Free Republic

Highway contractors throughout northwest Georgia are hiring. The passage of the $900 million-a-year Transportation Funding Act (TFA) by the Georgia Legislature in 2015 is providing much-needed funding for the expansion, improvement and repair of Georgia’s infrastructure. With the increase in road projects, Georgia’s highway contractors currently have hundreds of jobs to fill. To help raise awareness about the need for workers, the Georgia Highway Contractors Association (GHCA) last year launched a campaign dubbed, Fast Lane to Jobs. The campaign seeks to educate prospective workers about the many types of road jobs available and the benefits of a career in this...

PODGORICA (Reuters) - Perched atop massive cement pillars that tower above Montenegro’s picturesque Moraca river canyon, scores of Chinese workers are building a state-of-the-art highway through some of the roughest terrain in southern Europe. The government has described the 165 km (103 mile) highway, with its imposing bridges and deep-cut tunnels, as the construction of the century and a pathway to the modern world. It is designed to link the port of Bar on Montenegro’s Adriatic coast to landlocked neighbor Serbia. But once the first, challenging 41 km stretch through mountains north of the capital is completed, the government faces...

One of the largest and most expensive road construction projects in Iowa is being delayed because of a big mistake. A flyover bridge is being built to serve as a new exit ramp to U.S. Highway 30 for motorists heading northbound on Interstate 35 at Ames. Iowa Department of Transportation engineer Scott Dockstader says the contractor, Minnesota-based Minnowa Construction, messed up. “The bridge is being built right now and we have piers in the middle. Our contractor that’s constructing the bridge made a few mistakes with the elevation of the piers and more importantly, the anchor bolts that go into...

The University of Maine unveiled an innovative, rapidly deployable bridge system July 12 at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center. Engineers, Maine Department of Transportation officials, business leaders, investors, researchers, members from Advanced Infrastructure Technologies (UMaine's licensee for the original “Bridge-in-a-Backpack”) and staff attended the event, at which a bridge span was strength-tested in the laboratory using computer-controlled hydraulic equipment that simulates the heaviest highway truck loads. The strength-test was conducted for the first time to prove the design modeling predictions, and demonstrate the bridge system can withstand the truck loading specified in the American Association of State Highway and...

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un launched -- not a missile -- but an unusual public attack on his own officials during inspections of several ongoing projects in the Hermit Kingdom, visits he said that left him “appalled” and “speechless” due to a lack of progress and attention to detail. Kim’s statements, released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday, were made during his “field guidance” visits at construction sites in the country. The despot’s disappointment was reportedly visible during a visit to the Orangchon Power Station construction site in the northeast. After officials briefed him about the...

Shortened title. Full title: Exclusive – Senior Energy Official: Local Dem-Controlled Gov’ts Block Infrastructure Projects to Resist Trump Democratic-controlled state governments are blocking federal energy infrastructure projects supported by the Trump Administration “for the sole reason of politics,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chief of Staff Anthony Pugliese told Breitbart News Sunday. An independent agency that regulates interstate transmission of natural gas, oil, and electricity, FERC relies on cooperation with state and local governments to ensure America has a reliable electric grid. During Trump’s presidency, though, “some parts of the country that are controlled by members of the Democratic party...

WINDSOR, Ontario — The Canadian government is forging ahead with construction of a new Detroit River bridge designed to enhance trade as economic relations between the longtime trading partners grow strained — and the crossing could become a bargaining chip. Major construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge is expected to begin this fall once a contract is signed with Bridging North America, the consortium of infrastructure companies chosen last week by the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority to build the bridge. The long-awaited move toward an official groundbreaking later this month comes as President Donald Trump threatens a tariff on Canadian-assembled...

Maryland’s $9 billion plan to expand the Beltway and Interstate 270 is among the nation’s biggest boondoggles, a public-interest advocacy group said Tuesday in a new report. The report — issued by U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group — highlights nine highway projects, including Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s plan to widen certain roadways using public-private partnerships and tolling to pay for them. The advocates say these projects are unwise for several reasons. They say expanding or building new highways always leads to more congestion over time through the wholly predictable phenomenon of “induced demand”: When new capacity opens up,...

Toll collection will continue and any exemption relating to toll taxed on national highways has been ruled out. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that people should be willing to pay if they want good services. The minister said toll collection can "never go" if funds are to be raised for constructing roads under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. "The toll (collection) will never go. The toll will be there. If you want good services, you will have to pay for it," Gadkari said at a function of the PTI employees unions on Tuesday night. Expressing concern...

How did Americans develop their love affair with driving? Visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington and the transportation exhibit “America on the Move” will sell you on the commonly held theory that when Henry Ford made cars affordable, Americans loved them and demanded more and more highways. Of course, that exhibit is sponsored by General Motors, which donated millions to put its name on the collection. But University of Virginia history professor Peter Norton, author of “Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in American cities” contends that’s a myth. Just as outgoing President Dwight...

