Photo courtesy of Vermont Agency of Transportation Hoping to restore roads before winter snow arrives, National Guard troops help fix three miles of state road in Cavendish, Vermont. Related Links: Hurricane Irene Provides a Laboratory For Testing Bridge Innovations Before winter arrives, crews are working hard in the Northeast to assess and repair infrastructure damaged from tropical storms Irene and Lee in August and September, respectively.Vermont was hit hard by Irene. The storm killed five, closed roads, bridges and rail lines, shut down the state office complex in Waterbury and left more than 50,000 people without power.Dept. of Transportation officials

Photo courtesy AWEA EVOLUTION As development in the wind industry reaches maturity, safety-standard requirements are growing. Workers are often perched 60 ft to 100 ft off the ground during installations. As the wind industry expands its reach across the nation and prepares to begin building offshore wind farms, federal agencies and contractors are focusing on improving safety for the growing industry.“Whether you are erecting a wind farm in the mountains of Colorado or the cornfields of Iowa, you can run into a totally different situation and weather can change in a second,” says Brian Sturtecky, area director at the Jacksonville,

Photo Courtesy of Caldecott/ Tutor Perini Tutor Perini bores a $214.8-million two-lane Caldecott tunnel. The weak economy has squeezed transportation budgets to the limit. Still, firms that work in the transportation market are finding ways to push forward, diversifying their businesses by sector and region and looking to alternative delivery methods, such as public-private partnerships.Richard Cavallaro, president of Skanska USA Civil, Whitestone, N.Y., says it is hard to plan ahead not knowing when a federal transportation bill will be enacted and with states being financially strapped. While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has helped sustain active projects, he says

Photo courtesy of MassDOT 'We are looking forward to working with the industry to improve project-delivery approvals,' says Richard Davey, Secretary, Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation Richard Davey is the new Secretary of the Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation. Only 38, he aims to use social media to make the agency more transparent. As general manager of the state Bay Transportation Authority for three years, he rode with T-line riders, hosted customer lunches and became a local celebrity. Davey's recent interview with ENR has been condensed and edited.ENR: What are the state's top-priority projects for the next few years? Davey: We are

photo by ap worldwide SURVEYING DAMAGE Vermont Lt. Gov. Phil Scott (center) talks with Gov. Peter Shumlin (left) and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. Vermont was grappling with cleanup work after tropical storm Irene hit the state, leaving at least 42 dead and damaging critical infrastructure, property and cultural gems such as covered bridges. For the state's lieutenant governor, the infrastructure damage has a particular resonance.Lt. Gov. Phil Scott is co-owner of Dubois Construction, Middlesex, Vt. Some of Dubois' earthmoving equipment is now repairing infrastructure in central Vermont. “I'm not only trying to keep the business going, but also trying to

AP Photo/Seth Wenig Construction workers disassemble a temporary building on the beach that was set up for an upcoming surfing competition in Long Beach, N.Y., anticipating Hurricane Irene hitting the East Coast. Related Links: U.S.G.S. Hurricane Irene Tracking Map, Surge Data You could call it the Great Button Up.  Or the Big Batten Down.Either way, contractors, owners and government agencies all along the Northeast U.S. coast secured jobsites in anticipation of Hurricane Irene making landfall over the Aug. 27-28 weekend. As of Friday afternoon, Irene was classified as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph. For some, the

Related Links: Highway Administrator's Frozen Soil and Ground Settlement Update to Board of Directors, Aug. 10, 2011 Big Dig's Technical Maual Section on on Jacked-box Tunneling and Ground Freezing Boston’s Big Dig tunnel has one more problem. Thawing from ground-freezing technology used to excavate the I-90 connector system 11 years ago has apparently caused a large swath of soil to settle. Engineers fear that a deep water-filled void may be lurking beneath.The area of concern beneath the I-90 tunnel base slab measures 190 ft long by 60 ft wide, says Frank DePaola, appointed Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation’s new highway administrator

Courtesy FERC FERC Order 1000 requires providers in neighboring transmission planning regions to coordinate on finding cost-effective solutions to mutual transmission needs. Related Links: Power Producers Validate One Bright Spot in Midyear Outlook FERC Floats Rule Changes To Promote Transmission A  July 21 ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that reforms electric-transmission planning and allocation requirements is expected to support new solar- and wind-power development, according to two construction industry sources.“FERC Order 1000 is a huge development that will open up the transmission cost allocation process and spur development of transmission projects,” says Gerald Schulz, vice president of electrical

PHOTO COURTESY OF Associated General Contractors CEO Stephen Sandherr, Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, who was active in the negotations, and FAA Administrator Randy Babbit (from left) held a media event at LaGuardia Airport. PHOTO Courtesy OF Swinerton Builders A control-tower project at Palm Springs, Calif., International Airport, idled by a congressional stalemate, is set to resume. Passage of a stopgap Federal Aviation Administration extension bill through Sept. 16 has ended a congressional stalemate—at least temporarily—that had forced the agency to issue stop-work orders on more than 200 airport modernization contracts, including construction and engineering projects, estimated at more than $10.5

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced on Aug. 2 that it plans to delay construction of the $1-billion Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford until fall 2018 or as late as summer 2020.It plans to purchase the required land and obtain permits before putting out a bid for design and construction to avoid loss of time and money—which happened to a commuter-rail project completed south of Boston in 2007. A day after the announcement, the city of Somerville circulated a petition stating that a four-year delay was unacceptable and demanded an accurate timeline for the project. It noted, “The