Published Nationally ®
Southeast Edition
July 29 2020
$3.00
Vol. XXXIII • No. 16
Bridge to Nowhere …
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com
Inside
Long-Finished Span May Open Soon By Lori Lovely Skanska Com pletes Historic Pier Project…8
Infr astr uctur e Solutions Group Expands to N.C . …12
Paver s Beat Extr emes to Get Jobs Done …30
Table of Contents ............4 Paving Section ..........30-45
CEG CORRESPONDENT
Five years after Virginia’s tallest twin bridges were completed across challenging terrain, they remain closed to traffic — but that may be changing soon. The Virginia Department of Transportation hopes to open the Route 460 Connector bridge that spans Grassy Creek in Buchanan County, connecting southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky, sometime in 2020. New Route 460 in Virginia travels from the Kentucky border near Breaks Interstate Park to the Grundy area of Buchanan County, VDOT said. The route is designated as part of Corridor Q by the Appalachian Regional Commission and is included in the Appalachian Development Highway System. Breaks Interstate Park, which gets its name from the break in the mountains created by the Russell Fork River, contains 4,500 mountainous acres and a 5-mi.-long gorge dubbed the “Grand Canyon of the South.” A short distance from the new but unused highway span, the park straddles the Virginia-Kentucky border and is one of the few in the country jointly maintained and operated by two different states. Opened in 1954, the see BRIDGE page 60
Trevor Wrayton, VDOT photo
The full length of the Phase I Route 460 Connector project is just under 1 mi. The superstructure of the bridge is a 43-ft.-wide cast-in-place, variable-depth, segmental box, VDOT reported. The depth of the segments varies from 30 ft. at the piers to 12 ft. at the mid-span closures.
Industry Lauds Easing Hours of Service Regs
Backhoes & Attachments By Lucy Perry Section ......................47-57 CEG CORRESPONDENT Touting its revised Hours of Service (HOS) regulations as providing
Parts Section ..................58 drivers more flexibility, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released a final rule in May. It’s designed to ease HOS rule
Business Calendar ........76 compliance and takes effect Sept. 29, 2020. While safety advocates have Auction Section ........78-81 Advertisers Index ..........82
concerns, trucking industry groups applaud the new rules. The rules will provide America’s truckers “greater flexibility to keep America moving,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao. “The Department of Transportation and the Trump Administration listened directly to the concerns of truckers seeking rules that are safer and have more flexibility — and we have acted.”
Based on the thousands of comments the department received, the reforms are designed “to improve safety on America’s roadways and strengthen the nation’s motor carrier industry,” said FMCSA Acting Administrator Jim Mullen. The HOS rules, first adopted in 1937, specify the permitted operating hours of commercial drivers. In 2018, FMCSA asked for public comment on portions of the rules, and last August the agency published a detailed proposed rule that received almost 3,000 public comments. Mixed Reaction Petitions for Reconsideration of the final rule had to be submitted to the FMCSA Administrator no later than July 1. A coalition of safety advocacy see RULES page 26