Related Links: DBIA DBIA Best Practices The Design Build Institute of America (DBIA) is seeking industry comment through April 1 on a draft document that highlights best practices for design-build projects in the water-wastewater sector.The document, circulated at DBIA's water-wastewater sector conference in San Antonio March 11-13, is based on DBIA's universal best practices for design-build document released last year. The group released a similar draft of best practices for transportation projects at its transportation conference March 9-11.Lisa Washington, DBIA's executive director, said the "market drill-downs" are meant to supplement the association's universal best practices, which apply to all types
Related Links: Link to ARTBA proposal summary and financial tables With several proposals on the table but no Capitol Hill consensus yet about a revenue source for a new long-term surface transportation bill, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association has put forward another idea: a sharp increase in federal motor-fuels taxes. The ARTBA plan, announced on March 12, calls for a 15¢-per-gal. boost in the gasoline and diesel tax, but it also has an unusual wrinkle—a $90 a year rebate to motorists to offset the fuel-tax hike’s impact on their pocketbooks.The federal gas tax now is 18.4¢ and the diesel
Related Links: Text of PRRIA bill (excluding floor amendments) Congressional Budget Office cost estimate of bill The House has approved a measure to authorize $7.2 billion over four years for Amtrak and has a focus on the railroad’s busy Northeast Corridor. It also aims to spark more private investment around Amtrak's stations and along its rights-of-way. The Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act (PRRIA), which the House passed on March 4 on a 316-101 vote, includes $5.8 billion for Amtrak capital expenses, operations and debt-repayment, or an average of $1.45 billion per year. Amtrak's fiscal 2015 appropriation for those activities is
Photo by Mario Olivero/AASHTO Shuster "confident" Congress can pass a long-term transportation bill, but funding remains unresolved. Related Links: Lawmakers Still Search for Solution to Highway, Transit Funding Needs With federal highway authorizations due to expire in three months, and no replacement bill even introduced yet in Congress, some state agencies are postponing highway contract bid lettings, and others are drawing up contingency plans that could delay project starts, officials say.The search for a new surface transportation bill was front and center at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) annual winter meeting, held Feb. 24-27 in
Related Links: Crane Operator Testing Will Continue, Examiners Say (ENR 10/6/2014 issue) [subscription] Testing Companies Debate OSHA Crane Operator Delay (ENR 03/24/2014 issue) [subscription] Leaders of a House committee are urging the Occupational Safety & Health Administration to revise its 2010 construction cranes and derricks rule, saying the language that spells out how operators are to be certified is problematic."We encourage you to work with the stakeholders to resolve the discrepancies," House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), a subcommittee chair, told OSHA chief David Michaels in a Feb. 11 letter.At issue
Related Links: NLRB Issues Final Rule to Accelerate Union Elections (ENR, subscription) NLRB Representation Case Procedures Fact Sheet House and Senate GOP leaders plan votes in early March on a measure to block a National Labor Relations Board rule that would reduce the time for union representation elections. The rule, which cuts the election period to an average of 11 days from 39 now, became final in December and is to take effect on April 14.Associated Builders and Contractors and other construction and business groups strongly oppose the regulation. They call it the "ambush" rule and say it wouldn't give
Related Links: Construction Groups Say Obama Immigration Directive Will Slow Search for Legislative Fix (enr.com 11/20/2014) [subscription] DHS Feb. 17 Statement on Judge's Ruling A fight is heating up in the courts and in Congress over President Obama's executive order to protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.The Justice Dept. on Feb. 23 sought a stay of a federal judge's injunction, issued one week earlier, that temporarily blocked the directives that Obama issued last Nov. 20 from going into effect.JOHNSONOn Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats stalled action on a House-passed Dept. of Homeland Security spending bill, objecting to a provision barring
Photo courtesy Ocelleye LLC Currently, there are no regulations pertaining to commercial drones. Related Links: Coming Soon: More Drone Insurance Options Drone Users Await U.S. Regulations Unmanned aircraft systems—aka drones—have taken off in the civilian world. Nearly $17 million worth of drones were bought on eBay last year. Drones have come dangerously close to passenger aircraft, so it's no wonder that the Federal Aviation Administration fears disaster—thousands of tiny helicopters with spinning rotors and cameras are flying through the air.Despite the concerns, however, the FAA knows that drones will become a vital part of the commercial environment. Congress demanded that
Legislation to authorize the beginning of construction on the $3.3-billion Keystone XL pipeline has cleared the House and Senate. But project advocates' victory may be short-lived: President Obama has vowed to veto the bill when it reaches his desk.
Related Links: Obama Budget Features Proposed $478-Billion Transport Bill (enr.com 2/2/2015) [subscription] For Inhofe, Transportation Bill Tops Agenda (ENR 2/2/2015 issue) As the May 31 highway and transit authorization deadline approaches, Congress is working on potential new bills. So far, lawmakers haven't located the revenue needed to fund that legislation.SHUSTERHouse Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) says he is drafting a bill. "But the driving force behind it is going to be the funding," he says. "We don't want another two-year bill. We want a five- [or] six-year bill."Shuster told reporters after a Feb. 11 hearing on the