As states around the country prepare to apply for shares of the $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail aid that Florida's governor rejected, two recently released ridership and financial estimates show that the now-cancelled Tampa-Orlando line would have been profitable in its first year. According to preliminary data released in early March by the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT), the $2.7-billion system would have generated $62.9 million in revenue in 2015, its first year of operation, and posted an estimated $10.2-million profit. By its 10th year of operation, the latest estimates indicate revenue would rise to $91.8 million in revenue
A second hydrogen blast occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan at 11 a.m. local time March 13, but the explosion in the reactor building of Unit 3 left the primary containment vessel intact, says the the International Atomic Energy Agency. The unit’s control room remains operational, says the IAEA. A hydrogen gas blast at Unit 1 on Saturday destroyed that unit’s containment building’s outer shell but also did not damage the core reactor building, say Japanese officials. Late on March 13, officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) were attempting to reduce the concentration of
Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Company were flooding two nuclear reactors at its Fukushima Daiichi plant with corrosive seawater and boron and planning to pump seawater into a third in attempt to cool the reactor cores damaged after the earthquake Friday. + Image Image: NEI Photo: AP Photo/Kyodo News and Tokyo Power Electric Co. In this combination of photos, the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, is seen before, left, and after an explosion that blew out the walls of the unit, in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. Additionally, they are venting gas from at least
States seeking the $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail funds that Florida's governor turned down will have to file new applications with the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Related Links: DOT Notice The deadline is tight: DOT Secretary Ray LaHood announced late on March 11 that the deadline for applications for the funds is April 4. U.S. DOT had awarded the $2.4 billion to Florida last year, but the state's new governor, Rick Scott [R], turned it down. There is likely to be no shortage of competition for the money. LaHood said, "States across the country have been banging down our
BC Hydro, the state-owned electric utility in British Columbia and Canada’s third-largest power company, is investing more than $6 billion to upgrade its transmission, generation and distribution systems, the firm announced late last month. The Burnaby, British Columbia-based utility has under way or is about to begin more than a dozen major capital projects throughout the province, including an upgrade to the 105-MW Ruskin hydroelectric plant near Vancouver. Photo: Courtesy of BC Hydro Renovation of Ruskin dam, near Vancouver, will occur in three stages. One stage will replace the structure’s piers and gates. Photo: Courtesy of BC Hydro The dam’s
The U.K. government in late February announced a plan for an estimated $52-billion project to extend the country's only high-speed railroad northward to Birmingham and beyond. It aims to start construction of the line, dubbed HS2, later this decade, and hopes to see trains start running by 2026. “Countries across Europe and Asia are already pressing ahead with ambitious plans for high-speed rail,” said Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, launching the five-month public information process. “We cannot afford to be left behind.” In a first phase of the proposed Y-shaped system, the line would be extended from London by 225 km
As state transportation agency chiefs gathered for their annual winter meeting in Washington, D.C., they received some encouraging news from Congress on highway and transit funding for the short term, but not as many answers as they had hoped about the murky longer-range legislative picture. During the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ legislative briefing on March 2-4, Congress cleared—and President Obama signed—a bill that extends highway and transit authorizations for seven months, the seventh stopgap since the last multiyear measure lapsed in September 2009. Also enacted while the meeting proceeded was a temporary appropriations bill to keep
The Israeli government is planning an estimated $800-million expansion of the 140-kilometer Cross-Israel Highway, the country’s sole north-south toll road. A joint committee of ministry representatives has issued a request for proposals for two extensions totaling 20.5 km, including 3.7 km of tunnels. Photo: TEDEM Civil Engineering Two planned extensions to the Cross-Israel highway, the country’s first toll road, will add 20.5 kilometers and three tunnels to its 140-km length. The highway’s original $1-billion segment, designed to allow drivers to bypass the congested Tel Aviv metropolitan area and substantially reduce north-south travel times, opened in 2001. “This is one of
Kenyan roads officials say plans for the first toll road in sub-Saharan Africa to be built under a public-private partnership have “collapsed” after the prime financier’s “integrity concerns” about a concession partner have led it to back out of the deal, although the challenged partner, the Austrian construction firm of Strabag SE, denies the plan is dead. Slide Show A consortium plan to design, construct and operate six segments of a 77-kilometer toll road as well as a 29-km southern bypass under a 30-year concession apparently has “collapsed.” Franklin Bett, the Kenyan roads minister, said in a press conference on
State and local transportation officials as well as firms that design and build roads and subway projects now have a bit more market stability, thanks to a newly enacted measure that extends federal highway and transit programs through Sept. 30, the last day of the 2011 fiscal year. The bill, which President Obama signed on March 4, freezes funding at fiscal 2010 levels for about seven months. The new measure’s highway obligation limit will be about $24 billion, or roughly 7/12ths of 2010’s full-year obligation ceiling of $41.1 billion. The legislation is the latest—and the second-longest—of seven extensions since Sept.
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