Free Republic

Vladimir Putin has opened a bridge between the Russian mainland and Crimea, tightening Russia’s hold over the contested peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The 12-mile (19km), $3.7bn (£2.7bn) bridge is Moscow’s only direct road link to Crimea. Russia expects it will carry millions of cars and rail travellers and millions of tons of cargo each year. Previously, all car traffic passed over the Kerch strait by ferry or by passing through Ukraine.

“MASON CITY: To get there you follow Highway 58, going northeast out of the city, and it is a good highway and new.” — Robert Penn Warren, “All the King’s Men” (1946) WASHINGTON — Appropriately, Warren began the best book about American populism, his novel based on Huey Long’s Louisiana career, with a rolling sentence about a road. Time was, infrastructure — roads, especially — was a preoccupation of populists, who were mostly rural and needed roads to get products to market, and for travel to neighbors and towns, which assuaged loneliness. Today, there is no comparably sympathetic constituency clamoring...

Engineering experts say investigators looking into the collapsed ‘instant’ bridge in Miami will want to know why a central tower which is usually built to support a suspension bridge was not in place when it collapsed onto Tamiami Trail on Thursday afternoon. Last week, Florida International University’s official Twitter account posted a rendering of the bridge in its completed form as envisioned by the planners before its opening to foot traffic in early 2019. The rendering shows a tall central column with cables connecting it to the main span. Engineers say the design is known as a ‘cable-stayed bridge,’ which...

When a 175-foot stretch of a concrete bridge collapsed Thursday afternoon over Southwest Eighth Street, slamming down onto cars waiting at a stoplight, a prominent construction team instantly came under scrutiny. Munilla Construction Management and FIGG Bridge Group, the firms behind the $14.3 million walkway connecting Florida International University to the tiny blue-collar burb of Sweetwater, have a long history of massive public works projects, political donations — and a few safety issues. MCM is one of the most influential construction firms in Miami-Dade, and its executives are significant donors in county races. Pedro Munilla, the partner and company vice...

A coalition of local leaders backed by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce wants voters to approve a sales tax increase on the November ballot to pay for projects like the widening of Interstate 25 and the buildout of bike lanes. The group filed four ballot measures with the Secretary of State on Thursday that would raise between $500 million and $1 billion for transportation projects, according to the chamber, and allow that money to be used to pay for bonds, which would generate even more upfront cash. A booming population across the Front Range has created traffic snarls on...

Two Michigan residents attended a BRIDGES meeting hosted by the Detroit office of the FBI recently that left them stunned by the level of Islamist infiltration at the Bureau.BRIDGES is a quarterly FBI outreach program that stands for Building Respect in Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity, whereby the FBI hosts workshops for law enforcement and various immigrant communities. They’ve been held in Boston, Detroit, Houston and Minneapolis-St. Paul and some city police departments host similar meetings on their own, without the FBI in attendance.According to the FBI website, BRIDGES “brings together members of diverse communities and state, local, and federal...

For ten years, a Chinese man has been living in solitude in hopes that he will be able figure out the formula behind winning lottery numbers. The 49-year-old man, identified as Wang Chengzhou, has made a home under a road bridge in Chongqing where he spends his time researching the mathematical formula behind the lottery's winning digits, reported local media. To make ends meet, Wang has worked part-time in jobs at the post office or as a cleaner, according to media reports. The man had worked at a construction site in Xian, Shaanxi province, but suffered a thigh fracture. After...

A crack that closed the Delaware River Bridge between Philadelphia and New Jersey last January has prompted the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to plan repairs to 13 other bridges across the state. The crack in welding material, which created a 2-inch gap in a major truss, was so serious that officials thought they might have to permanently close the span owned by the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes. As a result of that problem, PennDOT looked for similar issues in other bridges; the repairs will involve drilling out areas where welding occurred to fill improperly drilled holes, called plug welding,...

WHEELING — Motorists know age and excessive use are taking a toll on Interstate 70 through Ohio County, but some state lawmakers are concerned drivers may be paying tolls after a proposed $172.5 million rehabilitation on the stretch of highway is completed. Delegates Erikka Storch, R-Ohio, and Patrick McGeehan, R-Hancock, both said they voted against a bill — which ultimately passed — giving the West Virginia Parkways Authority the ability to charge tolls after construction of new roads and major improvements to existing highways because of their concerns about future tolling on Interstate 70. State Senate Majority Leader Ryan Ferns,...

After exploring other options, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet released study findings Tuesday "confirming the need for a second bridge to carry Interstate 71/75 traffic across the Ohio River." A yearlong study "confirms the need for construction of a new bridge across the Ohio River to improve safety and travel on Interstate 71 and Interstate 75 between Ohio and Kentucky," a news release from the KYTC said. The news release cited the findings of the Brent Spence Strategic Corridor Study, which was led by the consulting firm Stantec. The best solution to "ease congestion and improve travel" is to build a...

