The Texas Dept. of Transportation is set to issue the first $1 billion in general obligation bonds this month for state highway projects, following approval on Aug. 26 by the state transportation commission. Voters approved the funding in 2007 as part of Proposition 12. Among the projects set for funding is a 94-mile expansion of the Interstate 35 corridor through central Texas. The bonds are payable from the state’s general revenue rather than from state highway fund revenue. The Texas Legislature appropriated $1 billion in 2010-2011 to begin making payments on about $2 billion worth of projects. In addition, $1
Construction on Maryland’s $2.6-billion, 18.8-mile InterCounty Connector has meant extensive interaction with communities of people, turtles, deer and one single brown trout. While design-build teams squeeze a new six-lane toll highway into a right-of-way teeming with humans and wildlife, Maryland’s State Highway Administration (SHA) has allocated 15% of the budget to environmental concerns. Officials say the massive efforts to manage turtles, trout and tempers are in- dicative of how highway builders must act in a new age. “What we’re seeing with the ICC will become more of the rule rather than the exception,” says SHA project manager Melinda Peters. After
Call it Underground Zero. In the middle of the World Trade Center site in Manhattan, workers are performing an intricate balancing act with steel and concrete, excavating beneath an active subway line while a number of other projects progress around them. The top-down permanent underpinning of the subway tunnel will create much-needed space for a new nearby iconic transit station as well as other facilities. Photo: Courtesy of PANYNJ Workers are creating necessary space for a new transit station, which is hemmed in on all sides at Ground Zero. Slide Show Graphic: Courtesy of STV No. 1 subway line runs
With state budgets still hamstrung by the recession and Congress hesitant to hammer out a new federal funding measure, it seems the only thing growing in the U.S. transportation sector these days is the number of firms vying for the few opportunities that do arise. Photo: Courtesy of Austin Bridge and Road TxDOT has awarded more than $4 billion in projects over the past year. Related Links: Environment: Treatment-Facility Work, Cleanups Bolster Sector General Building: Firms Find Little Respite From Weak Economy Manufacturing/Telecommunications: Tough Market Requires Top-Notch Players Petroleum: Projects Cancelled in Uncertain Climate Power: Federal Policy Drives New Power
Work is under way on a $571-million upgrade to a mountainous, five-mile stretch of Interstate 90 - Washington’s busiest east-west connector. Located miles from Seattle, the scenic highway, which is part of Snoqualmie Pass, weaves through the Cascade Range. The Washington State Dept. of Transportation’s comprehensive plan calls for widening the road from four lanes to six, repaving it with freeze- and thaw-resistant concrete, straightening curves, stabilizing rock slopes, and adding a chain-up area and 1,200-ft.-long snowshed. Moreover, WSDOT will add or replace four bridges and build four new ones bridges and culverts in an effort to improve fish and
Making the U.S. energy-independent and overhauling outmoded transportation infrastructure are the two key engineering challenges to be faced in the next decade, say nearly 60% of 323 design-firm CEOs in a survey released on Aug. 30 by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), Washington, D.C. Fewer respondents noted needed upgrades of infrastructure for water-wastewater treatment and flood control, cyber-security, sustainable building and electrical grids as challenges through 2020. Responding CEOs were among 2,000 leaders of ACEC member companies contacted for the survey. More than 80% of the respondents say they run companies with 200 or fewer employees. Almost 30%
Hoping to attract cargo traffic from an expanded Panama Canal in 2014, the Port of Miami is taking steps to refurbish a dormant 4.4-mile rail corridor linking the port with the Hialeah Intermodal Railyard, operated by the Florida East Coast Railroad. The Port, FECR and the Florida Dept. of Transportation are collaborating on the $46.9-million project, which is still contingent on receiving a $28-million so-called TIGER grant (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. If approved, the two-year project would restore a one-track rail link that has been out of service for several years, due
A new isolated bearing system designed to preserve the alignment of critical bridge structures while saving millions in construction costs may make its debut on a high-speed-rail project in Turkey. It has been proposed for California’s planned high-speed-rail system as well. Photo: Courtesy of EPS A new isolation system, tested successfully in California this spring, may be used on two Turkish bridges. CCCI Consortium—a design-build partnership of the China Railway Construction Corp., the China National Machinery Import & Export Corp., Istanbul-based Cengiz Insaat and Ankara-based IC Ictas Insaat—plans to include a segmental displaced control isolation system manufactured by Vallejo, Calif.-based
The state-owned rail companies of Botswana and Mozambique are preparing to build an estimated $7-billion transport project that would include one of Africa’s longest railways and a deepwater port on the Indian Ocean, south of Maputo. A recent agreement between the two governments calls for the scheme to include private financing, but backing has not yet been secured. Photo: Wikipedia The Beira port facility in Mozambique would be supported by a new deepwater port to handle larger ships. Photo: Courtesy of CFM Congestion at the port and railway complex at Maputo, Mozambique, will be alleviated by a new rail system.
The amount of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-financed projects under contract in highways and other infrastructure sectors is slowly rising closer to the 100% mark, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's latest update on the economic-stimulus measure shows. With the ARRA programs now in the 18th month since the measure was signed, the month-to-month gains in funds under contract are modest. The committee's latest monthly stimulus scorecard, released Aug. 26, says that of the $38 billion that ARRA allocated for highway, transit and wastewater-treatment programs under the panel's jurisdiction, $34.1 billion, or 90%, was under contract as of July 31.
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