October has special
significance for the International Right of Way Association (IRWA), whose 10,000
members play a vital role in advancing the nation’s transportation, water and
energy infrastructure projects. October is International Right of Way Month,
and in acknowledging the industry’s role in bringing essential infrastructure
projects to life, IRWA launched a Project of the Year Competition.
Transportation fatalities
in the United States decreased by 9.2 percent in 2009 from 2008, according to
preliminary figures released today by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The data indicate that transportation fatalities in all modes totaled 35,928 in
2009, compared to 39,569 in 2008. Although highway, rail, aviation, deaths
declined, pipeline and marine fatalities showed an increase.
Union Pacific will continue
its aggressive investment in American transportation infrastructure by
reigniting its double-track initiative on the Sunset Route in the Southwestern
United States. With an investment of roughly $18 million by the end of this
year, Union Pacific will complete the double-tracking of nine miles of this
premium line in Imperial County, Calif., and another nine miles in Maricopa
County, Ariz., with more work planned for 2011. This project is part of $2.6-billion
to be spent by Union Pacific in 2010 to support current and future freight
transportation needs of its customers.
Senator Tom Harkin
(D-Iowa) said that a total of $3,009,763 will be coming to Iowa to cover the
cost of repairing damage to some of Iowa’s smaller railroads sustained during
2008’s historic storms and floods. The funding comes from the U.S. Department
of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Railroad Administration, and was initially
appropriated in the 2008 Disaster Appropriations bill. Harkin is a senior
member of the Appropriations subcommittee that funds transportation
initiatives.
New Jersey transportation
officials said Oct. 5 they had indefinitely suspended about 100 state-funded
road and rail projects in their early stages as the cash-strapped state
grapples with how to pay for needed infrastructure improvements over the long
haul, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Bridge or tunnel? The
city of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., seems poised to plunge into another contentious
debate over the best way to get people past a body of water, the Sun-Sentinel
reports. A decade ago, the fight was over what to do with the 17th Street
Causeway over the Intracoastal Waterway. Today, it’s the Florida East Coast
Railway and a proposed commuter train that needs to cross the New River in
downtown Fort Lauderdale without being held up by boats.
The New York MTA, which is
about to raise fares, wasted at least $722,000 on a safety program so fatally
flawed it should be scrapped, a scathing report concludes, the New York Daily
News reports. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority routinely miscalculated
how well contractors were doing in preventing accidents and curbing
injury-related costs on construction projects, the MTA inspector general’s
office concluded. As a result, contractors got larger bonus payments than they
deserved.
The United States is
saddled with a rapidly decaying and woefully underfunded transportation system
that will undermine its status in the global economy unless Congress and the
public embrace innovative reforms, a bipartisan panel of experts concludes,
reports The Washington Post.
Mario Brault, president
of Huron Central Railway, sees on the horizon for the first time, a profit for
his company, Sault Ste Marie This Week reports. He doesn’t look for huge sums
of money. Brault, upbeat and forthcoming, pointed out few companies can survive
without "a little bit of profit," and a C$33-million contribution
from the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario has opened the way.
Hampton Roads Transit has
been awarded an $8.48-million federal grant toward replacing its aging
administrative headquarters, a former Cadillac showroom on Monticello Avenue, The
Virginian-Pilot
reports.
The Government Center T
station has the charm of a bomb shelter – and that’s its most winsome feature,
the Boston Herald reports. Impressions only get worse up close.
Is a proposed passenger
train line from Minneapolis to Duluth on course for a $700 million derailment?
Or is it merely headed toward a $300,000 detour that could delay plans a year? The Minneapolis Star Tribune asks.
The nation’s top official
in charge of helping minorities with big dreams but often little cash visited
BART to look at the innovative ways the transit agency gives small business
owners a leg up in a down economy.
The MTA Long Island Rail
Road will provide bus service in place of early-morning trains on the
Ronkonkoma Branch on Saturday, October 9, as track inspections are made by the
Sperry Rail Car. Customers on four eastbound and four westbound early-morning
trains between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma will be affected. Customers should
expect up to 36 minutes additional travel time.
Legislation introduced by
Congresswoman Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) helps underscore the growing
recognition of the need to increase federal support for freight infrastructure.
Joint Rail Conference
2011 is a multidisciplinary North American railroad conference encompassing all
aspects of rail transportation and engineering research. The conference is a
cooperative effort of the six co-sponsoring organizations and will be held March
16-18, 2011 at the Pueblo Convention Center in Pueblo, Colo.
Amtrak has begun work to
improve Union Station in Chicago and relieve some Amtrak passenger overcrowding
by nearly doubling the seating in its general passenger lounges, increasing the
number of public rest rooms and by providing air conditioning in the Great Hall
for the first time since the early 1960s. The $40-million project is expected
to be completed by the end of 2012.
Steel Dynamics, Inc., said
that Standard Strength rail produced at its Columbia City, Ind., mill has been
tested and approved by four U.S.-based Class 1 railroads and by Amtrak (the
National Railroad Passenger Corporation). The Class 1 railroads include BNSF,
CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and the Union Pacific.
U.S. Senator Robert
Menendez (D-NJ), Commissioner James Simpson, New Jersey Department of
Transportation, Richard Larrabee, director of port commerce, Port of New York
and New Jersey, Clarence W. Gooden, executive vice president of sales and
marketing and chief commercial officer, CSX Transportation will be among the New
Jersey, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and CSXT officials who will
celebrate the opening of the Liberty Corridor Freightway, a major
public-private project that paves the way for growth by providing improved
access to the Port of New York and New Jersey. This engineering milestone will
expedite freight traffic between inland markets and the Port by increasing
train capacity and improving service levels.
Mass. Lt. Gov. Tim Murray
said $320,000 in technical assistance grants is coming to 15 communities across
Southeastern Massachusetts to help them plan for the growth associated with the
South Coast Rail project, local media report. The funding announcement, the
third round of these grants, comes about a year after the state released the
South Coast Rail Economic Development and Land Use Corridor Plan, which
estimated that commuter rail could generate about $500 million in new economic
activity annually.
