Saudi Arabia’s need to build 1.5 million houses in the next ten years.
The printer has the capability of printing buildings that are 12 meters wide, 27 meters long, and nine meters high. It can produce three-story buildings of more than 300 sm per floor in one go, and Elite for Construction & Development plans to utilize these capabilities.
“We will make this revolutionizing technology available in all of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We will be able to carry out projects with our own crews and based on 3D printable concrete made locally,” said Saad Al Shathri, General Manager of Elite for Construction & Development Co., in a release. “This will bring costs significantly down compared to temporary imported printers using foreign made materials. With the 3D construction printing technology we will be able to do projects almost impossible with conventional technology, and we will build faster and cheaper than before. At the same time we decided to invest in a very large printer, such that the scope of projects we can carry out will be as big as possible.”
The BOD2 3D construction printer will be delivered at the end of May and will be the first 3D printer of its kind in Saudi Arabia.
TROWEL CHALLENGE WINNER CROWNED AT WORLD OF CONCRETE
Wacker Neuson’s sixth annual Trowel Challenge competition was once again exciting, with less than one second between the first and third place finishers’ final time. Each year this competition draws large crowds to watch more than 150 trowel operators test their ride-on trowel operating skills. The grand prize was a custom 48-inch CRT 48-35VX ride-on trowel powered by a special Vanguard Big Block V-twin engine.
The finishers with the top 10 fastest times from the preliminaries advanced to the finals and the top 10 finalists each had one run through the course. The 2014 Trowel Challenge winners are: (1st place) David Ray, Molzahn Construction, Worland, Wyo., with a winning combined time of 52.781; (2nd place) Greg Geiger, On Demand Concrete Solutions, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, with a combined run time of 53.012; and (3rd place) Douglas Garber, B Concrete, Brookville, Ohio, with a combined run time of 53.092.
Visit the best review site bbetting.co.uk for Bet365 site.
