ACEC/CT Update

The 2009 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 21, 2009): The current economic downturn is not sidetracking state-level efforts to make the most of energy efficiency as the cheapest, cleanest and quickest of all energy resources, according to a 50-state scorecard on energy efficiency policies, programs, and practices from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). 

via www.aceee.org

Connecticut ranked third, behind California and Massachusetts. The scorecard examines six state energy efficiency policy areas: (1) utility-sector and public benefits programs and policies; (2) transportation polices; (3) building energy codes; (4) combined heat and power; (5) state government initiatives; and (6) appliance efficiency standards.

Pelosi Refuses to Call New Spending Another Stimulus Package - Roll Call

Pelosi said among the items discussed were a host of extensions to expiring provisions in the earlier stimulus bill including a housing tax credit and unemployment insurance, “an array” of programs offered by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.), a push for more infrastructure spending by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.), and new tax breaks for businesses.

via www.rollcall.com

It appears that Speaker Pelosi may push House Transportation Committee Chair Oberstar's reauthorization bill this session as a stimulus measure.

State High Performance Building Regs

AIA/CT is hosting a meeting on the state's new High Performance Building regulations at 8:30 AM, November 17, 2009 at their offices in New Haven. Representatives from OPM, DPW and the Bureau of School Facilities will be discussing the new state regs that apply to state-funded building projects. Click here for registration form.

Self-Healing Concrete - Forbes.com

America's bridges are falling down. Victor Li says he knows a better way to build them. The civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Michigan has invented a new kind of concrete that hardly ever cracks and, if it does, can repair itself.

via www.forbes.com

Maybe not as much fun as a "bladeless fan" but more applicable to our members.

Cool

All right; this has almost no applicability to most members, but it's nice to know that someone with lots of money and smarts is out there using both to good advantage.

Cost of rail yard plant ‘significantly’ reduced

The low bid for a major piece of the project to upgrade New Haven’s rail yard came in at less than half the estimated cost Wednesday.O&G Industries of Torrington bid $124.79 million to build the component change-out shop, a 293,000-square-foot plant where major repairs will be made to the 300 M8 rail cars that will start rolling next year.An audit by Hill International of the rail yard project estimated this piece to cost $261 million.“I think we did quite well,” said state Transportation Commissioner Joseph F. Marie, who estimated the project will add 100 new jobs at any one time once construction begins next year. “This is significantly lower than what our forecasts were for the job, which is very good news for the state of Connecticut.”Marie said construction would last 3 1/2 years. “We’ve got a great project here that’s going to create jobs in New Haven for a sustained period of time,” he said.The rail yard upgrade, which is required to accommodate the new Metro-North train cars, has been the subject of harsh criticism from state legislators because its overall price tag rose from $300 million to $1.2 billion. Gov. M. Jodi Rell ordered a review of the project, and the state Department of Transportation hired Hill International for $630,000.State Rep. Cameron Staples, D-New Haven, co-chairman of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, said he was pleased the bid came in so low.“That’s obviously very good news for taxpayers. If we can complete the whole project at that percentage of the original project costs that would be very good,” he said.Staples said the Finance and Transportation committees have planned a public hearing on the rail yard project in the next few weeks because of concerns about its rising costs. With the new price of the change-out facility in hand, Staples said, “I think the questions relate to how the consultants could be so far off and whether that’s related to the economy in the last year. It could well be.”Marie said the economy and falling materials prices played a large part in the low bid, but also credited DOT staff. “Our engineers worked very hard to make this a very clear and biddable project,” he said.O&G has done work for the state and city before, including rebuilding Interstate 95 east of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge and the Church Street Extension over the train tracks to Sargent Drive. The company also was called in to complete the I-95 interchange at Sawmill Road in West Haven after the original contractor went out of business.Its bid for the change-out shop came in at $20 million less than the other five bidders, which ranged from a Fusco-Manafort Joint Venture in New Haven, at $147.1 million, to Railroad/Schiavone Joint Venture of Paterson, N.J., at $172.95 million.The change-out facility will have room for 13 cars on three tracks. It is scheduled to be completed by 2012.Rell issued a statement Wednesday calling the bid “very encouraging news. ... But this is only the first step. The New Haven Rail Yard is one of the most ambitious transportation projects we’ve ever undertaken and we owe it to our commuters and our taxpayers to manage it carefully and responsibly.”Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@nhregister.com or 789-5743.

via www.nhregister.com

I don't imagine they will be holding public hearings on why this came in below budget.

