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May 28, 2017 • Vol. IX • No. 11 • 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215/885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910
Inside
ART Project Speeds Ahead on Old Route 66 By Chuck Harvey CEG CORRESPONDENT
Ditch W itch of Arizona Reaches Milestone…8
Fir m Adopts Pitbull to Help W ith Aggre gates…33
A $119 million Albuquerque Rapid Transit (ART) project will culminate with an 8.8-mi. electric-powered bus line with 20 stations on Central Avenue, formerly a portion of Route 66 that runs through New Mexico’s largest city. The project is under way and the new rapid transit system is expected to open in fall of this year. The city of Albuquerque and existing bus system ABQ RIDE, operator of Rapid Ride, are heading up the project, which also includes major upgrades to the streetscape and roadway including creation of bus-only lanes. Along with transit, ART will provide a walk-friendly corridor to connect neighborhoods, job centers, schools, entertainment venues and public spaces. Urbanabq.com photo The ART system will feature 18 buses 60 ft. The project is under way and the new in length. rapid transit system is expected to open in Most of the money for the project is from fed- fall of this year. eral sources including $69 million from the Federal Transit Administration’s Small Starts ART photo Capital Grant Program. Local matching funds Shown at right, the ART bus system will covered the remainder of the cost. bring numerous changes to Central Avenue see TRANSIT page 32
Metso Welcomes PacWest t o Dealer Networ k…40
Table of Contents................ 4 Attachment Section.... 11-13 Truck & Trailer Section........ ...................................... 29-31 Recycling Section........ 33-42 Auction Section.......... 45-51 Business Calendar............ 49 Advertisers Index.............. 50
including canopy-covered bus stations.
Houston Set for $3B Water Supply Pipeline By Dylan Baddour HOUSTON CHRONICLE
HOUSTON (AP) Any Houstonian who’s ever stalled out in a rush-hour gully washer, swatted mosquitoes on a humid summer afternoon or hauled soggy carpet to the curb after a neighborhood flash flood will be forgiven for thinking the supply of water is one thing they needn’t worry about. The Houston Chronicle reports indeed, throughout the city’s first century, the settlers and entrepreneurs who settled here tapped into generous underground stores of water to flood rice fields or run refineries. In 1939, government
scientists reassured residents the local water table should be fine even if average pumpage should reach 50 million gal. daily. But the decades kept passing, the city kept growing and the wells kept multiplying. Officials watched the level of the water underground steadily drop as daily pumpage at times exceeded 450 million gal. Regional aquifers were depleted as millions of people and businesses drilled ever deeper. Subsidence problems were documented, and experts came to recognize the supply could not keep pace with demand. Now, after decades of public meetings and engineering consul-
tations, environmental-impact studies and design proposals, a solution is in the works on a massive scale: a $3 billion, three-part chain of infrastructure projects to carry water more than 40 mi. westward from the Trinity River and provide a lifeline to the northern region and burgeoning suburbs from Spring to Tomball to Katy. The undertaking involves moving water 3 mi. over a ridge and into a 23-mi. canal that will feed Lake Houston. Due to a five-fold expansion of the water treatment plant there, the water will be pumped through 17 mi. of pipe large enough to drive a car through.
The construction and related work should employ about 2,500 people, according to estimates from the city and the builder of the canal. “It’s the biggest water project in the country right now,” said Michael Bloom, a manager at R.G. Miller Engineers. “It’s a worldclass project, really visible if you’re in the water sphere.” Other planners said the local project could be the largest water job under way in the world. It is bigger than any other included in a recent report on infrastructure investment authored by the international engineering firm AECOM see PIPELINE page 24