This blog excerpt was written by Sam Schwartz, the former New York City traffic commissioner and head highway and bridge engineer who is now chief executive of Sam Schwartz Engineering in New York City. The responses, posted anonymously by ENR.com readers, have been edited for clarity and fit. SCHWARTZ Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently went national with his 30/10 transportation initiative, a plan to speed up a dozen projects by using federal loans to leverage proceeds from a half-penny sales-tax increase approved by California voters. The national plan is called “America Fast Forward.” It is supported by a—gasp!—bipartisan coalition

With new OSHA rules now in effect for crane workers, employers are exploring new ways to qualify people working under the hook. ENR's Midwest bureau chief, Tudor Van Hampton, brought his video camera along during interviews with firm officials as they described how workers are being trained on the new regulations. Photo By Tudor Van Hampton For ENR Riggers at a utility Photo By Studio Gang Architects A Design by Jeanne Gang More Gang for the Buck: Jeanne Gang, the architect featured in last week's edition of ENR, is featured in online videos and a slide show. Check out ENR.com/video

At a time when many of the media images from the Middle East show turmoil, we thought we would show you a video of a signing ceremony at the Business and Investment in Qatar Forum, held April 6-7 in New York City. Executives of Parsons Corp. and AECOM inked infrastructure development deals, and the atmosphere, like the sound track of the video, was steady and upbeat. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the contracts announced that day were not just big deals but good deals. We think ENR.com's video channels are also a good deal, providing 250 free video reports on

Their remarks came from the heart. Some were passionate, some were funny. Sharing their awards, they all thanked the teams that helped them achieve this recognition, as everything in this industry requires enormous collaboration.

Mike Hill, ENR’s newest blogger, has no training in medicine or psychology but is hoping to help you get a better night’s sleep by demystifying the issues surrounding surety bonds and insurance. A surety bond broker with the Baldwin Cox Agency in North Texas, Hill has many years of industry experience. During that time, he has amassed enough knowledge to know that winter comes every year, rain often follows thunder, and that both rain and snow can make a mess of construction sites, such as the one pictured above in Virginia. Some of the questions that he will be pondering

As regular readers of Engineering News-Record and longtime volunteer leaders of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, we were extremely disappointed by two articles relating to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s crane and derrick standard that painted the association in an unfavorable light. The articles in question, “Gutsy Builder Took a Quantum Leap” (8/16/2010) and “Hoisting Hero Sent Clear Message to Industry When Voting for Higher Safety” (1/12/2011), stated that ARTBA “pressured” its rulemaking committee representative, Joe Collins, to vote down a key provision of the crane and derrick standard “on the grounds that it was bad for

On March 2-3, ENR gathered policymakers, scientists and construction industry leaders to brainstorm about how to direct national attention to disaster mitigation. One week later, those conference presentations took on a greater significance in light of the catastrophic events in Japan. “We have less latitude to withstand disasters than we ever have had in our history,” suggested John Voeller, vice president of engineer Black & Veatch, in a video made at the conference and now appearing on ENR.com. Shot by Senior Editor Tom Sawyer and edited by Assistant Editor Luke Abaffy, the video highlights discussions about how disasters can be

It felt like the Oscars. Five times when the announcer said, “The envelope please,” the winner was Engineering News-Record. It was an exhilarating afternoon at American Business Media’s Jesse H. Neal Awards, held March 10 in New York City. Photo: Sue Pearsall Winning Team members include: (from left, first row) Aileen Cho, Jane Kolleeny, Joanne Gonchar, Francesca Messina, Laurie Meisel, Tom Sawyer; (second row) Richard Korman, Scott Lewis, Richard Demler, Bill Hanley and Alanna Malone. In addition, ENR’s sister publication GreenSource won a Neal for Best Integrated Package for “GreenBuild Chicago: Transforming the Metropolis” and its managing editor Jane Kolleeny

Photo: AP/Wideworld div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" When ENR Southeast Region Editor Scott Judy heard about the illegal workers who were found hidden at a Florida Veteran’s Administration hospital project, he reacted to news reports by blogging, “These illegal workers were found hidden in a portion of the emerging facility’s roof, behind some scaffolding, in a place where they couldn’t get out without someone else’s help. Let that sink in. Wow.” Apparently, it did sink in, eliciting numerous replies. Our viewer’s comments ran the gamut from cynical (“What’s the difference between illegal workers and the AIG bailout?” says one)