Battle Stations

Austal USA nears completion of Mobile modular ship facility
Austal USA’s new $170 million Modular Manufacturing Facility (MMF) in Mobile, Ala., sits in an area that used to be part of Mobile Bay.

Bridge Building

Stimulus, other funds propel South Central bridge work
Tough economic times don’t ease the pressure on state highway departments to keep roads and bridges in good shape.

Part One: Bridge Safety

Inadequate precautions, traffic can add risk to South Central jobs
The South Central region has witnessed several bridge fatalities in recent years.

Intelligent Compaction

Smart machines pose radical change in project delivery
Nationwide research is firming up the case for “intelligent” compaction (IC), a construction method three decades in the making that could save billions of dollars a year in potholed roads, cracked bridges, broken dams and blown-out tires. But as it represents a huge cultural shift in project delivery, the industry is struggling to find a standard way to roll it out.