Stimulus Funding Moves Infrastructure Eff orts Forward

Money will be used in Texas and Oklahoma to accelerate hazardous waste clean-up; EPA also provides funding for clean-water efforts in Oklahoma; also, high-speed rail routes proposed in Texas.

High Speed Rail in Texas? Stimulus Funding May Prove the Lure

A federally funded effort to give traction to high-speed rail in Texas may be moving ahead as President Obama recently introduced a plan to build a nationwide high-speed rail system, with two routes in Texas.

An increased focus on passenger rail in Texas, such as the Trinity Railway Express, or TRE, (shown), which services Dallas and Fort Worth, may come about as a result of ARRA funds.

The plan would tap $8 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as well as $5 billion from the federal budget over the next five years. The Federal Railroad Administration plans to award its first round of grants this summer.

The first round of funding would focus on ready-to-go projects, and a second round would call for comprehensive proposals that encompass entire corridors or significant sections. Additional grants would provide start-up funding to plan corridors that are not ready for construction.

The proposed corridors crossing Texas include the South Central Corridor, which would link Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Texarkana, Oklahoma City and Tulsa; and the Gulf Coast Corridor connecting Houston with New Orleans, Mobile, Ala., and other cities in the Southeast.

With the demise of the Trans-Texas Corridor as it was known, the TxDOT super-highway “vision” touted by Gov. Rick Perry to help ease congestion, high-speed rail is another option. While residents were not on board for the land grab associated with the TTC, the rail may be different.

“I would expect protests from people that are concerned about the noise a high-speed train generates. If memory serves, on the order of 150-plus decibels,” Dr. Terry Clower, associate director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas, told Texas Construction. Clower says the needed land would not be nearly as large with high-speed rail as with the TTC. He adds, however, that there would certainly be construction impacts associated with building the rail infrastructure, as well as ongoing operating impacts.

Clower doesn’t anticipate high-speed rail in Texas would carry enough people to have a meaningful impact on traffic congestion.

“You get more convenient travel through avoidance of congestion as a road user moves into and out of the urban boundaries,” he says. “Once at the station, the traveler is potentially back on the roadway, unless you have a well-developed transit system that connects with the intercity rail--think London.”

The Texas Legislature at press time was considering several bills that would position the state to access the federal funds. One would create a government corporation to develop and seek funding for a high-speed rail system for Texas. Another would offer tax breaks for private rail builders, and an additional bill would create a rail division at the Texas Department of Transportation to increase focus on passenger rail.

ARRA Provides Superfund Money to Texas, Oklahoma

More than $25 million in new funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be used to accelerate the hazardous waste clean-up under way at the Tar Creek Superfund site in Ottawa County, Okla.

Another $5 million to $10 million in new funding was allocated to the Garland Creosoting Superfund site in Longview to accelerate the hazardous waste clean-up already under way.

The funding is part of the $600 million that Congress appropriated to the Federal Superfund remedial program. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has worked with federal, state and tribal partners at an unprecedented level of cooperation for more than two decades to clean up the Tar Creek site.

ARRA funding will accelerate the relocation of residents living at the superfund site in Ottawa County. The investment will accelerate cleanup by making possible the removal and consolidation of smaller chat piles.

The funding in Longview will allow cleanup to begin early this summer. The Sabine River and other waterways will be protected from toxic chemicals seeping through the soil and groundwater when the cleanup is completed. Contaminated soil will be excavated and placed into new protective onsite landfill. Contaminated groundwater will be extracted and treated using an on-site water treatment system.

The federal Superfund program was created in 1980 to clean up uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Superfund cleanups offer major construction projects that employ thousands of workers nationwide.

$98 Million of Stimulus Funds Allocated for Houston Ship Channel

Port of Houston Authority officials applauded efforts of a bipartisan Texas Congressional Delegation, led by U.S. Rep Gene Green (D-TX), which resulted in the designation of $98.3 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to a waterways project.

Shown, Houston’s Bayport Container Terminal in the Houston Ship Channel. The Port of Houston Authority allocated nearly $100 million in stimulus funds for new waterways projects at the port.

