I agree with Loren/California Builder and Engineer and USA Today.

      When construction projects began to slow down in Texas about a year ago, the number of Mexican illegals here dropped, local law enforcement agencies noticed. An article from last August by Fox News reported that the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. had dropped 11 percent since August of the previous year, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Its research shows 1.3 million illegal immigrants had returned to their home countries.

      But with the news of economic stimulus construction projects, I suspect they are already on their wa...Read More

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Over the past several days, the Texas Transportation Commission has been sorting through TxDOT’s Agency Recommended Stimulus Projects list, deciding where to best spend the state’s $2.25 billion in ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) highway and bridge stimulus dollars. The recommended list proposed by TxDOT is composed of 21* new highway construction projects and 266 maintenance projects. (*One project of the 21 shows to receive no ARRA funds, so I am leaving it out of my calculations and discussing the 20 that show recommended funding.)

A state-appointed 2030 Committee analyzed Texas’ transportation infrastructure and concluded last year that TxDOT needs $325 million per year t...Read More

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      I'm still on a dial up land line doing all this internet research for two magazines just salivating at the thought of rural high speed internet, and I read that my governor wants to turn down stimulus money. I think of all those colonias along the Rio Grande with people still live without 20^th century infrastructure -- drawing water from rivers and wells and living without electricity.

      Mr. Governor, our state may be the best off financially at this time, but don’t cut off your nose to spite your face, goes the old adage.

      So, it’s only the entitlement money ...Read More

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a.k.a. the Obama Administration’s Economic Stimulus Plan, is expected to inject an estimated $150 billion into the construction market over the next two years. Although this boils down to more humble numbers when divided by 50 states, it is still a significant figure.

Boiled Down

      Of the approximately $789 billion Economic Stimulus Bill, about $275 billion will be in tax cuts and over $500 billion will be directed to spending. Of that, perhaps $150 billion will be directed to construct...Read More

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For those who started singing, “The wicked witch (aka the Trans-Texas Corridor) is dead,” this morning after TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz’s surprising announcement – I say “yes and no.”

      There was opposition to this project on so many different planes, that the angles should be examined, but it’s definitely going to be more palatable and construction may manage to get started sooner in its new form. True, there is not going to be a 1,200-foot wide swath of highways, rails, and pipelines carved through fertile farmland from Laredo to the Oklahoma border. But TxDOT’s contract for development of a toll road system with the Spanish-Texan joint venture Cintra-Zachry still stands. It is just “back to the drawing board.”

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Greetings from the 25^th Annual AGC of Texas Trade and Equipment Show in Austin. I’ve been told by our national level Reed representatives who attend shows all over the country that this is consistently the biggest regional trade show in the U.S. This is no Texas brag. Of course, it is no ConExpo, but as far as local trade association shows go, this one is tops with 100+ exhibiting suppliers and subcontractors who coordinate with their manufacturers to show the newest equipment  and materials available.

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Crane accidents have begun to hit home recently, and their increasing frequency is causing communities to seek stricter regulation. Austin is one of the first.

Recent Crane Accidents in Texas

      At the LyondellBasell refinery near Houston, one of the world’s largest cranes owned by Deep South Crane and Rigging Company of Louisiana collapsed, killing four workers July 18. That accident is still under investigation by OSHA. But now less than three weeks later, tragedy has struck again in Texas. One worker was killed and another injured on a bridge demolition project near Smithville, about 45 miles southeast of Austin between Bastrop and La Grange.

 &...Read More

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      More news has come out of the WINDPOWER 2008 conference in Houston last week. Vestas, a major supplier of wind turbines, has chosen Houston as the location for its new research center in the USA. Wind farms are already big news in Texas, but this is going to become even bigger business – maybe because we have the space to stockpile, and then twirl, all those 40-foot long blades.

      The research center in Houston will open in 2009 and when fully operational in 2010, Vestas Technology R&D expects for the center to employ at least 100 employees. Research will primarily take place within the wind technology areas of mechanics, electricity, control systems, advanced materials and aerodynamics. A primary objective for all research initiatives in Vestas i...Read More

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Wind Power Industry Meets In Houston

      The AWEA WINDPOWER 2008 conference and exhibition is taking place in Houston this week, June 1-4. We are also expecting a major announcement for the Texas wind power industry to be made at the conference, where Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled as the keynote speaker. Officials are expected to announce specific plans for a historic new federal wind blade test facility to be built on the Texas coast near Corpus Christi. 

New Research Facility

      “Once we bu...Read More

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      Wind turbines have been popping up from Abilene to Amarillo with the past few years. Anyone watching the blades being hauled up Interstates 35 and 45, two per semi-trailer, knows something big is in the wind.

      The news of these various wind farms has been reported sporadically, but when Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens’ company, Mesa Power LLP, placed an order for 667 wind turbines from General Electric early in May, every new agency in the U.S. and abroad picked up on the news.

      This new wind farm being planned near Pampa will be the largest in the world. This first order of 667 turbines is just the first phase, capable of generating 1,000 megawatts of electricity. The estimated $10 billi...Read More

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