AASHTO Journal, 20 June 2014 South Carolina Department of Transportation officials announced Thursday four bridges that will be replaced, representing the first projects to receive revenue from ACT 98, a law passed last year that provides additional funding for bridge, resurfacing, and mainline interstate projects. Signed into law by Governor Nikki Haley one year ago, ACT 98 provides SCDOT…
AASHTO Journal, 6 June 2014 Officials at the Delaware Department of Transportation are working this week to get a heavily traveled bridge on busy I-495 back up and running after an emergency closure this week. On Monday, DelDOT officials found during an inspection that four support piers had shifted on Bridge I-813 over the Christina River on I-495. Engineers found…
AASHTO Journal, 6 June 2014 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo this week joined New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald to announce that the state has chosen a design-build team to tackle its largest single contract ever—a $555 million bridge replacement in the New York City area. The Kosciuszko Bridge, which carries the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway over Newtown…
AASHTO Journal, 25 April 2014 Just in time for summer construction season and only months from a looming Highway Trust Fund insolvency issue, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association this week released data that show the health of bridges across the nation depend on HTF funds to remain in operation for the public. ARTBA analyzed data released by…
AASHTO Journal, 4 April 2014 Michigan Department of Transportation officials announced Wednesday that Quantum Signal has become the first company to receive manufacturer plates under a new Michigan law that broadens eligibility in automated vehicle testing on the state’s roadways. Gov. Rick Snyder signed Public Act 231 into law last December, a measure that “explicitly approved testing of…
AASHTO Journal, 21 March 2014 A report released this week by the Indiana Department of Transportation shows that a major bridge project, constructed in partnership with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, will not only better connect the two areas and provide greater mobility, but also infuse $87 billion into the local economy and add 15,000 jobs to the area. The…
The Region 2 University Transportation Research Center at Columbia University has released a report that considers an approach that provides in-situ characterization of waste classification for removal of paint from bridges and other structures. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 14 February 2014 New York State Department of Transportation officials joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week to announce that the agency had concluded work on all bridges included in the accelerated bridge improvement program, NY Works. The $212 million NY Works program was created in the 2012-2013 state budget to “address bridge deck and structural replacement or…
AASHTO Journal, 14 February 2014 Officials from the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Illinois Department of Transportation, and federal transportation officials recently celebrated the opening of a bridge that reduces congestion, provides a faster route for commuters, and allows for greater safety. IDOT and MoDOT opened the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge on I-70 in St. Louis to traffic…
AASHTO Journal, 20 December 2013 Officials from the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Mackinac Bridge Authority (MBA) announced Tuesday that they have halted the toll increases scheduled to take place on the bridge on Jan. 1, allowing drivers to keep a little extra money in their pockets in the new year. Instead of raising the tolls for 2014 as originally planned, the…
AASHTO Journal, 20 December 2013 State transportation officials in North Carolina this week re-opened the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, which had been shut down earlier this month due to safety concerns (see related AASHTO Journal story here). The bridge serves as a vital route for those traveling from the outer banks to the mainland. To re-open the bridge, the…
AASHTO Journal, 20 December 2013 Roads and Bridges Magazine last month released its annual list of the top 10 bridges in the U.S., naming five state transportation department bridges among the best in the country. Virginia Department of Transportation’s $105 million “Route 460 Connector Phase 1 Design-Build, Grassy Creek Bridge” project, located in Breaks, Va., was identified as the…
AASHTO Journal, 6 December 2013 North Carolina Department of Transportation officials announced Tuesday the department closed the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge along the outer banks after discovering “immediate safety concerns.” “Closing the Bonner Bridge is necessary to keep all travelers safe, but we know it will have a devastating effect on the people who live along and visit the…
AASHTO Journal, 6 December 2013 Drivers utilizing Michigan’s Zilwaukee Bridge in Saginaw County received some welcome news last month when Michigan Department of Transportation announced it was re-opening all lanes of the bridge, some of which had been closed for repairs, on Nov. 23, weeks ahead of schedule. The project will extend and maximize the service life of the…
Better Roads, 29 November 2013 Amanda Bayhi The recent drop in transportation infrastructure spending has some highway contractors moving to other fields such and energy exploration, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The highway construction industry lost more than 2 million workers during the recession, reaching a low in January 2011. Since then, the industry has…
AASHTO’s quarterly maintenance newsletter is now available. The newsletter contains information related to: Equipment Technical Working Group Highway Safety and Reliability Technical Working Group Bridge Technical Working Group Pavements Technical Working Group Roadway / Roadsides Technical Working Group ACPA, ISSA, and SSPC Web-based Training Opportunities Maintenance Leadership Academy Federal Funds for In-House Work Survey 2014 Summer Meeting Information Download…
Better Roads, 22 November 2013 Tina Grady Barbaccia Despite that the nation’s transportation funding system is in great peril as the expiration of the current surface transportation funding bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), is set to expire on September 30, 2014, many state agencies expect to be able to lower their number of functionally…
AASHTO Journal, 8 November 2013 The Ohio Department of Transportation is stepping in to assist cities and counties in repairing their bridges, a move made possible through ODOT’s efforts to make the department more efficient. Gov. John Kasich announced last week that ODOT will be investing $120 million to repair and replace more than 200 bridges owned by cities…
AASHTO Journal, 8 November, 2013 The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week that the heavily traveled Goethals Bridge, which connects Elizabeth, N.J. to Staten Island, N.Y., will receive a major financial boost for its replacement from the federal TIFIA loan program. To help complete the new $1.5 billion Goethals Bridge, USDOT will provide a $474 million TIFIA loan….
