House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) helped shape the infrastructure portions of what became last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He also was a key player in the Jobs for Main Street bill that the House passed in December and continues to push for his six-year, $500-billion highway-transit-rail reauthorization measure. In a one-on-one interview with ENR Washington Bureau Chief Tom Ichniowski Feb. 3 in the "T&I" committee's offices in the Rayburn House Office Building, Oberstar discussed the impact of the stimulus measure so far and the need for further legislation. ENR : Are you pleased with
Transportation agencies have been near the front of the pack in getting American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds out the door. In highways, state depts. of transportation have $16.8 billion in ARRA projects under construction, says David Bauer, American Road & Transportation Builders Association senior vice president. That represents 63% of ARRA’s $26.7 billion in formula highway aid. “If it’s under construction, it’s supporting employment,” he says. Related Links: As Federal Dollars Pour Out, A Second Stimulus Plan Grows Electricity Programs See Work Start to Surge Water, Cleanup Sectors See Mixed ARRA Prognosis Buildings Project List Still Long U.S. Dept.
Photo: Caltrans Slide Show Photo: EarthCam The first permanent deck section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s self-anchored suspension span was hoisted onto the bridge’s temporary support steel on Feb. 3. Caltrans says the “historic” lift marks the moment when the action on the permanent sections begins to shift from fabrication to construction of the iconic span. When construction is completed in 2013, the SAS will be the largest of its kind, at 2,047-ft-long, and it will have a single, 525-ft-tall tower. The various sections have different weights, ranging from 559 tons to 1,669 tons. Lengths also vary, ranging from
For the second time in four months a 240-ton leaf of a main Ohio River miter-gate lock has failed, severely restricting shipping and signaling, once again, that it can be perilous to depend on aging infrastructure. Photo: USACE Photo: USACE Snapped Miter anchor arm may have fallen to fatigue. X-rays of the other arms at the lock show no cracks. On Jan. 27, as the main-chamber, downstream gate of the Greenup Lock and Dam, near Greenup, Ky., neared closure, operators heard a pop and the landside leaf canted over, but it did not fall. Mike Keathley, the U.S. Army Corps
A bill that would have funneled as much as $100 million a year to road, bridge and railroad projects in Alabama was removed from the state Senate’s agenda on Tuesday after four days of debate. Sen. Lowell Barron (D-Fyffe) sponsored the legislation in an effort to create a state-funded stimulus bill that would whittle away at Alabama’s backlog of road and bridge projects. The money would have come from the Alabama Trust Fund, comprising about $2.6 billion in royalties from natural gas drilling off the state’s coast. Republication opponents argued the trust-fund money should remain intact. The Senate voted 20-11
Colombia has awarded the first two contracts for the $2.6-billion, 1,000-kilometer Ruta del Sol highway project. The largest such road effort ever undertaken in the South American country, the project will connect the capitol city Bogota and the Caribbean coast. + Image Map: Sue Pearsall The 1,000-km tollroad will link Bogota to the Atlantic Coast. In January, Colombia’s National Dept. of Planning and National Institute of Concessions (INCO) awarded the seven-year, $660-million contract to Helios Road Consortium, led by Colombian construction firm Grupo Solarte, to construct and operate the toll road. The group also includes Colombian construction firm Conconcreto and
High-speed rail advocates celebrated the Jan. 28 award of grants from the $8-billion pot that is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but officials must now figure out how to leverage the seed money into successful long-term programs. California and Florida, the anticipated big grant winners at $2.25 billion and $1.25 billion, respectively, are now pondering design-build and public-private partnerships along with other funding sources. + Image Image: U.S. DOT Florida, California and the Midwest all received big chunks of ARRA grants. The U.S. Dept. of Transportation was flooded with applications, receiving $57 billion in project funding proposals.
India plans to build 15, 600 kilometers of expressways by 2022 at a cost of more than $100 billion, and the concrete industry needs to be prepared for increasing demand, says the country’s transport minister. Starting in April, India’s daily average construction rate of 9 km of roads may increase to 20 km, says Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath. Mumbai-Pune Expressway is one of few India roads with some concrete paving Nath spoke at the National Seminar on Concrete Highway Projects, held in New Delhi last month, at which sponsors emphasized sustainability and quality. According to Sumit Banerjee,
The North Carolina Dept. of Transportation (NCDOT) has set Sept. 30 as the new target date for completing the Oak Island Bridge project in Brunswick County, N.C. Part of a new 4.5-mile link to connect Oak Island with the mainland south of Wilmington, the troubled $36.5-million project has twice experienced lengthy delays since work began in August 2007. Construction was halted for six months after a 121-ton concrete girder fell 40 feet from a temporary support brace in December 2008, killing one worker and injuring two others. Prime contractor Barnhill Contracting Co., Tarboro, N.C., and bridge erection subcontractor Lee Construction
Transit projects in Denver, San Francisco, Hartford, Honolulu and Minneapolis will get a first-time boost from the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program for fiscal year 2011. But FTA administrator Peter Rogoff conceded that the consistency of annual levels of funding will be uncertain as long as the six-year transportation reauthorization bill is delayed. At a Feb. 2 press conference, Rogoff announced $1.82 billion for 27 major transit projects for FY 2011. That includes $835 million for 19 new construction projects, including $80 million for two rail lines in Denver, $45 million for a busway to connect Hartford and New
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