Merritt Parkway in Connecticut among 93 at risk sites | Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Merritt Parkway in Connecticut joins a monastery in Bhutan, a church in Chile and a British dockyard among 93 "irreplaceable" sites at risk from vandalism, neglect, conflict or disaster, the World Monuments Fund said on Tuesday.

via www.reuters.com

Kind of makes me want to take I-95.

Congress Passes 30 Day Extension, But...

Click here for AASHTO news release on extension and rescission.

Connecticut Seeks Federal Grants To Renovate Freight Rail System -- Courant.com

Connecticut Seeks Federal Grants To Renovate Freight Rail System -- Courant.com

What if Connecticut got tired of decline? - The Middletown Press : Serving Middletown, CT

Losing a thousand jobs from the closing of Pratt & Whitney’s Cheshire factory and part of its East Hartford plant will be better than saving them temporarily as Gov. M. Jodi Rell proposed: to give the company subsidies worth $100 million over five years, or $20,000 per employee each year.What a strategy and precedent for economic development that would have been — for the government to invite extortion and pay a few big employers just to stick around a little longer. Soon there would have been no end to it.But given state government’s current composition, an administration whose highest goal is to avoid giving offense and a legislature determined only to protect the government class, what the governor proposed probably is the best that state government can think up.Short of an even bigger subsidy, it’s unlikely that much could have been done to avert Pratt & Whitney’s decision.The company is part of United Technologies Corp., a multinational conglomerate that does much business with governments, and such corporations minimize their influence by concentrating operations in one jurisdiction. Compared to its worldwide scope, UTC still may have more employment in Connecticut than is best for the corporation politically. Indeed, for 40 years the great themes of the corporation have been diversification and expansion out of Connecticut.But business and labor costs in Connecticut are far too high, and state government has just responded to the collapsing economy not by reducing government’s drag but by raising business, income, and property taxes, which will increase business and labor costs even more.Economic development was not even on state government’s agenda a few weeks ago as the state budget deadlock was broken by Rell’s capitulation to Democratic demands for higher taxes so that raises might be paid to government employees while care for the poor was reduced.Despite the disaster at Pratt & Whitney, the export of a thousand more jobs, economic development really isn’t on state government’s agenda even now.For state government subscribes to what might be called the Bysiewicz theory of economics, after Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, who the other day told a gathering of public employee union activists, “Our quality of life depends on our vibrant public sector.” While there seems to have been no significant private-sector job growth in Connecticut since enactment of the state income tax in 1991, this has passed without notice in state government.The Pratt & Whitney workers in Cheshire and East Hartford whose jobs are to be shipped out and whose quality of life soon may be less vibrant may discover some flaws in the Bysiewicz theory.Maybe their union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, can save those jobs with a lawsuit alleging violation of a contract provision requiring the company to make “all reasonable efforts” to keep work in Connecticut. Even so, lawsuits are not much of an economic development strategy either.What might be an economic development strategy for the state?It might begin by repudiating the Bysiewicz theory, recognizing instead that necessary as government can be, especially in providing infrastructure, it is always overhead expense as well, manifested in all sorts of taxes. Most of that expense, the cost of government personnel, has been legislated into what are called “fixed costs,” costs whose control is frankly illegal. An economic development strategy would unfix all “fixed costs” in government.While much is heard (though nothing ever done) about state government mandates on municipalities, there are many such mandates on business as well, from medical insurance rules to permit requirements that have nothing to do with workplace safety.If these mandates were ever audited with the intent of encouraging business without endangering workers, many might be repealed.Businesses often complain about Connecticut’s energy costs, the highest in the nation.That is not the natural order of things but the consequence of policy, state government’s refusal to develop a competitive market for electricity and its obstruction of electricity generating plants, power lines, and natural gas pipelines.Connecticut’s elected officials often prattle about the state’s highly educated and skilled work force, but increasingly this is just whistling past the graveyard. Other states and countries may not have as many residents with master’s degrees in English or social work but they may be far smarter just for not subscribing to the Bysiewicz theory of economics.Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.

via www.middletownpress.com

ACEC/CT recently helped form the Connecticut Coalition for Economic Growth which is pulling together all the construction industry organizations to make the state more viable for economic development. It's a big job, but a vital one. We are last in the nation for job growth. We all have seen projects (=jobs for the construction industry and other industries) leave the state because it's easier and cheaper to build elsewhere.