May 7, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

As New Jersey struggles to find the money to pay for much needed infrastructure improvements, a group of legislators are advocating doing what makes perfect sense: use toll-road tolls to improve toll roads. According to a May 5 item from the Associated Press, lawmakers Senate President Richard J. Codey and Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney say the governor should let the New Jersey Turnpike Authority invoke its own power to increase tolls 45 percent to widen some of the nation's busiest toll roads and fix bridges rather than wait for an alternative to pay debt and meet statewide transportation needs. Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine currently is offering a proposal to create a new agency that would borrow money and significantly increase tolls for decades to pay state debt and fund transportation. The turnpike authority retains power to boost tolls on the Garden State Parkway...Read More

April 29, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

 In a region increasingly dependent on natural gas as a key source of fuel, a number of recent decisions have not been helpful. The problem specifically has to do with terminal construction. Natural gas is liquified for transport in ships through supercooling, then returned to a gas through warming at the terminal.
            As reported last month in Newsday, New York's new governor rejected a proposal by energy companies Shell and TransCanada to build a liquefied natural gas platform in Long Island Sound, saying it was "fundamentally wrong" to privatize open water. Rejection of the Broadwater plant was the latest setback for the energy industry's efforts to build a terminal off North America's eastern shores to import supplies of natura...Read More

April 22, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

David Patterson, the state's new chief executive has been offering some inspiriring words of late. In an April 9 speech, he began with what may seem of concern for the industry: "This state is going to need to reverse its spending binge is strong leadership from the executive levels. So when we balance this budget, and when we put our economy back on the right track, that will be the most important test of leadership."
    Yet immediately after that, he issued what many hope is true committment to get busy, and get building: "We have to build an infrastructure that will allow us to continue to be competitive. We have to develop the East Side Access. We have to build the 2nd ...Read More

April 7, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

New Jersey has released a  10 Year Statewide Capital Investment Strategy (SCIS)  to develop investment options for transportation program categories based upon goals, objectives, and performance measures. NJDOT says the SCIS represents an asset management approach to addressing the transportation needs. While the SCIS is the product of a collaborative effort involving the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), NJ TRANSIT, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA), and the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA),  the State’s three Metropolitan Planning Organizations – the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, and the South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization – were partners in the process to develop the SCIS.     

The goal of the SCIS is to de...Read More

March 21, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

New York's new governor,  David A. Paterson announced today the following: he has submitted a Governor’s program bill, that follows the recommendations of the New York City Traffic Mitigation Commission report of January 31, 2008 to allow for the City Council and State Legislature to consider a bill that meets the requirements of the United States Department of Transportation Urban Partnership Agreement, which contributes $354 million in federal funds.

For your construction business, does this have the potential to create more work, or add to your cost of doing business?