The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission has taken another step toward its planned new headquarters in Lower Makefield. Commission officials recently awarded a contract not to exceed $529,869 to Joseph Jingoli & Son of Lawrence Township, New Jersey, to serve as construction manager on the project. The new 37,000-square foot, two-story commission headquarters building will be constructed at the 10-acre park-and-ride just off Interstate 95 the commission bought from Lower Makefield last year for $800,000. Officials from the DRJTBC hope to award bids for the new building early next year and have it open by the summer of 2019....

The nearly $30-billion Gateway program to overhaul Northeast Corridor rail lines between Newark and New York City, an array of tunnels, bridges and viaduct over wetlands has two main thrusts: rehabilitation and expansion. These objectives are deeply intertwined—the project team must build new structures in the huge effort before it can upgrade old ones. That’s why digging two 1.4-mile, 28-ft-dia train tunnels under the Hudson River—an estimated $12.9-billion project component—isn’t just an expansion job but a lifeline to free a pair of 107-year-old tubes heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and in need of a rebuild. It’s also why...

An increase in federal taxes on fuel would significantly help fund repairs for highway infrastructure along Interstate 95 in Newark, N.J., Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D) said amid Congress’ consideration of tax reform legislation. “Improving I-95 will boost the economy by shortening commutes, making cargo transport more efficient and improving highway safety,” Payne said Nov. 30, adding the I-95 stretch, or the Turnpike as it is known in the state, has been underfunded due to deficits in the Highway Trust Fund over the years. The intricate network of ports, railways, highways and an international airport in the state’s largest city...

RIO GRANDE CITY, Tex. — Caught quite literally in the middle of the international debate over the way the United States trades with its southern neighbor are two Texans named Sam. Sam Vale and Sam Sparks Jr. own two bridges that stretch across the Rio Grande, connecting farmers on either side with markets on the other, and linking communities in South Texas and northern Mexico that sometimes meet in the middle. Major retailers and manufacturers are mobilizing to keep the deal alive and to protest rules that could make it more expensive to bring parts and products in from Mexico....

After two successful efforts to replace small bridges in 55 hours over one weekend, the Pennsylvania Turnpike says it is looking for more opportunities to use the fast-replacement approach. In late September, the turnpike was closed for a weekend between Cranberry and Beaver Valley to replace a bridge in New Sewickley Township. Crews built the new bridge directly beside the existing structure, demolished the old bridge and used paraffin to slide the new bridge across beams into place. Earlier this month, it replaced another bridge on the Northeast Extension in Lehigh County. In that case, sections of the new bridge...

Almost no matter what you build in Western Pennsylvania, you have to consider the possibility that in previous generations the site had been mined for coal. That’s especially true for the next leg of the Southern Expressway, a 13-mile, $700 million section being built along part of the Pittsburgh coal seam between Route 22 and Interstate 79 in western Allegheny and northern Washington counties. In the area around McDonald alone, where the highway will pass over Route 980 just outside the borough, at least 10 mines operated within two square miles between the mid-1860s and mid-1930s. Particularly in Western Pennsylvania,...

If you live in the Bay Area, you’ll be hearing a lot about Senate Bill 595 over the next year or so. If you’re a regular user of any of the region’s seven state-owned toll bridges — that’s all of them, except the Golden Gate Bridge — you’ll want to pay close attention. SB 595, which won final passage Thursday and now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature, provides for a vote in the nine Bay Area counties next year to raise bridge tolls by as much as $3. If the Bay Area Toll Authority, the agency that oversees the bridges,...

Caltrans demolished one of the marine foundations of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge's old eastern span Saturday morning, Caltrans officials said. Traffic breaks were expected anytime between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m., when the implosions were planned to take place, according to Caltrans. The implosions took place underwater. It was the second of this fall's six scheduled implosions for the demolition of the remaining 11 marine foundations of the original east span of the bridge. Pier E6 was scheduled for removal Sunday. Caltrans said it plans to finish the work by the second weekend in November. The agency began demolishing the...

“We have bridges that are falling down,” then-candidate Donald Trump told Fox last August, pledging to double the amount Hillary Clinton wanted to spend on infrastructure as president of the United States. “We’ll get a fund, we’ll make a phenomenal deal with the low interest rates and rebuild our infrastructure.” One year later and eight months into his presidency, Trump has continued to double down on his lofty promises — during “Infrastructure Week” in June, he told his supporters in Cincinnati that the U.S. “deserves the best infrastructure in the world.” But the administration has been slow to move its...

Construction on the world's longest sea bridge connecting Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao is almost complete. After seven years of construction, the 34-mile-long bridge is set to open at the end of the year. It will cut travel time from Hong Kong to Zhuhai down to 30 minutes from 3 hours.