Could LEED certification of new buildings cause increased injury rates for construction workers? Matthew Hallowell, an assistant professor in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder, thinks so. A recent set of articles authored by Hallowell and several co-authors published or in review…
Articles Posted in Infrastructure
“Build as Much as We Can, as Fast as We Can, Until It’s All Done!” – P3s and Colorado’s FasTracks Program
Colorado’s Regional Transportation District (RTD), the public transit provider for the Denver Metro area, is hopeful that public-private partnerships, including unsolicited P3 bids, will accelerate the completion of the FasTracks program. FasTracks, a voter-approved transit expansion program aimed at better connecting the Denver Metro area, includes 122 miles of commuter…
Maryland moves to modernize its Public Private Partnership law.
Maryland’s Lt. Governor Anthony Brown led a joint executive and legislative commission to make recommendations for modernizing Maryland’s statutory framework for P3s. The Commission’s work led to legislation, designated as SB358/HB576, that passed the House of Delegates this week and is expected to pass the Senate in the coming days.…
Tappan Zee Replacement — Which came first, the RFP or the PPP?
When we posted yesterday about the RFP for the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement, we perhaps missed the most important aspect of the Instructions to Bidders: No Obligation to Award. (It’s on page 40, for those keeping track.) Usually this sort of provision is a safety valve. Here, it might be…
The East End Crossing: Indiana Plans to Take Advantage of its P3 Enabling Statutes
On March 8, 2012, the Indiana Finance Authority (IFA) issued a RFQ to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a tolled bridge facility and associated roadway and facilities (the “East End Crossing”) through a public-private partnership agreement. If this piques your interest, the Statements of Qualification are due April 9,…
The Tappan Zee Bridge: Hey brother, can you spare 60 billion dimes?
You could be forgiven if you’ve missed some of the news concerning the new Tappan Zee Bridge project. This project is very much on Governor Cuomo’s front-burner and is moving right along at an impressive pace. Here is the Reader’s Digest version of some (relatively) current events. In February, four…
What is all this hyPPPe about Public-Private Partnerships?
The construction industry is abuzz with talk of alternative funding mechanisms, specifically Public-Private Partnerships, aka PPP, aka P3s. The AGC PPP Task Force recently developed a White Paper to outline issues that contractors will confront with PPPs. Contractors should be knowledgeable about PPPs – not just from a contractor’s perspective…
New Year “ins” and “outs”: Stanford is “out”; Cornell is “in”
“In” and “out” of New York City that is. Roosevelt Island, in particular. Stanford withdrew its proposal to build a campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island and a week later, the City agreed to provide 10 acres to Cornell plus $100 million in infrastructure improvements; Cornell will build a…
Public Comment Period Opens for the Atlantic Wind Connection
The Department of the Interior has opened the public comment period for the environmental impacts of the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) project. The project envisions a link between the proposed off shore wind farms in the Atlantic from Virgina to New Jersey and will provide an efficient means of transporting…
Where do you get your water? ASCE Gives Low Marks to U.S. Water Systems
Chances are, you get your water from a public drinking water system, even though approximately two thirds of drinking water systems in this country are non-community systems — think campgrounds and schools. And the chances are that the system that provides your water needs an upgrade. The American Society of…