The stimulus funding is one of the largest-ever single allocation of federal funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct, operate and maintain the infrastructure projects at the Houston Ship Channel.

The funding will be applied to major maintenance, operations and environmental projects associated with the 53-mi-long ship channel, which serves the Port of Houston - the nation’s largest port in terms of foreign waterborne tonnage and second largest in terms of total tonnage.

The funding will provide additional construction and dredged material placement capacity to avoid the increased cost of transporting dredge material to distant sites. PHA hopes to secure the remaining $140 million needed through increased appropriations for fiscal year 2010 and 2011.

KBR Awarded Contract by Progress Energy Carolinas Inc.

BE&K Construction Co., a division of Houston-based KBR’s services business unit, was awarded a power contract by Progress Energy Carolinas Inc. to provide construction services for a new natural gas-fired combined-cycle unit at the Richmond County Energy Complex located near Hamlet, N.C.

BE&K will provide general construction services including installation of foundations, power generation and auxiliary equipment, piping, electrical, instrumentation, control and related systems. Work began in April.

EPA Awards $32 Million to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board

In a move that stands to create jobs, boost local economies, improve aging water infrastructure and protect human health and the environment for the people in the state of Oklahoma, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded more than $31.6 million to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

The infusion of money provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will help the state and local governments finance many overdue improvements to wastewater projects.

The Recovery Act funds will go to the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund program. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund program provides low-interest loans for water-quality-protection projects for wastewater treatment, non-point source pollution control and watershed and estuary management.

The EPA also awarded $1.73 million to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality to be used to support clean-diesel projects and loan programs,

The funds will go to the state’s clean-diesel school bus program and be used for engine replacements and retrofits on school buses in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

TxDOT Receives 2009 Texas Environmental Excellence Award

The Texas Department of Transportation won the state’s highest environmental award, the 2009 Texas Environmental Excellence Award, in recognition of the department’s overall environmental efforts. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality sponsors the awards. TxDOT won in the government category.

Honorees are selected by environmental experts from public and private industry. Individuals, businesses and organizations that have created successful programs that conserve natural resources, reduce waste and prevent pollution are eligible for the honor.

A number of TxDOT environmental initiatives were recognized including: Drive Clean Across Texas; Clean Air Plan; Recycling Program; Compost Program; Alternative Fuels Program; TxDOT Bat Program; Wildflower Program; and Don’t Mess With Texas.

PHA Commission Approves $4.5 Million for Terminal Projects

The Port of Houston Authority port commission approved approximately $4.5 million for a variety of projects at Bayport Container Terminal and Turning Basin Terminal projects including a construction contract awarded to Houston-based Forde Construction Co. Inc. for a dust suppression system at Industrial Park East at the Turning Basin Terminal for $600,000; and a professional services contract for $2.3 million awarded to Raba-Kistner Consultants Inc. of Houston for materials testing and management of the container yard, marine gate and advanced dredging construction at Bayport Container Terminal.

Fluor Forms Wind Farm Consortium; Awarded Canadian Contract

Fluor Limited, the UK operating arm of Irving-based Fluor Corp., has formed Seagreen Wind Energy Ltd. with Airtricity, the renewable energy division of Scottish and Southern Energy. Seagreen Wind Energy has bid for the exclusive rights to develop wind farms under The Crown Estate’s Round 3 Offshore Wind Farm Development Programme.

Fluor and Airtricity developed the 500 MW Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Suffolk, currently the world’s largest offshore wind farm under construction. It is on schedule for completion in 2011. Airtricity and Fluor have received an exclusive development agreement from The Crown Estate for the Bell Rock Offshore Wind Farm located within Scottish Territorial Waters.

Fluor was also awarded front-end engineering for CO2 capture for the SaskPower Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Sequestration Demonstration project in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. The contract value for the first quarter award was not disclosed. If the project proceeds as planned, it would be the first commercial-scale carbon capture system used on a coal-fired power plant in North America.