NATIONAL NEWS
Streets Blog: First Impressions of Obama’s Big Infrastructure Announcement
http://streetsblog.net/2010/09/07/first-impressions-of-obamas-big-infras...
President Obama gave the first outlines yesterday of a $50 billion plan for new infrastructure investment, which would provide funds for the expansion of high-speed rail and local transit systems, road construction and repair, and runway upgrades at airports. A centerpiece of the proposal is the creation of a national infrastructure bank, which would pool public and private funds to finance transportation projects.
Streets Blog: Report: Investing in Transit Could Create 180,000 Jobs, for Free
http://www.streetsblog.org/2010/09/03/new-report-investing-in-transit-co...
Between calls for renewed stimulus on the one hand and for deficit reduction on the other, Washington, D.C. is stuck. A new report by the Transportation Equity Network, however, shows one easy way to put people back to work without increasing federal spending: shifting our transportation investment to transit.
The New York Times: U.S. Plays Catch-Up on High-Speed Rail
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/business/energy-environment/06green.ht...
Spanish trains whisk passengers from Madrid to Barcelona in little more than two and one-half hours. Japan has bullet trains. China is building a vast network of high-speed rail routes, including the recently opened line between Guangzhou and Wuhan, which covers 1,070 kilometers at the world’s fastest average speed.
STATE NEWS
The Times Tribune: Transit funding to get $300M
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/transit-funding-to-get-300m-1.996479
Mass transit systems would receive one-third of the $1 billion in new funding proposed by Gov. Ed Rendell to shore up an increasingly burdened transportation network.
The New York Post: $timulus fails to get the 'job' done in city
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/timulus_fails_to_get_the_job_done_tq7...
Major city infrastructure projects undertaken as part of the federal stimulus package have yet to generate even a fraction of the thousands of promised jobs, a Post analysis has found. Meanwhile, about $4.7 billion of the $7.3 billion in stimulus money has been earmarked for "budget relief" -- feeding the city's own payroll and allowing it to continue to fund entitlement programs, such as food stamps.
Finance & Commerce: New book digs into I-35W collapse, and why we should be nervous
http://finance-commerce.com/2010/09/new-book-digs-into-i-35w-collapse-an...
Barry B. LePatner’s soon-to-be-published book belongs in the horror genre. The title, “Too Big to Fall: America’s Failing Infrastructure and the Way Forward,” isn’t exactly horror-inducing, but what it tells us is: Some 7,980 bridges are considered as perilous as the I-35W bridge was before it collapsed Aug. 1, 2007, killing 13 and injuring 145.