![]() The Trump Administration is calling for a streamlining of the environmental review process as implemented under the National Environmental Policy Act. In announcing what is being described as the most sweeping proposal in decades to reduce permitting timelines, the President said, “Many of America’s most critical infrastructure projects have been tied up and bogged down by an outrageously slow and burdensome federal review process.” Trump added of the current process: “It takes 20 years. It takes 30 years. It takes numbers that nobody would even believe.” The White House proposal will not only shorten the amount of time in which a project can be reviewed specific to its impact on the environment, it will also reduce the number of federal agencies involved in that reviewing process. Experts agree that the proposed changes will have the most notable impact on road, highway, and energy projects. “This is a really, really big proposal,” said Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt in a statement, adding that it will impact “virtually every significant decision made by the federal government that affects the environment.” The President said he wants to reduce the timeline for process reviews to two years or less, a proposal that has won the support of the Associated General Contractors of America. In a statement, Stephen Sandherr, chief executive officer of the AGC, said the current review process “long ago stopped being about evaluating the environmental impacts of a proposed project and has become a way for special interest groups to further their agenda by holding needed infrastructure and development projects hostage to countless lawsuits and delays.” The proposal has met with the opposition of environmental groups. Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, called it “one of the most egregious actions the Trump administration has taken to limit the federal government’s response to climate change yet.” Christy Goldfuss, senior vice-president at the Center for American Progress, told the HuffPost that the “purpose of rewriting these regulations is to build new pipelines and more fossil fuel infrastructure.” Goldfuss added: “This is about building towards the past and sticking our head in the sand about the impacts of dirty fossil fuels.” The administration’s proposed review changes have now been published in the Federal Register and are subject to a 60-day period of public comment. By Garry Boulard
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![]() A historic south Denver high school that has been closed since 2005 may be renovated and upgraded, to be used once again as a school. According to published reports, a private organization has contacted the Denver Public Schools making an offer on the building, which is located at 2330 South Sherman Street. District officials have for several years been talking about what to do with the former Rosedale Elementary School which sits on a 40-acre site, with ideas ranging from selling or leasing the building to reopening it as a public school. In 2017 a move was made to reconvert the 12-classroom building into affordable housing for teachers, but that idea was ultimately discarded after area residents expressed opposition. An earlier architectural assessment of the building commissioned by Denver Public Schools determined that it would take at least $8 million to bring the structure up to code. Built in 1924, the Victorian Gothic building was designed by famed Colorado architect Jacques Benedict. It is expected that members of the Denver Public Schools’ board of education will take up the issue of what to do with the structure, as well as how to respond to the recent bid to purchase it, sometime next month. By Garry Boulard ![]() More than 15 years in the planning stage, work is expected to be completed this year on a 5-mile alternate car and truck route that will pull traffic away from downtown Aztec, New Mexico. Because heavy truck traffic slicing through the downtown area has over the years damaged the foundation of many older and historic commercial structures, city officials have long pushed for the construction of an alternative route of travel that would avoid that area altogether. City officials have also argued that the new route will enhance pedestrian safety on Main Street and other connecting streets downtown. Two sections of the East Aztec Arterial Route have already been constructed. The last phase of the project will connect those sections. That connection will cover roughly three miles on U.S. Route 550 going south from the Navajo Dam Road to Pepsi Way, which leads to the Pepsi Bottling Group facility. Last year Aztec received some $3.1 million in capital outlay funding approved by the New Mexico State Legislature to complete the project. By Garry Boulard ![]() More women than men are now participating in the U.S. labor market, with their numbers significantly increasing in the construction, hospitality, and healthcare industries. So reports the Department of Labor in its latest jobs numbers, noting that in December women overall held 50.04 percent of the nation’s jobs, an advantage of more than 109,000 paid positions nationally over men. The larger employment picture for the last month of 2019 showed the creation of 145,000 new jobs, adding to what is now a solid decade of employment growth. That ongoing growth, notes the Wall Street Journal, comprises the “longest stretch in 80 years of record keeping.” New healthcare jobs for all of 2019 were in excess of half a million, with the hospitality industry adding 284,000 new jobs. New construction jobs were smaller, but at around 170,000, still strong. Smaller gains of 75,000 and 62,000 were posted respectively in the manufacturing and transportation industries. The growing number of women workers in construction jobs comes as the industry has increasingly reached out to them to fill a record high number of vacancies. