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Published Nationally
Midwest Edition
ยฎ March 6 2010 Vol. XVII โข No. 5
โThe Nationโs Best Read Construction Newspaperโฆ Founded 1957.โ 470 Maryland Drive โข Ft. Washington, PA 19034 โข 215/885-2900 โข Toll Free 800-523-2200 โข Fax 215/885-2910 โข www.constructionequipmentguide.com
Inside
West Fargo Main Avenue The Stim Effect: Undergoes Renovation One Year Later By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT
Slide Rail System Used in South Bend, Ind. โฆ12
National Pavement Show Visits Nashvilleโฆ14
Neither spring flooding nor early winter weather in October could cause refinishing of an 11-block section of Main Avenue in West Fargo, N.D., to miss its fall completion deadline. Work on the $8.6 million project, between Sixth Street West, near the Sheyenne
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) was intended to be an effective antidote to high unemployment and stagnant growth in the construction industry. A year after the Act passed, the consensus is that things would have been worse without it. There is no denying the impact on the industry of billions of earmarked dollars. Yet there is disappointment. While major construction associations continue to voice support for the stimulus package for which they lobbied hard, even they sound a little defensive about it. โTo appreciate the success of the Recovery Actโs transportation provisions, it is necessary to sidestep the political rhetoric about โoutlaysโ and jobs created vs. saved,โ declared a white paper authored in February by the Transportation Construction Coalition, co-chaired by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and Associated General Contractors. โThe simple facts from the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration are that, as of Feb. 17: โข $16.84 billion in recovery act highway funds are
see MAIN page 44
see STIMULUS page 26
Crews work on paving Main Avenue, West Fargo, N.D..
By Dorinda Anderson CEG CORRESPONDENT
Optimism Abounds at Orlando Auctionโฆ16
Table of Contents ............4 Business Calendar ........24 Truck & Trailer Section .... ..................................31-38 Crushing, Screening & Recycling Section ....51-56 Parts Section ................57 Auction Section ......62-69 Advertisers Index ..........70
Ill. Icon, Caterpillar Celebrates Turning 100 PEORIA, Ill. (AP) The $32 billion company that puts the Peoria area on the worldโs financial map got its start 100 years ago with the deed to a bankrupt tractor plant and a dozen employees. Caterpillar, based in East Peoria, is easily the areaโs biggest employer with more than 16,000 local workers. But itโs also 44th in the Fortune 500, employs more than 90,000 people around the world and serves as a bellwether for the economy because its construction and mining equipment is so widely used. โOver the years, our first plant along the banks of the Illinois River has been the birthplace for many of the products that have made us the company we are today,โ Caterpillar CEOelect and Vice Chairman Doug Oberhelman
said. He has been picked to replace outgoing CEO James Owens. Cat got its start when Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, Calif., chose East Peoria and the bankrupt Colean Manufacturing plant as its base east of the Rockies. Holt was looking at Minneapolis but a young Peoria businessman named Murray Baker steered Holt toward a relatively new tractor plant owned by the bankrupt Colean Manufacturing Company, according to Caterpillar archivist Nicole Thaxton. Pliny Holt, the nephew of Holtโs founder, came to the Peoria area to check it out, and loved it. โI spent last Sunday in Peoria, Illinois, inves-
tigating the plant of the Colean Manufacturing Company and I must say that I am more than enthused with the location of this plant for our Eastern Manufacturing business,โ Pliny Holt wrote in a letter dated July 1, 1909. Holt Manufacturing took the deed to the plant on Feb. 16, 1910, and started work as Holt Caterpillar Company right away. A group of investors bought Holt and another manufacturer, C.L. Best Tractor Co., in 1925, and merged them into Caterpillar Tractor Co. Caterpillar employment reached more than 110,000 and revenue topped $51 billion in 2008 before the recession cut sales and led the company to lay off workers.