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December 19, 2015 • Vol. IXX • No. 26 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215-885-2910
Inside
Republicans’ Bill to Shift Federal Road Funds
Diamond Equipment Hosts Thanksgiving Open House…10
By Todd Richmond ASSOCIATED PRESS
for the project. “An agreement was made between FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) and NDOR to construct the NW 48th Street Diverging Diamond in a ‘phased’ approach. NW 48th Street will be built with three lanes, but provide the necessary grading and right-
MADISON, Wis. (AP) Republican legislators have created a bill that would shift federal road-building dollars from local work to state projects, a move that would exempt local projects from federal prevailing wage requirements. Sen. Duey Stroebel and Rep. Rob Brooks’ bill would move $47 million in federal funding away from local projects and pour it into state projects such as freeway rehabilitation. The measure would shift a corresponding amount of state dollars away from state projects to cover local work. The measure essentially swaps federal funding for state funding on local projects, Stroebel said in a news release. The move would keep local work from being subject to what he called burdensome federal regulations, increasing efficiency and saving the state money. He made no specific mention of avoiding the prevailing wage, which requires minimum salaries for workers on government-funded construction projects, in the release. If federal dollars leave a project, the federal prevailing wage requirement would go with them, Stroebel acknowledged during a telephone interview with The Associated Press. But he insisted the bill doesn’t specifically target the prevailing wage. The measure is designed to streamline the construction process, he said. “The big savings are all about the regulatory issues,’’ he said. “This is about lowering delivery costs as a whole.’’
see NDOR page 46
see BILL page 74
Crews from the Hawkins Construction Company are hard at work to complete the Nebraska Department of Roads’ (NDOR) diverging diamond interchange (DDI) project in the city of Lincoln (Lancaster County), a $29 million project that began in June 2014 and will be completed in August 2016.
Progressive Structures Succeeds With Rototilt…14
Crews Work to Complete DDI On Time, On Budget By Irwin Rapoport CEG CORRESPONDENT
Ritchie Bros. Conducts Multi-Million Dollar Sale…98
Table of Contents ................4
Crews from the Hawkins Construction Company are hard at work to complete the Nebraska Department of Roads’ (NDOR) diverging diamond interchange (DDI) project in the city of Lincoln (Lancaster
County), a $29 million project that began in June 2014 and will be completed in August 2016. “The 2034 traffic numbers which warrant four lanes for the northwest 48th Street Diverging Diamond design assume a complete build-out of the surrounding land,” according to an NDOR Web page
Snow & Ice Section ......39-44 Mini & Compact Equipment Section ..........................47-72
Obama Signs Infrastructure Spending Bill By Joan Lowy
Paving Section ..............83-93
ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP) A 5-year, $305-billion Auction Section..........97-105 billWASHINGTON to address the nation’s aging and congested transportation systems was signed into law Dec.
Business Calendar ..........103 4 by President Barack Obama, who said it will Advertisers Index ............106
put Americans to work and provide states with the federal help they need to commit to longterm projects.
The bill, which was overwhelmingly approved by Congress a day earlier, provides a modest increase to highway and transit spending but falls short of the $400 billion over six years administration officials said is necessary to keep traffic congestion from worsening. Nor does it resolve how to pay for transportation programs in the long term. Obama said he’ll continue to push for greater transportation spending to meet the nation’s
infrastructure needs and create jobs. “This bill is not perfect, but it is a commonsense compromise, and an important first step in the right direction,” Obama said in a statement. Despite that, the 1,300-page bill was hailed by lawmakers and the industry as a major accomplishment that will halt the cycle of lastminute, short-term fixes that have kept the federal Highway Trust Fund teetering on the edge see OBAMA page 30