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released last year, the total percentage of women in the nation’s construction industry is now at around 10 percent. While women carpenters and electricians makeup less than 4 percent of those professions, they comprise around 8 percent in the construction management sector, and 14 percent of the nation’s building inspectors. By Garry Boulard ![]() A big waste water processing facility in El Paso that serves the northwest and western side of the city is on the verge of a comprehensive rehabilitation. Located at 701 Executive Center Boulevard in northwest El Paso, the John T. Hickerson Water Reclamation Facility, opened in 1987, currently treats waste water flows of up to 17.5 million gallons per day. Owned by utility company El Paso Water, the facility receives waste water from both residential as well as industrial points of origin. Upon processing, what becomes reclaimed water is then delivered to a number of parks and schools in west El Paso, as well as the 18-hole Coronado Country Club Golf Course. Now El Paso Water has issued a Request for Proposals to complete the rehabilitation of what was formerly called the Northwest Water Treatment Plant using a design-build delivery method. The work will include building a temporary bypass structure and pipeline at the facility’s splitter box, as well as replacing the existing HVAC system at the blow and waste activated sludge buildings. Additional project work will see the installation of a new emergency generator, and the replacement of return activated sludge and waste activated sump pumps, fittings, and control equipment. Also to be replaced: diffused aeration grids and flow control valves. The facility, named in honor of long-time engineer and El Paso Water director John T. Hickerson, underwent an extensive upgrade in the mid-1990s. Five years ago, a new 1.5 million gallon reclaimed water storage tank was installed at the site. Submission deadline for the RFP is January 31. By Garry Boulard ![]() A more than 16-mile long conveyor belt system to be used to haul sand for hydraulic fracturing may be soon built near Loving, New Mexico. The system will belong to the Austin-based Atlas Sand Company, the largest frack sand reserve holder in Western Texas, and will be designed to haul sand from an offloading facility in Loving County, Texas to a loadout facility measuring some 140 acres outside of Loving. To get the project underway, Atlas Sand has applied to the Bureau of Land Management for a 70-foot-wide permanent right of way. If built, the conveyor system would greatly reduce the use of trucks that are normally employed to haul the sand. In response, the Bureau of Land Management’s Carlsbad Field Office will be conducting a public scoping process designed to solicit input on the proposed project. A press release from the BLM notes that the project would utilize existing roads wherever possible to access the right of way: “Temporary workspace areas located outside of the permanent right of way are needed during construction for material handling, temporary storage and project staging activities.” The public scoping period will expire on February 4. By Garry Boulard ![]() Counties across the country that voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election have seen an increase in single-family building permits since that election, according to a just released financial analysis. Conversely, counties that tended to support Hillary Clinton have experienced an 8.5 percent decrease since the 2016 election, say the report published by the New York-based global financial services firm BTIG. The statistics are even more noticeable in counties one or the other candidate carried in a landslide. In Trump landslide counties, home building permits have been up by 11 percent, while permits have dropped by 9 percent in Clinton landslide counties. If current trends continue, says the report, One House, Two House, Red House Blue House, a Republican presidential victory could lead to continued homebuilding growth in rural and exurban counties, while a Democrat presidential victory may see a significant increase in more urban-oriented counties. “It’s feasible that change in admission might benefit trailing blue county housing dynamics,” notes the report, “while the re-election of President Trump could continue to propel red county outperformance.” The report, authored by homebuilding analyst Carl E. Reichardt, Jr., suggests that a difference in basic economic trends between Trump and Clinton counties may be one of the primary reasons for the homebuilding contrasts. Trump rural counties, have benefitted in recent years from the “gradual shifts in housing activity to less expensive, more outlying regions in which the voting populations tends to be more conservative.” “California, a