Free Republic

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan hinted Friday that the cocaine could have come from construction workers, as the area of the White House where it was found is being renovated. Sullivan was asked at Friday's press briefing if he had any national security concerns after a bag of the drug was found Sunday near the Situation Room. He revealed that the coke's proximity to the Situation Room wasn't a problem, because the space hasn't been in use. 'I would make a point about the Situation Room because I think there's been a lot questionable reporting on this. The Situation Room...

Empty dirt lots are scattered across American cities where developers once planned to build new homes. The problem isn’t that builders can’t find workers or obtain permits. They lack the electric transformers required to connect homes to the grid. “We were so concerned about things like lumber and appliances, and those all help. But then all of a sudden it was this power transformer—you can’t get them,” a home builder in Greenville, S.C., told a Fox affiliate in March. “We have 106 town-home sites and so we’ve only been able to get the first six going.” Transformers step up or...

A Yale University building under construction in New Haven, Connecticut partially collapsed on Friday and left eight people injured with two of them in critical condition. The collapse happened at an apartment block on Lafayette Street at around 12.30pm when crews were pouring concrete. Part of the second floor fell into the first floor and into the basement at the building site where 36 people were working. It left eight construction workers injured with six of them pulled out of the building by first responders and the other two were able to escape on their own. New Haven Fire Department...

It’s springtime for housing! But winter for the mortgage market. US housing starts have declined in March by -17.2% since the same time last year (YoY) as The Fed rapidly removes Covid-related monetary stimulus (green line). On the positive side, 1-unit detached housing actually rose by 2.74% from February to March (MoM). However, 5+ unit (multifamily) starts decline -6.71% MoM. Permits are similar: 1-unit permits were up 4.07% in March from February while 5+ unit permits were down -24.27%. Housing starts out west were down -28.13% MoM as people are escaping “Gruesome Newsom Land” (aka, California). Starts are up by...

A private company that wants to build a high-speed rail line from Southern California to Las Vegas took a step toward construction on Thurdsay with the announcement of a labor agreement for the proposed project. Local ABC affiliate KABC-7 reported: Brightline, the company that will build the system, has announced a landmark labor agreement with the High-Speed Rail Labor Coalition, which is “compromised of 13 rail unions representing more than 160,000 freight, regional, commuter, and passenger railroad workers in the United States.” … The $10 billion investment is expected to create nearly 35,000 jobs during construction and over 1,000 permanent...

Before he enrolled in BYU, Veikoso served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2018-20 in Brazil. He began his college career at Arizona State. Veikoso was part of a crew working on a 15-foot retaining wall when it partially collapsed, according to KITV News in Honolulu. Multiple individuals were trapped after the collapse. Firefighters responded to the scene and removed the rubble to reach the people who were trapped, the report revealed. At least two were in serious condition.

Eleven months after a catastrophic collapse into a Frick Park ravine, a new Fern Hollow Bridge was celebrated Wednesday as a model of unprecedented intergovernmental cooperation and an engineering marvel, completed in the fraction of the time needed for similar projects. Final railing installation work continued as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and other elected officials gathered in the cold sunshine for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at the four-lane Forbes Avenue span, which links Regent Square and surrounding neighborhoods to Squirrel Hill. The bridge could be open for traffic as early as Thursday, but the completion date PennDOT...

Line painting and other finishing touches continued Tuesday at the new Fern Hollow Bridge in the city’s East End, with a dedication ceremony planned Wednesday and completion of bridge reconstruction work anticipated Thursday, officials said. A date for reopening the bridge to traffic has not been set, according to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Cowan, but it was anticipated it would be within a week. The busy, 500-foot Forbes Avenue bridge, which connected Squirrel Hill to Point Breeze and Park Place, collapsed onto a popular hiking trail about 100 feet below the road in Frick Park in January. Ten...

New home construction fell again last month as soaring interest rates continued to weaken demand in the housing market. Housing starts declined by 4.2 percent from September to 1.43 million units, according to Census Bureau data released on Thursday. The number of new building permits issued in October also fell from the previous month, dropping by 2.4 percent to 1.53 million. “Both starts and permits fell behind September levels and behind levels from one year ago,” Zillow senior economist Nicole Bachaud wrote in an analysis. “As the current affordability crisis burns on, builders are feeling demand for new homes slipping...

POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A central Florida man took out his anger over nearby construction work by shooting into a vehicle over the weekend, earning him two attempted murder charges, according to authorities in Polk County. According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, 75-year-old Richard Vitiritti shot into the occupied vehicle Saturday night in the Lake Hatchineha area, near Haines City. No one was hurt. In addition to two counts of attempted murder, Vitiritti also faces charges of shooting into an occupied vehicle and tampering with evidence.

