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The difficulties faced by the Dutch engineers in linking two European cities with high-speed-rail roads, in the famously flat Dutch countryside are discussed. Complicated contractual boundaries, accidents at the site, design changes demanded by local authorities and the difficulty in cutting through the peat and clay tested the nerves of the Dutch engineers and the technology used in boring tunnels.

Boston's Artery Project, often referred to as the Big Dig by Bostonians, will likely cost $15 billion when complete. Though criticized for cost overruns, the price is actually acceptable when the benefits of it are considered. Fiscal and politcal aspects aside, it is an engineering marvel.

Techniques used in the design and construction of the 24.5 kilometer Laerdal Tunnel, Norway, are discussed. The tunnel will be the longest in the world.

A redesign of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel project saved $300 million in construction costs. In addition to the savings, the $14-million redesign will temporarily provide a place to cast immersed tunnel tubes and serve as jacking pits. Conceived by Maguire/Harris, the redesign improves the efficiency of the alignments. Jacking of two vehicle tunnels and a ramp tunnel also provide substantial savings in excavation costs.

Atlantic City is due to see completion of an ambitious $330 million design-build tunnel and highway project in July 2001. Yonkers Contracting, Co., Yonkers, NY, and Granite Construction, Watsonville, Ca, have been involved in the thirty-month project.

The information about length of tunnel, cost and year of completion of construction, owners, design firm and general contractors of world's five longest vehicular tunnels are presented. Norway's Laerdal, Switzerland's St. Gotthard Road Tunnel, Austria's Arlberg, Frejus and Mont-Blanc of France-Italy are those five longest vehicular tunnels ranked in order.

The most important construction projects completed between 1874 and 1999 are profiled. Numbering 125 in all, the projects cited include such late 19th-century marvels as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and Union Station. Projects from the early 20th century include engineering feats such as the Trans-Siberian Highway, the Los Angeles Viaduct, the Panama Canal and the Empire State Building. Projects from mid-20th century include the St Lawrence Seaway and the Pentagon. More recent projects include the Haj Terminal, Spaceship Earth and the Itaipu Dam.

The Minnesota Dept. of Transportation is scheduled to open the state's second mined highway tunnel at Silver Creek Cliff more than a year ahead of schedule. The $23.7-million project was designed to move the existing two-lane highway back from the eroding lakefront. Despite the project's early completion, contractors of the mile-long tunnel also encountered problems particularly from the tight, open-cut excavation outside the northeast portal.

Japan's Nishimatsu Construction Corporation and three of its senior officials are being seriously prosecuted and possibly blacklisted with the involvement in the construction and subsequent collapse of the 100-meter rail tunnel in Singapore on April 20, 2004. The official investigation revealed that the tunnel work was undersigned and poorly executed which indicated that a more serious accident must have took place if the project was not interrupted by the accident that killed four people.

The opening of the southbound Interstate 93 tunnel box allows the traffic to flow both ways, and also allows the final demolition of the 50-year-old viaduct it replaces. This is the third and final tunnel opening in 2003 on Boston's 14.6-billion dollars Central Artery/Tunnel project.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and contractor J.F. Shea Construction Inc. will soon resume work on a redesigned tunnel project. The Inland Feeder project will be difficult, as up to 900 ft of hydrostatic pressure will be encountered.

Contractors working on a toll-road tunnel project in Sydney, Australia, believe that the project may be completed seven months ahead of schedule. The construction of this 1.7-km double-decker tunnel is a crucial component of a complex 6-km toll-road project that shall become the new link between Sydney Airport and the central business district. The tunnel which measures 17 m wide for over half a kilometer widens to more than 24 m wide at the site of a merging ramp, giving it the distinction of being the world's widest tunnel. The tunnel is designed to carry three lanes of traffic on each deck.

The construction of the I-93 Central Artery Tunnel beneath the Federal Reserve Plaza in Boston, MA, requires the use of structural, geotechnical and seismic/vibration sensors. The sensors are being used to monitor the tunnel construction to ensure that it does not damage the bank's structure and highly sensitive equipment. The structural and geotechnical monitoring is being provided by Construction Technology Laboratories Inc, who is also the designer and contractor of the project.

The joint venture between San Antonio,TX-based H.B. Zachry Co. and Denver-based Monterey Construction Co. managed to construct a 1,600 ft. tunnel under Addison Airport without disrupting airport traffic or operation. The joint venture was working on the contract of the North Texas Tollway Authority, which is contracting work on a $13 bil 3,700 ft. long crossing that will link two segments of the Keller Springs Road. The tunneling work was done using a high degree of automation, which included a robotic surveying system, that allowed a high degree of tunneling accuracy at a maximum rate of about 20 ft. per day.

The year 1948 saw the construction industry slowly picking up from the devastating effects of World War II. The year started with a 925,000 single-family housing construction. Bridge construction started with the Mystic River Bridge, the Delaware Memorial Bridge, the East St. Louis Bridge at Mississippi and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge at Washington. New York's Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which was stopped in 1942 and resumed in 1945, was also bored through.

The construction industry enjoyed considerable prosperity in 1923. Construction boom was everywhere in states and localities. The Cappelen Memorial Bridge, named after its designer Frederick W. Cappelen, was the longest concrete arch bridge ever built. The Medical Arts Building in Dallas, TX, was the highest reinforced concrete building while the Moffat Tunnel was the first tunnel that runs through Continental Divide.

A 1,000-ft-long tunnel over existing rail tracks in a medical center is under construction in Worcester, MA, to suppress noise and control vibration that may cause disturbance to patients, operations and sensitive equipment. The tunnel is designed by using a pressure-injected footings that will not only lessen vibration but also connect the tunnel to the hospital atrium. The construction is managed by Vibration Engineering Consultants Inc.

Three sections of the steel tube Baytown Vehicular Tunnel under the Houston Ship Channel will be removed under a contract that the Texas Dept. of Transportation signed with Raytheon Infrastructure Services Inc. The sawn-out sections will be elevated to the surface and floated out into the Gulf of Mexico to make habitat reefs. The ship channel will be widened and deepened after the sections' removal.

Massachusetts State Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci has issued a report claiming that the Central Artery/Tunnel project in Boston, MA, suffered from design flaws which endangered worker safety and which unnecessarily raised costs. The auditor identified the problem as a leak in the sunken tube tunnel and the improper welding of the tubes' internal stiffening ribs. To correct the defect, design changes and rewelding would have to be performed, at a cost of $626,000.

Officials managing the $7.7 billion Central Artery/Tunnel project will have to put on hold any contract awards pending the results of an investigation into the background of the bidding team. It is being alleged that a consultant hired by one of the companies participating in the joint venture project had earlier worked with another firm which made cost estimates for it.

The cost of constructing Boston, MA's Central Artery/Tunnel (CA/T) project has risen by $5 billion more than its original estimated cost of $2.6 billion. CA/T Project Dir. Peter M. Zuk noted that the increased cost was due to major scope changes that needed to be done to optimize the original design. The added cost of the project prompted Sen. William S. Cohen to conduct investigations on the appropriation of funds for the project. Despite the ongoing investigations, Zuk expressed optimism that the project will be completed on schedule without additional costs.

The Netherland's Ministry of Transport has a $320-million road tunnel near Rotterdam which is designed to appease environmentalists. The project features a mass transit system and dedicated lanes for bicycles which are to be contained by a rectangular sunken tube tunnel. The private sector is expected to finance the tunnel and associated roads but the city's transportation agency must shoulder the costs for the metro component.