heavily blue state, as well as parts of the Northeast have seen weaker construction data in part due to the high cost of housing, and heavier levels of domestic out-migration,” continues the report. Whichever party wins the White House in November, the report adds, the election campaign itself as it heads into the fall months will likely prove a particular downer on home buying. The report notes that over the course of the last 14 presidential elections going back to 1964, home buying has dropped by an average of 15 percent between the October and November of an election year. “This may indicate that potential homebuyers may become more cautious in the face of national election uncertainty,” says the report, adding that such caution has almost always proven to be of a temporary nature. By Garry Boulard ![]() Work is expected to begin later this year on the building of a new downtown Colorado Springs outpatient clinic that will be a part of the growing Children’s Hospital Colorado. The new clinic is part of a larger $20 million in facility expansions and new construction by Children’s Hospital which also includes building more than 40 new rooms on its campus at 4125 Briargate Parkway. The new downtown Children’s Hospital clinic will measure around 8,500 square feet and will be built at 421 S. Tejon Street. The clinic will provide a variety of services from cardiology and orthopedics, to neurology and diagnostic imaging. An additional Children’s Hospital project will see the building a 25,000 square foot clinic offering pediatric developmental and behavioral health services at 2375 Telstar Drive in north Colorado Springs. Responding to a rapidly increasing demand, Children’s Hospital opened a 294,000 square foot all-purpose hospital last spring on the north campus of the UC Health Memorial Hospital. Based in Aurora, the non-profit Children’s Hospital Colorado saw revenues of more than $91 million in the first three months of last year. It was also recognized last year by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top children’s hospitals in the nation. By Garry Boulard ![]() In an effort to further enhance the appeal of an entertainment district created some six years ago by the City of Peoria, plans are now underway for the new mixed-use development of a defined section inside the popular district. A Request for Proposals has been issued to develop what could become 1 million square feet of commercial space described as being both world class and sustainable. The RFP is specifically looking for a master developer to transform some 17 acres owned by the city into a mostly vertical project that will include Class A office space, a full service hotel, multi-family residential, and public space. The new development will go up within the boundaries of the P83 Entertainment District at the intersection of Bell Road and Loop 101. The larger district is the home to an 18-screen movie theater, ice-skating rink, and dozens of restaurants and stores. What is being called Stadium Point @ P83, according to an information packet produced by the City of Peoria, is the “result of the city’s aggressive steps forward to achieve our economic development goals.” The document continues: “We have invested significant financial resources to create the first true Class A office complex in the West Valley of the Greater Phoenix area in order to attract innovative and growing companies.” The submission deadline for the RFP is January 22. By Garry Boulard ![]() A new report issued by the U.S. Conference of Mayors is calling for stepped-up federal investment for a variety of urban initiatives, including street, roads and bridge upgrading, as well as public housing construction. In its Mayors’ Vision for America: A 2020 Call to Action, the group notes that 86 percent of the nation’s population today lives in metro areas, with forecasts predicting additional growth in the future. “Our cities are ground zero in terms of the nation’s congestion, traffic safety, economic mobility, and transportation sustainability challenges,” says the report. For that reason, a greater federal investment in urban transportation infrastructure is needed to “make the lives of all Americans better, not just those living in cities, but those who work in them and the communities that surround them as well.” The Conference report specifically urges Congress to shore up the National Highway Trust Fund so that Washington can “continue to partner with city, county, and state leaders as they work to maintain and expand the nation’s vital transportation networks.” The group is also pushing for an increase in funding for the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program which it says “supports mayors and other officials in their regions who show how locally-initiated transportation solutions grow the economy faster and deliver more travel options.” In the area of housing, the Conference report calls for a funding increase in the Community Development Block Grant program, which, it says, “has not kept pace with need over the last several years.” Another housing priority is the Home Investment Partnership Program, which the report notes has completed “nearly 493,000 units for new homebuyers, over 230,000 units for owner-occupied rehabilitation, and over 464,000 rental housing units.” By Garry Boulard |
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