MAP COURTESY OF SONOMA-MARIN AREA RAIL TRANSIT North of San Francisco, the North Bay's first commuter rail line is inching toward construction. Meandering through the hilly suburbs of Marin County and the farms and vineyards of Sonoma County, the new rail line is designed to relieve pressure from the jam-packed 101 Freeway, providing a less stressful ride for North Bay commuters. As the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit system moves ahead, other California rail projects—such as the $100-billion San Francisco-toAnaheim high-speed rail line—are hitting some speed bumps.Seed MoneyLast month, the Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission released $33.1 million to the Sonoma-Marin
As London’s main international airport at Heathrow nears full capacity, momentum is growing in the U.K. for a major new hub in the Thames Estuary. London Mayor Boris Johnson has been lobbying hard for an estuary airport for two years. Recently, architectural heavyweight Sir Norman Foster proposed a rival $80-billion estuary project that includes high-speed rail, tidal power and a major new utilities and data spine.Foster’s Thames Hub would be built at the end of the Isle of Grain, Kent, some 55 kilometers east of central London. Over a third of the 40,000-hectare airport would be on land reclaimed, with
NTA The first of seven lines will be 23 kilometers long and have 22 stations. NTA Set for completion in 2017, project construction is estimated to cost $2.5 billion. With about 400,000 residents and more than 3.3 million in its metropolitan area, Israel's second-largest city, Tel Aviv, is finally getting a mass transit system. After decades of false starts, work has begun on the first of seven planned lines of a combined light-rail and bus rapid-transit network. Estimated at $2.5 billion, it is the most expensive civilian transport project ever undertaken in Israel.The launch comes a year after the cancellation
City of Bellingham Crushed toilets are added to concrete mix in Bellingham, Wash. Contractors bidding on projects for the City of Bellingham, Wash., have the option of adding a new element to concrete mixes—toilets.The city wants recycled aggregate in concrete flatwork projects to catch on, so much so that engineers have experimented with using crushed toilets in a new “poticrete” mix. They unveiled the first stretch of sidewalk sporting poticrete in late September.Freeman Anthony, Bellingham city engineer, says he was working on upping recycled products in city concrete specs when a local nonprofit that does green building called and asked
Related Links: Blog: The Tappan Zee Bridge and Wind Energy Center? The environmental impact statement for a new Hudson River crossing north of New York City is still in draft, but it will not include an expected mass transit component. With work on replacement spans for the Tappan Zee Bridge expected to begin as early as next fall, state officials say that they had to limit the current project's scope.A plan to replace the deteriorating bridge has been debated for years. Carrying the New York State Thruway over the Hudson River north of New York City, the 56-year-old cantilever bridge
PHOTO COURTESY OF J.F. White / Stephen SetteDucati The bridge replacement contracting joint venture used quick-setting concrete to speed work on 14 bridges. Related Links: List of Bridges Video of the Fast 14 weekend demolition/construction work Mass. Governor Talks About the Innovative Bridge Replacement Program In just 10 weekends last summer, a joint- venture contractor demolished and replaced 14 bridges on I-93 north of Boston. Using conventional methods, the work could have taken four years.The $98.1-million design-build project—called the "93 Fast 14"—was part of the Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation's Accelerated Bridge Program. The 2010 blowout of two bridge decks, which
AP Global engineers and contractors are moving to restore ties in war-ravaged Libya, but work to restore buildings infrastructure damage, including here in Tripoli, remains a complicated process. As the business of rebuilding Libya gears up after its civil war, global firms are looking to resume work and pick up new projects.Repairing the damaged Tripoli International Airport runway appears to be a top priority. The Libyan National Transition Council and civil administration officials are discussing repairs with Istanbul-based TAV Construction, which has dispatched an expert runway team to the capitol to assess the situation. With the damaged runway, all current flights
Photo Courtesy HNTB/Trey Cambern Crews used a computer-controlled heavy-strand jack system to pick the main span's 405-ft-long, 85-ft-tall, 45-ft-wide prefabricated steel arch into place. Photo Courtesy HNTB/Trey Cambern The new steel arch marks the impending opening of a New York-Vermont crossing that is crucial to communities in both states. Crews are working on the finishing touches on a vital link between New York and Vermont over Lake Champlain. While the originally planned October reopening day has passed, no rescheduled date has been announced.A routine inspection of the Crown Point Bridge in October 2009 found unexpectedly high levels of pier deterioration,
PHOTO COURTESY OF San Diego County Regional Airport Authority eco vision San Diego Airports $1-billion Green Build program had its genesis prior to the recession. Related Links: Main Top 425 Owners Story ENR Top Owners sourcebook: Overview, Rankings and Market Sector Reports The economic and political uncertainty endemic in other sectors of the construction economy has now reached the airport design and construction market, which has enjoyed a relatively robust decade due in part to the momentum of extended project planning and implementation schedules.“We're at the tail end of the pre-recession construction/project implementation cycle,” explains Christopher Oswald, vice president of
PHOTO COURTESY VDOT / Trevor Wrayton Innovative financing Virginia DOT plans to expand use of PPP on projects in the suburbs of D.C. Related Links: ENR's Top Owners List and Top Owners Sourcebook Features After years of steady gains fueled by record funding levels, departments of transportation across the U.S. face lean times ahead. With funds from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act largely spent and most states grappling with declines in revenue, the impact of the economic downturn is hitting the transportation sector hard.Highway and bridge construction starts nationwide could drop to $50.2 billion in 2012 from a
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