Category: State

California – The California State Transportation Agency awarded the city of Inglewood a $95.2 million grant to put toward construction of the city’s $1.02 billion automated people mover and three stations. The Inglewood Transit Connector is designed to transport passengers from the LA Metro Crenshaw/LAX Line’s Downtown Inglewood Station to new housing and employment centers and […]

The Texas General Land Office (GLO) notified the city of Houston on April 22 that it will seek approval to cancel nearly $1 billion in federal Hurricane Harvey housing recovery funds to the city and take over administration of the program. GLO Commissioner George P. Bush wrote Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner that due to ongoing […]

Kansas – State legislators passed a $10 billion transportation infrastructure plan renamed The Eisenhower Legacy Plan that will span 10 years of scheduled projects. The bill, which is awaiting Gov. Laura Kelly’s signature, is an amended version of Kelly’s FORWARD plan, which she announced in February. This plan allows for the maintenance and improvement of roads and highways […]

Ohio – The board of trustees at Ohio State University (OSU) approved more than $600 million in construction projects that will support research and health care initiatives. The university can now enter into professional service and construction contracts for a number of projects including energy advancement, health care, recreation, and infrastructure. Money will come from a […]

Maine – The state’s department of transportation (MaineDOT) released a three-year work plan on January 14 that consists of more than $1.6 billion in highway, bridge, and multimodal capital projects. Overall, the work plan contains 2,051 individual items with an estimated value of $2.59 billion. Capital-related work includes bridge replacements, highway construction and paving, acquisition of buses […]

Michigan – Funding continues to flow to the planned New Soo Lock project after President Trump signed a spending bill December 20 that included $75.3 million for the $1 billion project. Parallel locks at the Great Lakes facility are showing signs of age. In August, the only lock that can accommodate larger vessels closed twice for […]

Houston-area government officials are voicing their concerns after the Texas General Land Office (GLO) announced the region would receive about one-fourth of the $4.3 billion in federal disaster assistance awarded to the state. Flood managers and other officials in Houston said they were expecting the area would get about half of the funds coming from […]

New Hampshire – The New Hampshire Liquor Commission (NHLC) is interested in a public-private partnership (P3) along Interstate 95, heading northbound and southbound in Hampton. The commission wants to construct new liquor and wine outlets along this 88-acres of property and is looking to facilitate a sale. The NHLC plans to issue a request for proposals […]

Voters may start casting their ballots as early as Monday in the November 5 Texas constitutional amendment election. Early voting to determine 10 constitutional amendments, special elections, and local elections will be from October 21 to November 1. The amendments will appear as propositions on the ballot. In brief, they are: Proposition 1 – Permitting a […]

The Texas Comptroller’s Office released a Certification Revenue Estimate (CRE) on October 10 that projects revenues available to the state for general spending to total about $121.76 billion for the 2020-21 biennium. That amount, which is up 9.6 percent from the 2018-2019 biennium, will finance the $118.86 billion in general-purpose spending appropriated by the 86th […]

Utah – The National Governors Association (NGA) has a new mission after incoming chairman Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued a call to action to upgrade the country’s aging or vulnerable infrastructure. Hogan presented his “Infrastructure: Foundation for Success” initiative to association members at the NGA Summer Meeting on July 26 in Salt Lake City. The yearlong […]

When a natural disaster occurs, state, county and city leaders must assess the damage and also do a head count of residents that may have lost food, water and shelter. Operations, plans and projects are put into place and state agencies begin requesting waivers and assistance at the federal level. For Texans, that natural disaster is Hurricane Harvey.   The […]

The discovery of oil in Texas dates back much further, but the first economically significant discovery came in 1894 in Navarro County near Corsicana. According to the Texas State Historical Association, the Corsicana oilfield developed gradually and peaked in 1900, when it produced more than 839,000 barrels of oil. The first relatively modern refinery in […]