Free Republic

As a hardcore Cruz supporter, I still wish he was our nominee, but he's not. I have said for over a year that regardless of who the nominee is, the Republicans will win the election come November. Now I agree that anything can change over the long hot Summer, but for now it looks like Trump will not just win, but he will will probably win in a landslide we have not seen since Renaldo Maximus won in 1980 & 84. As usual, when a market economy candidate replaces a socialist Big Government commie in the White House, the economy...

Researchers at MIT are seeking to redesign concrete — the most widely used human-made material in the world — by following nature’s blueprints. In a paper published online in the journal Construction and Building Materials, the team contrasts cement paste — concrete’s binding ingredient — with the structure and properties of natural materials such as bones, shells, and deep-sea sponges. As the researchers observed, these biological materials are exceptionally strong and durable, thanks in part to their precise assembly of structures at multiple length scales, from the molecular to the macro, or visible, level. From their observations, the team, led...

MIAMI - Drivers throughout South Florida have said no matter where their daily commute takes them, they feel they're spending more money, more often on tolls. Local 10 News spoke to several drivers who said the tolls are another expense and don't necessarily help them reach their destination any faster. "Three hundred to four hundred (dollars) a month," Maribel Masvidal estimated she spends commuting from Homestead to her job in South Miami. "A lot of money that could be used on other things for my family." Masvidal said that commute can take her up to two hours one way on...

He has said that the wall would be built from precast concrete and steel and that it could be 50 feet tall, if not higher. After calling for it to extend across the entire 2,000-mile southern border, he more recently said half that length could be sufficient because of natural barriers. He has pegged the cost at $4 billion to $12 billion, most recently settling on around $10b. Some see that as low. “There’s a lot of logistics involved in this, and I don’t know how thoroughly they’ve thought it out,” said Todd Sternfeld, chief executive of Superior Concrete, a...

According to the Alabama Department of Transportation says the I-22 Corridor X project is almost complete. According to ALDOT engineers, the project is in the cleanup phase, with the I-65 tie all but complete. "We don't have an exact time," ALDOT Engineer DeJarvis Leonard told WBRC Fox 6. "But we feel that based on the progress that's been made, by June, we should have traffic on the interchange and on the paving project." Engineers also said horses are regularly wandering around the construction and an owner hasn't been identified. Georgia-based Archer Western is the contractor for the $168 million project....

The reconstruction of Sandy-battered Route 35 is soaking New Jersey taxpayers with tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns, an Asbury Park Press investigation reveals. The newspaper found that the project, announced by Gov. Chris Christie in 2013, is already $76 million over budget and a year behind schedule. The potential final cost of $341 million means that the 12.5-mile road construction in Ocean County will cost a jaw-dropping $27.3 million per mile — making it one of the most expensive road projects in the state. The Asbury Park Press, which called the project a “boondoggle,” found that the...

BEIJING — Police in northern China say an argument between construction workers escalated into a demolition derby-style clash of heavy machinery that left at least two bulldozers flipped over in a street. In online video taken Saturday, several bulldozers are seen ramming each other while passenger cars scurry away from the cloud of dust. The video shows one driver running unhurt out of his toppled bulldozer, a fast-moving type also known as a wheel loader, while a friendly bulldozer tries to lift it back up. Video at link

We’ve seen 3D-printed houses before, but most make use of prefabricated chunks. This hurricane and tornado resistant hotel suite in the Philippines was printed in one shot. Sound familiar? This is the work of [Andrey Rudenko], who started by building a concrete 3D printer in his garage 2 years ago, moved on to 3D printing his kids a concrete castle in his backyard later that year and now appears to have a full-blown company offering commercial 3D printed houses. Way to go [Andrey]! The building was designed in Sketchup no less, and the printer makes use of Pronterface for the...

BREWER, Maine — When Ken and Jo-Ann Arbo moved into their home in Eddington 22 years ago, they thought they found the perfect place to live.“I hunt right there. I fish out there. I snowmobile out there,” Ken Arbo said of the woods and fields near the couple’s home. “That is why we moved out there.”Now the Arbos face the real possibility of moving again.Their Lambert Road home is within the path of the controversial I-395/Route 9 connector, a proposed two-lane road from Brewer to Eddington meant to ease heavy truck traffic and improve safety on nearby routes 46 and...