Better Roads, 8 November 2013 Tina Grady Barbaccia Better Roads Magazine’s exclusive survey of bridge conditions in the United States shows that every year the percentage of overall structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges slightly improves, but for most states consistent, guaranteed funding remains a major roadblock to making bigger strides in this important infrastructure. Methodology: The Better Roads…
AASHTO Journal, 11 October 2013 Ohio Department of Transportation and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet officials announced last week that they have narrowed the options for a new Ohio River bridge down to two after a study identified those choices as the most beneficial. The bridge will link Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. “The study focuses on two potential delivery and funding…
Tom Warne Report, 9 October 2013 Nwlaborpress – October 2, 2013 Oregon – The Columbia River Crossing, thought to be dead last summer when Washington lawmakers did not approve funding, is showing new signs of life. Oregon vowed that it would not let 10 years of planning and $170 million spent in planning go to waste. State officials are…
Tom Warne Report, 25 September 2013 Associated Press – September 16, 2013 In the years since the I-35W bridge collapse, dozens of local and state bridges across Minnesota have undergone significant rehabilitation or been completely replaced. Crews are working on a new concrete bridge over the Mississippi River in Hastings, Minn., that will replace the more narrow, steel-truss bridge….
AASHTO Journal, 20 September 2013 A federal judge ruled Monday in favor of moving the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Bonner Bridge project forward after receiving a request for a motion to stop the project due to environmental issues. The Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, which carries N.C. 12 between the Oregon Inlet and Rodanthe in Dare County, was first…
Tom Warne Report, 4 September 2013 ConstructionEquipmentGuide.com – August 27, 2013 Virginia is making progress on a bold four-year project that will complete the replacement of 11 bridges over a 7-mile stretch of I-95. State Department of Transportation officials opted to use a unique method and work on all of them at once, in order to get the work…
Tom Warne Report, 27 August 2013 Land Line Magazine – August 21, 2013 A group of landowners on the Canadian banks of the Ambassador Bridge have filed a $10 million lawsuit against the bridge company for boarding up and neglecting properties it owns in their neighborhood. Company owner, billionaire Matty Moroun, responded that the city of Windsor is to…
Tom Warne Report, 18 August 2013 The Associated Press – August 7, 2013 PORTLAND, Ore. – Washington lawmakers’ refusal to front their $450 million share of the I-5 bridge replacement between Portland and Vancouver seems to be clinging to life, even as the project’s office is preparing to shut down. Planners are requesting a permit from the Coast Guard…
AASHTO News, 5 August 2013 SAN FRANCISCO – Transportation projects that upgraded an international port of entry, rehabilitated a freight rail line vital to agricultural communities, and expanded a major highway years early and hundreds of millions of dollars under budget were among the recipients of top honors in the western regional America’s Transportation Awards competition. “The entries we…
AASHTO Journal, 2 August 2013 The Federal Highway Administration this week published a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking this week in the Federal Register, seeking comments on the revised National Tunnel Inspection Standards. The changes stem from the passage of the current transportation bill, MAP-21, and the need to address provisions made in the law. The notice seeks to…
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Legal Research Digest 61: Legal Aspects of Performance-Based Specifications for Highway Construction and Maintenance Contracts explores how performance-based specifications differ from traditional design or method-based specifications and the risk allocation differences between the these methods. Read NCHRP Legal Research Digest 61
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