The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has announced the winners of $600 million in in the second round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants for projects that supporters say will have significant national or regional benefits. Photo: King County, Wash. Replacement for Seattle's South Park Bridge gets $34-million TIGER Grant Related Links: TIGER II capital-grant awards and project descriptions The largest grant among the 42 awards was $47.7 million to the city of Atlanta to help finance a $72.2-million, 2.7-mile downtown streetcar line. Other big winners were a plan to unsnarl a freight rail bottleneck in Fort Worth, Texas,
Falsework is coming down this month after supporting the construction of what officials believe is the only transit bridge in the world to cross over an active taxiway. The 740-ft-long cast-in-place box-girder bridge is the centerpiece of a two-mile-long transit system that will connect two of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport’s terminals with off-airport transportation facilities. Photo: Courtesy of Austin Bridge & Road Officials think mass transit guideway at Phoenix airport may be the only one of its kind to cross through active airspace. The Phoenix office of Irving, Texas-based Austin Bridge & Road holds an approximately $6-million subcontract to
As accelerated bridge construction (ABC) catches on quickly in the United States—particularly in Utah—a former Federal Highway Administration engineer now at the Oregon Dept. of Transportation wants to create national standards for the practice. Rapid bridge replacement method may get standards. Benjamin Tang, ODOT’s bridge preservation managing engineer, says readily available criteria adaptable nationwide can help bridge owners establish when ABC construction makes sense. “We are trying to create something that addresses some of the criteria used by the owners to make choices that will result in the best selection,” he says. “Putting quantifiable data, when available, into the model
The tenuous fate of an estimated $8.7-billion trans-Hudson River rail tunnel exemplifies a dilemma faced by the American transportation industry as a whole: how to fund crucial megaprojects at a time when raising fuel taxes is political suicide and passing a multiyear transportation bill remains a pipe dream. + Image Photo: NYNJ Port Authority New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie (R) announced on Oct. 7 that he was killing the project, called Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) and in development for almost 20 years. But after a quickly arranged meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Administrator
President Obama has repeated his call for higher federal spending on infrastructure, stating that U.S funding has fallen behind levels in China, Russia and other countries and declaring, "We can no longer afford to sit still." Related Links: Full text of President Obama's remarks U.S. Treasury Dept. Economic Infrastructure Analysis In the latest in a series of statements pushing public-works spending, Obama said on Oct. 11, that "our infrastructure is woefully inefficient and it is outdated." His Rose Garden comments were accompanied by the release of a Treasury Dept.-Council of Economic Advisers report outlining the benefits of higher public-works funding.
Seeking to keep an endangered $8.7-billion trans-Hudson River rail tunnel plan alive, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has bought the project a little more time. Proposed route was downriver from existing Amtrak tunnel. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie [R] had announced Oct. 7 that he was killing the project. But after meeting with LaHood the following day in Trenton, Christie agreed to a two-week study of unspecified project "options". Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the results of that study will convince Christie to do an about-face and give the plan a green light. Supporters of the Access to
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Oct. 7 killed the $8.7-billion Trans-Hudson River passenger rail tunnel project that was expected to double commuter train capacity between New Jersey and Manhattan. + Image Proposed route was downriver from existing Amtrak tunnel. Christie said he feared cost overruns on the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) project could cost the state between $2 billion and $5 billion, despite commitments of $3 billion each from the Federal Transit Administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. CHRISTIE “I will not allow taxpayers to fund projects that run over budget
Leaders of U.S. airports are calling on the federal government to reauthorize a multiyear Federal Aviation Administration funding program, raise the cap on passenger facility charges and play a smaller role in the construction and management of airport facilities. “We’re extremely disappointed in Congress’s failure to act on FAA reauthorization,” said Hardy Acree, director of airports for the Sacramento City Airport System. Acree is the 2010 chairman of Airports Council International-North America, which held its 19th annual conference in Pittsburgh on Sept. 26-29. Congress last month approved the 14th stopgap measure in lieu of a multi-year FAA reauthorization bill, while
Work resumed on Oct. 5 on $1.7 billion of road and transit work in New Jersey, shut down three days prior by Gov. Christopher Christie (R) after state legislators agreed to approve $1.25 billion in bond financing through next March. Lawmakers had balked because Christie would not commit to the state’s $2.7-billion share of an $8.7-billion Hudson River rail tunnel, a move that could kill the project, called Access to the Region’s Core (ARC). A 30-day project cost review is set to end on Oct. 9. Published reports say Christie is concerned about ARC cost overruns and wants the state’s
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