Archinect - News

Department of Transportation commits $5B to repair significant large bridges across the U.S.

2024-07-25T19:53:00-04:00

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that more than $5 billion in grant awards will be used to repair or replace nationally significant large bridges across the United States.

The money is being delivered via Large Bridge Project awards through the Federal Highway Administration’s Bridge Investment Program, which was established by the Biden Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The program has set out to invest $40 billion over four years towards the reinforcement of the country’s bridges.

The grants will support the reconstruction, repair, and restoration of 13 bridges, which are viewed as being critical economic drivers, in 16 states. The projects will also address important safety issues, making the bridges more resilient to extreme weather conditions.

Previously on Archinect: 36% of all U.S. bridges are structurally deficient, study finds

The grants were available to bridges with total eligible project costs over $100 million, with minimum grant awards bein...

New York City's congestion pricing program receives federal approval

2023-06-27T13:58:00-04:00

Congestion pricing in New York City has cleared its final federal hurdle, officials said on Monday, all but ensuring that the first such program in the nation will begin next year with the aim of reducing traffic and pollution in Manhattan and funding improvements to mass transit.

Following the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of the program, a local panel appointed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will now work to determine final toll rates, including any discounts or exemptions.

A report released by the MTA last August revealed one proposal that would charge $23 for a trip during rush hour into Midtown Manhattan and $17 during off-peak hours. Initially approved by the New York State legislature in 2019, the program is expected to generate $1 billion per year for the MTA. This revenue will be directed toward improving New York City’s public transit network. The Authority says the program could potentially start in spring 2024.

Previously on Archinect: Congestion pricing in New York City set to become a reality by the end of 2023

As reported by The New York Times, opponents of the plan include the likes of taxi drivers and ride-share companies who believe the new tolls will cut demand for their services. In addition, some New Jersey...

All EV charging state plans approved by the Federal Highway Administration

2022-09-28T17:19:00-04:00

The Federal Highway Administration just approved all 50 state plans, in addition to Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, to build EV charging stations along America’s approximately 53,000-mile interstate highway network as part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program, which will release a total of $1.5 billion of funding over the next two fiscal years.

NEVI is a portion of the larger $5 billion EV provision in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 and will establish much-needed charging stations per every 50-mile stretch of the system, making them (almost) as easy to find as gas stations for the first time since debuting on the American market, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“Thanks to the commitment of state leaders who worked hard to develop EV charging networks that work for their residents, we were able to approve these state charging plans quickly and ahead of schedule,” Acting Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack...

Is Texas ready to stop building highways?

2020-01-20T16:08:00-05:00

“The bottom line is this: The way people get around, the way people live is going to change,” [Texas Governor Greg] Abbott said, according to the Rivard Report. “As a result, this generation of roads that [Texas Transportation Commission Chairman] Bruce Bugg is in charge of building is probably the last major buildout of roads we’ll have in the state of Texas, even considering the fact that Texas is the fastest-growing state in America.”

Might Texas finally end its long-running love affair with highway infrastructure? According to the state's Governor, Greg Abbot, it's a possibility.

In a recent speech, Abbot, who is a Republican, expressed doubt that the state's current transportation regime can last much longer as the desire for urban living, housing affordability, and other factors counterbalance the practicality of the seemingly limitless highway networks currently in operation there.

But don't mistake the prediction as an intention to support the development of mass transit infrastructure. Instead of busways and rail lines, which the governor thinks should be funded locally, Abbot envisions flying cars as a potential transportation solution for the state's future growth.

Clinton's keynote, Boston's Olympics, and California's bullet train groundbreaking: Weekly News Round-Up for January 5, 2015

2015-01-12T15:33:00-05:00

Friday, January 9:

Boston wins U.S. Olympic Committee's bid for 2024 Games: Beating out Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC, Boston's Olympic campaign estimates it can finance the Games with $4.5B in private funds and $5B or so in publicly-funded infrastructural projects.

Thursday, January 8:

Archinect Sessions is back with Episode 11, "Another year, Another Architecture", with the multi-talented Mitch McEwen: Mitch talks opportunity and collaboration in Detroit, and opines on architecture's shifting professional identity.
Five firms shortlisted for Mackintosh Library renovation after devastating fire: Glasgow School of Art will choose between Avanti Architects, John McAslan + Partners, LDN Architects LLP, Page \ Park Architects and Purcell by the end of March 2015.

Wednesday, January 7:

Driving in the US is coming to a standstill, and that's a good thing: The Federal Highway Administration released a report anticipating no-change in driving per capita, which means less money al...

Driving in the US is coming to a standstill, and that's a good thing

2015-01-07T13:49:00-05:00

The Federal Highway Administration has very quietly acknowledged that the driving boom is over. [...] the agency’s more recent forecast finally recognizes that the protracted post-World War II era has given way to a different paradigm. The new vision of the future suggests that driving per capita will essentially remain flat in the future. The benchmark is important because excessively high estimates of future driving volume get used to justify wasteful spending on new and wider highways.