New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo today unveiled a $132.5-billion budget plan that includes $1.3 billion in state investment aimed at spurring $25 billion in investments from other sources to launch or accelerate major infrastructure projects and create jobs. The governor's budget for fiscal year beginning April 1, 2012 would continue to support programs including the Environmental Protection Fund, which would be maintained at $134 million. The budget plan includes $102 million in new funding for the Department of Environmental Conservation to advance flood control, coastal erosion and critical dam safety projects, as well as $94 million for capital rehabilitation
PSEG Solar Source, a subsidiary of Newark, N.J.-based Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G), is expanding its solar farm business with the purchase of a planned 25.2 MW solar project in Arizona for $75 million. Construction of the PSEG Queen Creek Solar Farm, to be developed by engineering procurement construction (EPC) contractor juwi solar Inc., Boulder, Colo., is expected to begin this month with completion slated in the third quarter. Photo Courtesy of PSEG Solar Source The farm at the Mars company, which makes candy including M&Ms, was PSEG Solar Source's first project. The PSEG Queen Creek Solar Farm
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says it hit a $1-billion milestone today for direct contracts to minority- and women-owned firms for work on the World Trade Center during the last five years. The authority says it has awarded about 200 minority and women-owned businesses close to 500 WTC contracts, generating 2,417 construction, architectural and engineering jobs. Photo by Joe Woolhead The authority credits its staff from the World Trade Center Construction, Office of Business Diversity and Civil Rights and Procurement departments for ensuring that each WTC contract met its goal of minority and women-owned (M/WBE) enterprise
New York City's efforts to improve its educational system took the spotlight in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s State of the City address earlier today, but job creation and a slew of construction projects planned or under way were also mentioned. The mayor, who spoke at Morris High School in the Bronx, praised the city’s 2011 accomplishments and set a broad list of goals in several areas including plans to streamline the building inspection process. "We've already opened an online hub for reviewing and approving digital construction plans," Bloomberg said, referring to the Dept. of Buildings' recently launched NYC Development Hub. "Now,
New York University will present a plan to add 3.1 acres of publicly accessible open space in Greenwich Village, at Community Board Two's Parks, Recreation and Open Space Committee meeting tonight. The plan is under the university's NYU Core strategy, part of the university’s 20-year, city-wide plan for growth dubbed NYU 2031: NYU in NYC. Rendering Courtesy of NYU The university's plan calls for the addition of 40,000 sq ft of public parkland, totaling more than four acres to be used by the university community and the neighborhood. It also includes landscape improvements to the university-owned streets bordered by West
New York City released details on Monday of its financial pre-development arrangement with Cornell University that allows the university to jumpstart its $2-billion-plus applied sciences campus on Roosevelt Island. Under the deal, Cornell’s first deadline is Jan. 17 for payment of a $5 million pre-development deposit and a $5 million security deposit. The university’s obligations include submission of its Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application by Nov. 10, or it must pay a penalty fee of $1,000 a day for the first two months, increasing by an additional $1,000 a day every two months after that. The university must also
Thornton Tomasetti has acquired Portland, Maine-based Fore Solutions, a seven-employee, green building consulting firm, for an undisclosed sum. The acquired firm will become Thornton Tomasettis’ new Building Sustainability practice, which will expand the engineering firm’s footprint in the green building sector. Photo Courtesy of Thornton Tomasetti The acquisition enables Thornton Tomasetti to “address the sustainability requirements for any client and any project of any scale,” says Joseph Burns, Thornton Tomasetti managing principal. About half of new construction nationwide is expected to incorporate some measure of sustainability by 2015, the firm says.“This is a dramatic expansion of our commitment to sustainability
Construction has commenced on a new $350-million Bronx campus for the New York State Office of Mental Health, the Bronx Psychiatric Center, and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. The new campus will be located at 1500 Waters Place, between Waters Place and the Hutchinson River Parkway. Rendering Courtesy of the Spector Group Designed by New York-based Spector Group, the master plan calls for a campus that will include three outpatient buildings, a central services building, a central utility plant, and an adult and children’s facility located on 50-plus acres. Plans also call for the preservation of
Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed yesterday that the 9/11 museum at the World Trade Center site will not open as scheduled on September 2012 due to financial disputes between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum foundation. The Port Authority has previously claimed that the foundation owes it $300 million in cost overruns. However, the mayor, who is the foundation’s chairman, says that the Port Authority owes the foundation about $140 million. The foundation declined comment for this story, and the Port Authority did not return calls by press time."There's no
Repair work on the George Washington Bridge's 80-year-old suspender ropes is expected to begin in 2013 and last eight to nine years, says the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Earlier this month, the Port Authority approved a $15.5-million investment in planning funds for the work, only a portion of the $1-billion to $1.2-billion needed for the overall GWB planned project. The $15.5 million is earmarked for engineering and consulting services to prepare the suspender rope project for construction, says an agency spokesperson. "This is a big, important project because those ropes haven't ever been replaced," says Thomas
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