Thanks to an executive order from New York's governor, the New York State Dept. of Transportation is using design-build on emergency reconstruction of six miles of state Route 42. The Catskills-area stretch suffered flooding during Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.Restoring Route 42 for Ulster and Greene counties by February is a top priority, says NYSDOT Commissioner Joan McDonald. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) issued Executive Order 19, allowing NYSDOT to use design-build.Halmar International and McLaren Engineering Group won the best-value contract of $14.1 million, beating out four other teams. The work includes replacement of two bridges, 150 ft and 100
Federal officials are urging the public transportation industry to back President Obama's proposed jobs bill, saying it will mean $9 billion for transit projects. But frustration over partisan bickering in Congress regarding the re-authorization of a long-term transportation funding bill lent a charged air to exchanges at the conference and exposition, held in New Orleans early this month.Federal Transit Administration (FTA) chief Peter Rogoff and his staff were the marquee draw for American Public Transportation Association (APTA) members. “We are working with a president who cares about what we do,” he said. “We are at the center of his recovery
LONG-AWAITED LINK Plans to link Italy and Sicily have been considered for decades. Courtesy of Stretto di Messina S.p.A. MASSIVE MESSINA Construction on a new Italy-Sicily crossing that would easily break the world record for main suspension span length could begin next year, but only if Italys economy cooperates. Italian government officials are reviewing final designs for an estimated $11.7-billion suspension bridge that, with a 3,330-meter-long main span, would break the current world-record length by 66%. Construction of the Messina Strait road-and-rail crossing between the mainland and Sicily could start next year, the owner's director general said at a London
Click on each box below to view more about the project Interactive Image Map Since the dawn of the industrial age, railroads have been a vehicle for people, cargo and dreams of a better world. They remain a critical part of the transportation infrastructure of 2011. ENR has identified ten of the world’s most notable new railway construction projects based on geographic variety and cross-border economic impact. The projects include Angola’s Benguela Railway, China’s proposed line in Iran from Tehran west to Khosravi, China’s own Harbin-Dalian High-Speed Rail Line and China’s Lanzhou-Chongqing Rail Line. There are also reports on a
Related Links: DOT Secretary LaHood's statement Gov. Christie's statement ENR Oct. 13, 2010 story: Blurry Tunnel Vision Oct. 7, 2010, enr.com story: "Citing Fears of Cost Overruns, N.J. Gov. Scraps Trans-Hudson Tunnel" In a deal that closes a key chapter in a long-running dispute between the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and New Jersey, the state will have to repay only $95 million of the $271 million that DOT had disbursed for early phases of a commuter-rail tunnel that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) cancelled last year.The nine-mile-long Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) tunnel was to run under the
Map by ENR The North-South Transnational Corridor project aims to be the most direct link for freight shipments from Russia or Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. Related Links: The Ten Most Noteworthy Rail Projects: Overview and Related Stories Project: North South Transnational CorridorCost: $1.4 billionConstruction period: 2007-2012 Central Asian nations have been slow to establish rail links with their neighbors to the south for numerous reasons. During the era when the Central Asian nations were part of the Soviet Union, all their rail lines headed north to Russia, their major trading partner.Of the five Central Asian nations, Kazakhstan occupies
Related Links: The Ten Most Noteworthy Rail Projects: Overview and Related Stories Project: Tehran-Khosravi Rail LinkCost: $2 billionConstruction period: Unknown China, which wants to create more robust rail corridors across Asia, is offering to build a $2-billion freight rail line in Iran. If continuous railway corridors were in place and, standard-gauge track installed from end to end, containerized freight could travel from China to Europe much more rapidly by rail than it does by ship, the Chinese claim.In September 2010, Liu Zhijun, China's railway minister, and Hamid Behbahani, Iran’s minister of roads and transportation, signed an agreement that calls for building
Etihad Rail Co. Emirates' rail network would carry 50 million cargo tons and 16 million passengers per year, according to its owner. Related Links: The Ten Most Noteworthy Rail Projects: Overview and Related Stories Project: Emirates Rail NetworkCost: $11 billion Construction period: 2012-2018 Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Rail Co., the government-owned company that is set to build an estimated $11-billion passenger and freight rail network across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), says it will award the project’s first construction contract before the end of the year.The company is set to select an unspecified number of contractors from at least 10 local
Photo courtesy of La DOTD Data cables and sensors join rebar and hand tools as elements of the construction landscape on the I-10 Twin Span Bridge. Photo courtesy of Geocomp Rebar cages for columns on the M19 pier are laced with cables and sensors, which were put to early use in a load test to simulate the 1.8-million-lb lateral load of a ship collision. Related Links: How Sensors on I-10 Twin Span Bridge Reduce Unknowns When the power is activated on the new 5.4-mile-long, $803-million I-10 Twin Span Bridge outside of New Orleans in October, it will transform an icon
Related Links: The Ten Most Noteworthy Rail Projects: Overview and Related Stories Benguela RailwayCost: $1.56 billionConstruction period: 2006-12For decades, the east-west, 1,344-kilometer-long Benguela Railway spanning Angola provided the shortest way to transport the Congo’s mineral riches to Europe and was the key leg of Africa’s only transcontinental route. The railway company, Caminhos de Ferro de Benguela, was also Angola’s largest employer, with a payroll of 14,000 by the 1960s. But Angola’s long civil war, from 1975 to 2002, terminated the line. Trains and repair crews were ambushed, stations bombed and bridges dynamited, and the right-of-way was mined.In 2006, the China
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