The right
lane of southbound Route 123 between Scotts Crossing Road and the I-495 Capital
Beltway Inner Loop will close for approximately two years beginning on or about
Monday, Feb. 22. The closing had been previously scheduled to begin on or about
Feb. 8 but the recent snowstorms forced a delay.
A program to reduce train
congestion in the Chicago area is getting a major boost with $100 million in
federal stimulus money for 16 rail projects, officials said Feb. 16, the Chicago
Tribune reports. That’s good news for frustrated Metra and Amtrak passengers,
harried motorists and anxious shippers who are victims of affected by snarled
freight train traffic, officials said. And as part of the stimulus program’s
primary goal, the program is expected to create thousands of jobs.
L. B. Foster Company and
Portec Rail Products, Inc., both headquartered in Pittsburgh, jointly announced
the signing of an Agreement and Plan of Merger under which L. B. Foster will
make, through its wholly owned acquisition subsidiary, a cash tender offer to
acquire all of Portec’s outstanding shares of common stock for $11.71 per share
Hampton Roads Transit’s
new president and CEO, Philip Shucet, called for the inspector general to
investigate the agency’s light-rail project and business practices, The
Virginian-Pilot reports. HRT in recent months has been faulted for amassing
more than $100 million in cost overruns on Norfolk’s starter light-rail line
and for failing to pursue a suspected embezzlement of $80,000.
Koppers Inc., a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Koppers Holdings Inc. said it has completed a
transaction with Barham-Sevier Tie Company, Inc. to acquire a crosstie
procurement business that includes land and equipment for an undisclosed
purchase price. The asset purchase from Barham-Sevier is expected to result in
total additional revenues of approximately $8 to $10 million on an annual basis.
The Wisconsin Legislature’s
Joint Finance Committee agreed Feb. 16 to accept $822 million in federal
stimulus funds for high-speed rail linking Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago, but
not before lawmakers wrangled over whether the project was necessary, the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The funds had been sought by Gov. Jim Doyle
to link the three cities – and potentially the Twin Cities. The vote represents
the final action for Wisconsin to tap the stimulus funding for rail.
A light rail plan along
Woodward to connect downtown Detroit with New Center will get a $25-million
infusion of federal money, officials briefed on the matter told The Detroit
News. The federal funds — to be announced Feb. 17 — are a big boost for the
M-1 Rail Project, which would represent Detroit’s first foray into rail-based
public transit since the opening of the People Mover in 1987.
Sidetracked for nearly four
years, an ambitious plan to convert the Farley Post Office into a train station
named after Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan got a jump-start when the federal
government kicked in $83.3 million in stimulus funds to put the project back on
track, the New York Daily News reports. The funding gives the state the $267
million it needs to begin Moynihan Station’s first phase, which will create new
access to rail platforms beneath the post office and expanded rail facilities
in Penn Station across the street.
The Canadian federal
government has said it will fund its share of infrastructure improvements
needed for Huron Central Rail if the Province of Ontario signs a Canada-Ontario
Provincial-Territorial Base Fund Agreement, The Sault Star reports.
Jim Cline was recently
selected as the new president of the Denton County Transportation Authority,
local media report. Cline will begin his new position on March 1. Denton County
is part of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex.
The CREATE Program partners are pleased to announce
that the Chicago area’s Metra Board of Directors has approved the final design
contract for the 63rd and State Improvement Project (CREATE Project P1, Englewood
Flyover). TranSystems Corp. was awarded the $5.65-million contract. The flyover
will carry the north-south Metra Rock Island commuter rail line over the
east-west Norfolk Southern/Amtrak line (a federally designated High Speed Rail
Corridor), eliminating conflict between 68 Metra Rock Island trains and
approximately 60 freight and Amtrak trains that presently cross at grade each day.
TransLink’s Board of
Directors has chosen to go with organizational and regional experience in its
choice of a new leader for the organization by appointing one of TransLink’s
original executives, Ian Jarvis, as the transportation authority’s new Chief
Executive Officer. The Board appointed Jarvis interim CEO last November and,
according to Chair Dale Parker, the decision to forego an executive search for
a permanent replacement for Tom Prendergast was based on Jarvis’ ‘deep and long
experience’ in the organization and the strong endorsement he received within
TransLink and from its stakeholders.
Helping more people get
to work and stimulating job growth and economic development are the goals of a
30-year long-range plan unanimously approved Feb. 12 by the St. Louis Metro Transit
Board of Commissioners. Called "Moving Transit Forward," the plan for the
future of transit in the region presents the results of nearly a year of
in-depth study by Metro officials and staff from the East-West Gateway Council
of Governments (EWGCG), the region’s planning agency.
BART has received FTA
Administrator Peter Rogoff’s letter stating that the FTA has rejected BART’s
plan to meet the FTA’s standards of full compliance with Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act. This letter cites no substantive deficiencies in BART’s latest
draft action plan to correct Title VI deficiencies identified in a December
2009 audit. Instead, the basis of the FTA Administrator’s rejection rests
solely on the fact that BART’s plan contains a timetable with an end date
beyond September 30, 2010-the deadline for awarding stimulus fund grants.
When railroads were first stretching their tentacles across vast new parts of this country, each new expanse of track was bought with Herculean human labor, the Racine, Wis., Journal-Times reports. No longer. Maintaining and replacing the rails still requires manpower, but far less of it. Mechanization has replaced much of what the gandy dancer and the sledgehammer achieved.
A and C Line customers
headed downtown from six stations in Washington Heights and Harlem will benefit
from a new pilot project testing the delivery of next train arrival information
similar to that now in service along the L line and recently deployed in
several Bronx stations on the 6.
If the convention center
was a colossal and contentious public project, wait until you see Nashville Mayor
Karl Dean’s next undertaking: a multi-year, multibillion-dollar effort to
renovate Middle Tennessee’s mass transportation system, the Tennessean reports.
The payback to residents of the greater Nashville area, Dean says, will be a
mass transit system to rival that of Denver, Charlotte and Austin.
Rather than choosing
between North Tampa to Downtown and Downtown to West Shore corridors to launch
Tampa’s first light rail route, local planners may combine them in a funding
proposal to federal officials later this year, the Tribune reports. And plans
for the initial northern terminus for a light rail line could be extended to
the northeast beyond Skipper Road to the vicinity of Cross Creek, just beyond
Interstate 75, to make the project more attractive to potential federal
investments.
A proposed 3.3-mile rail
spur linking the Omya quarry on Foote Street in Middlebury, Vt., with the main
line west of the Otter Creek can now proceed to final design and property
acquisition, as the Federal Highway Administration has determined the estimated
$34.3-million project could meet federal environmental standards, the Addison
County Independent reports.
When passenger rail
service returns to the Treasure Coast, travelers still will be expected to rely
upon their cars, the Indian River, Fla., Press Journal reports.