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Apr 3, 2012 4:32 PM |
The 5 Biggest U.S. Infrastructure Projects Plus 5 at Risk
The 5 Biggest U.S. Infrastructure Projects Plus 5 at Risk
April 2012
By Ryan Holeywell, Daniel Lippman
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The Five That Are Happening
1. Dulles Transit Extension
Washington, D.C., residents often try to avoid flights out of Dulles International Airport, located more than 20 miles from downtown, for good reason. With no Metro rail access, trekking to Dulles often involves a long car ride, an infrequent bus or an expensive taxi. That will soon change, thanks to the biggest expansion in the history of the Metro system. Upon completion, the Silver Line will provide public transportation access from downtown D.C. to Dulles, as well as the Northern Virginia suburbs of Tysons Corner, Herndon, Reston and Ashburn. In addition to connecting the airport to the region’s transit system, the new line should help reduce traffic congestion on the Beltway.....
2. Otay Mesa East
In the San Diego region, there are two border crossings. One is the busiest U.S.-Mexico crossing for personal travelers. The other is the second-busiest crossing for commercial trucks. As a result, vehicles traveling north can find themselves sitting in line for hours to cross. Local economic studies argue that those delays are costing the U.S. billions of dollars each year, with much of that loss concentrated in the San Diego area. To alleviate the bottleneck, state and local officials are planning a third land port in the area. The proposed Otay Mesa East port facility, along with a new 2.5-mile roadway connecting it to the highway system, could cost as much as $715 million.....
3. O’Hare Modernization
More than 65 million passengers pass through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport each year, and those travelers have experienced their fair share of delays. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, almost a quarter of the flights both in and out of the nation’s second busiest airport weren’t on time. As O’Hare traffic grew during the 1970s and 1980s, the airport’s capacity couldn’t keep up. But now a major modernization project is increasing the facility’s efficiency and capacity, helping to reduce flight delays. In 2008, O’Hare finished a new runway, extended another and built a new air traffic control tower. The Chicago Department of Aviation hopes to complete two more runways in 2013 and 2016.....
4. Crescent Corridor Expansion
The existing system for moving most goods across the country has long been based on railroads and an array of interstate highways. But increasing congestion on the nation’s roads has sparked renewed interest in intermodal transportation and an increasing role for methods other than trucking. Spurred by interest from freight companies eager to save money on costly long-haul truck routes, railway company Norfolk Southern is working to upgrade the Crescent Corridor, a freight rail network that runs through 13 states and connects New Orleans to New Jersey. A series of projects will lay 300 new miles of track and build or expand intermodal terminals in 11 markets. Construction has already begun on terminals in Memphis, Birmingham, Ala., and two Pennsylvania communities.....
5. Alaskan Way Viaduct
In 2001, seismic experts began considering the possibility of strengthening Seattle’s iconic Alaskan Way Viaduct, a double-decker elevated highway that skirted downtown along Puget Sound. The team’s work was prescient: An earthquake struck in the midst of their study, damaging the structure. Replacing the viaduct turned out to be more cost-effective than repairing it. The effort hasn’t been easy. For nearly a decade, the project has been subject to bitter political debate over whether the elevated road, which effectively cut off downtown Seattle from the waterfront, should be replaced with a tunnel. Mayor Michael McGinn won election in 2009 after campaigning against the tunnel, which he said would be too expensive. Since then, however, the tide has turned. In a 2011 referendum, voters endorsed the tunnel plan, allowing the project to move forward.....
... And The Five in Limbo
1. Columbia River Crossing
This joint Oregon-Washington project, which could cost up to $3.5 billion, would replace the existing Columbia River bridge that connects Portland to the suburb of Vancouver, Wash. Additionally, the project would rebuild a series of highway interchanges around the bridge, extend light rail across the river, improve the existing highway, and build pedestrian and bike paths. Officials say the effort will also improve safety, since there is an average of one collision per day in the project area, nearly double the rate on similar urban highways. It’s viewed as an important investment in the region’s economy, since the more than $40 billion of freight crossing the existing bridge each year is increasingly facing delays due to congestion.....
2. Denver FasTracks
One of the country’s most ambitious transit projects, the FasTracks system will culminate in 122 new miles of commuter and light rail and 18 miles of bus rapid transit service across the Denver area. It’s part of the region’s goal to push transit-oriented development that will reduce sprawl, congestion and pollution. Residents voted in 2004 for a 0.4 percent sales tax to fund the $4.7 billion effort. Then the costs started ballooning. The latest estimate is that the project will cost $7.8 billion to complete by the original 2024 target date. In the last year alone, the cost of one particular commuter line has increased from $894.6 million to $1.7 billion, due largely to stalled negotiations with an existing freight line. Some officials are now discussing whether they could cut costs by turning the rail line into a bus route, even though that’s not what voters originally agreed to.....
3. NextGen
When airplanes are delayed, nobody wins. Airlines lose money. Passengers become inconvenienced. Airports get overwhelmed. That’s why the FAA is touting an effort that it says could reduce delays by 35 percent by 2018. The project, which aviation administrators began planning in 2003, is dubbed NextGen, and proponents say it would revolutionize air travel in this country by switching from radar-based to satellite-based flight-tracking technology. That, along with other technological advances like improved weather forecasting and communication systems, would allow planes to fly more direct routes instead of following the existing, inefficient flight paths that are arranged like highways in the sky. The result: More flights in the air at any given time, fewer delays and less wasted fuel.....
4. California High-Speed Rail
It started off with the kind of heady promise and excitement that prompted comparisons to California’s most iconic infrastructure project, the Golden Gate Bridge. The visionary plan was for 800 miles of high-speed rail lines connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. Riders could whoosh from Southern California to Frisco in an unheard-of two hours and 40 minutes. The train would reduce air pollution and ease congestion on the state’s famously clogged freeways. Construction would create tens of thousands of new jobs. Voters in 2008 approved $9.95 billion in bonds to usher in a new era of transit for the Golden State.....
5. Second Avenue Subway
First proposed in 1929 and more recently dubbed by New York magazine as “the line that time forgot,” the Second Avenue subway line on the East Side of Manhattan has been a perennial wish-list item for the better part of a century. The line would ease overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue line, which currently shuttles 1.3 million people every day, but over the years it’s been repeatedly delayed by economic downturns and political in-fighting. A construction attempt in the 1970s was eventually aborted due to lack of funds. Finally, in April 2007, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) broke ground on the Second Avenue line. The first phase -- a $4.45 billion two-mile section with two new tunnels and three new stations on the Upper East Side -- could be operational by the end of 2016, according to the MTA.....
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