YEAR IN REVIEW 1996: ARCHITECTURE

BRIDGES (For Notable Civil Engineering Projects, see Table.) The year 1995 started with a celebration and a shock. Fanfares were for the official opening in January of the Pont de Normandie, the world's longest cable-stayed type, with elegant A-frame towers carrying a motorway across the Seine estuary on France's northern coast. The 856-m-long (1 m = 3.3 ft) central composite steel and concrete span took technology a huge step forward. The shock, quite literally, was to the world's biggest bridge project on January 10. The earthquake in Japan looked as if it might also have damaged the half-built 500 billion yen Akashi Kaikyo suspension bridge, just 10 km (1 km = 0.62 mi) from the quake's epicentre. The bridge's 1,990-m main span passes over the Akashi Strait, which contains one of the main fault lines in the Kobe area. Work stopped on the bridge, but no damage was found. Still, surveys showed the quake had pushed the towers apart by 1.1 m--only 0.005% of the total span but enough to mean that suspension hangers and deck needed redesigning. Seismic resistance was also a major design concern for other bridges as well, particularly in California, where many thousands of ordinary road bridges as well as larger crossings needed expensive retrofit strengthening to come up to modern standards. For example, the Golden Gate suspension bridge at San Francisco was now deemed unsafe even in a magnitude-7 quake. Some $175 million in upgrades would be needed to permit it to carry emergency traffic within 24 hours of a magnitude-8.5 earthquake. Portugal's new Tagus II bridge also got a substantial working over for seismic resistance. The 420-m centre span cable-stayed bridge, on which construction began in 1994, was part of an 18-km viaduct crossing of repeated concrete spans. Other examples of this trend in bridge building--very long composite multispan bridges, usually featuring a single main span over a shipping channel--included the bridge section on the resund link between Sweden and Denmark, begun in November, with its spectacular 1,200-m cable-stayed central section and a 492-m main span; the Store Blt interisland link in Denmark, which included a tunnel and an artificial island centre point as well as the bridge with a 1,620-m main span (it would hold the world record briefly in 1997); and the second Severn crossing in Great Britain, which ran 5.2 km across the estuary, using a cable-stayed 456-m centre bridge and repeated concrete box spans between 2,000-ton caisson piers for the remainder. Canada's Prince Edward Island project had no main bridge but rather used 250-m-long precast concrete spans to form the 11-km viaduct. The bridge piers, of special superstrength concrete to withstand ice floes, were also of interest. At 1,377 m the main span of the Tsing Ma suspension bridge in Hong Kong was shorter than Store Blt, but the bridge was double-decked to carry rail and road traffic; cable spinning for this bridge had been completed by early summer. Part of the series of bridges linking the Japanese islands of Honshu and Shikoku, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge itself was yet another sample of contemporary composite multispan bridge projects. Indeed, the Far East was where the most exciting projects were planned for coming years. China had several giant projects under consideration for crossing its big rivers, including the Chang Jiang (Yangtze), Huang Ho (Yellow River), and Zhu Jiang (Pearl River). India had three large bridges planned for the south. A hint for the next century came perhaps from a tiny five-metre slab footbridge in Oxfordshire, England. For the first time ever, plastic reinforcement was used in the concrete instead of steel. (ADRIAN LEE GREEMAN) This updates the article bridge. BUILDINGS (For Notable Engineering Projects, see Table.) The world's tallest buildings were being developed in Asia in 1995. Construction of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was under way, and completion was expected toward the end of 1996. At 450 m, it would be overtaken in height by the 460-m Chongqing Tower, Chongqing, China, which was expected to be completed in 1997. A Hong Kong developer, however, was planning to complete a 468-m-tall building, the Nina Tower, by 1997. This skyscraper was to be square in plan and would feature a composite steel and concrete construction with splayed corners to reduce wind drag. Construction on Hong Kong's new airport at Chek Lap Kok began in 1995 with the main terminal contract awarded early in the year. A Y-shaped footprint was selected from some 50 possible designs for the building. It was 1.2 km long and accommodated 38 pier gates. The design incorporated modular steel framed barrel vaults supported on high columns, with a partially glazed roof in an attempt to create a feeling of light and space. Mid-1995 saw the tragic collapse of a six-year-old multi-story department store in Seoul, South Korea, where more than 500 people were killed. The building, a reinforced-concrete slab construction, was supported by columns 10.8 m apart. The collapse was attributed to a failure around a column at roof level that then led to the progressive failure of other columns. The debris load on floors below then caused a collapse of the entire building. The reunification of Germany resulted in increased construction in the former East Germany. In Leipzig, a centuries-old trading hub, a new conference and exhibition centre was being built to the north of the city to replace the outdated exhibition facilities. The focal point of the development was a 250 80-m steel-framed, glass-clad hall. The main structure