Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/506694
May 2015 | EquipmentWorld.com 14 reporter | by Equipment World staff T wo North Dakota con- struction fi rms have donat- ed a large grant in order to help establish the premier lab- oratory in the United States for the study of industry safety in Oregon. Knife River Corp. and MDU Construc- tion Services Group have donated a combined $1 million to establish the lab at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The lab will be called the MDU Resources Group Construction Safety Laboratory, bearing the name of the two fi rms' par- ent company. The lab will bring workers in and drop them into simulations of real-world jobsite situations and dangers through an interactive, high-defi nition projection system. The lab will also have a driving simulator to study operator behavior and what actions workers take inside a work zone full of equipment and other vehicles. OSU researchers say the aim of the lab is to establish safety considerations as an element of the design phase of construction, resulting in projects that are not only safer to occupy but safer to build and maintain as well. "There's a long history in the construction industry of archi- tects and design engineers leav- ing construction safety up to the builder or contrac- tor, saying it wasn't really the designer's concern," said OSU professor of civil engineering John Gamba- tese. "Some of this dates historically to the sepa- ration between owner, architect, contractor, main- tenance and construction worker. There are also legal and liability issues. But there are many ways we can improve construction safety with this approach." No opening date has yet been set for the new lab. – Wayne Grayson travelled being on the Interstate Highway System. "State and local governments are doing the best they can to address these signifi cant chal- lenges, given limited resources," Black says. "Many of the most heavily traveled bridges are nearly 50 years old. Elected offi - cials can't just sprinkle fairy dust on America's bridge problem and wish it away. It will take committed investment by legisla- tors at all levels of government. Without additional investment from all levels of government, our infrastructure spending will be a zero-sum game." Citing USDOT data, Black also said there is a current backlog of over $115 billion in bridge work and $755 billion in highway projects. Her analysis of the report also found: The 250 most heavily crossed structurally defi cient bridges are on urban interstate high- ways, particularly in California. Nearly 87 percent of these bridges were built before 1970. At least 15 percent of the bridges in eight states – Rhode Island (23 percent), Pennsyl- vania (22 percent), Iowa (21 percent), South Dakota (20 percent), Oklahoma (18 per- cent), Nebraska (17 percent), North Dakota (16 percent) and Maine (15 percent) – fall in the structurally defi cient category. – Chris Hill (continued from page 13) (continued on page 16) Construction fi rms donate $1 million to establish high-tech construction safety lab at Oregon State University