Tag: Texas: Page 12

Roadbuilding

Toll roads, P3s and creative financing will bring short-term gain, long-term disaster for the road building industry

For the last half-century gas and diesel taxes collected at the pump have been the primary source of funding for almost all our highway infrastructure. But Congress hasn’t  increased the gas tax or adjusted it for inflation since 1992. Anti-tax advocates claim this as a victory, but it’s not. With the highway trust fund running […]

August 8, 2014

Roadbuilding

Highway worker killed in hit and run

A highway construction worker has been killed while working on President George Bush Turnpike in Grand Prairie, Texas. According to investigators, a construction convoy consisting of a large truck with a large blinking arrow and a pickup truck carrying a trailer, with one construction worker onboard, was going at a very slow speed on the shoulder. The […]

August 5, 2014

Business

Dire States hits the road to drum up support for Texas highway construction initiative

Nearly 180 years ago the toughest hombres ever to ride a horse and carry a rifle blazed a trail across Texas, conquering impossible odds to turn that hardscrabble land into one of the country’s most prosperous states. Today, if there are any hombres left, they’re probably stuck in traffic. One person who is helping build […]

July 15, 2014

Roadbuilding

Texas HOV lanes could bring in transportation funds from single-passenger cars

Transportation infrastructure in Texas could get a boost in revenue from single-passenger cars in certain high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has proposed creating a partial toll in the HOV lanes on U.S. 75 from LBJ Freeway to McDermott Drive, WFAA reports. The plan would allow single riders on that portion […]

June 25, 2014

Construction Equipment

Houston police cut 60 bricks of marijuana out of an excavator in drug bust (PHOTOS)

It took several hours and a blow torch to bear the theory out, but police in Houston followed up a hunch during a traffic stop and discovered 60 bricks of marijuana packed inside the boom and arm of an excavator. According to a report from KHOU TV, police made what was a routine traffic stop […]

June 17, 2014

Roadbuilding

1 million+ ‘standing down’ against falls in construction

More than 1 million workers from tens of thousands of businesses are expected to take part in the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) National Fall Safety Stand Down this week. Throughout the week-long Stand-Down, employers and workers will pause during their workday to focus on the hazards of falls and preventing them. Industry and […]

June 4, 2014

Roadbuilding

Long-awaited project on Texas State Highway 183 to begin this year

A long-anticipated overhaul project on State Highway 183 in Texas is slated to begin this year, The Dallas Morning News reports. The project, which is part of an $847.6 million contract the Texas Transportation Commission awarded Thursday to Southgate Mobility Partners, will expand the major highway. It includes: Upgrades to State Highway 114, State Highway […]

May 30, 2014

Roadbuilding

Two highway workers die in Texas work zone crash

Two more highway construction workers are dead this week after a vehicle crashed into the construction zone in Texas where they were working. Related: AGC: Cars crashed into 45% of highway contractors’ work zones in 2013 The workers were performing construction work on Interstate 10 eastbound in El Paso when a suspected drunk driver crashed […]

May 12, 2014

Business

Caterpillar to shut down South Carolina engine plant, relocate production, cut 510 jobs

Caterpillar has announced that it is relocating production of engines from a plant in Fountain Inn, South Carolina to plants in Georgia and Texas. In all, the move will eliminate 380 full-time and 130 temporary jobs. Caterpillar is offering severance packages to the full-time employees and says that some of those employees may be considered […]

April 30, 2014

Roadbuilding

Texas leads U.S. with largest road repair debt

How much does your state need each year to fund necessary road repairs through 2017? Texas needs $4,636 million annually, making it the state with the highest amount of funding needed, according to a report from Bloomberg. Following close behind are North Carolina ($3,959 million), Virginia ($3,089 million), Pennsylvania ($2,203 million) and South Carolina ($2,099 […]

April 25, 2014

Construction Equipment

Toppled concrete truck hurtles head-on into van in terrifying dashcam footage

This has to be the most intense, heart attack-inducing dashcam footage we’ve ever seen. And perhaps the craziest part of it is that it doesn’t even come from Russia. On Wednesday, Guan Zhu, a veterinary professor at Texas A&M University was driving along in College Station when a concrete truck ran a red light attempting […]

April 11, 2014

Safety

Construction worker in critical condition after his head was pinned by elevator on Austin jobsite

While working inside an elevator shaft at a jobsite in downtown Austin, Texas, a construction worker was pinned and later hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The worker, yet to be identified by authorities, was removing old radio communications towers inside a work elevator shaft on the exterior of the eighth floor of the unfinished Colorado Tower […]

April 10, 2014