Trial over Carmel’s Palladium defects delayed; new allegations likely | 2013-06-07 | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com – Construction Inspection

Attorneys for the Michigan contractor being sued over construction defects at Carmel’s Palladium concert hall have asked a Hamilton County court to halt repair work immediately to preserve evidence in the case. Indianapolis-based Kightlinger & Gray LLP filed a motion Thursday in Hamilton Superior Court requesting an emergency order to stop ongoing remediation, saying Steel Supply & Engineering Co.’s engineers need to examine the roof trusses to defend the company against new allegations. A trial on construction defects had been scheduled for next week, but recently was postponed until December. Construction of the $119 million Palladium stopped for about three months in 2009 after an inspection revealed a rip in the structural steel supporting the venue’s domed roof. Work resumed after extensive repairs. The Carmel Redevelopment Commission sued Steel Supply in 2011, alleging that the company failed to properly fabricate steel for the project. The commission is seeking about $5 million in damages. Steel Supply has denied liability, laying the blame on the project engineer’s design, which it says caused some of the steel columns supporting the roof to fail. The defense team discovered and reported new potential problems with the roof trusses in January, during the legal discovery process, and city consultants came up with a remediation plan in March. In April, the city said the venue would undergo another $140,000 in repairs, and crews have been working around its performance schedule to weld stiffeners and small plates into place. That work should be done next week, according to Thursday’s court filing, but Steel Supply has not had access to the engineering analysis that led to the repairs and has not been able to inspect the structural steel. Court records also indicate that fireproofing planned for the area following remediation will prevent further review of the area. [...]

Event marks start of Indiana-Kentucky bridge construction | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com

Gov. Pence marks start of Indiana-Kentucky bridge: Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said, “Now we’re rolling our sleeves up and ... we’re going to get this East End Bridge done.” He was with state, local and federal leaders in Utica, Ind., on May 29, 2013. UTICA, IND. — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence pledged Wednesday that a new Ohio River bridge east of Louisville, Ky., will be built under budget and on time, as decades of talk is turning into action with construction starting on the span that will connect Indiana and Kentucky. Standing on a bluff overlooking a wide stretch of river where the East End Bridge will go up, Kentucky and Indiana officials applauded the cross-river cooperation that overcame financial obstacles for a project that has been discussed since the late 1960s. Pence said the bridge, carrying a construction price tag of $763 million, will promote job growth and opportunities that play to the region’s strengths. “It was a dream that two states could come together, could put aside regional competitiveness and political differences and accomplish something that would benefit all of the people of our region,” Pence said. “Today that dream is finally beginning to become a reality.” After months of site preparation and pre-construction work, crews will begin actual construction work next week, officials said. On the Kentucky side, traffic pattern changes and excavation will ramp up in coming weeks in the area. Workers have already cleared a path to make way for what will become a tunnel and an approach to the bridge on the Kentucky side. Construction work on the Indiana side will become noticeable later this summer. The crossing is expected to open for traffic in the fall of 2016. “We’re going to continue to drive this project forward to make sure that we finish [...]

Geotechnical Engineer, Indianapolis Indiana

MALEK M. SMADI, PH.D., P.E. Principal Engineer GEOTILL Inc. Strategic Management, Harvard University, 2012 Ph.D., Civil Engineering , University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2001 Dr. Smadi provided geotechnical engineering services for over 27 years on projects in Indianapolis, State of Indiana and other States which include airport facilities, stadiums, embankments and levee evaluations and designs, multi span and long span bridges, highways, railroads, industrial plants, high rise and commercial structures, water and wastewater treatment plants, power generating stations, hydropower structures and dams, waterfront and docking facilities including the hydrodynamic pressure resulting from earthquakes, slope stabilization and retaining structures. Dr. Smadi's research and professional interests include foundation engineering, construction problems, numerical techniques, granular soils subjected to earthquakes, ground modification technology, and underground construction. In addition to the work as practitioner engineer and researcher, Dr. Smadi worked at Purdue University at Fort Wayne (IPFW) in teaching geotechnical engineering and related areas such as soil mechanics and foundation engineering.   Or (317) 449-0033 Ext. 101

Utah copper mine suspends operations after large landslide

Utah copper mine suspends The Kennecott Copper Bingham Canyon Mine sits quiet after a landslide on April 11, 2013, in Bingham Canyon, Utah. Kennecott has suspended mining inside one of the world's deepest open pits as geologists assess a landslide the company says it anticipated for months. The Salt Lake Tribune reports: "We started noticing movement in that part of the mine in February," Rio Tinto-Kennecott spokesman Kyle Bennett said, indicating at that time the mine’s wall was slipping a fraction of an inch each day. As the slipping continued and began to accelerate in the following weeks, Kennecott moved workers out of the area, utility lines were rerouted and the modular building that housed the mine monitoring equipment was relocated to safer ground. Kennecott also closed its visitors center for the rest of the year. Bennett said the company has not yet determined the exact size of the slide. He said mining experts would be evaluating the slide area and its impact on future operations.  

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