TPT May 2016

G LOBA L MARKE T P L AC E

› The Bridge Rail Foundation, an organisation dedicated to stopping suicides from the Golden Gate, estimates that, since the bridge opened in 1937, more than 1,600 people have leapt to their deaths – 46 in 2015 alone. According to the Associated Press, talk of installing a suicide barrier started up in the 1950s. From the 1970s on, 18 designs were considered and dismissed before the current project was announced last year. “We are very hopeful this will curb the scourge of suicide at the bridge,” Ms Clemens told the Marin Independent Journal . But the broader effectiveness of the expedient is apparently open to question. Mr Prado noted that similar nets were installed in 1998 at the Münster Terrace cathedral in Bern, Switzerland. However, as reported by the Bern Common Council and Board of Public Works in 2009, “All available data [over a mean period of 11.6 years] indicate that the suicide nets at the Münster Terrace have been unsuccessful in preventing suicides due to displacement to other locations.” The specifications for an unusual building in downtown Chicago expose a gap in US steel production: extra-long beams Another notable project for which the sourcing of steel proved problematic is 150 North Riverside, a 54-storey Chicago office building whose unique one-legged silhouette calls for some of the largest steel sections milled anywhere. Currently under construction on the south branch of the Chicago River, the 732ft skyscraper uses ArcelorMittal steel – 2,530 tons of it. But it could not be supplied by the company’s plant in Northwest Indiana, just 20 miles to the southeast. The only mill equal to the task was ArcelorMittal Europe’s Long Products Differdange mill at the firm’s Luxembourg base. Business reporter Joseph S Pete of the NWI Times noted that the mills of Northwest Indiana provided the bulk of the structural steel that built up the Chicago skyline over the course of the 20 th century. Now, with a workforce of around 10,000, ArcelorMittal is one of the region’s biggest employers. But, like the others, these days it is focused more on sheet metal. For steel sections to the specifications of 150 North Riverside, the builders had to look to Luxembourg. (“Non- Local ArcelorMittal Steel Raises Up Chicago Skyscraper,” 16 February) As reported by Mr Pete, ArcelorMittal Differdange has a history with outsize building projects. It supplied 3,307 tons of steel beams for the Burj Khalifa in the Arab Emirates, the world’s tallest structure; as well as 30 to 56ft beams (weighing 730 pounds per foot) for the Freedom Tower at the site of the World Trade Center, destroyed in the 9/11 attacks in New York. And the company’s Belval mill delivered 149,000 tons of steel beams in lengths up to 165ft for the MOSE (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) flood protection system in Venice.

• Cuba maintains trade relations with 75 countries, and some foreign debts have been renegotiated with creditors. (“We don’t want to be dependent on one market,” Mr Malmierca Díaz said – an apparent reference to past ties with Russia.) • The net incomes of foreign companies operating in Cuba are generally taxed at 35 per cent. But tax on income from new investment will be waived for eight years and thereafter taxed at 15 per cent. • A new “special development zone” will offer tax incentives to tenants. And three marine terminals are being built for the cruise trade. › Mr Malmierca Díaz said that Cuba needs about $2bn annually in direct foreign investment to attain its goal of raising GDP by 5 per cent. He acknowledged that some delays may occur as American companies negotiate with their Cuban partners, but he affirmed the commitment of his government to the elimination of barriers. “It would be stupid for us to delay,” Mr Malmierca Díaz told the Chamber of Commerce in downtown Washington, DC. Steel After 1,600 suicides, deterrent steel netting will be installed beneath and along the sides of California’s Golden Gate Bridge As reported in the Marin Independent Journal , the opening of bidding for construction work on a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge linking San Francisco with Marin County was postponed from 8 March to 3 May, in part because the steel specified for the $76mn project cannot be manufactured in sufficient quantity in the US. (“Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Barrier Project Delayed Two Months,” 18 February) Procurement of the steel from overseas was rejected on grounds that this would violate the Buy America provisions of the US Department of Transportation. Instead, another grade of domestic steel will be substituted. Golden Gate Bridge district spokeswoman Priya Clemens told the Journal ’s Mark Prado, “[This] continues our tradition of building the bridge with all American steel.” The district expects to award the contract this summer, with construction to take about four years. The project will be the first large-scale horizontal installation of a suicide-deterrent net on a major bridge in the US. At 385,000ft 2 , the net will be almost the size of seven football fields, suspended 220ft above the water. The steel netting and its supports are to be manufactured off-site. Mr Prado reported that plans call for a net extending 20ft below and 20ft from either side of the 1.7-mile span. The netting will be made of stainless steel marine-grade cable for resistance to the elements, grey in colour to better blend with the water. For maintenance, the design allows for mobile scaffolding – “travellers” – to traverse the bridge.

63

www.read-tpt.com

M AY 2016