John Hennessy III,
P.E.
COALITION FOR A SUSTAINABLE SR 520
SR 520 is one of two east-west roadways across Lake Washington. Approximately 115,000 vehicles carrying 190,000 people travel the SR 520 Evergreen Point Bridge every day.
Washington is dangerously close to its constitutional debt limit. SR 520 is dangerously close to the end of its useful life. The state is advocating a construction plan that can’t legally be paid for.
View this complete post...Both proposals stem from a conclusion that the obstacles standing in the way of enacting a new multi-year federal surface transportation program are of a long-term nature and will not be overcome any time soon. These obstacles include the inability of Congress to come up with a meaningful way to pay for the program; the increasingly shaky and uncertain status of the Highway Trust Fund; the pressure for deficit reduction in the fiscal and budgetary actions of the next Congress, especially in the likely event of a Republican takeover; and a low priority given to the reauthorization by the Obama White House (see our NewsBrief of July 16, “New Political Realities May Sidetrack the Transportation Reauthorization”).
View this complete post...PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
By Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell
Most schools are out for a summer break after final grades were toted home in students’ backpacks throughout the country. Around the same time, America got its infrastructure report card — and the results aren’t good.
Imagine sitting around the kitchen table reviewing Junior’s grades. His last report card shows a cumulative average of D. As a family, parent, teacher or community, wouldn’t we do all we could to try to help this student improve? Of course we would.
It’s the same with the state of the country’s infrastructure. Consider some of these “grades,” as reported in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ most recent infrastructure report card: transit, D; energy, D+; dams, D; bridges, C; aviation, D; drinking water, D-; hazardous waste, D; schools, D; and wastewater, D-.
I’d say this defines our infrastructure situation as one in crisis.
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HNTB CORPORATION
Despite a growing awareness that America’s aging network of highways, bridges and tunnels is in failing health, huge roadblocks are preventing Congressional action on a new national transportation bill: the lack of adequate funding sources and consensus on a vision that helps plan, prioritize and pay for U.S. infrastructure. A new America THINKS survey from HNTB Corporation suggests the answer may lie in a modern version of a solution that financed this country’s roads and bridges prior to the advent of a national gas tax more than 50 years ago: tolling.
TRANSPORTATION FOR AMERICA
By Stephen Lee Davis
So if a port is congested or wants to expand, there’s little available federal money to spend directly on rail or any other mode. Your choices are highways or highways. When a state or port does spend to improve operations, there is no accountability to make sure they’re actually reducing port/freight congestion, moving freight faster, or reducing air pollution in surrounding communities — a significant issue of environmental justice.
INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT ENERGY ASSOCIATION (IDEA)
Even if a U.S. climate bill is passed in 2010, it is likely to be many years before a cap-and-trade system has an impact on energy use. With continued uncertainties regarding U.S. climate legislation, it is now more essential than ever that the U.S. implements other policies that move us toward reduced fossil fuel consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The Thermal Renewable Energy and Efficiency Act of 2010 will stimulate increased use of renewable energy sources to heat and cool buildings throughout the country.
When it rains in the City of Brotherly Love, problems soon follow because more than half the city has “combined” sewers – pipes that carry both storm water and sewage. When it rains, the system fills quickly. The surplus, which includes raw sewage and road oil, backs up into basements and gushes untreated into rivers through 164 overflow pipes.
Instead of going the route of many other cities and building miles-long, multibillion-dollar tunnels to hold storm-water overflows–and then pumping it back into the system when the rain stops–Philadelphia’s 20-year stormwater management plan is based on “green infrastructure” and offers benefits that can be appreciated above the ground.
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James Corless is the Director of Transportation for America, a coalition of over 400 organizations working to promote a new national transportation policy that’s smarter, safer, cleaner and provides more choice. Prior to Transportation for America, Mr. Corless was a senior planner for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in the San Francisco Bay Area where he managed the agency’s efforts to promote smarter growth, transit-oriented development and mobility options for low-income communities. Mr. Corless was the author of California’s groundbreaking Safe Routes to School law and legislation that paved the way for smart growth “blueprints” to become part of the regional transportation planning process throughout the state.
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BUSINESS AND LABOR COALITION OF NEW YORK
On Friday, June 25, BALCONY, the Business and Labor Coalition of New York, hosted a breakfast forum at the New York Vicinity Carpenters Labor Management Corporation featuring Chris Ward, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. The theme of the event was ‘Building the Region in 2010 and Beyond’ and included expert panelists who discussed the state of infrastructure in New York State and nationally.
NC WARN: WASTE AWARENESS & REDUCTION NETWORK
Solar photovoltaic system costs have fallen steadily for decades. They are projected to fall even farther over the next 10 years. Meanwhile, projected costs for construction of new nuclear plants have risen steadily over the last decade, and they continue to rise. In the past year, the lines have crossed in North Carolina. Electricity from new solar installations is now cheaper than electricity from proposed new nuclear plants.
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