included external arch trusses rising 28 m and spaced 25 m apart. Supported by these was a grid of steel tubes arranged in squares that, in turn, supported the glazing envelope. A smooth, highly transparent glass surface was presented internally, and efforts were also made to keep the degree of natural daylight virtually uninterrupted by the steel structure. In Nottingham, England, a novel form of prefabrication was used to combine high quality with quick construction. An architect chose this technique to match a facades' brickwork construction with that of other buildings in the area. Over 1,000 one-story brick piers were prefabricated. The building was also designed to reduce solar gain (increase in heat in structures with large areas of glass) and maximize the use of ambient energy in an attempt to avoid the need for air conditioning. (GEOFFREY M. PINFOLD) This updates the article building construction. DAMS (For Notable Engineering Projects, see Table.) Throughout the world in 1995 there were over 60,000 dams more than 15 m high, holding back some 6,000 cu km of water. Since 1975 the rate of dam construction had slowed worldwide, with only about 300 dams being built each year. This decrease was attributed to a recognition of the damage caused to ecosystems and of the social impact of population displacement. Less developed countries were under pressure for continued economic development, however, and believed that the alternatives, nuclear and fossil-fuel energy sources, also had objectionable environmental impacts. The growing need for food and energy called for a balance to be achieved between preservation and exploitation of the environment. Many governments had opted for dam construction. Along this line, Pres. Nelson Mandela opened the Durban, South Africa, meeting of the International Commission on Large Dams with a reminder that more than 12 million people in South Africa were without access to reliable drinking water and that without its large dams the country would not have been able to grow as it had. In China the controversial Three Gorges Dam was going ahead in spite of the World Bank's withdrawal of financial aid because of environmental and resettlement concerns. In Southeast Asia the Mekong River project was revived by Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. (China and Myanmar also had been invited to join.) Thailand was expected to be the principal producer and user of the power, amounting to 80%, with Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia sharing the rest. In Nepal the Arun III Dam was being proposed at a site in the Himalayan region, but there too the World Bank withdrew its funding after pressure from environmental groups. India's first private dam project, the Baspa II Dam, got under way, although debates over resettlement issues caused a slowdown in construction. Turkmenistan started its third dam since it became independent. The Madav Dam would form a 250 million-cu m reservoir to regulate the flooding of the Tedzhen River. The national plan called for seven new reservoirs by the year 2004. Despite economic and financial boycotts, Iran pushed forward its dam program, with the 120-m-high Zanjan Dam and the 126-m-high Kowsar Dam, the latter of which was to store 450 million cu m of irrigation and drinking water. Ethiopia accelerated its dam building program to increase the supply of potable water, and Oman was responding to its water shortage by building numerous aquifer recharge dams, which, although small, would store water that would otherwise be lost. South Africa and Swaziland embarked on a joint venture to develop a series of dams to regulate the waters of the Komati River. Five dams would be involved, with the Maguga Dam to be started in 1996. Morocco announced an ambitious program to provide a million hectares under irrigation by the year 2000. The Itaip Dam, the largest in the world in both output and size, was completed in Brazil. In the U.S. the extensive drought helped gain approval for the Domenigoni Valley off-stream dam project, intended to create a reservoir with a capacity of 1,010,000,000 cu m of water serving the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. Also in California, the Auburn Dam, which had been stopped in 1975 because of fears of earthquakes, was revived as a solution to flood threats on the American River. A final decision was not expected soon because alternatives were being presented. On the Santa Ana River near Los Angeles, the Seven Oaks Dam was being built to provide flood control and was scheduled to be completed in the year 2000. (T.W. MERMEL) This updates the article dam. ROADS One of the abiding images of 1995 was the crumpled section of the Hanshin Expressway in the Japanese city of Kobe, which collapsed during the January 17 earthquake. Once again questions were raised about the wisdom of constructing elevated highways in earthquake-prone regions. Massive highway projects were being planned throughout Asia. China was increasing its road network at the rate of about 13,000 km (1 km = 0.6 mi) each year, providing both urban and long-distance routes. The Shanghai ring road, a 48-km four-lane highway, was opened, helping to ease congestion in one of the world's largest and busiest cities. Three major expressways running north-south and three running east-west would provide the country with a basic network. South Korea announced plans to triple its expressway system to over 4,500 km within 30 years. A $1.2 billion plan to provide a road network linking China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar (Burma)--was agreed upon between the governments of those six countries. The project