Image courtesy of TJPA Financing strategy lets transit-hub neighbors go taller, but they cannot exceed the 1,070-ft Salesforce Tower, planned as the city's tallest. Nineteen projects are underway. Related Links: Transbay Transportation Hub Will Be a Safe Haven Developing the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco has been a nearly two-decade crusade for Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan, executive director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority. She spearheaded the agency's method for funding the project, which, in turn, lifted real estate development in the so-called South of Market area.The plan got a boost when the State Dept. of Transportation transferred 19 acres to
Related Links: Transbay Funding Plan Lights Fuse on Area Building Boom San Francisco Creates Special Tax District For Major Projects San Francisco To Build West Coast's Tallest Tower A crane on a trestle lifts an architectural steel assembly, including a 9-ft-tall cast node, into place along the perimeter of the $4.5-billion Transbay Transit Center, which is taking shape in seismically active San Francisco. The node picks, followed by more steel tubes that link to form a four-and-a-half-block-long exoskeleton, is repeated more than 300 times. The lateral-load-resisting system will allow immediate reoccupancy of the 1,425-ft x 171-ft "groundscraper" after the "Big
Related Links: Press release from Gov. Hogan's office Purple Line project web page Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has given his tentative approval to a 16.2-mile, 21-station light-rail Purple Line project across Washington, D.C.'s northern suburbs, but the go-ahead hinges on increased contributions from counties on the route and a revised funding strategy for a P3 project originally estimated to cost $2.4 billion.In announcing his favorable decision on the Purple Line project on June 25, Hogan also delivered disappointing news to advocates of a second light-rail project, saying he isn't endorsing a proposed 14-mi. line in Baltimore.Hogan has insisted since
Related Links: Losing Bidder Protests Big Texas Tollway Award Bergstrom Expressway Project Overview The award last month of a $581- million design-build contract to a Fluor-Balfour Beatty team to build a new expressway near Austin is not sitting well with the losing team or with local contractors. Texas firms say they are being squeezed out of competition by mandatory design-build procurement rules on large projects, while the losing bidder on the Bergstrom Expressway, led by Spanish giant Ferrovial Agroman, has challenged its loss in a bid protest.The Ferrovial Agroman team claims that the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority graded its
Related Links: Washington State Pulls the Plug on Advisory Panel Shocked and disappointed: That's how Patricia Galloway, chair of the three-member expert review panel for Washington state's $2-billion Highway 99 bored-tunnel project, described the panel's scrapping by state lawmakers.State legislators apparently perceived the panel as a legal risk and wanted to retain a clear distinction between the roles of the state and the contractor, avoiding any appearance that the state-named panel was providing recommendations to the contractor. Neither the Washington State Joint Transportation Committee, which appointed the panel, nor its coordinator would comment beyond confirming the panel's demise.It remains a
Related Links: Low and Slow Across America's Infrastructure The Low and Slow team reaches Salt Lake City, and gets an exclusive construction tour of an expanding SLC International Airport.Click the photo to begin the slide show.
Mrs. Martin, the 1949 Hudson Commodore 8 carrying the Low and Slow tour team, parked behind the tainter-gate section of Folsom Dam's Auxiliary Spillway. Related Links: Low and Slow Across America's Infrastructure Blog: Mrs. Martin Meets the Mile-High City Slide Show: Across the Great Basin From an airport terminal expansion in Salt Lake City to an industrial complex growing at warp speed near Reno to a sewer treatment update and the retrofit of Folsom Dam, infrastructure stewards are digging in to upgrade facilities and enhance lifestyles.As ENR's Low & Slow tour made its way to the West Coast, an uphill
Related Links: Officials Cite Big Steps Forward In California High-Speed Program California Clears Path for Funding To Get High-Speed Rail Back on Track The California High-Speed Rail Authority selected an international team led by engineering consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff to manage the state's major transportation initiative, under a $700-million comprehensive rail-delivery partner contract.The contract, which runs through 2022, has the PB team overseeing program delivery—including permitting, preliminary engineering, alignment, right-of- way acquisition and procurement."They really came in with a solid presentation of an integrated team to deliver this program," says Scott Jarvis, the authority's chief engineer.Other team members include Network Rail
Related Links: Cracks Delay Work at Floating Bridge Project in Washington State Redesign Required For $4.1-billion Project's Pontoons The world's longest floating bridge will soon be eclipsed by a newer, longer span a few feet away on Lake Washington in Seattle.As crews from Kiewit-General-Manson (KGM) move toward swinging the final 1,000 ft worth of concrete pontoons into place this July, the owner—Washington State Dept. of Transportation—looks toward opening this project in April 2016, a key component of a project worth $4.47 billion overall.Moving the final "raft" of pontoons into position "will be a shock," says Adam Geyer, KGM superintendent. "There
Photo By Dan McNichol for ENR Denver International Airport's new rail terminal is set to open in the spring of 2016. Photo by Dan McNichol Three workers prepare the walkway from the rail platform to the retail, hotel and airport entrance to the terminals. Related Links: Low and Slow Across America's Infrastructure Low and Slow: The Tour Reaches the Heartland Low and Slow: A State's Transportation Funding in Misery In St. Louis, a half-dozen public agencies teamed up with scores of private donors to fund the $380-million CityArchRiver 2015 project. One of the agencies is the Great Rivers Greenway District,