John Hennessy III,
P.E.
NEC FUTURE Choices for the NEC The FRA has identified three distinct Action Alternatives for the NEC, each of which presents a different vision for the future role of passenger rail in the transportation system of the Northeast. In developing these Action Alternatives, the FRA considered a broad range of possibilities for the NEC to […]
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This animation from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development explains what survey crews do, and why their work is vital to the preliminary aspects of highway development.
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The tri-state area is loaded with bridges, rail systems and roadways that are suffering from years of under-investment. But perhaps the biggest risk we face is with the rail tunnel linking New Jersey and New York. Built more than a century ago, the fraying tubes that carry NJ Transit and Amtrak trains are the biggest chokepoint in the Northeast, and the source of frequent delays for commuters. For years, the tunnels have needed extended repairs that are impossible to do while keeping trains running. The situation deteriorated when the tunnels flooded with salt water during Hurricane Sandy. Amtrak officials say the tubes might not last 20 years.
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After an earthquake revealed its instability in 2008, the state of Washington announced it was going to tear down a crumbling double-decker stretch of freeway known as the Alaskan Way Viaduct. After a heated debate, the state decided to use a giant drill named “Bertha” to deep-bore underground tunnel to replace it. Seven years later, the Viaduct is still up, Bertha is stuck underground, and the city’s residents have been left to wonder whether this major project will ever be worth the time and money spent on it.
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BALCONY (the Business And Labor Coalition Of New York) is hosting a breakfast forum in honor of the Gateway Project, a proposal for rail-based infrastructure improvements in the New York metro area. The BALCONY Gateway Breakfast Forum will take place on November 13th, 2015, in the ballroom of 4 West 43rd St.
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UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS
To maintain our present and future access to reliable electricity—and all the health, safety, and economic benefits such access allows—we must prepare our electric grid for increased coastal flooding. One necessary approach is adapting electricity infrastructure. However, it is also critical to simultaneously pursue solutions that go beyond intervening with specific pieces of equipment. For that, we can look to bolstering the overall electricity resilience of critical facilities and vulnerable populations.
How a 65 mile section of the historic and rugged Siskiyou rail line in southern Oregon and northern California was opened using a mix of public and private funds, including $7 million in federal TIGER funds. Rail construction reopened the line that had been closed since 2008.
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MANHATTAN INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH
While states own a large portion of highly traveled roads, such as interstate highways, local governments are responsible for the majority of roadway mileage. Counties and municipalities, including minor civil divisions such as townships, are responsible for 3.1 million miles of roads and streets. Only 430,000 miles (14 percent) of these are part of the federal aid system. The remaining 2.7 million (86 percent) are nonfederal aid. By contrast, 72 percent of the 780,000 miles of state-owned roads are in the federal aid system (Figure 1).
AMERICA’S WATERSHED INITIATIVE
The Mississippi River Watershed has diminished as a healthy and sustaining water resource over the last several decades. To raise the grade, we need integrated management to reflect the relationships between the different goals and basins, and increased participation by partners and stakeholders working together on specific actions to improve the watershed.
Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America. In 2002, he formed Common Good, a nonpartisan national coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America.
“…we’re at one of those points where lots of things have to change in our society, and one of them happens to be the legal infrastructure. You can’t have a democracy where the people you elect actually don’t have the authority that goes along with their responsibility…it’s kind of a form of legal mental illness. It’s bad for everybody. Bad for the environment, bad for costs, bad for everybody.”
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