The Highway Trust Fund, which had to be rescued last September, is facing another big shortfall this summer and will need a new infusion of $5 billion to $7 billion by August to avoid a slowdown in spending, key senators say. Photo: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Majority Staff Senate committee leaders Boxer (above) and Inhofe (below) raise warnings about looming problems in highway fund. Photo: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Majority Staff Obama administration and U.S. Dept. of Transportation officials have said that the trust fund will not have enough cash to cover commitments to states for

The one kind of surprise you want when you have gone to great lengths to plan the moving of an entire bridge section is when things slip and slide along even more smoothly than expected. That’s what happened last weekend in Cleveland. It is a story of planning, good luck, checked calculations and final success. Photo: Ruhlin ws removed anchor bolts from bolster between pier cap and truss. Photo: ODOT Over 500 ft of Innerbridge was moved 4 in. to open up expansion joint. Using a painstakingly coordinated cast of hydraulic rams and jacks, crews performed a memorable 4-in. westward

Despite the global recession, a panel of transportation experts meeting in Seattle agreed now is the time to invest in and improve transit systems as part of a comprehensive and holistic solution to pollution and congestion. “The American public had the infrastructure that was once the envy of the world....We let it crumble,” said Patrick Natale, executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers. “But it’s a new day. We finally have the leadership to take action, and it’s very exciting.” Planning is as crucial as funding. Susan Zielinski, University of Michigan’s managing director of sustainable mobility and accessibility

The Senate confirmed a batch of nominees for top federal positions, including officials to fill several key posts at the Dept. of Transportation and a new head for the Interior Dept.'s Bureau of Reclamation. Those confirmed on May 21, just before the start of the Memorial Day recess, include former Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari, who was approved to be deputy secretary of U.S. DOT. Porcari served two terms as head of Maryland DOT, both times under Democratic governors--from 1999 to 2003 and from 2007 until he is sworn in to his new federal job. Peter M. Rogoff, a

The House has approved a $53.5-billion measure to fund Federal Aviation Administration programs for the next three years, including an increase for airport construction grants and a hike in airport passenger facility charges (PFCs), which finance infrastructure work. But prospects for final congressional approval rest with the Senate, where a multi-year FAA bill has yet to emerge. Photo: Aileen Cho for ENR Funding levels are uncertain for airports, like this one, now completed, in North Carolina. The last multi-year FAA measure lapsed last Sept. 30. But with a successor bill bogged down in the Senate, FAA programs have been operating

This summer, Sears Tower will have a new face to match its new name. Although Chicagoans are less than thrilled about Willis Group Holdings moving in, the new view atop �Willis Tower� may render them speechless. RENDERING COURTESY OF SOM ? Skydecked. Sears Tower�s observation floor will extend visitors beyond the curtain wall. div id="articleExtrasA" RENDERING COURTESY OF SOM ? Vertigo. Innovative glass boxes will provide gut-wrenching views from Chicago�s tallest tower. div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Just outside the glassed-enclosed, 103rd-floor skydeck, construction is under way to offer visitors a view of the city at all angles, including straight down,

A planned $890,000 realignment of Cleveland’s Inner Belt Bridge over the Cuyahoga River has been postponed because engineers still need to confirm some calculations, according to Jocelyn Clemings, an Ohio Dept. of Transportation spokeswoman. The 4-in. realignment, which officials hope will occur within the next few weeks, will entail raising the west end of the 70-million-ton bridge off its piers, setting it down on lubricated plates and jacking it to the west to free up an expansion joint. The bridge is similar in design to the Interstate 35 bridge that collapsed in 2007 in Minneapolis. Photo: AP / Wideworld

New York Yankees fans will have a facility that doesn’t require $1,200 tickets starting on May 23 when the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro-North Railroad opens the new $91- million Yankees-East 153rd Street Station. Photo: CCA Civil / Halmar International, LLC Design-built station links to new Yankee Stadium. Photo: CCA Civil / Halmar International, LLC Mostly precast rail station will greet waves of Yankee fans in the Bronx. The largest and newest of Metro-North’s 120 outlying stations, the 55,000-sq-ft facility features twin 850-ft-long platforms to accommodate 10-car trains on four tracks, a 10,000-sq-ft overhead mezzanine and a 425-ft-long, 25-ft-wide

A team led by Spain’s ACS Infrastructure Development has inked a development deal with the North Carolina Turnpike Authority to design, finance and build a new seven-mile-long toll bridge to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The two-lane, $650-million Mid-Currituck Bridge would be North Carolina’s longest bridge. The project would connect U.S. Route 158 on the mainland with the remote northern sector of the Outer Banks. The authority signed a predevelopment agreement on April 30 with Currituck Development Group, led by ACS Infrastructure Development and lead contractor Dragados USA, with Traylor Bros., Evansville, Ind., and Weeks Marine, Cranford, N.J., also on the

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has said that it is allocating $742.5 million in economic-stimulus funds to speed construction of 11 transit projects in nine states. The DOT plan, announced on May 7, distributes funds to projects for which the Federal Transit Administration has multi-year, full-funding grant agreements. The aid, contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, doesn't represent an increase in DOT's total funds for the projects, but gets anticipated federal money to the transit agencies sooner than expected and allows work to proceed more rapidly. The ARRA measure provides a total of $8.4 billion for FTA capital