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Published Nationally
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® October 1 2011 Vol. XVIII • No. 20
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Inside
Congress Opts for Road Bill Extension By Pete Sigmund CEG EDITORIAL CONSULTANT
Patten Industries Holds Customer Event...10
The Black Hawk Bridge functioned as a toll structure until flooding washed out some of the approach spans over the Wisconsin bottoms in 1945.
AGC of Minn. Hosts Clay Shooting Fundraiser...14
Some TLC Keeps Historic Iowa Bridge Strong By Jennifer Rupp CEG CORRESPONDENT
Cont racto r Inst all s Tank i n Tigh t Spot. .. 18
Table of Contents ................4 Mini & Compact Equipment Section..........................31-45 Snow & Ice Section ....49-57 Parts Section ....................58 Paving Section ............67-76 Auction Section .................... ............................Starts at 81 Business Calendar ............86 Advertisers Index ..............90
The Black Hawk Bridge in the small town of Lansing, Iowa got some recent attention when an 8-in. (20.3 cm) crack was discovered in the floor beam during a routine inspection.
The inspection took place during the morning of Aug. 17. By the afternoon, the bridge was closed to all traffic and the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) bridge crews were called in, along with consultant firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. (WJE). WJE is see BRIDGE page 23
Dwindling Funds Mean Quick Fixes for Mich. Roads By Corey Williams ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT (AP) Road work in Michigan has become more about quick fixes than long-term repairs as the state balances the scope of construction projects with the dwindling funds necessary to carry them out. Beginning Oct. 1 and stretching into the 2015 fiscal year, state transportation officials expect a reduction of more than $700 million annually in highway program funds due to a drop in state revenue and predictions that Michigan will not see FUNDS page 66
Legendary pitcher Satchel Paige once said: “Don’t look back. Something may be gaining on you.” For the construction industry, that something is many billions of dollars in overdue long-term highway, bridge and transit funding. Congress has passed, and President Obama has signed into law, a stopgap six-month extension of current highway and transit funding. The legislative body, however, is over two years behind in reauthorizing a critically needed full sixyear highway and surface transportation bill — representing many billions of dollars in transportation projects — to replace the $286-billion SAFETEA-LU act, which expired Sept. 30, 2009. The six-month extension, through March 2012, provides $20 billion for the critical projects, meeting a Sept. 30 deadline, when the last of seven funding extensions of the former law expired. But the multi-year funding, which contractors desperately require for purchasing and planning, remains a huge unanswered need. Congress also has reauthorized, also for six months, the federal gasoline tax, which supports the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), the main federal funding source for highway and bridge construction. This tax, last authorized in 2005, was also to expire on Sept. 30. Without it, highway, bridge and surface transportation work would have been largely unfunded, with much halt, and more construction jobs lost. “The House and Senate leadership recognized that allowing transportation programs to shut down would be disastrous,” commented Brian Turmail, senior director of public affairs of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) in Arlington, Va. The Senate sent President Obama the funding bill (HR 2887) on Sept. 15, by a vote of 92-6. President Obama signed it into law on Sept. 16. The House also had overwhelmingly passed the extension, with only six voting no. (Obama also signed into law a four-month $5.4-billion extension of funding for federal aviation programs, which would have otherwise shut down in a few days.) “The transportation funding extension allows time to see what the debt ceiling supercommittee will recommend,” Turmail said. “One good thing is that both houses seem to agree on the types of regulatory reforms which are needed.” Christian Klein, vice president of government affairs in Washington, DC, of the Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) said the extension “averted a catastrophe, with no funding,” adding: “Obviously there was a strong bipartisan see HIGHWAY page 30