Reed Construction data reports that heavy construction starts are up 9.8 percent nationwide year to date through October compared to the same period last year. But while two-thirds of the states saw increases, even if slight, Colorado ranked 44th with a decline of 12.1 percent.
The stimulus program is responsible for a large share of the gain. But the disparity across the states is mostly due to the amount of locally funded work in the planning process when the recession abruptly deepened in fall 2008. How quickly states put their stimulus funds to work also contributes to the variation among states.
Go to Reed Construction Data to see the entire article.
The Journal of Commerce reports that Rep. Dan Lipinski, an Illinois Democrat, has urged President Obama to drop White House opposition to the House’s $500 billion, six-year transportation reauthorization.
“Boosting transportation funding right now offers both the short-term benefit of quickly creating jobs and the long-term benefit of enhancing the fast, safe and efficient transportation of people and goods,” Lipinski, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, wrote to Obama.
The administration favors an 18-month extension of the 2005 reauthorization. Go to the Journal of Commerce to see the entire article.
The Wall Street Journal reports that House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar on Wednesday called for at least $69 billion in new federal spending on highway and transit projects, a bid to use a second stimulus bill to address a looming shortfall in transportation funding.
Speaking at a news conference on Capitol Hill a day before the White House convenes its “jobs summit,” Mr. Oberstar said $69 billion would be “a nice down payment” that would upgrade the nation’s transportation system and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Go to The Wall Street Journal to see the entire article.
AASHTO Press Release
State transportation departments have identified 9,500 highway, bridge, transit, port, rail, and aviation projects worth more than $69 billion that, if funded, can be used to create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.
“State departments of transportation have proven that these ‘ready-to-go’ projects are a great way to put people back work, quickly and efficiently,” said John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). “We’re dedicated to getting these projects out to bid fast, but we’re also committed to making certain that every taxpayer dollar is spent wisely.”
Horsley was joined by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN), and House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) at a Capitol Hill news conference releasing the report today. AASHTO also presented the report today to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The report can be found online at http://downloads.transportation.org/Ready-to-Go.pdf.
‘Ready-to-go’ means a project that can move through the federal approval process within 120 days of enactment of authorizing legislation, thus enabling the State to proceed toward construction. Today’s report is based on responses from 50 states and the District of Columbia, and includes 7,497 in “ready-to-go” highway projects valued at more than $47 billion, and 2,091 “ready-to-go” transit, rail, port, aviation, and intermodal projects valued at more than $22 billion.
“We hope Congress will use this survey to make the case that investment in transportation infrastructure projects are guaranteed to create jobs,” Horsley said. “A bright spot of the economic recovery act continues to be state transportation projects that are pumping billions of dollars into households and businesses while fixing our broken transportation network.”
As of November 20, 2009, 10,600 transportation projects worth more than $30 billion have been approved for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Of the 9,300 highway construction projects authorized to date, more than half – 5,458 projects – were either under construction or had already been completed. Three-hundred fifty-five projects approved under the airport grants program and worth $1.08 billion are underway or have been completed. Of the $8.4 billion provided for transit, approval to proceed has been received for 690 grants valued at $7.19 billion. Thousands of buses and rail cars have been ordered and are being assembled, and service cutbacks and layoffs have been avoided.
“We need to keep the momentum going. The unemployment rate in the construction trades today exceeds 18 percent,” Horsley said. “There is still a need to invest more in transportation projects if that’s what it takes to create jobs and bring unemployment down. What the state DOTs have done over the past eight months to put economic recovery dollars to work shows there is no better way to create jobs and long-lasting benefits in every part of the country.”
The New York Times reports that Sen. Barbara Boxer urged Obama Administration officials to help broker a congressional compromise in the stalemate over a new transportation funding bill, as the extensions of SAFETEA-LU are beginning to take a toll on highway and transit projects.
“We need your help on this standoff,” Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, told two top Transportation Department officials that she had summoned to brief her committee.
Boxer’s comments came one day after she and six other committee leaders and ranking members – including James Inhofe (R-Okla.) – relented on their ongoing effort to punt the next multiyear highway and transit bill into 2011 and instead called for a shorter, six-month extension that would continue current federal spending until June 2010.
Reed Construction Data reports that the construction materials price index fell 0.2% in October but remains 0.5% higher than three months ago. The price trend ahead is for modest increases into the winter and then larger monthly increases for the rest of 2010.
Go to Reed Construction Data to see the entire item.
The Bond Buyer reports that lawmakers are pushing for a second economic stimulus bill, and that transportation advocates hope it will contain funding for infrastructure.
The so-called jobs bill would follow the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to spur employment amidst stubborn jobless numbers.
They hope it will contain funding for infrastructure without further delaying a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill.
Go to The Bond Buyer to see the entire item.
Two senators are joining forces to push for another extension of the highway bill, according to The Hill.
“One of the best ways to spur job creation and economic recovery is through infrastructure investment,” Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chairwoman and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, respectively, wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky.
“That is why a longer-term extension of the surface transportation program is so important to maintaining our nation’s vital bridges, roads, public transportation and other related infrastructure, restoring our economy and creating good jobs for American workers.”
Five senators joined Inhofe and Boxer in signing the letter: Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).
The $27 billion dedicated to highway construction in the $775-billion American stimulus package likely saved thousands of construction-related jobs. But it wasn’t enough to prevent widespread lay-offs in road and transit construction businesses, a new survey shows, the Daily Commercial News reports.
And 44 per cent of contractors anticipate having to lay off more permanent employees due to overall economic conditions, the survey found.
The survey was conducted by the Transportation Construction Coalition, a partnership of 28 national associations and construction unions representing hundreds of thousands of individuals with a “direct market interest” in federal transportation programs, according to the TCC website.
Steve and Louise Holt
Did they really have to tell Steve Holt that it was a scoping session on high-speed rail in order to entice him into a luncheon honoring him and his career in transportation engineering in Colorado?
Probably not. But when emcee Mark Mehalko gave that line during his introductions at the Warwick Hotel in Denver in Friday, the 40-some people there laughed because they know it very well could have been true.
Holt, whose firm Felsburg Holt and Ullevig has grown into one of the most active transportation engineering firms in Colorado over the 25 years since its founding, was recognized for his contribution to transportation by Move Colorado, the transportation advocacy group he helped establish in the early 1990s. It began as the Coalition for Mobility and Air Quality.
He has stepped down as Move Colorado president, and Mehalko has taken the reins.
RSS