The federal transportation trust fund remains moored as competing interests in Congress wrangle over spending priorities. Meanwhile, transportation agencies, anticipating a resurgence in cargo as the Panama Canal is expanded and as the economy improves, are moving forward with united interests, despite uncertainties over funding. Four years ago, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation granted $15 million to Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah to begin studying some 840 miles of Interstate 15 for optimal freight movement, part of its Corridors of the Future program, which is now in limbo as it awaits further funding. But Susan Martinovich, director of the Nevada
Two proposed Northwest port facilities to export coal to China are facing hurdles. Millennium Bulk Logistics, a subsidiary of Australia’s Ambre Energy North America, with a partial stake owned by St. Louis-based Arch Coal Inc., wants to upgrade the Longview Terminal Facility on the Columbia River, roughly 45 miles downstream of Portland, Ore. But environmental groups, including the Washington Dept. of Ecology, have filed suit against the project, claiming Cowlitz County didn’t follow state law in awarding a shoreline permit. Millennium bought 416 acres of a former aluminum smelter in January. It wants to replace 150 creosote river pilings and
A fter a series of political volleys on Feb. 25 between Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who proffered a week’s extension of the U.S. DOT’s deadline for accepting federal funding for a $2.7-billion high-speed-rail line, the governor showed no signs of changing his opinion and approving a deal. On Feb. 25, the original deadline for Florida, media reports said the governor was rejecting a second proposal that provided for a Tampa-Orlando line. That latest proposal created an interlocal entity to oversee the project and shield the state from liability. Scott initially rejected
Not all states are turning down federal funding for high-speed passenger rail. The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has formally obligated $590 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to the Washington DOT, clearing the way for passenger rail infrastructure projects in that state. The state DOT announced on Feb. 26 that it had reached agreements with federal and railroad officials on releasing the funds as well as a spending plan and rail-service benchmarks. U.S. DOT awarded Washington $590 million in January 2010, when it announced the winners of ARRA’s $8 billion for high-speed passenger rail. But agreements with state
Maine could be the proving ground of a significant new renewable powerhouse for the Northeast, as scientists and builders use composites and robotics in hopes of harnessing wind and wave power. + Image Rendering: Courtesty of NREL/Walt Musial Cianbro Corp., Pittsfield, Maine, is constructing a new $30-million Offshore Wind Laboratory, scheduled for completion in June. It has 4-ft-thick test floors with a waterproof blade-tip pit, 30 ft wide x 75 ft long x 16 ft deep, to be used as a wave basin for testing models of floating wind turbines. “It’s challenging keeping up with constantly evolving equipment technology,” says
Crews at the U.S. Energy Dept.’s Hanford nuclear-waste cleanup complex in eastern Washington are reactivating a 45-year-old site crane to remove close to 200 waste tanks, each three to 22 ft long, that are contaminated with plutonium. DOE contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. opted to restore the crane as the safest approach to extract the so-called “pencil tanks,” thinly shaped to prevent uncontrolled plutonium releases during the site’s Cold War-era atomic weapons production. Photo: Courtesy of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. Revamped crane will lift thin plutonium-tainted tanks to a yard where workers will decontaminate them safely. The 5-ton
A new guide from the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a Chicago-based think tank, seeks to shed some light on what has been a murky area: defining the value of using green infrastructure to manage stormwater and sewer systems versus traditional gray tunnels and reservoirs. “The Value of Green Infrastructure” guide, the culmination of a research effort that was funded in part by the Environmental Protection Agency and the non-profit clean-water advocacy group American Rivers, is designed to fill an information gap that some sources say has hampered the widespread adoption of green infrastructure practices in cities across the United States.
A new paper from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling says the restoration effort in the gulf region could be hampered by the absence of an integrated strategy and sustained sources of funding. The “working paper,” penned by commission staff and released on Feb. 24, says a “lack of sustained and predictable funding, project coordination and long-term planning have resulted in incomplete and often ineffective efforts to restore the gulf” from last year’s spill. The paper says that establishing the Gulf Coast Restoration Task Force to coordinate the remediation effort is a good
A week after the devastating shallow earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on Feb. 22, structural engineers are surprised and relieved that damage to modern engineered buildings was not even more widespread. Recordings at several instrumented sites indicated that ground motion exceeded the maximum considered event. The MCE has a one in 2,500 chance of happening in any given year. Photo Courtesy Logan Mcmillan / www.gorillapictures.co.nz Low-rise devastation frames the 26-story landmark hotel, stabilized by construction crews after one corner dropped by a meter. + Image The magnitude-6.3 Canterbury quake, centered some 10 kilometers from downtown Christchurch and only 5
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s new rules on long-term on-site storage of spent nuclear fuel are facing legal challenges from three states and several environmental groups. The NRC determined in December 2010 that used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste can be safely stored in temporary facilities at nuclear powerplants for 60 years after the plant has gone out of service. Vermont, New York and Connecticut filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Feb. 15 challenging the NRC’s policy, saying the NRC has not fully evaluated the impact long-term storage at nuclear powerplants would
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