What the heck is wrong with us? On Wednesday, Washington, D.C.’s entire Metro subway system shut down with almost no notice to perform emergency inspections, just days after a cable fire “crippled” three lines. The nation’s second-busiest rail system has been plagued by safety problems in recent years, including a 2015 incident where smoke from an electrical malfunction killed one person and a deadly 2009 crash on the system’s Red Line that killed nine people. And with a new Metro chief that has been vocal about returning to a culture that puts safety first, many say that Wednesday’s move is...

Dianna Montague made history when she became the first African-American woman to join the Philadelphia’s Iron Workers Union Local 405. As the chairman and CEO of Iron Lady Enterprises Inc., Montague holds the distinction of being one of the only female ironworkers in Philadelphia. She is a certified master welder, rigger and rod setter. Montague is now working on one of the nation’s largest infrastructure projects, the $3.9 billion New NY Bridge. It will replace the Tappan Zee Bridge in Hudson Valley, N.Y., and is expected to be completed in 2018. Her company is responsible for land-based rebar fabrication and...

On February 5, a windy day in Lower Manhattan, a 565-foot crane collapsed and killed a man when it struck the parked car in which he sat. Crews had been planning to secure the Worth Steet crane because the forecast projected sustained winds at stronger than 25 mph, but they were too late. After the collapse, Mayor Bill de Blasio required crawler cranes, the mobile type of crane that can move around a work site, to cease operation and transition to safety mode anytime there are sustained winds of more than 20 mph or gusts of more than 30...

This is all video and, if you don't want to give the goon squad a hit, I'll summarize for you:A clip is shown from the most recent debate about a new twist on a very old story-- 30 years old.Trump is supposed to be responsible now for the sins of a contractor he hired 30 years ago, even though one of the cheated workers, then an illegal Polish immigrant and now a U.S. citizen, is quoted as seriously considering voting for him.This is their 8 seconds of balance in 4:15 minute hit piece. If you blink, you'll miss it!

A divide between the Illinois tollway and Chicago on the cost of airport land needed for the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway extension is threatening progress on the massive project, considered vital for the suburbs. An agreement to sell property on the western edge of O'Hare to the tollway at market value more than a decade ago has disintegrated, officials said, and the city's latest price tag of about $190 million is giving the tollway sticker-shock. "We've been negotiating for a long time. ... It's within the last couple of months I've realized how far apart we were," tollway Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said....

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has announced with members of the state general assembly a plan allowing the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to add at least one additional lane in each direction to a 25-mile stretch of Interstate 55 near Chicago using a public-private partnership (P3) agreement. IDOT is allowed to use P3 agreements only if the general assembly adopts a resolution supporting a proposed project, a state law in place since 2011. This would be the first P3 managed lane project in the state. “By using existing resources to leverage private investment, we can build the type of infrastructure...

One person was killed and another was critically injured when a construction crane tumbled onto a Tribeca street Friday morning, officials said. The crane fell on a row of parked cars when it toppled over on Worth St. near Church St. about 8:30 a.m. as heavy snow fell onto the city. One person died at the scene, officials. A second person was trapped inside a vehicle and was freed by responding firefighters.

CLARKSVILLE, Md. — Big improvements to Maryland Route 32 will cover more than 20 miles from Clarksville to Eldersburg. Gov. Larry Hogan and Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman announced Thursday that a stretch of Route 32 will get a much-needed expansion. After nearly a decade of pleading with state officials, the traffic and safety nightmare on Route 32 is finally being addressed. Hogan is committing $152 million to widening the highway and making safety improvements. "Governor, there are citizens who have died on this roadway. There are friends of all of us who have died or have been hurt, and...

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Years ago, the Tokarski family gathered with friends around a kitchen table in an old Indiana farmhouse. They were discussing the looming construction of Interstate 69 and how they could possibly stop it. The group suspected a project of such magnitude, an interstate route stretching across the southern half of Indiana, would cause severe environmental 
damage. “We really had the project almost at a standstill until Mitch Daniels came into office,” said Thomas Tokarski, now the president of Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads. “We still have huge amounts of support from the people in Indiana.” Since that farmhouse meeting, Tokarski...

In a state where four out of five traffic improvement projects bust their original deadlines, Florida transportation officials expect to beat the odds with one of the largest jobs ever undertaken in the Sarasota-Manatee region. Construction of the state’s first diverging diamond interchange at Interstate 75 and University Parkway, which began Aug. 3 and is set for two years, will end before the September 2017 World Rowing Championships draw tens of thousands of visitors to nearby Nathan Benderson Park, state officials promise. But the timeline leaves Prince Contracting, the Tampa-based company that won the $74.5 million contract, just one month...