Tag: Infrastructure: Page 49

Roadbuilding

President pushes transportation construction speed-up in TV meetings

President Obama is set to sit down today for interviews with half a dozen television stations from major cities to push a plan that will speed up transportation construction projects. This has been a clearly-stated and much publicized goal of FHWA and its Administrator Victor Mendez for some time, obviously with the backing of the […]

February 20, 2013

Business

Head of Volvo Construction Americas lauds Obama’s focus on improving infrastructure

During his State of the Union address last week, President Barack Obama dedicated a significant amount of time to the country’s failing infrastructure and proposed an initiative to bring the country’s highways and bridges back up to standard. Obama called his plan a “fix-it-first” program that would not only make the most needed repairs to […]

February 19, 2013

Roadbuilding

Maryland governor looking for new transportation funding

This from the Washington Post: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley met with Senate Democrats on Tuesday as part of a continuing effort to craft a bill to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue for transportation projects, an aide said More such meetings ( with the names and party affiliations changing) are expected across […]

February 18, 2013

Business

$7 billion in federal highway funds obligated so far in current fiscal year

Federal funds obligated by federal, state and local departments of transportation (DOTs) have increased $7 billion during the current fiscal year which began last October 1, according to the according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s (ARTBA) latest analysis of Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) data. That’s an increase of 56 percent over the $4.5 […]

February 15, 2013

Roadbuilding

Maryland Governor Looking for New Transportation Funding

This from the Washington Post: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley met with Senate Democrats on Tuesday as part of a continuing effort to craft a bill to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue for transportation projects, an aide said More such meetings ( with the names and party affiliations changing) are expected across […]

February 13, 2013

Business

CBO: Highway Trust Fund should fulfill obligations through 2014

According to the latest forecast from the Congressional Budget Office, the Highway Trust Fund will have insufficient revenues by the end of 2015, but should be able to fulfill its obligations through 2014. At the beginning of this year, the HTF held $10 billion and the CBO forecast expects that amount to dwindle by half […]

February 11, 2013

Business

States begin new projects rather than repairing, maintaining existing infrastructure

The main reason the U.S. can’t afford to maintain its existing roads and bridges? States keep building new ones, reports McClatchy Newspapers. By now, the need for improvements to this country’s infrastructure is well-documented. The average age of the 600,000 bridges in the U.S. is 43 years — meaning a great deal of these bridges […]

February 4, 2013

Business

Controversial mileage-based tax has potential to generate meaningful transportation revenue

Despite its potential to increase revenues, the establishment of a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax is not likely to happen any time soon, Transportation Nation reported. One reason may be commuters’ concern for privacy. According to a study released last week, 86 percent of Washington metropolitan area commuters don’t want a GPS device installed in […]

February 1, 2013

Business

Recession results in evolving construction markets

Prolonged periods of economic difficulty add velocity to evolutionary changes in many industries. The Great Recession and the long shadow it continues to cast on the construction industry is certainly an example. Within the construction industry, the most obvious evolutionary change has been cautious, conservative business management strategies, but there have been many others as […]

February 1, 2013

Business

$1 trillion spending gap for U.S. infrastructure holds real consequences

“Infrastructure is the most important thing you never think about,” Jim Hoecker, the former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told the Washington Post. Indeed, should the U.S. not invest $1.1 trillion more in infrastructure by 2020, experts warn power outages will increase, food and clothing prices will jump, bridges will begin to crumble […]

January 17, 2013

Roadbuilding

So we leave the kids debt AND crumbling infrastructure?

Failure to spend $157 billion between now and 2020 to upgrade the U.S. infrastructure, including surface transportation, aviation, waterways, the electrical grid and sewers, could lead to losses of more than $3.1 trillion in gross domestic product and $1.1 trillion in total trade — as well as a loss of 3.5 million jobs, according to […]

January 16, 2013

Roadbuilding

ASCE on what it costs to not spend on infrastructure

Failure to spend $157 billion between now and 2020 to upgrade the U.S. infrastructure, including surface transportation, aviation, waterways, the electrical grid and sewers, could lead to losses of more than $3.1 trillion in gross domestic product and $1.1 trillion in total trade — as well as a loss of 3.5 million jobs, according to […]

January 16, 2013