Last week, James Oberstar, chair of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee announced the committee is releasing the draft of a proposed Highway Trust Fund bill. Why? Because the U.S. Highway Trust Fund has enough money to last for only eight more months!

The solution? President Obama and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood extended the bill by 18 months and provided almost $18 billion to build, repair and maintain the country's highways. The fund was running on low because gas tax revenues were lower in the last year when gas prices went through the clouds.

Motor fuel taxes subsidize the country's highways and other infrastructure but when taxes are lower than spending for many months, the country can't fund transportation projects and, in the current economy, the answer was to throw more money into thi...Read More

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It's that time of year again. Yes, construction season arrived, slowly and surely, and motorists are asked to watch out for work zones, construction workers and, of course, pay attention to road closings and detours.

What a headache, you say, to be in the midst of a long line of cars, stop and go, and travel an additional (put in your distance) miles to and from work. Most people think it's OK if they had to pass one construction zone, but the detours are all over the cities and even the rural roads. 

Departments of Transportation started warning motorists during National Work Zone Awareness Week in April. "Slow for the Cone Zone," said all the advertising. You say, "What's a cone zone?" 
"Why do construction workers pick this time to work on this (name your road or interstate)?

Motorists,...Read More

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Jim Ryan was a soft-spoken man who led his family business to be one of the best known construction companies in the Midwest and the U.S. He died on Thursday, May 28, at the age of 66.

Jim was born and raised in Hibbing, MN, known as the iron range. He went into the family business, Ryan Companies US, when he was in the eighth grade, continued to work through school and vacations, then joined full time as a project manager after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1965. His first project was to remodel a supermarket, National Tea, into a Target store in Bloomington, MN.

His cousin and business partner, Pat Ryan, said Jim's goal was to build character in his employees, build confidence in the customers and build better communities. He wasn't interested in building the biggest buildings or be the largest con...Read More

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Minnesota and North Dakota are working towards a plan to control flooding in the Red River Valley. It's about time!
Although two governors, state senators from both states, and local officials are meeting and negotiating on the specifics, they're "from two different states and there are two different philosophies of how things should operate," said the Moorhead, MN, mayor.

Moorhead has about one-third of the population as its sister city across the Red River but, the city sits about four feet higher in elevation than Fargo. Moorhead is worried that it will end up paying a higher proportion of the estimated $1 billion of the joint cost relative to its share of the benefit.

Some of the complications are that this area is in two different states, counties and congressional districts. The cities are ...Read More

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The Labor Department reports that U.S. unemployment is at 8.5% or 13.2 million people without jobs. The rate may increase during 2009 which no one could have predicted a year ago. All sectors of the economy experienced employment, from manufacturing to services, to construction, to retail. Health care, however, added 14,000 jobs across the country.

So far, North Dakota has jobs waiting to be filled. The state pursued oil to help fulfill U.S. needs and created not only jobs in the oil industry but also ancillary jobs that serve that industry. The DOT will receive ARRA (stimulus package) funds to build and repair infrastructure, especially after the worst flood in the state's history. 

North Dakota and Minnesota governors are asking for more federal money to build protection against future floods in the Red River Valley...Read More

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Here's the most recent version of how some of the Economic Stimulus package will be spent. The $787 billion package was signed into law and allots billions of dollars for upgrades to federal facilities and other projects that directly affect government operations. The following is a sample of the spending that made the final cut:

...Read More

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For those who are interested in the amount of funding each state will receive from the Economic Stimulus Package, known by its formal name, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a list of the estimated funds is posted at www.Kiplinger.com or you can go to each state's DOT site. 

Major road projects in each state are listed along with the estimated number of jobs created because of the funding. The amounts do not reflect funding for transportation projects, such as light rail or extended bus service, which will receive separate funding. 

This country must start to reform its highway construction projects and the way people move from place to place. Just because the U.S. has plenty of empty land does not mean its residents should continue to build roads and buy cars for each eligible driver. Lo...Read More

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By now we know that every state and most communities have their hands extended to receive money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 commonly called the economic stimulus plan.

The $787 billion is the largest budget in U.S. history but the U.S. has never had a recession of this magnitude, not even in the 1930s. This recession is affecting every country, an event that didn't happen to the same extent during Franklin Roosevelt's administration.

In the Upper Midwest, the plan is getting mixed reviews. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty criticized the spending but, unlike some other Republican governors, accepted the money. He called the package "a meandering spending buffet" and is far beyond the "meat and potatoes" tax cuts. This comes from a state that is at least $5 billion in debt and has unfinished road projects...Read More

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The federal stimulus package is only a week old but, already, Congress is looking at ways to manage distribution as states and local communities look at construction projects they want to begin or resume at a pace not seen in recent years.

In Minnesota, where a state budget deficit is estimated at almost $7 billion, even a $4 billion share of the stimulus money won't take care of many construction projects and that doesn't count the many other areas such as education, health care, and natural resources, that will receive their share of the money.

Hennepin County, Minnesota's most populous county, already unveiled $202 million in new spending as it tries to capture some of the state's share of the stimulus money. It designated $102 million for roads and other transportation projects with the largest single request, $66.5 million, going to replace a brid...Read More

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With this economy, we wonder if our lives will ever be on the rise with jobs, homes, savings, spending and businesses on a downward spiral beginning last fall.  The decline continues.

Yet we hear about the bailout to very large, once successful, financial businesses that take the money and reward themselves. It seems the adage "The rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer" is true. Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers all rewarded their top brass with bonuses, buying luxury vehicles and jets, and redecorating offices to the tune of millions with the bailout money. This was how the U.S. got into the financial mess in the first place.

Until this week when Wells Fargo cancelled its trips for its executives, and President Obama decided to cap the salaries of CEOs who received federal bailout money. His action set a precedenc...Read More

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The construction industry could help start the economy on a profitable path. That's what President-elect Barack Obama said on Saturday, December 6,  as he promised to put together the largest public works construction program to revive the economy. The program highlights elements of a recovery program that Obama wants to enact with congressional leaders shortly after he is sworn in on January 20.

He defined his program to include infrastructure projects that repair roads and bridges, renovations in schools, sewer systems, mass transit, electric grids, dams and other utilities. Public works spending will emphasize projects that conserve and expand energy supplies and cleaning up the environment. Obama said he wants to create millions of jobs by investing the single largest amount  in national inf...Read More

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The preliminary findings of the National Transportation Safety Board said that gusset plates at two crucial points on either side of the bridge holding steel beams together were not the proper size for the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis. If the plates were .5 inch thicker, the bridge could withstand the loads on August 1, 2007. 
Corrosion and other technical factors did not contribute to its collapse, but is a source of concern, said the report.

The gusset plates were not strengthened when the bridge was widened in the 1970s and 1980s. When contractors placed materials and construction equipment on the bridge during a re-paving project, the added weight could have produced the breaking point and the bridge collapsed. The NTSB director of Office of Highway Safety said on August 1, the tons of equipment, materials and people were the heaviest load t...Read More

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