Industry News Briefs

January 21, 2010 Headlines
Administration Shifts Transportation Policy Focus to Livability
White House, Congress Working on $400B-$500B Transportation Bill
State Tax Revenue Collapse Threatens Public Construction

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Administration Shifts Transportation Policy Focus to Livability
U.S. Federal Transit Administration (01/13/10)

In a drastic change from existing policy, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently proposed that new funding guidelines for major transit projects be based on livability issues like economic development opportunities and environmental benefits in addition to the current primary criteria of cost and time. Speaking at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting, Secretary LaHood announced that the Obama Administration's plans to change how projects are selected to receive federal financial assistance in the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) New Starts and Small Starts programs. Part of the initiative includes the FTA's rescinding budget restrictions issued by the Bush Administration in March of 2005, which focused primarily on how much a project shortened commute times in comparison to the project's cost. "Our new policy for selecting major transit projects will work to promote livability rather than hinder it," says LaHood. "We want to base our decisions on how much transit helps the environment, how much it improves development opportunities and how it makes our communities better places to live." The new policy will apply to how the FTA evaluates major transit projects. Now, the FTA will evaluate the environmental, community, and economic development benefits a project should provide, as well as congestion relief benefits. The FTA is expected to implement a separate rulemaking process in the new future that will invite public comment on ways to appropriately measure all of the benefits of investments.
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White House, Congress Working on $400B-$500B Transportation Bill
Bond Buyer (01/14/10) Dutton, Audrey

The Obama administration and Congress are working on a multi-year transportation bill that is expected to cost between $400 billion to $500 billion, according to Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "President Obama wants a robust, comprehensive transportation bill that meets the needs of America. The problem is that project, that bill, costs between four or five hundred billion dollars," says LaHood. The administration is looking to pursue more flexible partnerships with states, metropolitan planning organizations, and local governments, according to LaHood, who acknowledges criticism over the delay of a new bill that would replace the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which expired Sept. 30th. The White House originally asked Congress to postpone the reauthorization by 18 months, angering House transportation leaders who had already introduced the reauthorization bill. Most industry analysts believe it will be at least a year before a new law is passed, though LaHood is more optimistic and believes it will be passed this year. LaHood says the administration's priorities for transportation will be visible in President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget request, which is expected to be released on Feb. 1st. The administration is looking for a jobs bill to augment the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) discretionary grant program, which was launched as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
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State Tax Revenue Collapse Threatens Public Construction
Reed Construction Data (01/11/10) Haughey, Jim

Contractors and suppliers looking to land public construction projects will face an uncertain market in 2010, ranging from very strong to devastatingly week, depending on the location of their target projects and funding sources. Funds for traditionally federally funded projects will increase, assuming a third round of stimulus funding passes soon, while funds for traditionally state funded projects is expected to fall. Additional cuts in state tax revenue should be expected throughout the spring. Annual tax payments in April could fall 30 percent or more from the previous year, based on the 29 percent drop in estimated income tax payments in the first three quarter of 2009, severely limiting state budget positions through the 2011 fiscal year. State revenues can vary greatly depending on the taxes and industries in each state, and collections have fallen more than 50 percent in some states. Personal income tax receipts have fallen 12 percent, with an average of a 5 percent drop in withholding receipts and a 29 percent drop in estimated tax payments on contingent, self-employed and investment income. In comparison, property tax receipts increased 3.4 percent from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009. Local governments, which rely primarily on property taxes, have a greater budget position than state governments and have had to make fewer cuts to spending schedules. However, many local governments that rely heavily on grants from state governments have had to cut back nearly as much as state governments.
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Commerce Department's NTIA and USDA's RUS Announce Availability of $4.8 Billion in Recovery Act Funding to Bring Broadband to More Americans
U.S. Department of Agriculture (01/15/10)

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) have announced availability of $4.8 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants and loans to expand broadband access and adoption in America. NTIA will allocate approximately $2.6 billion, of which approximately $2.35 billion will be earmarked for infrastructure projects. RUS will allocate approximately $2.2 billion for broadband infrastructure projects.
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HUD Secretary Donovan Announces $2 Billion in Recovery Act Grants to Stabilize Neighborhoods, Rebuild Local Economies
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (01/14/10)

