Even though revenue from fees collected for the use of the nation’s coastal ports and harbors go into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for infrastructure construction and maintenance, that fund is regularly used instead to help balance the federal budget.
Now lawmakers in Washington, worried that a backlog of water infrastructure projects is only growing, want to see that fund protected and used for its original purpose. In a report submitted to the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, committee chair Garret Graves, noting that there are some 25,000 miles of inland and intercoastal waterways in the U.S., remarked “the average age of our locks is over 60 years old and well beyond their intended life.” Graves’ report additionally noted that there is currently a backlog of more than 1,000 waterway infrastructure projects in the U.S. “totaling approximately $96 billion in need.” Because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a budget of around $6 billion, said Graves, “the simply reality is we will likely never catch up.” Members of subcommittees are now focused not only on demanding that money from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund be used for the nation’s waterways infrastructure, but also identifying alternative financing mechanisms, such as the use of private partnerships for specific infrastructure construction and upgrading projects. Last year, a report issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the condition of the nation’s inland waterways a “D” grade, noting what it called a lack of resources devoted to building, maintaining, and operating water infrastructure projects. By Garry Boulard
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![]() Members of the University of New Mexico’s Board of Regents have been tasked with coming up with a plan for the creation of a center that would be devoted to the care and treatment of patients with Parkinson’s disease. A memorial, which is a legislative tool used by lawmakers usually in response to a petition, first cleared the House Health and Human Services Committee, which noted that while there are over 9,000 people in New Mexico with Parkinson’s, the state has no specialized treatment facilities. The legislation sponsored by Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino stated that there are “access disparities for movement disorders care” in New Mexico, with a minority of patients who can afford it traveling to treatment centers located in Arizona and Colorado. But, the memorial continued, “the average movement disorder patient does not have the ability to obtain care out of state.” House Memorial 8, which has now passed both the full House and Senate, calls upon the University of New Mexico’s Regents to lay out a blueprint for how such a treatment facility could be created at the school. The regents are being particularly asked to create a plan because of the existence of the University of New Mexico Hospital at the school’s main Albuquerque campus. Other similar centers nationally rely upon the services of a teaching hospital. Such a center at UNM would not only offer movement disorders treatment, but could provide training for students pursuing that specialization. It is not yet known whether a proposed movement disorders treatment center at UNM would require the construction of a separate facility, or will be integrated into an existing facility. Legislators have set a deadline of November 1 for the regents to deliver the plan. By Garry Boulard A trust fund set up in rapidly-growing Lafayette, Colorado for the construction of affordable housing may need more money.
That’s the conclusion of city officials who are proposing an increase in local residential development fees to keep the fund viable. Established in late 2015, those fees, at 30 cents per square foot for new home construction, have generated just over $220,000 in revenue. But Lafayette, Boulder County, and Boulder County Housing Authority officials say more money is needed to fund the construction of hoped-for 400 new affordable residential units, with another 100 market-rate units also planned. A new proposal, to be reviewed by the Lafayette City Council, would increase those fees to 60 cents per square foot, with the idea that the city could easily collect nearly $600,000 in revenue in the next two years. With the fees that have been collected so far, the City of Lafayette has purchased some 24 acres for the Boulder County Housing Authority to develop new housing. The purchase price for that land was $3.4 million, of which Lafayette made a down payment of $145,000, with $3.3 million still owed. By Garry Boulard Just months after it said it was launching a program to remodel many of it more than 8,800 stores across the country, the Canton, Massachusetts-based Dunkin’ Donuts company has announced plans to build some 9,000 new locations, starting this year.
By more than doubling its shops, Dunkin’ Donuts would suddenly have a location edge on rival Starbucks, which to date has around 14,000 stores. The new Dunkin’ Donut stores are expected to emphasize, among other things, drive-through features. More details regarding the design and building plans for the new outlets will be released later this month. Launched in 1950, Dunkin’ Donuts currently has more than 12,000 outlets world-wide, with revenues in 2016 of over $828 million. In January, the company introduced what it calls its first Next Generation Concept Store in Quincy, Massachusetts, a 2,200 square foot space with an open layout and emphasis on softer colors and natural lighting. Most Dunkin’ Donut stores measure between 1,200 and 2,600 square feet, with construction costs varying between $50,000 and $250,000. In an effort to attract Millennial Generation coffee-drinkers, Dunkin’ Donuts in recent years has expanded its coffee offerings to include flavored blends, as well as latte and espresso drinks. The chain’s heaviest store concentration has traditionally been in New England and along the East Coast. Industry analysts believe any new Dunkin’ Donuts store expansion effort would have to see more outlet construction in states in the West. By Garry Boulard ![]() Design work could begin later this year on a modern, high-tech operations facility at the Holloman Air Force Base, some 6 miles southwest of Alamogordo, New Mexico. As planned, the MQ-9 Formal Training Unit will house three MQ-9 Attack Squadrons. Those squadrons, in turn, are the official training units for new pilots and sensor operators for the MQ-9 Reaper Remotely Piloted Aircraft. In response to the announcement by the U.S. Air Force green-lighting the design phase of the project, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, in a statement, said that the decision to invest in Holloman is a “reflection of the tremendous community support and the exceptional training environment and expertise that New Mexico has to offer.” Altogether, the project to build the new operations facility, which will also house offices and both academic and maintenance space, is expected to cost around $85 million. Holloman is the home to the largest MQ-9 training unit in the U.S. Air Force, a task it took over from the Creech Air Force Base, some 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, around eight years ago. The Holloman program graduates up to 600 and more pilots and sensor operators every year, training more pilots annually than any other program in the service. By Garry Boulard In a move to dampen speculation that a new multi-purpose arena may not be built, the City of El Paso has reissued solicitations for the project.
