The 112th Congress has not begun well at all for highway construction advocates. Infographic By Walter Konefal New House rule would open the door for highway and transit cuts below the amounts SAFETEA-LU authorized. On Jan. 5, the first day the new Congress was in session, the House, now under Republican control, approved a procedural rule that breaches a 13-year-old legislative “firewall” and lets House appropriators cut highway and transit spending below sums authorized in 2005’s Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users. “We are very distressed,” says Pam Whitted, vice president for government affairs for
Pittsburgh’s $528-million North Shore Connector project is now nearing completion on schedule, despite a month-long jam of a tunnel-boring machine in 2008. The Port Authority of Allegheny County says there are no claims or liquidated damages. Photo: Courtesy of Port Authority of Allegheny County New expanded light-rail station features preserved mural. The 1.2-mile extension of the city’s 25-mile light-rail system extends from downtown beneath the Allegheny River to the city’s North Side. The work involved three major components: construction of the twin-bore tunnels, reconfiguration of the existing Gateway Station and a new North Side station. In April 2008, the 500-ton
Ayear after shifting bridge bents halted work on the $217-million U.S. Route 20 project near Oregon’s coast, engineers are hoping for rain and a solution. Photo: Courtesy of ODOT Unstable soils have kept completion of an Oregon road section in limbo. While over 50% of the new 6.5-mile bypass is complete, four bridges up to 1,100 ft long sit partially constructed. Lateral load from adjacent fill and subsurface ground pressure may have caused two of the 20 bents on the 10-bridge project to shift as much as two inches. Since that discovery in February 2010, crews have been collecting data.
It will be late summer before drivers cross the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere, yet for Frank Daams, the new bridge essentially was complete in early January when crews installed the last two 830-ft-long cables and stressed each of their 44 steel strands. “As far as I’m concerned, it is finished,” says Daams, project manager for Audubon Bridge Constructors, a joint venture of Flatiron Constructors Inc., Longmont, Colo.; Granite Construction, Watsonville, Calif., and Parsons Transportation Group Inc., Washington, D.C. “Now all we have are little details to get it open to traffic.” The John James Audubon Bridge crossing
Tucson, Ariz., secured federal funding for an ambitious project to build an electrically powered streetcar with the approval of a $63-million grant through the Federal Transit Administration. Officials with the city’s transportation department finalized the paperwork for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funds on Dec. 28. The move protects the project’s funding from congressional stimulus cuts, they say. The city now must find a way to close the $26-million funding gap for the project. The city must close a $26-million funding gap. Tucson also is awaiting FTA’s approval of an environmental assessment, required before grant funds can be
Canada's National Energy Board granted approval in December to the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project, which would string a natural gas pipeline from the upper-reaches of the Northwest Territories, Canada, 745 miles south into Northern Alberta. Before the $16.2-billion project can proceed, backers must put in place a funding framework. Image: Walter Konefal for ENR "Mackenzie needs to compete on a supply-cost basis with other sources of supply," says Pius Rolheiser, Calgary-based Mackenzie project spokesperson." It remains the critical challenge today to be cost- competitive with shale gas, liquefied natural gas and potential Alaska projects." While Mackenzie runs primarily south, staying
Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. beat out six other bidders to win a $127-million design-build contract to construct Portland, Ore.’s first crossing of the Willamette River in more than 37 years. The 1,720-ft cable-stayed bridge with a 780-ft main span will carry only light rail, cyclists and pedestrians. The bridge is part of the $1.5-billion, 7.3-mile Orange Line project from Portland to neighboring Milwaukie, scheduled to open in 2015.
A joint venture led by Dragados USA, New York City, and Tutor Perini Corp., Sylmar, Calif., is now able to begin revising its best-value winning bid to build a 1.7-mile, 55-ft-diameter deep bore tunnel beneath downtown Seattle. Tunnel Partners, which also includes Frank Coluccio Construction Co., Tukwila, Wash.; Mowat Construction Co., Kent, Wash.; HNTB Corp., Kansas City; and Spanish firm Intecsa, Madrid, submitted the favored best value proposal with a $1.09 billion bid plus technical credits that totaled 71,577,000, for a resulting best value score of 1,018,123,002, the Washington State Dept. of Transportation announced Dec. 9. Photo: WsDOT Seattle tunnel’s
The Israeli government has approved nationalizing the Tel Aviv metro light railway project in hopes of jump-starting the estimated $3-billion project after five years of delay. Two months after canceling a private consortium’s proposal, the government says it will finance construction from the state budget. The state-owned Metropolitan Mass Transit System Co. will oversee the project. The 22-km line will link Petah Tikva north of the city to Bat Yam in the southwest. About $390 million in route planning and design is set for completion by the end of 2011. The rail line, now expected to be completed in 2017,
Congress has approved a three-month extension of airport construction grants and other Federal Aviation Administration programs. The bill, which would authorize FAA programs through March 31, next goes to the White House for President Obama's expected signature. Final congressional action came on Dec. 18 when the Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent. The House had passed the bill on Dec. 2. The new stopgap is the 17th FAA extension since Sept. 30, 2007, when the last multi-year aviation authorization expired. The current extension�stopgap number 16�expires Dec. 31.
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