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced $2 billion in Recovery Act funding to states, local governments and non-profit housing developers, under HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), to spur economic development in hard-hit communities and create jobs. The grants are being awarded competitively to applicants who developed the most innovative ideas to rebuild local communities, while demonstrating that they have the capacity to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. “By investing Recovery Act dollars in revitalizing hard-hit neighborhoods, we’re not only creating new job opportunities, but giving communities across the country an opportunity for a fresh start,” said Vice President Biden. “These competitive awards go to the heart of the Recovery Act: funding innovative projects that both provide immediate relief and help lay a new foundation for long-term economic growth.”
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Transportation Secretary Announces Nearly $94 Million for Federal Lands Road Projects in 31 States
U.S. Department of Transportation (01/13/10)

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood recently announced that 68 road projects in 31 states will receive $93.9 million in Public Land Highway grants to improve access to public lands. "The roads that carry America to and through its national parks, tribal lands or any of the other federal lands need help, just like the rest of the national highway system," says LaHood. "These funds will help protect the roads for the many who depend on them and improve the quality of life for communities served by these unique places." The funds will help improve and increase the accessibility of the lands of 15 Native American tribes, 11 military bases, 19 national park units, 10 national forests, and four national wildlife refuges. Unlike most public roads, which are managed by state departments of transportations, roads on federal lands are maintained by various tribal and federal agencies. The funds from the Public Lands Highways grant program supplement the existing infrastructure programs, and can be used for cities and counties that are responsible for the roads that provide access to federal and tribal lands. This year, more than $4 million will be sued to help improve road access to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stonycreek Township, Pa., nearly $3 million will improve roads near the forthcoming American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial in Washington, D.C., and nearly $2 million will be used for alternative transportation improvements around the Fort Baker area in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California. These grants will equal the largest amount of grant funding awarded to public lands roads since 2002, and the second largest in the 79-year history of the Federal Highway Administration's Public Lands Highways program.
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Demand Drop Delays High-Voltage Line Projects
Dow Jones Newswires (01/12/10) Peters, Mark

The economic downturn has caused questions to arise about the need for three major high-voltage transmission projects in the nation's largest power market. Two of the projects in the PJM Interconnection, a 13-state power market in the eastern U.S., have been put on hold, while a third faces additional scrutiny from regulators. The U.S. is still looking to upgrade its aging electric grid and access growing amounts of wind and other renewable generation from mostly rural areas, but reliability projects could face growing delays following a two-year slump in demand. "There is certainly potential for the projects to be pushed back," says Paul Flemming, director of power and gas services at the market research firm Energy Security Analysis Inc. PJM recently provided a preliminary outlook of updated transmission needs to Virginia regulators, prompting Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power withdrew an application in the state for a $1.8 billion transmission line from West Virginia to Maryland. The utilities had believed the 275-mile line would be needed by 2012 or 2013, but are now projecting 2016 as the more likely date. Pepco responded to the move by asking Maryland regulators on Jan. 8 to suspend a review of a 150-mile, $1.2 billion transmission line through the state. Approvals for both projects are on hold until PJM completes a more comprehensive study by early summer. Meanwhile, New Jersey regulators are delaying a vote on the state's section of a nearly $1.3 billion line proposed by Public Service Enterprise Group and PPL Corp. as they review the recent developments. U.S. electricity consumption has dropped for two straight years and growth in demand peaks that often drive infrastructure projects slowed. Also, many states have stepped up conservation programs, while the number of businesses willing to curtail use at times of peak demand has grown considerably.

Windmill Wastewater Lagoon Treatment Systems Allow Nature to Take its Healthy Course
Water & Wastes Digest (12/09) Vol. 49, No. 12, Boyers, Bruce

Conventional wastewater treatment lagoons regularly encounter problems that must be solved quickly, including sludges that settle to the bottom of the pond. Traditionally, these sludges must be removed regularly so the sludge layer will not accumulate more quickly than it can biodegrade. Slow degradation creates odorous septic conditions that produce sulfuric acid, methane gas, and other gases that create low pH conditions, making pond water more difficult to treat, so ponds often must hold incoming sewage for six months or longer to achieve acceptable levels of pollution removal. The lack of oxygen is a primary reason for this problem, as the beneficial bacteria is aerobic, meaning it requires oxygen. Plentiful amount of oxygen can be supplied in a few different ways, but the most cost-effective and cleanest method available are windmills. Compressors are turned by wind and oxygen is pumped into the pond, aerating the water. Muldrow, Okla., was having trouble with a wastewater pond, located only 500 yards from a high school and directly adjacent to a baseball field, that would become septic when the weather changed. Adding two windmills, provided on a trial basis by Koenders Windmills, the problem appears to have completely abated, the oxygen level is well up, and the smell is down. Through research, Koenders Windmills has found that one 20-foot double-diaphragm windmill can treat an acre of wastewater lagoon. A double-diaphragm compressor can pump double the amount of air as a single-diaphragm model. The windmill is capable of providing oxygen with wind speeds as low as 3 to 5 mph. Windmills are successfully being used in farm ponds, golf courses, stocked fishing ponds, residential ponds, and lakes to restore water quality and reduce algae and mosquito problems.
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Construction CFOs Look to Federal Work
GlobeSt.com (01/12/10) Bubny, Paul