Originally approved by the El Paso City Council in the fall of 2016, the proposed stadium has been the subject of endless controversy and litigation, primarily from community activists and residents of the Duranguito neighborhood where the stadium is slated to be built. Last fall. Texas Civil District Court Judge Amy Meachum issued a ruling allowing El Paso to build the stadium as a performing arts facility, but prohibited $180 million in Quality of Life bonds to be used to build the arena for sports because the original bond language did not mention that purpose. In response, the City of El Paso decided to appeal Meachum’s ruling to a three-judge panel in the Third Court of Appeals in Austin. Because of the delay in getting the project off the ground, the original solicitations to build the structure are set to expire. Now El Paso has announced a renewed determination to build what is officially called the Multi-Purpose Performing Arts & Entertainment Center. The renewed solicitations are for a program/operator and architecture/engineering services. In a statement, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said, “In an effort to avoid further delays in the project, we are moving forward with reissuing the solicitations to prepare the City to be able to proceed with the design and construction at the conclusion of the litigation.” Hearings before the Third Court of Appeals on the matter have yet to be scheduled. By Garry Boulard As a lucrative market for self-storage construction, the metro Phoenix area is expected to see the building of more such facilities after a record 2017.
According to the Self-Storage Investment Report, there were exactly 25 new such facilities built in metro Phoenix last year. Altogether, those projects combined for some 2.1 million square feet of facility space. The report, done by Paul Boyle, executive director for the real estate firm of Cushman & Wakefield, says that eight new self-storage facilities were built just between October and December of last year. In addition, there are currently pending another 53 self-storage facility projects in metro Phoenix that are in either the development or planning stage, says the report, which was done for the Arizona Self-Storage Association. Industry experts suggest that one of the reasons for the increase in such facilities in Phoenix is that the city, with a growing economy, continues to attract people from other parts of the country. According to U.S. Census figures, Phoenix’s population jumped from 1.4 million in 2010 to over 1.6 million in 2016. By Garry Boulard ![]() In just two more months, members of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission may give the green light to a fast-moving effort calling for the construction of a new 50-megawatt solar plant, as well as two wind farms varying in capacity from 50 megawatts to 160 megawatts. All three projects are being proposed by the Public Service Company of New Mexico in response to the anticipated renewable energy needs of Facebook’s giant data center project in Los Lunas. The online social networking company announced in the fall of 2016 that it was going to begin work on the first two of a planned six buildings. In response, several weeks later, the utility company, known as PNM, said it would begin construction on a new $45 million solar project designed to meet Facebook’s growing energy needs. But last November, Facebook said it was speeding up its Los Lunas project with the immediate construction of four more buildings. In order to keep pace with Facebook’s accelerated construction schedule, PNM now says it wants to build, with third party providers, a 166 megawatt wind farm in Torrance county; along with a 50 megawatt wind farm in both Quay and De Baca counties; as well as a 50 megawatt solar plant in Cibola county. Due to the fast-track nature of Facebook’s expansion, as well as the need for the wind farms and solar facility, the Public Regulation Commission may give its stamp of approval to the projects as soon as early April. In 2016, the commission unanimously agreed to a special services contract allowing PNM to build the $45 million solar project for Facebook. By Garry Boulard Up to 21,000 square feet will be added to a pharmaceutical education building on the Tucson campus of the University of Arizona if the project receives final approval from the Arizona Board of Regents.
The four-story Skaggs Pharmaceutical Sciences Center at 1703 E. Mabel Street has long been in need of new lab space, according to UA officials. That space would further the school’s toxicology, drug discovery, and pharmacogenics research. Plans also call for some 12,000 square feet in the center to be renovated. The $26 million project will be partly funded with $10 million in matching funds from the nonprofit ASLAM Foundation, $10 million from UA’s central funds; and another $6 million in private donations. The center also houses a unique museum with a replica of a late 19th century pharmacy and a host of bottles, drug containers, and store fixtures from that period. The Regents Board is expected to make a final decision on the project during its February 9th meeting. If the project is approved. work on the pharmacy center could begin later this year with a general completion date of mid-2020. By Garry Boulard Responding to President Trump’s call during his State of the Union address for up to $1.7 trillion in new infrastructure construction and repair funding, a group of Democrat lawmakers are saying that the idea is impractical.
In a report entitled Republicans Plan Bait and Switch on Infrastructure, the Democrat members of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee is taking particular aim at the public and private projects, otherwise known as P3s, emphasized by the President. The report says that P3s resulted in the construction of only fourteen highway projects between 1990 and 2014. “Relying on a massive influx of new P3s is risky and ignores the significant gap between investors’ motivations in financing infrastructure and the public interest,” the report continues. The report also criticized Trump’s stated desire for more state and local involvement in highway and road construction projects, noting “Already, state and local governments account for more than three-fourths of all infrastructure spending. And states are not awash in cash. Twenty-two states faced revenue shortfalls in 2017, partly a result of declining oil prices in energy-producing states and tax cuts in others.” In a statement, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, who is the ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, noted that Senate Democrats, well before the President’s State of the Union address, had proposed up to $1 trillion in new federal investments “in order to maintain roads, bridges, ports, water systems, rail transit and airports,” while also promoting investments in energy, school, and hospital projects. The Joint Economic Committee’s Democrats say there is a pressing need for stepped-up federal investment in the nation’s infrastructure, noting that such investment has declined since 2010 from $100 billion to around $95 billion today. By Garry Boulard |
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