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
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
America’s aging infrastructure—which, in 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated would require $2.2 trillion over a five-year period—continues to provide work for environmental contractors through American Recovery and Reinvestment funding. Photo:Courtesey of PCL Utilities are still retrofitting aging facilities, like the South Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant. Related Links: 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 Projects Transportation: Dearth of Funds Keeps Sector in Doldrums The Top 400 Contractors List Specifically, contractors are finding work in assuring the safety
Microsoft has confirmed plans to invest $499 million in a data center to be located in Mecklenburg County, Va. Although the software giant declined to provide specifics on the facility’s size, project delivery method or construction schedule, the online industry news source Data Center Knowledge noted that four comparable data centers recently built to support the growth of Microsoft’s online business have been around 500,000 sq ft each. Microsoft reportedly had also considered prospective locations in North Carolina and Texas before selecting the 175-acre Boydton Plank Road Industrial Park, which also boasts a 40-acre graded pad. The Virginia Economic Development
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
The Missouri Dept. of Transportation tentatively has set September 15 as the target date to restore access between I-470 and I-435 in southern Kansas City, following an existing fill-supported ramp collapse on July 17. Photo: Missouri Dept. Of Transportation Groundwater is one of several possible causes being evaluated by investigators into Kansas City ramp failure, which occurred on July 17. Pyramid Contractors, Olathe, Kan., was awarded the contract to build a 225-ft-long, four-lane replacement structure currently being designed by HNTB, MoDOT’s engineering consultant. Expected to cost about $4.46 million, the precast structure will be built atop two bents with drilled
Transportation officials are eager for states to take the lead in using public-private partnerships (P3), but they seek clarity and leadership from the federal government on the future of transportation in general. A recent upsurge in major P3 deals has encouraged global firms regarding U.S. opportunities, but uncertainty over federal transportation legislation overshadows the optimism. In Washington, D.C., a keynote speech by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood at the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s (ARTBA) P3 conference on July 22-23 did little to quell doubts. He said a highway user fee and a gas tax increase are “off
After scaling back its expansion plans in the face of spiraling construction costs, Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport, referred to as SJC, is putting the finishing touches on a three-year, $1.3-billion design-build construction program that demonstrates how less really can be more. Photo: SJC California airport employed design-build to scale back costs on massive expansion. The program’s centerpiece—the sleek new 127,000-sq-ft metal-and-glass-paneled Terminal B—began full operation on June 30 as well as a 1.6 million-sq-ft, seven-level precast consolidated rental car and public parking garage, which is known by the acronym ConRAC. Last fall, SJC completed the modernization of
With recession-stricken states stripping road and bridge projects from their improvement agendas and no federal surface transportation reauthorization bill on the horizon, transportation design firms are trying to make the most of a sluggish market. Photo Courtesy of AECOM High-speed rail is gaining renewed interest, thanks to an infusion of ARRA funds. Related Links: View More on Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 View Complete Top 500 Sourcebook 2010 with Data and Analysis Little of the $40 billion allocated to transportation under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has found its way to design firms, as states stayed true to the
The Virginia Dept. of Transportation has OK’d preliminary engineering on its latest public-private initiative—a proposed new tunnel linking Norfolk and Portsmouth—while again seeking proposals on another such project that failed to generate an adequate response the first time. Moving ahead is the $1.3-billion Downtown Tunnel-Midtown Tunnel-Martin Luther King Freeway Extension. It will create a tunnel under the Elizabeth River parallel to an existing 50-year-old tunnel, which will be renovated. The two-phase procurement process of Virginia’s Public-Private Transportation Act required Alexandria, Va.-based Elizabeth River Crossings LLC, a collaboration led by Skanska Infrastructure Development Inc. and the Macquarie Group, to first assess
