Illinois Bridge Honored for Shotcrete Work

The national Construction Specifications Institute has elected Dennis Hall its president

Shotcrete Bridge Longest in Illinois

An Illinois project is a winner in the American Shotcrete Association's 4th Annual Outstanding Shotcrete Project Award.

The Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge in LaSalle, Ill., won the Outstanding Infrastructure Project in a shotcrete competition.

The Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge in LaSalle won the Outstanding Infrastructure Project.

The bridge is the longest in the state, with a length of 7,122 ft and supported by 86 piers. The bridge is elevated approximately 70 ft above the Illinois River and numerous roads, lakes, wetlands and railroads.

The bridge was recently repaired in two phases. Some 22,000 cu yds of concrete was removed on the bridge deck, and the substructure was repaired with shotcrete.

The five other winners were outside the Midwest.

Hall Elected CSI President

Dennis Hall was elected president of the Alexandria, Va.-based Construction Specifications Institute. He is managing principal of Hall Architects Inc. in Charlotte, N.C.

Hall joined CSI in 1984. He has served in positions at the local, regional and national levels. Currently, he is chair of the Project Resource Manual Update Task Team, the CSI forum moderator for Building Information Modeling in Construction Documents and member of both the UniFormat Task Team and the Integrated Practice Body of Knowledge Analysis Task Team.

Guide Issued on Steel Constructability

Design professionals have a new resource, “Constructability of Structural Steel Buildings,” by David Ruby, chairman of Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Ruby + Associates, a structural engineering firm.

The publication, which is published by the Chicago-based American Institute of Steel Construction, addresses constructability as a concept that takes advantage of steel materials, fabrication and installation expertise early in the design phase.

The publication covers areas that include early involvement, design process, issues related to the structural steel framing, detailing and fabrication, steel erection and special constructability issues, such as anchorage to concrete, camber and tolerances.

Also called Design Guide No. 23, it is available free for AISC members at www.aisc.org/ ePubs or for $60 for nonmembers.

Midwesterner Elected Officer of Concrete Masonry Group

Mark Wilhelms, sales and marketing manager for Kirchner Block & Brick Inc. in Bridgeton, Mo., was elected chairman of the board-elect of the Herndon, Va.-based National Concrete Masonry Association.

Also elected was Michael Finch, as chairman. He is president and general manager of RCP Block & Brick Inc. in Lemon Grove, Calif.

William Holden is the past chairman of the board. He is president of Block USA in Birmingham, Ala.

The organization's board of directors was also recently installed.