Acontractor has won a $5-million bonus for repaving 10,925 ft of runway in 120 days at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The new $348-million project, which re-opened on June 29, required two online concrete batch plants, intense planning and 17,000 ft worth of fencing to render the Bay Runway—the country’s second-longest—a construction work zone. Photo: Port Authority of NY and NJ Intense planning, collaboration enabled 11,000 ft of repaving in 120 days. Related Links: Rapid Runway Rehab Tutor Perini Civil Inc., Peekskill, N.Y., can win another $5-million bonus on its $210-million contract once it completes remaining

With recession-stricken states stripping road and bridge projects from their improvement agendas and no federal surface transportation reauthorization bill on the horizon, transportation design firms are trying to make the most of a sluggish market. Photo Courtesy of AECOM High-speed rail is gaining renewed interest, thanks to an infusion of ARRA funds. Related Links: View More on Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 View Complete Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 with Data and Analysis Little of the $40 billion allocated to transportation under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has found its way to design firms, as states stayed true to the

The Virginia Dept. of Transportation has OK’d preliminary engineering on its latest public-private initiative—a proposed new tunnel linking Norfolk and Portsmouth—while again seeking proposals on another such project that failed to generate an adequate response the first time. Moving ahead is the $1.3-billion Downtown Tunnel-Midtown Tunnel-Martin Luther King Freeway Extension. It will create a tunnel under the Elizabeth River parallel to an existing 50-year-old tunnel, which will be renovated. The two-phase procurement process of Virginia’s Public-Private Transportation Act required Alexandria, Va.-based Elizabeth River Crossings LLC, a collaboration led by Skanska Infrastructure Development Inc. and the Macquarie Group, to first assess

Uncertainty looms over the petroleum sector. In March, the industry saw new opportunities open up when President Obama lifted a 20-year moratorium on offshore drilling along the East Coast, as well as portions of the Gulf of Mexico and the Alaskan coastline. Three weeks later, the political environment took a dramatic turn following the April 20 explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration ordered a temporary ban on offshore drilling in the Gulf and halted exploration of several new areas. Portions of the oil industry have since been locked in a court battle over

The market for developing power- generation facilities in the United States remains weak in mid-2010 as utilities, faced with lagging demand for electricity, continue to put off plans for new plants. Photo: Duke Energy Although the number of coal plants being built is heading down, Duke Energy’s 630-MW integrated gasification/combined-cycle plant in Edwardsport, Ind., is going forward. Related Links: View More on Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 View Complete Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 with Data and Analysis Not all the news is bad, though. Engineering and construction executives say the need for new generating capacity will grow as the economy rebounds

Amid political and environmental conflicts over Texas air quality, International Power announced on June 14 a long-awaited powerplant expansion in south Texas. Barring intercession by the courts, the Coleto Creek Unit Two project is expected to ramp up next year, creating more than 1,000 construction jobs by 2015, when it is scheduled to come online. Rendering: International Power To some, the Coleto powerplant means more power and jobs; however, to others—including the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club—it just means more dirty air. The $1.4-billion expansion project will add a 650-MW coal-burning powerplant to International Power’s existing Coleto Unit

Maintenance and compliance remain the primary drivers for environmental infrastructure projects in the U.S. However, although funding remains a challenge for many communities, sentiments about the sector’s prospects are, on the whole, upbeat. Photo: Arcadis More private firms are outsourcing site remediation oversight. Related Links: View More on Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 View Complete Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 with Data and Analysis “It looks stable and strengthening, even though there aren’t many opportunities for new facilities right now,” observes Dan Batrack, CEO of Pasadena, Calif.-based Tetra Tech, whose firm is designing a $564,000 disinfection facility at the Birmingham Wastewater Treatment

As scientists begin to assess the impact of the first tropical storm of the 2010 hurricane season on a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the fight to seal the leaking well and protect the coastline continues. Image Photo: Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory Tropical storms are a wild-card factor in predicting the behavior of the oil still gushing from the site of a deeptwater-well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, shown here in a satellite view taken on June 26. Scientists want to improve their predictions of oil-spill behavior when slicks are assailed by major storms like

The “greening” of U.S. colleges and universities is presenting opportunities for engineering and construction firms. Increasing numbers of schools that for decades have depended on coal-fired plants for steam and electricity are working to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by shifting to natural gas and biomass, says Kim Teplitzky, coal campaign coordinator for the Sierra Student Coalition, an adjunct of the Sierra Club. About 60 colleges and universities currently burn coal, she said, but several already are planning to switch to other, cleaner fuels. For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May announced that it plans to

Talk about "fast track." Applications for the next round of federal high-speed-rail grants, totaling more than $2.3 billion, are due by Aug. 6, and winners will be announced by Sept. 30, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation says. Related Links: FRA Guidance Document: Service Development Program FRA Guidance Document: Individual Project Funding Availability In announcing the timetable on June 28, DOT noted that the new grants include $2.1 billion for high-speed-rail corridor proposals and $245 million for specific construction projects within corridors. The new round's funding comes from DOT's fiscal 2010 appropriations. It follows the hotly competitive first round, in which