would be paid for by tolls, with initial funding from the Asian Development Bank. The use of tolls to pay for new infrastructure, usually through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract arrangement, was becoming increasingly common throughout the world. Under these arrangements a private company would build the highway and then be permitted to charge tolls for a designated period of years, after which the highway would revert to government ownership. Indonesia invited bids for the construction of 770 km of toll roads worth an estimated $2.7 billion, mostly on the island of Java. India invited similar proposals for eight highways and nine bridges, together valued at $300 million. The Pakistan National Highway Authority announced plans for 754 km of highways--the largest being a 270-km two-lane expressway linking the Karachi port with Hub Chauki--which were to be offered as BOT contracts. In Russia a 700-km highway to link Moscow with St. Petersburg was being studied, as were highways to link Moscow with Warsaw, Poland, and Kiev, Ukraine. It was estimated that 1% of all road bridges in Russia collapsed each year. Hungary was seen as a good example of the use of BOT contracts, with the first privately funded highway--the 42-km, $370 million M1 motorway--opened in 1995. Five further motorway sections totaling 580 km were under construction and were scheduled to open between 1996 and 2003. In the United Kingdom a novel form of private finance was being planned. Under a design-build-finance-operate contract, a private company would assume all responsibility for the construction of a highway but would not collect tolls. Instead, costs would be paid by so-called "shadow tolls"; the road would be free for motorists, but the government would compensate the builder as if tolls had been charged. In Toronto construction began on Highway 407, the world's first all-electronic tolled highway. In order to use the highway, drivers would be required to use transponding equipment fitted with "smart cards," and all tolls would be charged automatically. A similar project was begun in Melbourne, Australia. In the U.S. the first privately owned and operated highway constructed in the 20th century was completed and opened to traffic. The 22.5-km Dulles Greenway connected Leesburg, Va., to Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. State Route 91 in California was the first highway in the U.S. to employ "congestion pricing," where motorists were charged higher tolls at busier times of day. (RUSS SWAN) This updates the article road. TUNNELS (For Notable Civil Engineering Projects, see Table.) New tunneling techniques were introduced in 1995 to cope more efficiently with difficult ground conditions or logistically difficult projects. Odd as it may sound, the injection of foam into the excavation chamber of soft-ground earth pressure balance (EPB) pressurized tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) was being used as a soil-conditioning agent to counterbalance the pressure within the water-bearing soils. The purpose behind this operation was to decrease the permeability of the soil and give it a homogeneous consistency for more favourable extrusion through the screw conveyor of the EPB technique. Consisting mostly of air, the foam bubbles eventually would disappear, leaving a slightly moist, easily handled soil. Major mechanical advances took place in Japan, where a triple-headed TBM was launched to excavate the three chambers of a 17-m-wide 7.5-m-high underground station for the Osaka Metro all in one pass, and segment robots on the eight TBMs working on the Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway project were lifting and placing the eleven 10-metric ton precast concrete segments in each 1.5-m-wide 650-mm-thick ring of segmental lining. These robots also fitted and tightened the 110 bolts in each bolting ring, all totally automatically. Such developments were yet to be employed outside Japan. In London the technique of compensation grouting was developed to sophisticated levels to control surface settlement and prevent damage to buildings as the tunnels for the new Jubilee Line Extension of the Underground network passed close by such famous landmarks as Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. The technique compensated for the predicted amount of settlement by injecting thin horizontal lenses of grout or mortar into the ground above the tunnel alignment and below the foundations of the sensitive structures. When grout was applied gently and skillfully, settlement was effectively eliminated, which restored the slight declivities back to normal level ground. Large-scale excavation for metro systems also continued during 1995 beneath Lisbon, Paris, Cairo, Munich, Washington, and Los Angeles, where in June a section of tunnel collapsed, leaving a gaping hole in Hollywood Boulevard. The tunneling industry awaited official reports from the British Institution of Civil Engineers and the U.K. Health and Safety Executive concerning the safe use of NATM (New Austrian Tunneling Method), or shotcrete-supported tunneling, in urban areas following the collapse of NATM tunneling at Heathrow Airport in October 1994. A full year later the exact cause of the collapse was not known. Despite the delayed reports, NATM work was resumed on the Heathrow Express Railway project and on London's Jubilee Line Extension. NATM work also continued on the Munich Metro following a collapse in 1994 that claimed three lives. Urgent remedial work to a London underground tunnel under the River Thames was delayed by more than six months when an injunction initiated by historical