A new Ernst & Young LLP study reports that construction industry CFOs are hoping that work from the federal government will compensate for a continued lack of private-sector opportunities. Such executives point to improvements in infrastructure-related sectors like transportation; power and renewable energy; and water-, sewer-, waste- and environmental/hazardous waste-related construction as reasons for their optimism. Mike Lucki, global leader of E&Y's construction, engineering and infrastructure practices, states, "We've seen a major sea change, where we have a large number of contractors that work principally for private customers who are now realizing the only future work out there is with governmental agencies." Contractors with plans to bid on federal contracts have had to develop accounting procedures and controls to conform with these standards. Among their biggest tasks moving forward will be to learn how to follow the rules entailed by doing business with Uncle Sam. Such rules are bundled together under the headings of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Cost Accounting Standards (CAS). Lucki notes, "There are probably 50 contractors that weren't compliant with FAR and CAS a year ago and have spent the past year becoming compliant so they can actually bid on these federal projects." Nearly 50 percent of the respondents to the E&Y survey say they have bid for jobs via the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the stimulus program. A majority of the CFOs surveyed by E&Y said that construction and engineering opportunities in commercial real estate declined substantially in 2009. Further declines are expected over the next year to year and a half as the sector deals with continued tight financing.
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Minnesota Twins Team Up With Pentair to Slash Water Use
Greener Buildings (01/13/10)

The Minnesota Twins, Pentair Inc., and the sports sponsorship agency GreenMark are installing a rainwater recycling system, custom designed for the Twins' home stadium Target Field, that promises to reduce the new ballpark's consumption of city water by more than half. "The Minnesota Twins are proud to introduce a new environmental standard in sports that moves beyond waste and clean energy solutions to address water scarcity and quality, some of the most pressing environmental concerns of our time," says Twins President Dave St. Peter. Project partners say the system is expected to save more than 2 million gallons of water each year, which would reduce the ballpark's draw from municipal sources by more than 50 percent. The water savings is expected to help the site achieve certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The system, donated by Pentair, will capture rainwater that falls on the nearly 7-acre park, treat collected water using Pentair's filtration and pump technology, and use the water to irrigate the field and wash the lower decks of the ballpark. Pentair says the first-of-a-kind application of its system will purify the rainwater at Target Field so that it is at least as clean, if not cleaner, that the tap water that people drink. The system is being installed and integrated into the water system of the new park, and will be vetted before going live, which is expected to happen sometime during the inaugural season at Target Field this year.
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Changing Workscapes
Urban Land Magazine (12/09) Vol. 68, No. 12, P. 59; Laing, Andrew

Today's office must be reinvented to accommodate more mobile, informal, and fluid work habits, and must bring more value to the table in terms of design, community, collaboration tools, and branding in order to hold its own against virtual interactive environments such as YouTube and Facebook. Offices that are successfully designed for collaboration include elements such as social lounges, coffee bars, videoconferencing suites, and informal areas for off-the-cuff meetings. It follows that environmental sustainability benefits will increase significantly if the nature of the office building is reengineered to respond to user needs. The modern office has to function as a nexus of multiple spaces to support all types of collaboration, and increasing the number of flexible users who work in a more mobile way can lower carbon dioxide emissions. The new office model would take up considerably less space, adding to environmental sustainability.

