Prime Minister Stephen Harper released important details on the New Building Canada Plan, including support that will ensure small communities have stable, long-term access to funding for vital infrastructure projects.
The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority says that its 11.5-mile extension from Pasadena to Azusa is now more than halfway to project completion.
In the San Francisco area, a vegetation removal crew has started initial site clearing work along four Caltrain crossings as part of its San Mateo Bridge Replacement Project.
The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday, officially opening the new University Transportation Center (UTC) for Railway Safety, which was made possible through a two-year, $3-million grant by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT).
Sound Transit will conduct an open house on February 13 to provide the public an early opportunity to learn about the proposed concepts for replacing the aging Tacoma Trestle, a timber bridge east of Freighthouse Square, which was originally constructed more than 100 years ago and will be replaced with a modern, concrete, double-track structure.
The Chicago Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Board of Directors recently authorized issuance of up to $100 million of 30-year general obligation RTA bonds to finance multiple state of good repair projects to bolster the condition of the region’s transit infrastructure.
“State and federal dollars are not sufficient to support our capital needs, so the RTA is using its bonding authority to keep our region in a state of good repair,” said RTA Board Chairman John Gates, Jr. “Our region needs approximately $33 billion to bring the existing system to a state of good repair. The RTA is meeting a portion of the need with this bond issuance. The recent favorable reports from the three ratings services only reinforce the importance of the RTA and its ability to benefit the region in this way.”
The bonding will fund projects that benefit the region’s public transit riders through enhancements to Chicago Transportation Authority, Metra and Pace bus capital assets, specifically tied to state of good repair, in the categories of rolling Stock, track and structure, electric signal and communications and stations and passenger facilities
Qualifying projects would include projects that upon completion would have a useful life of at least 20 years; projects that will reduce the region’s state of good repair backlog and projects that replace assets, which fall into the category of “worn” or “marginal” as identified in the Capital Asset Condition Assessment.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) awarded a $24-million contract to repair and rehabilitate three bridges spanning the Merrimack River in Haverhill to JV: LM Heavy Civil Construction and Cooperativa Muratori & Cementisti – CMC di Ravenna. The bridge work will allow the MBTA to continue to operate safe and reliable passenger rail service on the Haverhill Line.
The North Carolina Railroad Company (NCRR) paid a $15.5-million dividend to the state of North Carolina on December 20, 2013 to be designated for a freight rail and safety fund to support the state’s economic development efforts.
Kansas City Southern’s President and CEO David Starling issued his annual State of the Railroad letter sharing KCS’ “successes and tremendous potential.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has awarded a contract to Parsons Brinckerhoff for preliminary engineering, final design and construction-phase services for the rehabilitation of the Mahoning Avenue Viaduct in New Castle, Pa.
Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo, along with representatives of the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), Union Pacific, Amtrak and contractor OCCI, Inc., officially opened a new Union Pacific $28-million 1,200-foot railroad bridge across the Osage River, ahead of schedule and under budget.
Union Pacific installed a new bridge during the weekend of Nov. 2-4 at Shermer Road south of Willow Road in Glenview, Ill., to replace a temporary embankment of crushed concrete the railroad has been using since last year.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (SCVTA) celebrated a major project milestone for the Mission Warren Area Improvements Project in southern Fremont, Calif., when the first Union Pacific freight train traveled over one of the two recently completed bridges, spanning Mission Boulevard and Warren Avenue.
Full train service between 69th Street Transportation Center and Norristown Transportation Center (NTC) on Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s (SEPTA) Norristown High Speed Line (NHSL) will resume on November 11, 2013, following a four-month repair project that closed SEPTA’s Bridgeport Viaduct,
In Portland, Ore., TriMet‘s Steel Bridge, which sees 559 MAX light-rail trains crossings each weekday, has had signal issues recently and crews have been working to identify and fix them.
The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) presented the 2013 Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence to Utah Transit Authority (UTA) for its FrontRunner South Commuter Rail Project.
Work is progressing on the Loyalsock Creek rail bridge in Lycoming County, Pa., as the Susquehanna Economic Development Association Council of Governments (SEDA-COG) Joint Rail Authority continues to target a summer 2014 completion.
Tunnel boring of four tunnels that are part of the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE) in Toronto, ON, Canada has reached 90 percent completion.
BNSF‘s Nebraska property will see an estimated $110 million in maintenance and rail capacity expansion projects in 2013.