societies prevented the application of shotcrete to strengthen the interior of the structure. The brick-lined tunnel, finished in the mid-1800s, was the first-ever subaqueous tunnel in soft ground. Covering the interior with layers of shotcrete was adopted as the most appropriate and cost-effective method of renovating the tunnel and ensuring public safety. Historical societies wanted to preserve the interior as a monument of English heritage even though there was no public access into the tunnel nor could the interior be seen from within the passing trains. (SHANI WALLIS) This updates the article tunnel. Military Affairs Arms Control and Disarmament. The two treaties considered to be the linchpins of nuclear and conventional arms control came under some pressure in 1995. Continuing U.S. efforts to develop defense systems against theatre ballistic missiles raised strident objections in Moscow that Washington planned to abandon the 1972 antiballistic missile (ABM) treaty. Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin sent the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks II (START-II) treaty to the State Duma (parliament) in June for ratification, but in both Washington and Moscow, other security and political concerns pushed the START-II ratification process into the background. Implementation of the START-I treaty continued without any major difficulty, with baseline on-site inspections completed in June. In April Russian and Kazakh officials announced that all former Soviet strategic nuclear weapons had been removed from Kazakhstan and repatriated to Russia. All such weapons were scheduled to be transferred from Belarus during the year also, but Belarusian Pres. Alyaksandr Lukashenka in July "temporarily suspended" the removal of the last 18 SS-25 mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles from Belarusian territory. Ukraine continued to download warheads from the missiles on its territory. By year's end it had shipped an estimated 700 strategic warheads to Russia. Both Russia and the U.S. continued to dismantle their surplus warheads. The numerical ceilings on offensive conventional arms mandated by the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty became effective on November 17, and most--but not all--of the 30 states party to the treaty had eliminated their excess weapons by that date. A more serious challenge to the treaty was Russia's refusal to meet the so-called "flanks" limitations placed upon it by the treaty. In September NATO offered to allow Russia to redraw the boundaries of its North Caucasus military district so as to partially offset the treaty's restrictions, but Turkey balked at a Russian counterproposal that called for even more territorial concessions. The commitment on the part of the nuclear powers to negotiate a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996 at the UN Conference on Disarmament (CD) had been an important factor in approval of the indefinite extension of the NPT. Thus, many were dismayed when China conducted an underground test less than three days after the conference had adjourned. Protests were even louder when incoming French Pres. Jacques Chirac announced that France would conduct up to six nuclear tests before the end of May 1996. On September 5 the first test took place at Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific. France conducted four additional tests during the year but joined with China in pledging to work for an unconditional CTBT in 1996. By the end of the year, 182 states had signed the NPT, with Brazil, India, Israel, and Pakistan the most significant absentees. In March the U.S. Senate finally ratified the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons, which, inter alia, places restrictions on the use of antipersonnel landmines. In September a UN review conference met in Vienna with the goal of tightening the convention's restrictions on the use of such mines, but the 42 participants adjourned without an agreement. The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention continued to limp toward implementation. Of the 160 signatories, only 47 (of the required 65) had deposited their instruments of ratification by year's end. Neither of the two admitted chemical weapons states--signatories Russia and the U.S.--had yet ratified the convention. In contrast, there was some progress in replacing the defunct Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls with a broader regime, informally called the New Forum, to guide the export of conventional weapons and technology in the future. United States. (For Approximate Strengths of Regular Armed Forces, see Table.) Congress approved a national defense budget authority of $263.5 billion for fiscal year 1995 and supplemented this with $3.1 billion to pay for contingency costs related to the operations in Haiti, former Yugoslavia, and the Persian Gulf. The Clinton administration's Future Year's Defense Program for 1996 differed significantly from the 1995 version, with a shift from procurement to readiness and improving the quality of military life. While parsimonious in most other budget areas, the Republican-controlled Congress was inclined to be generous to the Department of Defense in the fiscal year 1996 budget, although the impasse between the president and the Congress over eventually balancing the budget meant that nothing had been resolved as that fiscal year began. In November Congress passed a $243.3 billion defense appropriations bill that was $7 billion larger than Pres. Bill Clinton had requested. It called for the continued construction of B-2 strategic bombers, financed a third Seawolf attack