On the Right Track
Point of Beginning (12/09) Andelin, Eric

Aerial Data Service Inc. (ADS), a geospatial services firm based in Tulsa, Okla., and the Arkansas and Missouri (A&M) Railroad recently collaborated to determine if LiDAR collection on a mobile platform would work through tunnels, and would be a cost-effective means of gathering data. ADS wanted to explore the full capabilities of LiDAR technology. "We wanted to see if the technology could provide enough data with high enough accuracy to be used for railway maintenance and inspection. We also wanted to determine whether the LiDAR data could be used to monitor track and switch conditions, inventory, signage, and obstructions such as vegetation encroaching on the rail right-of-way," says ADS Tulsa project manager Brian Falls. The researchers mounted a LYNX Mobile Mapper V100 dual sensor mobile LiDAR system to a track maintenance car, called a speeder, and used LiDAR sensors to scan the area surrounding the rail line. The researchers recorded data while passing through a tunnel, relying on an inertial measurement unit for guidance. "As expected, accuracy degraded without positional updates from the GPS as the speeder proceeded through the tunnel," says ADS Austin project manager Scott Dunham. "However, when the GPS lock was re-established, the accuracy of the system was restored." Any errors were smoothed and minimized through post-processing techniques. "Mobile LiDAR allows us to quickly collect highly accurate, very dense data, and as a result, it gives surveyors less exposure to potentially hazardous conditions on site," says Falls. "The density of the data allows us to create cross sections wherever they are needed within the tunnel, including the track itself."
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Transportation and Logistics News: Increased Spending on Infrastructure 'Essential' to Economic Recovery, Says U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO
Logistics Management (01/10) Schulz, John D.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J. Donohue says smart investment in infrastructure projects could literally pave the way for a sustained economic rebound as the country looks to improve its transportation network's efficiency to compete in the global economy. "To meet our infrastructure needs, we need to boost public investments while working to ensure that the money is spent wisely in areas of genuine need," says Donohue, who predicts a 3 percent growth in Gross Domestic Product in 2010. "Reauthorization of the nation's core highway bill is essential." Renewing the federal-aid highway reauthorization bill has been stalled in Congress since the previous five-year, $286 billion bill expired last Sept. 30. Instead of passing a bill that would double spending levels, Congress passed a stop-gap bill at the old law's spending levels, which transportation experts say is too low to meet infrastructure spending needs. Donohue says, when it comes to bridge and highway spending, the nation is "doing a lot of things to hurt ourselves," and is "making a serious mistake." Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Chamber, is particularly critical of Congress's series of 90-day extensions of legislation for current infrastructure spending levels, which do not meet current needs or keep pace with inflation. Josten says increasing spending on infrastructure would reduce costs, accelerate supply chain management, assist Just-in-Time delivery systems, and modernize the American transportation network.
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Buying Into Solar
Public Utilities Fortnightly (12/09) Vol. 147, No. 12, P. 54; Alvarez, Paul; Hodges, Benjamin

Though the opportunity to increase profits would seem enough of an incentive for utilities to adopt solar generation technologies, there are a number of other incentives. Particularly, investment in distributed PV solar systems produces both public relations benefits and job opportunities. "Some utilities are beginning to get the message that solar generation represents a whole new set of market niches in which they can participate," explained Mike Taylor, head of research and education at the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA). "Solar generation will be a small but significant system resource within the timeframe of utilities' current or next resource planning period." More and more utilities investing in solar generating facilities are enhancing existing fossil-fueled plants with concentrated solar power (CSP). One of the largest examples of these is the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center. Owned by Florida Power and Light (FPL), the center couples CSP with a gas-fueled combined-cycle plant. Unlike most regulated utilities who say their solar investments are part of a larger effort to meet statewide renewable energy standards, FPL completed its project absent of renewable energy standard legislation. However, a 2006 law passed by Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida legislature encouraged other utilities to invest in renewable technologies by offering a generous tax credit to subsidize the cost of renewable energy.

NASA Technology to Enhance 'Green' Building's Efficiency
Kansas City infoZine (01/15/10)

NASA is currently working with Integrated Building Solutions Inc. (IBS) to develop a next-generation intelligent, automated, and integrated environmental monitoring and management capability for office buildings and research facilities. More specifically, engineers are hoping to incorporate NASA-developed software systems for health and resource planning into a building environment. The NASA technologies were initially developed for such things as aircraft control systems and mission planning for the two Mars rovers. Now, a suite of these software tools is being integrated with IBS's Intelligent Building Interface System, which provides centralized management, monitoring, automation, and analysis of building systems in an intuitive, browser-based console. The resulting building-control system will be able to interpret data from sensors, then merge this information with occupancy calendars and even area weather forecasts. The technology further calls for multiple sensors to be deployed throughout buildings that will monitor everything from power demand and air temperature to light levels and water consumption. The system will be programmed to "learn" about the building's dynamics, taking into account the human component. As a result, it will continuously evolve to produce better operational outcomes based on identified connections, consequences and trends. Dougal Maclise, lead engineer for the Integrated Systems Health Management Technology Maturation Group at NASA Ames, states, "It then will use this information to plan and implement a control strategy to maintain the comfort of the occupants, while minimizing energy consumption and its carbon footprint."
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