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® March 23 2025 Vol. XXVI • No. 6
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215-885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com
Inside
Booming Port Biz Spurs Major Upgrades By Irwin Rapoport CEG CORRESPONDENT
CDOT I-70 Floyd Hill Job Reaches Milestone..12
OKC Approves Contract for Thunder Arena...14
WOA Offers Workforce Planning Tips for Asphalt Industry Success...46
The first phase of the Port of Galveston’s estimated $90 million expansion and improvement of its West Port Cargo Complex began in 2024 when crews from Texas Gulf Construction Co. Inc. (TGC) and Orion Marine Services started to enclose and fill a slip at Pier 38/39. Grant Mackay Demolition Co. also is working there, handling the demolition of a grain elevator. The Galveston Wharves board of trustees approved a $29.9 million construction contract on April 23, 2024. The port is funding the project with cash reserves, largely generated from cruise operations, according to Galveston Wharves Port Director and CEO Rodger Rees. This work will be funded with a $36 million state grant and $14.1 million in port reserves. When all the work is done, the port will have a new 1,426-ft.-long berth from Pier 38/39 to Pier 40/41. All work should be completed in 2026. Future phases will include paving and other improvements. Victor Pierson, Galveston Wharves board of trustees chairman, is pleased the project is under way. “This is the first time in decades that the port has made an investment of this size in our docks,” he said. “It demonstrates our commitment to a diversified revenue stream and to jobs growth by executing our 20-year Strategic Master Plan.”
Volvo excavators take bites out of concrete grain elevators being demolished at the Port of Galveston.
see PORT page 64
Feds Put IIJA Under the Microscope Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Paving, Compaction & Milling Section . . . . . . .31-53
Senate Public Works Committee Already Preparing for Next Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill in ’26 In late February, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee launched a review of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) with a goal of identifying both successes and shortcomings of in the 2021 bipartisan law’s surface transportation policy. The committee is focused on one of the IIJA’s “foundational components,” the next Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill. Its current provisions are set to expire in 2026.
By Lucy Perry Auction Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70-77 Business Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
CEG CORRESPONDENT
see IIJA page 30
Adobe Stock photo