The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners has approved the $1.2-billion San Pedro Waterfront Project, a 400-acre waterfront revitalization that is expected to take a decade to complete. The multi-phase project includes three new harbors, a public pier, a cruise-ship terminal and a “downtown” with promenades and 300,000 sq ft of commercial space. The project is currently under conceptual design. The port will fund approximately $900 million of the cost and expects to raise the other $300 million through private investment.
President Obama signed legislation on Oct. 1 that provides a one-month extension for the federal highway and transit programs as well as the appropriations for nearly all federal agencies. Obama also signed a separate bill that extends Federal Aviation Administration programs, including airport construction grants, for three months. The larger of the two measures is a continuing resolution (CR), which contains funds to keep federal agencies operating through Oct. 31, as well as a one-month extension of the current surface-transportation authorization statute, the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act; a Legacy for Users. The CR was needed because
States are committing more American Recovery and Reinvestment Act highway funds to specific projects, and pavement improvements continue to get the largest share of those dollars. But the mix of ARRA-funded highway work is shifting a little, to more complex projects, the Government Accountability Office reports. Total federal ARRA highway outlays—reimbursements to states—also still lag well below obligations. GAO’s latest ARRA update, released on Sept. 23, shows states had obligated nearly $18 billion of $26.7 billion in ARRA highway aid by Sept. 1. That is a 7% gain from $16.8 billion obligated by July 17. The top ARRA highway category
The phone call was from Chicago, and Theodore Zoli, vice president and bridge technical director in the New York City office of HNTB Corp., was working on a project. When he took the call, he wondered what might be wrong. Daniel J. Socolow, director of the fellows program at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, broke the news to him: He was one of 24 recipients chosen to receive $500,000 over the next five years, no strings (or bridge cables) attached, for his work on bridge design and security reinforcement.“I almost fell off my chair,” recalls Zoli, 43.
The Port of San Francisco and the city’s Dept. of Public Works has selected a design team consisting of Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz Architects, Pfau Long Architecture and cruise consultant Bermello Ajamil & Partners of Miami to submit a contract for approval for the conversion of Pier 27 into a new, modern cruise terminal. Port spokeswoman Renee Dunn Martin says this team beat out nine other firms that applied. It’s not a done-deal yet, she says, until the port and the DPW negotiate a fee proposal. A recommendation is due at the Port Commission’s next meeting on Oct. 27. A new
With the 2009 federal fiscal year set to end Sept. 30, House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a government-wide stopgap measure that would provide enough money to keep federal agencies operating for one additional month. Lawmakers hope that the "continuing resolution," which runs through Oct. 31, will provide time for congressional appropriators to reach agreement on the spending bills for the full fiscal 2010. Attached to the "CR," on which House and Senate conferees reached agreement Sept. 24, are parallel one-month funding and operating authority extensions for surface transportation and Federal Aviation Administration programs. Current highway-transit and aviation authorization
France’s government has announced a $10.3-billion freight-railroad investment program that aims to take two million trucks off the roads a year by 2020 and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by over two million tonnes. At the same time, the government has begun procuring four new high-speed passenger lines totaling 660 kilometers, three of them under public-private partnerships. France’s high-speed network is planned to double in size to 4,000 km by 2020.
In the second-largest application ever of its kind, hundreds of truckloads of polystyrene block are helping expedite an expansion of Salt Lake City’s Transit Express (TRAX) light-rail system. The lightweight material, akin to styrofoam, is helping Utah Transit Authority save at least $20 million and eight months of time by avoiding soil settlement issues. Foam-filled foundations consist of polystyrene blocks used to prevent settlement along route of Utah light-rail system. The $370-million, four-station project extends the existing 19-mile, 28-station dual-line system five miles. A joint venture of Stacy and Witbeck Inc., Alameda, Calif., and Kiewit Western Co., Littleton, Colo., holds
Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) expects to receive $45 million in previously approved SAFETEA-LU funding from the Federal Railroad Administration for planning and environmental analysis of the first segment of a $12-billion magnetic-levitation rail line from Las Vegas to Primm, Calif. The 269-mile line from Anaheim, Calif., to Las Vegas would be capable of speeds of up to 310 mph. FRA has not confirmed the announcement.
Next year, officials at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) in California will wrap up a $1.3-billion modernization program that adds more than 840,000 sq ft of new terminal space, a 1.6-million-sq-ft consolidated rental car and parking garage, and a streamlined internal road network. Photo: Jim Parson / ENR Fast Track San Jose airport expansion, including a new terminal, used a design-build approach that helped shave some seven years and $3 billion off original estimates. The program only got under way in mid-2007 and was originally projected to cost more than three times as much and take 10
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