With federal highway and transit dollars facing a tight squeeze, those drafting a new surface transportation bill are seeking to produce the biggest bang for a limited number of bucks. But how to measure which projects have the best payoff? Source: Pew Center on the States and The Rockefeller Foundation, 2011 Rating the States on Evaluating Highway, Transit Projects’ Impacts A Pew Center on the States-Rockefeller Foundation report, released on May 11, says only 13 states get top marks for goals, performance yardsticks and data to help their transportation officials set highway and transit spending priorities. The Federal Highway Administration

A superior court judge in Benton County, Wash., has ruled that a whistle-blower lawsuit by an employee at the Hanford nuclear site against contractors Bechtel National and URS Corp. can move forward in May 2012. Walter Tamosaitis claims that, last July, he was removed from his role as technology manager for raising safety issues on the $12.2-billion waste vitrification plant project at the U.S. Energy Dept. site. Bechtel is the contractor. He now is employed by URS, its subcontractor, but in a lesser role, he says. Jack Sheridan, an attorney for Tamosaitis, says the court is set to decide on

Early next year, the American Institute of Architects plans to launch a cloud-based service that will enable users of its contracts and documents to search, edit, share and store the forms easily. AIA unveiled its Next Generation Service during its convention on May 12-14 in New Orleans. The program will be compatible with both Apple and PC formats and have security features similar to online banking, says Maan Hashem, AIA managing director for software products and services. All the institute’s 100-plus contracts will be made available.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked six natural gas drillers to disclose by May 25 information on how and where they dispose of or recycle drilling process water in the Marcellus shale region. "We want to make sure that the drillers are handling their wastewater in an environmentally responsible manner," said EPA mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Shawn Garvin in a statement. "EPA is continuing to work with Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection officials who are on the frontlines of permitting and regulating natural gas drilling activities in Pennsylvania."The companies receiving information requests are: Atlas Resources, L.L.C.; Talisman Energy USA, Range

The Internal Revenue Service has given design and construction firms a one-year reprieve from a contract-payment withholding requirement that industry contends would deal them a financial blow. The mandate stems from a provision of a 2006 statute that requires federal, state and local governments to withhold an amount equal to 3% of their payments to anyone providing them with goods or services. The mandate applies to agencies whose total annual spending on goods and services is $100 million or more. Individual payments of less than $10,000 would be exempt from the withholding requirement. The mandate originally was to take effect

The Dept. of Energy has named a panel of outside specialists to study natural-gas hydraulic fracturing. The panel, which DOE Secretary Steven Chu announced on May 5, will make recommendations within 90 days about immediate steps that could improve the safety and environmental impact of “fracking.” Panel members include representatives from industry, academia, environmental groups and state government.

As the Dept. of Transportation works with congressional committees to draw up a new multiyear transportation bill, DOT officials are dismissing a legislative text obtained by a Washington newsletter as “an early working draft that was never formally circulated within the administration.” The 498-page document, obtained by Transportation Weekly, tracks the $555.9-billion, six-year highway-transit-rail proposal that DOT outlined in February. The draft includes some new items, such as multiple, but vague, references to a “new energy tax.” In a statement, DOT spokesman Justin Nisly said, “This is not an administration proposal ... and does not represent the views of the

The National Labor Relations Board's acting general counsel has filed a complaint in federal court against Arizona for passing a measure that says workers can only use secret-ballot elections to determine whether they want to unionize. Organized labor prefers employees have the option of signing authorization cards to show support for unionizing. In a complaint filed on May 6 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, NLRB's Lafe Solomon said a 2010 Arizona constitutional amendment conflicts with federal labor law. Three other states have adopted similar measures. Solomon says he plans to file a complaint in South Dakota and may take

An Office of Management and Budget proposal to sell thousands of surplus federal buildings is garnering support on Capitol Hill and among industry groups. OMB says selling the properties could save the government $15 billion. Some of that amount would come from selling the excess properties. The plan could give a lift to the construction industry's buildings sector. As much 40% of the proceeds from the property sales would be plowed back into retrofitting other federal buildings to make them more energy efficient, OMB officials say. The plan, sketched out in the Obama administration's fiscal 2012 budget, calls for a

The Internal Revenue Service has given design and construction firms aone-year reprieve from a contract-payment withholding requirement thatindustry contends would deal them a financial blow.At issue is a provision of a 2006 statute that requires federal, state andlocal governments to withhold an amount equal to 3% of their payments toanyone providing them with goods or services.The mandate applies to agencies whose total annual spending on goods andservices is $100 million or more.Individual payments of less than $10,000 would be exempt from thewithholding requirement.The mandate originally was to take effect for payments starting Jan. 1,2011. But the 2009 economic stimulus law