More than two-thirds of the states lack adequate ways to measure whether their transportation spending is successful, says a new report from two policy research groups. ENR file photo Pass or fail? States can't tell if transportation work achieves goals, report says. Related Links: View executive summary of Pew-Rockefeller report The states can't tell if the spending achieves economic, mobility, environmental, infrastructure quality and other goals, says the report. The assessment is part of a study released on May 10 by the Pew Center on the States and the Rockefeller Foundation. It found that only 13 states have sufficient goals,
Rail projects on the Northeast Corridor were the major winners as the U.S. Dept. of Transportation redistributed $2 billion in aid Florida turned down earlier this year. The grants, announced on May 9, will fund about $1.7 billion in infrastructure. That will be good news for engineering and construction firms and ease the pain of Florida Gov. Rick Scott's move to cancel his state's rail plan. The Northeast got about $1 billion, mostly for the Washington-to-Boston corridor. Peter Gertler, chairman of transit and high-speed rail services for HNTB, says about 75% of previous DOT rail awards went to California, Florida
Construction of what will be the first large-scale commercial carbon capture and storage project in the world began just hours after the Saskatchewan government gave SaskPower the go-ahead on April 26 to build the $1.24-billion plant. The project, at SaskPower's Boundary Dam coal plant, is notable not only for its size but also because it is moving forward at a time when other CCS projects are not because of CCS's high cost. Photo:Courtesy Of SaskPower SaskPower started work last month on the $1.24-billion job at its Boundary Dam coal plant. Mike Monea, a vice president of Sask- Power responsible for
Ten capped landfills will be reused as solar fields under an agreement between Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative, located in Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, and American Capital Energy, North Chelmsford, Mass. The 18.3-MW project on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, the largest of its type in New England, is expected to produce 22,500 MWh per year, enough energy to power 3,132 Cape and Vineyard homes, according to the cooperative. Energy produced from the project will provide about 1.1% of electric power for cooperative customers. A construction date for the $83-million project has not yet been scheduled. The federal government
Federal and state officials say they already have taken steps to address some of the concerns raised in a National Research Council report that was critical of a draft plan to protect fragile and endangered species in the California Bay-Delta while diverting water to the central and southern parts of the state. The draft plan, which was circulated in fall 2010, calls for the construction of a large structure—either a canal or two 33-ft-dia 37-mile twin-bore tunnels—to provide a reliable source of freshwater from areas north of the delta, where water is plentiful, to central and southern California. The plan
This month, Israel is set to open the first stage of a planned 2,000-acre urban park in Tel Aviv on the former site of what has been, for decades, the country's biggest environmental health hazard. Named for the late former prime minister, Ariel Sharon Park will be Israel's largest urban park when the $250-million project is completed in 2020. Rendering Courtesy Of Ariel Sharon Park Co. Israel’s biggest municipal dump is being transformed into the country’s largest urban park. Work on the public-private effort involves transforming the Hiriya landfill site and surrounding floodplain into a recreational site. It was built
Guidelines for the performance-based design of structures to resist disproportionate collapse are under development by the American Society of Civil Engineers' Structural Engineering Institute. SEI expects to release a draft next year and publish the guidelines in 2013. “We are providing guidelines for those who wish to use them. We are not mandating use,” says Robert Smilowitz, chairman of the SEI's disproportionate collapse standards and guidance committee and a principal at structural engineer Weidlinger Associates Inc., New York City. “Our immediate objective is to provide a solid technical basis for designing structures that are more resistant to disproportionate collapse. It
Photo: Courtesy Of Controlled Demolition Inc. Photo: Courtesy Of Controlled Demolition Inc. A 1,410-ft-tall signal tower in Liberia, formerly used by the U.S. Coast Guard for ship navigation and the tallest structure in Africa, was imploded on May 10. Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition Inc., the project's Phoenix, Md.-based subcontractor, says it is the world's tallest man-made structure to be felled by explosives. The tower weighed 520 tons. The government of Liberia approached the Coast Guard for help felling the tower, which was decommissioned in 1997 says Lt. Col. Clement Ketchum, a U.S Army official in Monrovia. The Liberian
Workers building the $409-million John James Audubon Bridge over the Mississippi River in Louisiana will have to complete construction with cars cruising by, after the contractor complied with a state request to open the bridge more than a month early to help the state cope with high river levels that shut down an alternative crossing. Photo By Wayne Marchand, Louisiana TIMED Managers Workers stand in the shadow of the podium and barricades as first traffic begins to move across the John James Audubon Bridge over the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The contractor opened the bridge more than a month early
New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Work has already begun on improvements to Harold Interlocking in New York City's borough of Queens. Related Links: View DOT's announcement View NY Gov. Cuomo's press release Rail projects on the Northeast Corridor are the major winners as the U.S. Dept. of Transportation redistributed $2 billion in high-speed rail aid that Florida rejected earlier this year. The grant awards, announced by US DOT Secretary Ray LaHood on May 9, will include about $1.7 billion for infrastructure work. That will be a welcome infusion to engineering firms and construction contractors around the country, and ease
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