U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
|Public Roads|
|Publication Number: Date: July/August 1999|
This article is adapted from information provided by CONEXPO-CON/AGG '99, which bills itself as the largest construction, aggregates, and ready mixed concrete industries trade show in the Western Hemisphere. The exposition took place March 23 to 27, 1999, in Las Vegas, Nev. The show is owned by the Construction Industry Manufacturers Association (CIMA), the National Aggregates Association, and the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association. The 1999 show was managed by CIMA and the International Concrete and Aggregates Group and was co-sponsored by the National Stone Association and the Associated General Contractors of America.
|Since its completion in 1937, more than 1.6 billion vehicles have crossed the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge spanning the entrance to San Francisco Bay. Before bridge designer Joseph Baermann Strauss submitted his preliminary sketches for the bridge in 1921, the prevailing opinions in the engineering community were that a bridge could not be built at that site or that it would be prohibitively expensive.|
According to CONEXPO-CON/AGG '99, the top 10 construction achievements of the 20th century are:
"The Top 10 program was established to teach people how construction has played a critical role in advancing our society. These 10 contributions have positively influenced the quality of life we enjoy today," said exposition co-chairman Bruno Benna.
"This collection bears witness to world-class design, engineering, construction, and technologies about which prior generations could only imagine," said Robert J. Fien, exposition co-chairman.
At Public Roads, we noted that transportation-related facilities are well-represented, recognizing both the importance of transportation projects to the construction industries and the significance of transportation to our economic productivity and quality of life.
The top 10 achievements were selected by poll from 132 projects - including buildings and structures, roads and highways, bridges, tunnels, dams and waterways, commercial centers, and transportation facilities - selected by an international panel of industry executives and editors. Selection criteria on which the top 10 were chosen was:
These projects represent more than just concrete, iron, and steel. Two of the projects were built during the Great Depression when workers earned $4 a day. Other projects united a nation, brought together different cultures, or simply provided a gift to the senses.
|The Aswan High Dam, crossing the Nile River in southern Egypt near the city of Aswan, has significantly changed the Nile Valley. The dam, finished in 1970, controls the annual flooding of the Nile River; produces 50 percent of Egypt's electric power; and, as a result of the irrigation capacity of the reservoir, has let to a 200-percent increase in the country's agricultural income.|