It may be old hat in Europe and Asia to rocket through the landscape on a 200-plus-mile-an-hour train. But in America, all that promoters of high-speed passenger rail service have to show for three decades of effort are dusty feasibility studies stretching from Florida to California. Photo: California High Speed Rail Authority Simulation of high-speed trains in California. Yet by committing $13 billion in stimulus and budget funds to high-speed train travel to reduce traffic congestion and cut pollution, the Obama Administration is giving these projects a critical boost. A priority is a line that would whiz passengers 520 miles

Long-awaited link across the bay will ease traffic and create a signature gateway to Mumbai PHOTO BY JANICE L. TUCHMAN FOR ENR ? Inclined. Two four-legged pylons lean together, creating a formwork challenge. div id="articleExtrasA" PHOTOS LEFT COURTESY OF HCC; PHOTO RIGHT BY JANICE L. TUCHMAN FOR ENR ? Tower Head. Anchorage boxes were fabricated on-site to close tolerances and assembled in sections, with care for the exit angle of the guide pipes for the stay cables. div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" By Janice L. Tuchman in Mumbai with Neelam Mathews After years of legal delays, monsoons, heavy lifting and a

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar D-Minn.) says he plans to unveil a new multi-year surface transportation bill in "a couple of weeks" and adds that it will move to the House floor during the first week of June. Oberstar, who discussed the legislation at an Apr. 24 press conference, declined to disclose the price tag for the measure, which his panel's staff is now drafting. But highway and transit groups released a report that says annual capital spending by all levels of government must more than double to meet projected needs. The report, issued Apr. 24 by

Continuing the rollout of federal agencies’ economic-stimulus plans, the Interior Dept.’s National Park Service has released its $750-million list of projects to be funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The list, published on April 22, totals 766 projects, including work on buildings, monuments, trails and water and sewer lines. Photo: National Park Service Jefferson Memorial Related Links: State-by-state park service stimulus projects and funding allotments California receives the largest allocation, $97.4 million for 97 projects, including $16.1 million for work on trails, buildings and water lines in Golden Gate National Park in San Francisco. The District of Columbia

After years of legal delays, monsoons, heavy lifting and a lot of fancy formwork, the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, a 4.7- kilometer viaduct with two cable-stayed spans, made its final connection on April 20 and is slated to open to traffic in mid-May. When it does, the bypass over the sea will cut the time of a trip across Mahim Bay in Mumbai, India, from about 40 minutes to just six. Slide Show Photo: Janice L. Tuchman / ENR Two four-legged pylons lean together, creating a formwork challenge. Drivers who had to suffer through 23 traffic lights to make the trip

Drawing on $8 billion from the federal economic stimulus, the Obama administration has laid out a blueprint for developing high-speed rail in 100- to 600-mile-long corridors around the country. The plan, which the U.S. Dept. of Transportation unveiled April 16, does not say which projects will be funded. DOT will start awarding the first round of grants for ready-to-go upgrades to existing routes by late summer. A second phase would have a longer-range focus. However, carrying out the plan’s lofty aims will require much more than $8 billion. It is uncertain where that new money will come from. + Image

The amount of federal economic-stimulus work continues to grow, with the April 15 announcements that the Interior Dept.’s Bureau of Reclamation has committed $1 billion to projects throughout the West and that the Environmental Protection Agency is dividing $600 million among Superfund projects at 50 sites. Photo: Bureau of Reclamation Red Bluff Diversion Dam to get pumping plant. BuRec included about 30 large projects and an unspecified number of smaller ones that it plans to finance through the stimulus, the title of which is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). California will receive the largest share at $260 million.

Six coastal states will receive nearly $500 million from the U.S. Interior Dept. to help them alleviate environmental impacts of oil-and-gas development, the agency said on April 20. Louisiana tops the list with $121 million, followed by Alaska at $37.5 million, Texas at $35.6 million, Mississippi at $23.8 million, Alabama at $19.7 million and California at $5 million. The agency will distribute the funds in fiscal 2009 and 2010, the final two years of the Coastal Impact Assistance Program, which Congress created in 2005 for states adjacent to oil-and-gas production on the Outer Continental Shelf. Lawmakers authorized the agency to

Calling the state of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., an “international embarrassment,” a panel of leading design experts has recommended that the National Park Service amend an improvement plan unveiled earlier this year to make it broader and more environmentally sustainable. The plan calls for a ban on new monuments and statues and a redesign of the Union Square/Capitol Reflecting Pool area. Angela Dye, president of the American Society of Landscape Architects, who facilitated the panel, says the Park Service’s current plan would improve the mall but does not go far enough. The panel recommends the Park Service hold

The Dept. of Transportation has released a blueprint aimed at developing high-speed rail in 100- to 600-mile-long corridors around the country. The plan, released April 16, does not say which projects will be funded, but it does include a map of high-speed rail corridors that could qualify for federal aid. The program could provide significant design and construction opportunities. DOT's Federal Railroad Administration will start awarding the first round of grants by late summer. Related Links: Rail Strategic Plan Map of High-Speed Rail Corridors The plan, mandated by the recently enacted economic-stimulus legislation, proposes a three-pronged approach: "Ready to go"