The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority is facing its worst budget crisis in 30 years -- and it will only get worse if a six-year transportation bill waiting to be reauthorized is cut as the Obama Administration vows to rein in domestic spending, said its chairman and CEO. Jay Walder, who rejoined the agency last July after a 19-year stint in London, asked attendees at a New York Building Congress luncheon Jan. 28 to approach him directly with ideas about how the MTA can simplify its "risky, cumbersome" contracting process, described as the "MTA premium" by the industry. "Come to
An official road-building rating system similar to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for buildings may be coming soon. While the Federal Highway Administration prepares to select a team to create national guidelines, the University of Washington and engineering firm CH2M Hill have already compiled a comprehensive system called Greenroads. Source: ACP Greenroads Category Weights: Shows the distribution of voluntary credit points in each of the categories. The performance metrics system, officially unveiled this month at the annual Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C., outlines minimum requirements to qualify as a green roadway, including noise mitigation, storm-water management
How often did John R. Hillman, founder and president of Chicago-based HC Bridge Co., LLC, think about giving up on getting the industry to accept his hybrid bridge beam of concrete and steel with fiber-reinforced polymer materials?
A funding delay, a cableway collapse and a death: Construction of the Hoover Dam Bypass is a challenge-filled saga that rivals the building of the historic dam itself. But the light at the end of the canyon is beckoning. North America’s longest single-arch concrete crossing, at 1,960 ft, now soars 870 ft over the Colorado River and is scheduled to open to traffic in November 2010. It will carry vehicles 1,500 ft downstream from Hoover Dam, spanning the Black Canyon at the borders of Nevada and Arizona and answering a need that dates back to the 1960s. Photo: Federal Highway
Thanks in part to design-build and a lane rental arrangement, a bridge over Interstate 75 near Detroit reopened to traffic on Dec. 11, less than five months after collapsing in flames. Photo: Bergmann Associates Michigan transportation officials and their contractor team credit a lane rental agreement process and design-build for speeding the rebuilding of an Interstate overpass, competed in under five months. The steel beams of the two-span Nine Mile Bridge in Hazel Park, Mich., melted on July 15 after a car hit a tanker truck on six-lane I-75, causing 14,000 gallons of fuel to erupt in flames. “The northbound
The Missouri Dept. of Transportation is building its second “diverging diamond” interchange design that requires motorists at an interchange to temporarily drive on the left side of the road. It was devised by an engineer in graduate school who wasn’t aware the concept already existed in Europe. The Federal Highway Administration has tested and presented the design, and a dozen states are considering using it Photo: MODOT Springfield, Mo., diverging diamond design moves left-turning traffic more easily. The design calls for the approach road on either side of the interchange to curve to the left, so the driver can easily
A funding delay, a cableway collapse and a death: Construction of the Hoover Dam Bypass is a challenge-filled saga that rivals the building of the historic dam itself. But the light at the end of the canyon is beckoning. North America’s longest single-arch concrete crossing, at 1,960 ft, now soars 88 ft over the Colorado River and is scheduled to open to traffic in November 2010. It will carry vehicles 1,500 ft downstream from Hoover Dam, spanning the Black Canyon at the borders of Nevada and Arizona and answering a need that dates back to the 1960s. Slide Show Photo:
New York State Dept. of Transportation officials swiftly are preparing design concepts for a new crossing to replace the Crown Point Bridge, abruptly closed in October due to unexpectedly high levels of pier deterioration. Meanwhile, contractors are racing to build temporary vehicular ferry-terminal facilities at Lake Champlain between New York and Vermont as a stopgap measure. Photo: AP/Wideworld New York-Vermont crossing was shut down abruptly on Oct. 16 after inspectors found unexpectedly severe pier deterioration, possibly due to ice pressure. + Image NYSDOT, in conjunction with the Vermont Agency of Transportation, on Oct. 16 shut down the 80-year-old, 2,184-ft-long steel
Gregory Kats is Senior Director and director of climate change policy at Good Energies Inc., Washington, D.C. (www.goodenergies.com), an investment firm emphasizing renewable energy and environmental technologies. He was a principal author of Green Office Buildings: A Practical Guide to Development (ULI, 2005) and is the author of the forthcoming book Greening Our Built World: costs, benefits and strategies (Island Press, 2009; www.islandpress.org/Kats. Photo: Gregory Kats KATS Tell me about your new book, Greening Our BuiltWorld. The official launch was in [mid-November]. It took two and a half years — a huge amount of original research went into it. It