Caltrans’ acting director Malcolm Dougherty this week sent a letter to California’s congressional delegation, urging them to reauthorize transportation funding before the end of the federal fiscal year, Sept. 30, or the state would face shutting down thousands of local transportation projects valued at $23 billion. The current surface transportation legislation, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), expired in 2009. Congress has extended the act seven times. The federal government currently provides about $3.4 billion per year for transportation projects across the state, according to Caltrans.“Thousands of active state and local projects
The American Institute of Architects, California Council, recently announced the new recipients of the Academy for Emerging Professionals (AEP) Awards. The Emerging Professionals are the segment of the AIACC membership that establishes connections, and advocates for architecture school graduates, aspiring and recently-licensed architects, as well as individuals that mentor this important group. According to the AIACC, the Academy for Emerging Professionals “aspires to unite and disseminate information regarding the practice of architecture, firm culture, mentoring, and stimulate ongoing local, state and national discussions.”Four awards were announced:Firm Mentorship Award – Darden Architects, Inc., Fresno. This award is given to an AIACC
The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s planning and design partner on the San Francisco to San Jose section, Caltrain, recently released preliminary findings of a corridor capacity study, which outlined ways to accommodate both systems. Roelof van Ark, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said the authority will work with its Bay Area planning partners and stakeholders, including Caltrain and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), to evaluate the results of the study, it’s assumptions for train operations and proposed infrastructure improvements. Concepts have been suggested to phase high-speed train service including use of existing Caltrain right-of-way, use of existing infrastructure where
Nearly 2,000 industry professionals attended the sixth annual California Construction Expo this month at the Pasadena Convention Center. With a theme of “California Moving Forward,” the event proved to be yet another successful gathering of contractors, designers, construction professionals, suppliers, and construction workers who had the opportunity to meet and network with host agencies including the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Los Angeles World Airports, Port of Long Beach, Department of General Services and AGC of California. Agency officials were on hand to answer questions about upcoming projects, and small business contractors were encouraged to
A report by the Urban Land Institute’s Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use indicated that the goals of building an entertainment and sports complex and intermodal transit facilities at Sacramento’s Railyards redevelopment site are “achievable and desirable,” according to city officials. Specifically, the report indicates that the intermodal transit facilities and sports complex can be accommodated in the southern section of the Sacramento Railyards in a "symbiotic way that creates public space, provides connectivity and achieves synergies with surrounding districts,” according to the interdisciplinary panel of urban planning and development experts assembled by the ULI Rose Center.The panel confirmed
Western Council of Construction Consumers is hosting its third-annual Alternative Project Delivery Summit, set for Sept. 14 at the Ziggurat Auditorium of the Department of General Services Building in West Sacramento. The full-day conference features:A panel session and case studies on design-build, moderated by Tim Murchison, vice president, URS Corp. Panel members include Mark Cirksena, regional manager, DPR Construction; Mike Corrick, president, Nacht & Lewis Architects; Mike Meredith, project director, CDCR CHCF Stockton; and Ellen Warner, partner, David S. Taylor Interests, Inc.A CM At Risk panel and case studies, moderated by Ken Harms, vice president, Gilbane Building Co. The panel
An appeal filed to overturn a decision to hire a public-private partnership to build the second phase of San Francisco’s Presidio Parkway replacement project was dismissed this week by the state’s court of appeal, first district, in Alameda. The Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG) filed the appeal earlier this year after a superior court judge dropped PECG’s temporary restraining order and Caltrans announced the winning P3 consortium.PECG has been fighting the P3 concept for the Presidio Parkway project since it was announced last summer. In 2009, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed off on a state senate bill to test
The U.S. Senate last week approved a Federal Aviation Administration stopgap bill that keeps the agency funded through Sept. 16, prompting a return of contractors to construction sites in Oakland and Palm Springs. The bill is the measure that passed the House on July 20 and includes a controversial rider that trims the Essential Air Service (EAS) program, which subsidizes flights to rural airports.Passage of the bill ends a congressional stalemate—at least for now—that had forced the FAA to issue stop-work orders on more than 200 airport projects, including a number of construction and engineering projects, and furloughing 4,000 workers.
Six years ago, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ San Francisco Bay Area’s Infrastructure Report Card gave the region an overall grade of “C-.” The newest report card gave it a straight “C,” but “improvement” might not be a proper description. According to the ASCE San Francisco section committee’s reevaluation of the various infrastructure categories in 2011, several categories scored a “D+” grade. The committee says that bringing all the categories up to a “B” grade would cost in the neighborhood of $2.83 billion annually, up from the annual investment need forecasted in 2005 by $1.8 billion dollars. The need
While construction employment increased in 149 out of 337 metropolitan areas nationally between June 2010 and June 2011, according to the latest employment data released by the Associated General Contractors of America, cities in California are still grappling with persistent unemployment. The AGC says besides the Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., area, which recorded a loss of 7,000 construction jobs (or -15%) over the past year, the second largest loss occurred in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale region, with 5,400 job losses (-5%).In addition, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario recorded a loss of 3,900 jobs in the same period (or -6%).Losing the highest percentage of jobs
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