Miami-Dade commissioners on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to extending the 836 expressway 14 miles into West Kendall, rejecting warnings about environmental damage and urban sprawl in favor of bringing relief to commuters in the congested suburbs. "We've got to start somewhere," said Commissioner Javier Souto, whose district includes western areas in the county. "Do something. Do something." A final vote awaits later this year, but the 9-2 vote captured what appeared to be broad support for the signature transportation package from Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who cited the toll road's extension as a top priority as he prepares to leave office...

ORLANDO, Fla. - One state lawmaker isn’t ruling out the possibility of an investigation, while thousands of customers wait for tolls to start posting to their SunPass accounts.SunPass conducted a major upgrade earlier this month, and since June 1st, many drivers haven’t seen any charges yet. Officials had promised to post those toll charges gradually, so as not to overwhelm the system.This delay is already causing concern for some drivers—like Mark Hammonds, who we caught in between trips that often take him on the turnpike. “You’re at risk of not being reimbursed if you don’t file them timely,” he said. The state...

Area residents who use the 183A toll road will likely see new tolls heading northbound to Liberty Hill and southbound into Austin in the coming years. The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, operator of the 183A toll road, is looking to extend 183A for 6 miles to the north from the current end of the toll segment in Leander to just north of S.H. 29 in Liberty Hill. CTRMA also seeks to widen the existing U.S. 183 south of S.H. 45 near Lakeline Mall down to the Arboretum area in Northwest Austin, adding a pair of variable toll ‘express lanes’...

Use of the MoPac toll lanes has been steadily growing in the seven months since the lanes opened throughout their entire 11-mile lengths, but it is falling slightly short of a first-year estimate made before construction began. Revenue from the added lanes on each side of North MoPac Boulevard, due to variable toll rates that on average have been higher than expected, has at least met expectations this spring and could exceed them when the agency begins in earnest to pursue unpaid tolls. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see the numbers bump up a bit” as collections efforts step up,...

AUSTIN — After months spent hashing out how to pay the $1.6 billion tab, North Texas' most pressing freeway need at long last gained the blessing of the Texas Transportation Commission at its Thursday meeting. The Texas Department of Transportation now has its governing body's approval to seek bids on 10.8 miles of Interstate 635 between Central Expressway and Interstate 30 — known as LBJ East to planners. A contract will be awarded in the summer of 2019, and construction is to finish in 2024. The result will be another free lane in each direction, continuous frontage roads that the...

Any Montgomery County voter looking for traffic relief will not get much hope from the transportation manifestos of Montgomery County’s “progressive” Democrats this primary season. Collectively, they all try to outdo each other in their opposition to anything involving spending for roads. Instead of supporting projects that will reduce travel times, they propose diverting more money to public transit. They push a strategy of “planned gridlock” that is intended to drive motorists from their cars. If alleging “planned gridlock” seems harsh, consider the Montgomery County Council legislation designed to slow traffic flow by significantly narrowing travel lane widths on some...

Here are two recent events you might have missed: In March, House speaker Paul Ryan was widely quoted as saying, “The last thing we want to do is pass historic tax relief and then undo that, so we are not going to raise gas taxes.”The next month, in California, Republicans submitted 54 percent more than the required signatures to put on the November ballot a measure that would repeal the 2017 state law increasing gasoline and diesel taxes. Meanwhile, roads in Los Angeles are in such bad shape that it costs the average driver $892 a year in additional vehicle...

A new Cline Avenue Bridge is rising in East Chicago, with more than a third of 29 piers in place that will carry traffic 100 feet above the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal, and with the casting of surface segments well underway in a building erected for that purpose at the bridge's Riley Road headquarters. The privately owned toll-bridge is scheduled to open to traffic in January 2020. "The project is moving along — it's on schedule," said Terry Velligan, the bridge's general manager of operations, on Tuesday. Normally 168 workers are on-site each day, he said. Velligan works for United...

The Illinois Tollway board on Wednesday approved a deal with a Canadian railway to allow highway ramps over train tracks just west of O’Hare International Airport, which will make possible long-anticipated western highway access to and from the airport. By a 6-0 vote, the Tollway board approved a “letter of intent” with Canadian Pacific Railway at a special meeting. Under the terms of the letter, both parties agree to withdraw litigation against each other and to allow construction to go forward. The letter also permits negotiations to proceed on issues like air rights and right-of-way. “This is an agreement that’s...

WASHINGTON — Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is responding to ethics concerns raised over a proposed consulting contract that is tied to a huge transportation project.The $68.5 million contract, related to Hogan’s $7.6 billion plan to widen parts of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270, was pulled from consideration Wednesday by the Maryland Board of Public Works, which approves state contracts.“We held up the approval just to make sure that there isn’t any conflict,” Hogan told WTOP in an interview Friday. “I expressed some of the same concerns that other people have and that’s why the board of public works...