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Construction Dive
Engineering and transportation industry groups have come out in support of a $75 billion Senate bill that would finance a massive repair program for U.S. bridges, according to Transportation Today. The Bridge Investment Act, which is so early in the process that it hasn't even been assigned a bill number, would fund a 10-year competitive grant program in the hopes of rounding out state and local infrastructure investment.
So far, the legislation has won the support of important industry groups like American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), North America's Building Trades Union (NABTU) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).
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NJSME
Mark your Calendars!
Feb. 14, April 4, June 6, Sept. 12
NJSME will continue offering continuing education credits for PEs at all of our general membership meetings in 2018. We pride ourselves on offering low cost options and relevant topics for our membership. If you would like to recommend a topic or speaker for one of these meetings, please email Vice President Tim Staszewski with your suggestions.
Further, to help subsidize our meeting costs, we rely on meeting sponsors who can participate in our meeting with a tabletop display and brief remarks for a relatively small contribution. Any potential sponsors should also be directed to Tim via the email above, or they can call NJSME at 609-393-0102.
Lastly, this year we will be offering a discount for those who choose to pre-pay their meeting registrations up front for the entire year. In addition to cutting down on paperwork, members will save 20 percent! Look for more information when you receive the February Meeting notice.
Fire Engineering
New Jersey fears the damage from an offshore oil spill would be much worse than the hit its tourism economy took from a spate of medical waste wash-ups in the 1980s.
Incoming Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who made opposing many of President Trump's policies a cornerstone of his campaign, pledged Friday to help lead opposition to the Republican president's plan to open nearly the entire U.S. coastlines to drilling. He appeared at a news conference at a popular oceanfront restaurant in Long Branch with fellow Democrats Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., pleading to help lead the fight against the plan. That opposition could include legal action against the Trump administration, Murphy said.
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Courier Post
On a typical weekday, motorists and pedestrians engage in a chaotic and sometimes dangerous dance outside the Walter Rand Transportation Center. Drivers navigating along Broadway and Martin Luther King Boulevard have to make their way past public buses lumbering into and out of the transit hub. Pedestrians make their way through crosswalks partially obstructed by construction signs and fencing toward Rand and the nearby NJ Transit RiverLine station, anxious to catch the next bus or train.
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NJ.com
NJ Transit commuters have been stuck standing in the aisles of crowded rail cars in part because of the challenge finding the parts needed to repair the trains, officials say. Commuters have complained or several months on social media about overcrowding, especially when trains are missing a car or arriving with single-level cars instead of with two levels.
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NorthJersey.com
The Borough Council has put the brakes on an effort to place two electric vehicle charging stations downtown after bids on the installation cost came in far above the borough's $5,000 grant. Last September, the borough had approved the plan, proposed by its environmental commission, as long as it came at no cost to the taxpayers, which a state Department of Environmental Protection grant was expected to ensure. That grant, known as "It Pay$ to Plug in," offered participating communities $5,000 per unit to purchase and install the chargers, with a maximum award of $30,000.
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Bloomberg
Devin Leonard writes: "To get to New York’s Penn Station, every northbound Amtrak passenger makes the last leg of their journey, through tunnels beneath the Hudson River, in the dark. Trust me: They should be glad. One day this autumn, an Acela pulls into Newark, and a railway spokesman escorts me onto the rear engine car, where we stand and take in the view facing backward. As we descend into one of the Hudson tunnels — there are two, both 107 years old, finished in the same year the Wright brothers built their first airplane factory — a supervisor flips on the rear headlights, illuminating the ghastly tubes."
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Metro
Both New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have competing wish lists for capital transportation improvement projects that even Santa Claus couldn't deliver. New York City already faces competition within the metro New York area for potentially $80 billion plus needed to fund major capital transportation improvements. Millions to billions more could be necessary by the time any project is completed and the true final costs are known. Everyone has their own priority wish list which in many cases conflicts with others who have different agendas.
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Engineering News-Record
In a blow to the coal industry, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Jan. 8 unanimously rejected further action on a proposed rule on grid resiliency pushed by the U.S. Department of Energy. FERC's action came as a deep freeze over the Eastern seaboard began to recede. Proponents of the rule had hoped that the cold weather would demonstrate the need for the DOE's reforms. In fact, the opposite was true, as most power plants remained online. The cold weather showed "resilience is about transmission and distribution," not fuel, says Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies LLC.
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Newsday
The state Department of Transportation has just released a study on a proposed Long Island Sound tunnel. Not surprisingly, it found the project can be done. In truth, the challenge to building a Long Island Sound tunnel isn't technical.
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