AP Features, August 6th, 2007
Travelers at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway international airports will soon see new accessible kiosks at the airports.
The wheelchair-accessible kiosks include a public access videophone, which lets travelers who are deaf or have difficulty speaking or hearing place a videophone call.
The kiosks also have a multilingual touch screen monitor with airport transportation information, and an overhead plasma monitor with information about the accessibility of Chicago's tourist attractions.
The Chicago Department of Aviation says nine of these units will be installed at O'Hare and two more are planned for Midway. The department says they'll begin installing the kiosks in the coming months and expect to have all the units in place by early 2008.
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Construction of new bridge on the Grand Canal in Venice gets under way
VENICE, Italy (AP) _ Construction of a new bridge on the Canal Grand in Venice is under way with the transportation and positioning of the two side sections on the canal's banks.
The bridge, designed by Spanish-born architect Santiago Calatrava, will connect the train station to Piazzale Roma, a main car park, city officials said.
It was still not clear when it would open, but construction is expected to be completed around the end of the year. The two steel buttresses were placed on the canal's banks after overnight trips along the Grand Canal.
Hundreds of people lined along the canal to watch the ship carrying the pieces. "Everything, from the transportation to the assembling, was beyond our greatest expectations," Mara Rumiz, the city's top official for public works, said in a statement. "One can start guessing the silhouette of the bridge, a work that further enriches the city's artistic heritage."
