Poised to begin spending the first of more than $2 billion in federal dollars for America’s first high-speed rail project on civil work, Florida Dept. of Transportation officials brought together more than 1,500 people interested in participating on the project to inform them about the contracts to be let, the bidding schedule and requirements. However, as U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said in Orlando at the first day's session on Nov. 8, “a cloud of uncertainty” hovers over the Florida High Speed Rail Industry Forum in Orlando, with Gov.-elect Rick Scott (R) promising to kill a proposed Orlando-Tampa rail line if
Alabama voters turned down a proposed constitutional amendment on Tuesday to spend $1 billion over a decade to pay for road construction projects. About 57% voted against Amendment Three in the Nov. 2 election. If voters had approved the amendment, which was sponsored by Democratic Sen. Lowell Barron, up to $100 million a year would have been transferred from the Alabama Trust Fund and earmarked specifically for road construction. The transfers would have taken place annually through fiscal 2020. In the days leading up to the vote, Dr. Keith Malone, an economist at the University of North Alabama, released a
State departments of transportation have been hit with a double whammy in recent years. In lieu of a long-term federal surface transportation reauthorization bill, the federal government continues to dole out money through Highway Trust Fund extensions, making it difficult for DOTs to plan for the future. At the same time, the recession has tightened the screws on state coffers, leaving some to wonder if significant capacity work is even possible in the coming years. Photo: Courtesy of Pany/NJ New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie cancelled the $8.7-billion ARC Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel project between New Jersey and Manhattan, citing a lack
While the Washington Dept. of Transportation won't open the detailed bids for downtown Seattle’s Alaska Way Viaduct replacement project until mid-December, Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) nudged the long-awaited 56-ft-dia, two-mile-long bored tunnel one step closer to reality, when she announced on Oct. 29 that both teams submitting bids that day were at or below WSDOT’s estimate of $1.09 billion. The viaduct, which runs along Elliott Bay on state Route 99 in downtown Seattle, is nearly 60 years old. The 1989 Loma Prieta and 2001 Nisqually earthquakes pointed to the road’s seismic vulnerability. WSDOT spent $14.5 million in emergency repairs but
The aviation industry has been hit by its share of turbulence in the past few years. Many airports had to defer projects or downsize capital improvement programs after revenue streams were curtailed sharply by upheaval in the airline industry, shaky credit markets, surging oil prices and decreased passenger travel. Photo: Chicago O’hare Airport The Chicago City Council recently approved $1 billion in bonds for O’Hare airport’s modernization program. The funds will be used primarily for runway projects, which will be bid by the end of 2011. Related Links: The Top Owners Sourcebook Complete Report Overview: No Quick Fix For Battered
Thomas Enterprises’ default on the 240-acre Sacramento (Calif.) Railyards infill project in late October returned ownership to lender Inland American Real Estate Trust. The lender says it will keep the project on track and pay infrastructure contractors who have been waiting as long as six months. Oak Brook, Ill.-based Inland American initiated foreclosure proceedings against Atlanta-based Thomas Enterprises in June after the developer defaulted on $187 million in loans. When the property went to foreclosure auction on Oct. 22 with a minimum opening bid of $50 million, no one bid, effectively handing control over to the lender, which already manages
Republicans' takeover of the House and gains in the Senate could make major funding increases in infrastructure bills harder to achieve in 2011. With some races still unsettled as of the afternoon of Nov. 3, the GOP had scored a net increase of 60 seats in the House, giving the party a total of 239. Democrats hung on to the Senate, though their majority had dwindled to 51, from 59 prior to the election. Among the Democratic casualties were some House committee chairmen, including James Oberstar (Minn.), head of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and a fixture on that panel
New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie’s Oct. 27 decision to spike a major new commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River, which was set to be the largest U.S. public-works project, is causing ripple effects across the region and the country. Industry proponents are hoping for stronger support for similar but still-viable projects from Congress and from U.S. employers. Backers of the New Jersey rail link, called Access to the Region’s Core, could not secure Christie’s support because he feared the state would be on the hook for cost overruns some said would boost the project price to as much as
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has pumped another $2.5 billion into the high-speed-rail funding pipeline and is increasing the flow of actual obligations from its $8-billion first rail round. The moves are good news for the states that won grants and companies pursuing the work. However, whether the new Congress will approve another installment of Photo: California High Speed Rail Authority California won the largest amount, $901.6 million, in the second round of U.S. DOT rail grants. high-speed-rail (HSR) aid in 2011 remains an open question. In announcing the winners of the $2.5-billion round-two competition on Oct. 28, DOT Secretary
California and Florida together have won nearly 70% of the $2.5 billion for high-speed rail that the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's awarded in its second round of funds for the new program. Related Links: DOT Sketches Plan For High-Speed Rail 'Excited' High-Speed Rail Builders Get Ready The awards, which DOT announced on Oct. 28, would help fund 54 projects in 23 states. The latest awards follow an initial, $8 billion in DOT high-speed-rail aid, whose winners were selected in January. The first-round money came from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For the newly announced grants, DOT received 132
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