 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
September 2011 This Infrastructure News update is provided by Spartan Solutions' Executive Team: Sherry Little, Salvatore Mancini, Severn Miller & Mysore Nagaraja.Storm-Ravaged Vermont Focuses on its Roads Working to recover from floods caused by Hurricane Irene, Vermont is focused on repairing hundreds of roads and dozens of bridges, a daunting and vital task. In many cases, roads must be fixed before equipment can be brought in to do repairs on other roads and bridges, as well as other damaged infrastructure. There is just two-and-a-half months before snowfall and frozen ground typically halt the State’s road-building season. The New York Times reports that the State has set up quasi-military incident-command centers to coordinate the repair efforts, including several hundred National Guard troops. Due to the topography of the “Granite State,” the easiest way to run roads through the mountains has been to locate them along the edges of the rivers and brooks that had already found a path through. This has made numerous roads vulnerable to flooding, and difficult to fix. In addition to seeking to restore transportation and other basic services to affected communities, State officials want to ensure that stores and gas stations return to normal operations for residents and tourists, especially with the state’s tourist seasons - fall foliage and winter skiing - approaching. USDOT Invests $745M towards Faster Northeast Amtrak The U.S. Department of Transportation will spend nearly $745M upgrading Amtrak rail along the Northeast Corridor for high speed service. With improvements to the tracks and electrical systems between Trenton, NJ and New York City, USDOT indicates that the Acela Express will be able to travel up to 160 mph (up from 135 mph) along a 24-mile segment of the corridor between Trenton and New Brunswick, NJ. In the future, as Amtrak purchases next-generation high-speed train sets, passengers will be able to travel at the world-class speeds of up to 186 mph. Other projects will alleviate potential delays with new routes that allow Amtrak trains to bypass Manhattan, the busiest passenger rail junction in the nation, improvements to the Harold Interlocking rail junction in Queens, and a flyover separating Amtrak trains traveling between New York and Boston from other commuter rail. San Francisco Region Toll Lane Plan Ready to Move Forward, Scaled Back San Francisco regional transportation officials are preparing to move forward with a slightly scaled-back network of toll lanes circling the SF Bay Area. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission had previously envisioned increasing the current 14-mile tolled segment to an 800-mile network of tolled express lanes, covering approximately two-thirds of the regions freeways. The agency has scaled back this more ambitious plan due to lower job, traffic and transportation funding growth. The new plan is to install 290 miles of express lanes - on Interstates 80, 680, and 880 - with 150 miles of the system using converted carpool lanes. Combined with 280 miles already authorized, the region would consolidate an express-lane system of 570 miles in the East Bay and the South Bay. The network is estimated to take 10 – 25 years to complete at a cost from $1.6B - $6.8B. Democratic Senate Chairpersons Warn of Job Loss without Surface Transportation Reauthorization Two Democratic Senate chairpersons are warning that 1.8M jobs could be lost if Congress fails to approve a new transportation bill by September 30, the expiration of the extension of the current law. Senators Tim Johnson (SD) and Barbara Boxer (CA), chairpersons of the committees primarily responsible for surface transportation issues, sent a letter to every Senator highlighting their predicted state-by-state impact on jobs. The table showing the impact they predict can be found here: "Senators Boxer and Johnson Urge Colleagues to Protect 1.8 Million Jobs, Reveal State-by-State Impacts of Failure to Extend Transportation Law" (U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, September 1, 2011). Highway 1 Expansion Jeopardized Santa Cruz, CA transportation officials are trying to save an expansion of Highway 1 after federal transportation officials raised questions about the $503M project's lack of progress. The Federal Highway Administration has threatened to pull federal funds from the project; the agency could also seek payback of $5.5M it spent on the $12M environmental impact study that has been underway for eight years. The Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission has voted to begin a smaller, $30M project that includes the addition of exit lanes and a bike-and-pedestrian bridge. The Commission hopes that this project would be the first of several segments that together complete the original vision.
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||
|
Spartan Solutions, LLC |
www.spartansolutions.org |
|