The U.S. Dept. of Transportation awarded $1.5 billion in grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to 51 projects in 41 states and the District of Columbia on Feb. 17, underscoring the Obama administration’s transportation priorities. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery funds, known as TIGER grants, target projects that USDOT identified as being “major national and regional transportation projects that are in many cases difficult to pursue through other government funding programs.” Although a mix of transportation modes received grants that range from $3.15 million to $105 million, freight-rail and transit projects received the largest individual grants. Unlike
A massive highway renovation is unfolding only minutes away from Vancouver’s Winter Olympics, and the centerpiece will be a new cable-stayed bridge crossing the Fraser River from Surrey to Coquitlam. Photo: Transportation Investment Corp. Staging area adjacent to new bridge where pieces of the structure are arranged. At 1.2 miles in length including approaches, the bridge will be one of the longest of its kind in North America. Part of a 22.9-mi, $2.33-billion overhaul of Highway 1, the principal corridor in the greater Vancouver area, the project is designed to ease congestion, especially on the existing Port Mann Bridge. Financing
German investigations into faulty underground construction suspected to be linked with last year�s collapse of a building in Cologne were extended today to a section of elevated rail over 400 km away, completed nearly four years ago by the same contractor. Related Links: Prosecutors Search for Fraud in Rail Project �We want to make sure that works have been carried out correctly at all projects where similar technologies were used,� says Herbert Bodner, Chairman of Bilfinger Berger A.G., Mannheim. Suspicions by the investigators of the Cologne collapse prompted the new probe of work on the high-speed line. In parallel, diaphragm
Even as slimmed down as it is, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s new jobs bill has provisions that construction officials like, but the $15-billion measure is much less generous to public works than the $154-billion version the House passed in December. With Democrats’ Senate majority no longer filibuster-proof and GOP votes hard to get, Reid faces a tough fight to get his bill approved. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Reid’s bill has an incentive for companies to hire new workers, plus an expanded bond program and an extension for a depreciation break. The Nevada Democrat’s proposal, introduced Feb. 11,
High-speed-rail builders from Europe and Japan trekked to Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles in early February to share their experiences with Americans. Public-private partnerships, interoperability with other systems and public outreach were among the topics broached by French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese rail officials. Photo: California High Speed Rail Authority California’s planned high-speed rail line may be informed by advice offered from around the world at a symposium. State engineers and their consultants are rolling up their sleeves after a Jan. 28 award of grants from the $8-billion pot for high-speed rail. In the Los Angeles symposium, held
Just a week after the chairman of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority warned of a possible budget crisis—one that would be the worst in 30 years—one of his former chief engineers told another industry audience of the subway and bus systems’ urgent needs. Cosema Crawford, who left her post as chief engineer of the New York City Transit Authority last fall to join Louis Berger Group as senior vice president, noted that the 106-year-old subway system still has a signal system that is more than 50 years old. “It needs $20 million a year over 15 years just to
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) discussed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act results and a new jobs bill in a Feb. 3, one-on-one interview with ENR. Edited excerpts follow. Q: Are you pleased with the agencies’ pace at putting out work to bid? A: [I’m] very pleased with the way the state DOTs responded [in highways]. ... And the reason it all worked so well is that we have a formula by which our funding goes out. We also had told state DOTs, “We expect you to have projects ... ready for bidding.” And most of them
The Dept. of Transportation has awarded $1.5 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants to 51 projects that are expected to have a significant regional or national impact. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant winners cross most transportation modes, from bicycle paths to major bridges and freight-rail projects. Related Links: View summaries of each winning project DOT's awards, announced Feb. 17, range from $3.2 million for a Burlington, Vt., waterfront project, to $105 million for the "Crescent Corridor" freight rail-improvement program in Tennessee and Alabama. Interest in the TIGER program far outstripped the dollars DOT had available.
An innovative, Texas-style highway contract will be put to the test as construction starts this month on the $1.02-billion DFW Connector project. It is designed to relieve congestion and double traffic capacity near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The design-build contract for the job, a so-called Comprehensive Development Agreement, or CDA, was awarded by the Texas Dept. of Transportation (TxDOT) on Oct. 6, 2009 to NorthGate Constructors, a joint-venture consortium led by Kiewit Texas Construction, Fort Worth, and Zachry Construction, San Antonio. Under the CDA, the consortium will simultaneously design and build the new expressway complex starting on Feb. 15.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) helped shape the infrastructure portions of what became last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He also was a key player in the Jobs for Main Street bill that the House passed in December and continues to push for his six-year, $500-billion highway-transit-rail reauthorization measure. In a one-on-one interview with ENR Washington Bureau Chief Tom Ichniowski Feb. 3 in the "T&I" committee's offices in the Rayburn House Office Building, Oberstar discussed the impact of the stimulus measure so far and the need for further legislation. ENR : Are you pleased with
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