Some drivers may be confused or intimidated by roundabouts, those circular intersections where all traffic circles to the left until motorists find their exit to the right. But drivers better get used to them — the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is sold on the improved safety and traffic flow roundabouts provide and expects to install more of them to replace traditional intersections that use traffic signals or stop signs. The department last week released a study that reviewed 36 roundabouts that had replaced traditional intersections for at least three years. It found that deaths at those locations dropped to just...

Officials say a Pinellas County deputy was killed overnight in a hit-and-run crash at a construction site on Interstate 275 near Roosevelt Boulevard. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has announced the suspect in the hit-and-run death of a deputy was taken into custody after an eight-hour search in the Ulmerton Road and I-275 area. According to Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Deputy Michael Hartwick, 51, was killed when he was struck by a front-end loader being driven by a construction worker just after 10:30 p.m. Thursday night. The suspect was initially believed to be Victor Vasquez-Real by deputies. The individual allegedly...

For months, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has been saying that $5.6 billion in additional federal funds through the Biden administration’s stimulus program won’t come close to addressing all of the state’s road and bridge needs. Now, a national online research organization agrees, at least on money for needed bridge work. InMyArea Research released a report last week that claims the $26.2 billion in stimulus funds for bridges nationwide over the next five years falls an estimated $7.3 billion short of the amount needed just to upgrade bridges rated in poor condition. Pennsylvania’s allocation of $1.63 billion for bridges is...

A homeless Florida man described as a career criminal went joyriding on a piece of stolen construction equipment and caused more than $10,000 in damages on Saturday, authorities said. Deputies located Randy Lee Wealand, 56, operating a $60,000 JLG Lull around 8 a.m. on the sidewalk of Ocean Shore Boulevard in Beverly Beach, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said. Investigators determined that Wealand had stolen the heavy machinery from a construction site and drove it 2.5 miles to Beverly Beach. Along the way, deputies said he ran over two fire hydrants, a Charter Communications fiber node, resident mailboxes and broke...

Six months ago, state officials couldn’t have been happier as the U.S. Department of Transportation regularly announced billions of additional dollars that would be available for road and bridge projects. Now, with rampant inflation and problems getting basic materials like concrete and asphalt, especially for overnight work, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials say they are concerned that the federal windfall may not have nearly the benefit they expected. Cheryl Moon-Sirianni, PennDOT’s district executive for Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties, said last week that low bids for contracts have been coming in 10% to 20% higher than the department anticipated. Among...

Following a slowly growing national movement, Pennsylvania may be ready to try the idea of charging drivers a mileage-based fee to make up millions in transportation revenue lost to more fuel-efficient hybrid and electric cars. Melissa J. Batula, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s acting executive deputy secretary, said the department is working with the General Assembly to draft legislation establishing fees for those who pay little or nothing toward road maintenance. That’s because the state gets about 75% of its road money from the gasoline tax. A commission appointed last year by Gov. Tom Wolf recommended a series of steps...

Engineers have long dreamed of creating a wonderful material that can revolutionize construction. In 2004, their dream came true. British scientists first created Graphene—one of the forms of nanocarbon that is only 0.3 nanometers thick—a million times thinner than a human hair, but it can withstand colossal loads! Many immediately predicted a great future for it, and a little later, scientists were given the Nobel Prize. However, mass adoption did not happen. And only now, after 15 years, the first real opportunities have appeared to use the material of the future in commercial projects. Super-substance is made from ordinary graphite,...

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will negotiate with a nine-member group of contractors headed by an Australian firm to replace nine bridges proposed for tolling at an estimated cost of $2.5 billion. The group — which calls itself Bridging Pennsylvania Partners — lists Macquarie Infrastructure Developments LLC of Sydney as the lead contractor and includes FCC Construccion, S.A., of Spain, as well as six Pennsylvania companies. They include Joseph B. Fay Co. and Shikun & Binui America Inc., of Pittsburgh. The contract will require that 65% of the work be done by Pennsylvania firms. State Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., R-Johnstown...

South Florida construction boom means more jobs for womenYou may not initially think of women in construction, an industry once dominated by men. But in 2022, during a building boom in South Florida, industry leaders believe things are changing when it comes to gender and jobs. Nekita Whyte works in the South Florida construction business as an assistant operations manager. "I like it because there is a day-to-day challenge," she said. Her boots are on the ground at the job site alongside hundreds of men. Nekita Whyte shares what she likes about working in the construction field. "There is ......

The toll lanes for Florida’s I-4 Ultimate, a seven-year, $2.4 billion project, are now open, with 21 miles of rebuilt highway and new express lanes between Orange and Seminole counties. It is the largest road project in state history. Highlights of the project: Reconstruction of I-4 lanes and adding four new tolled I-4 Express lanes – two in each direction; Reconstruction of 15 major interchanges; Replacement of 74 bridges, widening of 13 bridges, and adding 53 new bridges. The I-4 Express lanes, the centerpiece of the project, are now open on the interstate’s center lanes and separated by concrete barriers....