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The controversial 2006 lease of the Indiana Toll Road paved the way for highway projects funded by public-private partnerships in Indiana — including the relatively smooth and nearly finished building of a bridge over the Ohio River at Louisville and the beleaguered construction of a 21-mile stretch of Interstate 69 from Bloomington to Martinsville. Indiana’s next governor — whose road-funding agenda will likely shape discussions at next year’s budget session of the Indiana General Assembly — will have a major role in crafting future deals to fund projects and maintain the state’s infrastructure. The question is whether the state will...

Continuing delays on the construction of Interstate 69 between Bloomington and Martinsville have led to another ratings downgrade on the bonds issued to help finance the project. Standard & Poor’s has lowered its rating from BB+ to BB- on $244 million in bonds issued by the Indiana Finance Authority in 2014 for the interstate project. “The rating action reflects our view of increased construction risk at the project, which is eight months behind schedule and about 56 percent complete,” S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Tony Bettinelli said in the ratings agency’s statement on the downgrade last week. The 21-mile project,...

The state of Indiana needs to do a better job of looking out for the interests of Hoosiers, especially Monroe County Hoosiers, when it comes to construction of Interstate 69. Section 5 of the project, the part that starts just south of Bloomington and goes north to Martinsville, has run into problems. Not for the first time. Again, the private development company the state picked to build the highway has fallen behind on payments for work that’s been done. So major contractor Crider & Crider of Bloomington has stopped working, again, until it gets paid. State officials aren’t saying so,...

If you want to earn some cash in Michigan painting a barn, be prepared to take 60 hours of educational courses and pass a state-mandated test. It will set you back hundreds of dollars in total. But to obtain an amateur pilot’s license, the Federal Aviation Authority mandates only a book and flight test with 40 hours of flight instruction. The state of Michigan licenses nearly 200 occupations, including more than dozen “maintenance and alternations” contractors. But a review of who is required to be licensed and who is able to work legally without state permission is seemingly arbitrary. A...

<p>Tweefie Millspaugh has a relatively short commute from her home in North Baltimore's Abell neighborhood to her job at a downtown law firm. Without traffic, she says, it takes about 15 minutes.</p> <p>But lately, the 54-year-old has found herself yelling fruitlessly in the driver's seat as she sits for 45 minutes on streets jammed by road closures across the city's center. After work, she waits again in a crawling line before finally inching out of her parking garage and into the gridlock.</p>

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.expressnews.com/business/national/article/Trump-deportation-plan-rattles-an-industry-9233080.php

Kansas has more than 140,000 miles of public roads — the fourth most in the U.S. Such a massive network requires substantial public investment in maintenance and new projects, and some transportation advocates are worried that the state’s revenue crisis will prevent much of this necessary work from getting done. For example, the Brownback administration has transferred more than $1 billion from the Kansas Department of Transportation to the state general fund over the past few years. … Earlier this year, $185 million was removed from the highway fund to counteract meager state revenue collections. This sweep was announced alongside...

Gov. Scott Walker is drawing sharp criticism for his plan to delay highway projects, including the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee. In the past, the governor has hailed the interchange as key to state businesses that transport products throughout the region. Walker mentioned MillerCoors in his 2013 State of the State address. "MillerCoors is in a hyper-competitive industry. They're looking to find a competitive advantage: who can get a cold beer on a bar in Madison or Green Bay or even Chicago, the fastest. Beer trucks are tied up in the Zoo Interchange? The MillerCoors brewery here in Wisconsin is at...

Dive Brief: Passaic County, NJ, has announced its intention to sue the state's Department of Transportation for costs resulting from Gov. Chris Christie's order to shut down all projects funded through the near-empty Transportation Trust Fund (TTF), according to The Record.Citing safety issues, Passaic County officials said they used their own funds to continue with certain state projects after the shutdown, such as a $330,000 repaving project that left raised manhole covers exposed. The county has a multimillion-dollar lineup of infrastructure projects now on hold.Passaic County Counsel William Pascrell, who notified the state DOT of Passaic's intention to sue over...