submarine, provided for continued development of the F-22 fighter, and added $529 million to Clinton's $2.9 billion missile defense request. A national missile defense program received $745.6 million, more than twice the amount requested by the administration, while the conflict between such a program and the ABM treaty was postponed by compromise wording that directed the Department of Defense to "develop" a national system by the end of 2003 rather than "deploy" one, as called for in the original Senate bill. Clinton reluctantly signed the appropriations bill but vetoed the $275 billion defense authorization bill because it again called for the design of an ABM system by 2003. In September the Department of Defense established the policy of prohibiting the use of lasers specifically designed to blind enemy personnel. Several new weapons systems were unveiled in 1995, among them the Seawolf fast attack submarine, the prototype of the army's RAH-66 Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter, and the navy's F/A-18E "Super Hornet" strike fighter. John White, who chaired the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces, a congressionally mandated panel, was appointed deputy secretary of defense to replace John Deutsch, who left to head the CIA. (See BIOGRAPHIES.) The commission report released on May 24 skirted many of the roles and missions issues. It recommended the creation of a joint training command, a larger planning and policy role for overseas commanders, and a new agency to develop doctrine for joint operations. In March a federal district court declared unconstitutional the administration's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexuals in the military. The government said it would appeal. After studying 10,000 Persian Gulf War veterans suffering from the so-called Gulf War syndrome, the Department of Defense concluded that there was no single or unique illness involved. Four Army Ranger trainees died of exposure during an exercise in February at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; nine instructors were disciplined. When none of the personnel involved in the tragic April 1994 downing by U.S. fighters of two U.S. Army helicopters over northern Iraq were convicted of any wrongdoing, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman in August wrote derogatory "letters of evaluation" on seven officers involved in the incident, effectively ending their military careers. An army counterintelligence officer, Capt. Lawrence Rockwood, was dismissed from the service in May after a court-martial found him guilty of disobeying orders while serving in Haiti in September 1994. He had left his post to investigate possible human rights abuses in the Port-au-Prince prison. After a long legal battle, in August Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to be admitted to the Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C., only to drop out during initiation week, citing severe stress. In October the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal filed on her behalf. Art, Antiques, and Collections In 1995 the world of fine art and antiques was highlighted by the exhibition of 74 paintings, including many major "lost" Impressionist works, at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Degas's "Place de la Concorde" was perhaps the most notable of the paintings from German collections believed lost or destroyed during World War II and hidden in Russia for the past 50 years. The fate of these paintings--the subject of ongoing litigation--brought to international attention the issue of ownership of works that were stolen during the war. (See Sidebar.) The major international auction houses posted annual earnings that pointed to a healthy art market, though one not as robust as that of the frenetic 1980s. At the annual spring Impressionist, modern, and contemporary sales in New York City, collectors posted record bids for several works. Two paintings from Christie's May sale of the Ralph and Georgia Colin collection established record prices at auction for two artists; Modigliani's "Nu assis au collier" went for $12.4 million, and Mir's "La Poetesse" sold for $4.7 million. Latin-American paintings from the IBM collection set records at Sotheby's in May. A rare Blue Period portrait by Picasso, from the collection of Donald and Jean Stralem, "Angel Fernandez de Soto," brought $29.2 million (the highest price for a painting at auction since 1990). London's big June auctions matched the cautious optimism seen earlier in New York, with strong contemporary sales. Francis Bacon's "Study for a Portrait of John Edwards" fetched 1.2 million--the first contemporary work to command such a high price in London since 1990. International art fairs and shows continued to flourish. The Whitney Biennial and Venice Biennale garnered particular attention. The Whitney show--widely expected to return to traditional displays after a 1993 exhibit was lambasted as too radical--mixed the radical and the traditional; while one installation relied heavily on doughnuts, other, more standard works were also in evidence. Two major events in Germany were the wrapping of the Reichstag in silver fabric by artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude (see BIOGRAPHIES), and, in October, Sotheby's 15-day auction of 25,000 objects from the collection of the Margrave of Baden. In June the collectibles market showed particular vigour. At Christie's in New York City, the white polyester suit worn by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever commanded a record $145,500, making it the most expensive film costume ever sold. (REBECCA KNAPP)