Is it possible that a toll road could price itself right out of its market? That's essentially what the Pennsylvania Turnpike is prescribing for itself. Last week the Turnpike Commission informed us that tolls will go up a ninth consecutive year in 2017 — and stay on a steadily upward trajectory until 2044. And of course, there's no guarantee after that. By then, we can only hope, the turnpike will have morphed into a giant solar-powered car-train — for self-driving cars, of course. "Unsustainable" is an overused word these days, but it applies to the toll road's future. The turnpike...

Slam on the brakes. That's what state lawmakers want to do to increasingly frequent instances of motorists skirting payment of Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls. The problem wouldn't be nearly as prevalent had many of those same legislators years ago taken a detour around the lame-brain idea that directly resulted in turnpike travel becoming significantly more costly. How costly? Pretty soon only Saudi Arabian sheiks will be able to afford the outrageous tolls, though those guys probably prefer to fly their personal planes from Pittsburgh to Breezewood. Those lacking private jet transportation sidestep the tolls in renegade fashion. They fly through toll...

Just as construction crews were putting the finishing touches on Interstate 22 this week, rumors began to circulate that the road's completion may set off a chain of events that could destroy humanity and bring civilization to it's knees. According to a Wikipedia article created last night, Interstate 22, formerly known as "Corridor X" and "Ye Olden Highway," is considered to be North America's very first construction project. Native American documents dating back to 800 AD show plans to clear a path from Memphis to Birmingham, giving Midwestern tribes of 19-22 year-olds the quickest route to destroying Alabama's pristine beaches...

Multiple-fatality crashes in Utah road construction zones have drawn increased scrutiny to the inherent hazards of work areas and the lackadaisical attention many drivers pay to safety warnings there. “Despite all of our work with Zero Fatalities and safety messages, people are on their cell phones talking and texting and looking at other things,” said Vic Saunders, Utah Department of Transportation Region One spokesman. “Within the confines of construction zones, with narrower lanes and barriers that make it a little bit tighter, people are wavering back and forth, and the danger is magnified for everyone.” Utah road construction zone crashes...

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A man accused of crashing into a construction zone and killing two workers was found guilty Wednesday. Indiana State Police said on May 9, 2014, Jordan Stafford of Fortville, 22 at the time, crashed his pickup into an arrow board and into two construction workers who were clearing cones to open a lane for the morning’s rush hour traffic. The construction zone was located on Interstate 69 southbound between 82nd and 96th streets. Rieth-Riley Construction workers Coty DeMoss, 24, of Noblesville and Kenneth Duerson Jr., 49, of Indianapolis were both killed. Officials said DeMoss and Duerson were...

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. - The Interstate 75 express lanes construction project has created a 10-mile stretch of road that is ripe with hazards. "We believe we have had an increase in some crashes," Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Wysocky said. "We have had several people that have been seriously injured from debris." Earlier this week, Jessica Gabe was hit by a large rock, but amazingly she wasn't hurt. "A car hit a big boulder in the middle of the road, split it in two and half of the boulder came through my windshield and hit me," Gabe said. "Next thing...

A company in China has unveiled a house created entirely though a 3D-printer. Experts took part in the creation of the building which was printed in one go at a construction site in the Tongzhou district of Beijing. It took just 45 days for the project to be completed. The entire large villa was printed in one go without being cut and then put together using a number of different pieces. Construction firm Beijing Huashang Tengda worked to build the 4,305 square foot home which stands at two storeys tall. The company claims that the walls are as thick as...

Madison— Faced with delays and inflation over the past five years, four major state highway projects — including a Madison artery — have accumulated overruns in excess of $700 million. While some of these increases come from faulty cost estimates or unavoidable inflation, the new figures underline the obvious: Delays can be costly for Wisconsin taxpayers. When projects are paused because of financial challenges in the state's road fund, the price of materials, labor and real estate can rise. The numbers compiled by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel underline the urgency of a divisive issue for Wisconsin's Republican leaders: finding a...

Let's play Jeopardy. The answer is… “A five-letter word for someone who might be good for the construction industry.” The question: “Who is Trump?” Let me hedge a little—something that Alex Trebek doesn't allow on the TV program, by the way—by noting that the key word in the equation is “might.” A President Donald Trump “might” be good for the construction industry. That is a generous caveat, but we're talking here about politics, after all. Trump certainly knows his way around a construction site after all these years of erecting buildings with his name prominently displayed atop them. He knows...

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...