Arizona - The State Transportation Board is set to make its final decision on June 19 to determine what projects will be included in the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) 2021-2025 Tentative Five-Year Transportation Facilities Program.

The draft document includes more than $5.14 billion in bridge, highway, interchange, and other transportation facility construction, improvement and preservation projects with more than $2 billion of that total programmed for Maricopa County initiatives.

Some of the largest projects under consideration for the plan are:

• Interstate 10 widening from I-17 Split to State Road 202L Santan - $685.34 million;
• SR 30 Tres Rios - new highway construction from SR 303L to SR 202L - $539.42 million;
• SR-202L - new highway construction from I-10 to 76 - $469.91 million;
• Interstate 17 widening - Anthem Way to Cordes Junction - $356.51 million;
• SR 303L - extension from Van Buren Street to Cotton Lane - $304.63 million;
• I-10 widening from SR-202L Santan to Riggs Road 161 to 187 - $244.64 million;
• U.S. 60-Grand Avenue-35th Avenue-Indian School Road intersection reconstruction - $162.69 million;
• Sky Harbor West Airport Access - Interchange on I-10 at 150 and 151 - $100 million;
• I-17 reconstruction from I-10 to 19th Avenue milepost 197 to 201 - $77.76 million; and,
• U.S. 93 widening at Interstate 40 interchange - $71.2 million.

An average of about $310 million per year would be allocated to preservation of bridges and roadways throughout the state highway system. Preservation projects include repaving highways, filling potholes, extending the life cycle of existing pavement, and repairing or reconstructing bridges. Approximately 67 percent of all funding allocated to Greater Arizona will be directed to preservation projects from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2025.

Spread over the five years, more than $687.87 million would be spent on pavement rehabilitation throughout the state with $648 million of that expected in federal aid, $170.11 million on various highway safety projects, and $95 million on study, planning, and research support.

Almost $101 million would be programmed for design and construction of minor projects with $93.64 million of that anticipated in federal aid, and more than $88.81 million in federal dollars would go toward $94.18 million in minor and preventative pavement preservation.

The plan also would set aside $35 million for public-private partnerships (P3s).

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) on April 14 announced the award of about $10 billion to commercial and general aviation airports from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Airport Grant Program.

USDOT's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is ready to deliver CARES Act grants in April to eligible airports throughout the nation. The grants will provide economic relief to airports around the country affected by the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta will receive $338.53 million, the largest funding amount among U.S. airports.

Some of the airports receiving large payments are Los Angeles International with $323.63 million, San Francisco with $254.78 million, and San Diego with $91.22 million.

Texas airports are set to receive more than $810 million with Dallas-Fort Worth collecting $299.2 million and George Bush getting $149.19 million.

Denver's airport is set to receive $269.07 million, Chicago O'Hare will get $294.44 million, Phoenix Sky Harbor will get $147.88 million, Boston's Logan airport will collect $141.34 million, and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County will get $141.88 million.

New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports will receive $193.39 million and $102.93 million, respectively. Miami at $206.95 million, Orlando at 170.7 million, and Fort Lauderdale at $134.96 million top the list of Florida airports receiving funds.
McCarran International in Las Vegas was awarded $195.49 million, Seattle-Tacoma - $192.13 million, Newark Liberty - $147.52 million, Washington-Dulles - $143.39 million, Charlotte-Douglas airport in North Carolina - $135.57 million, Minneapolis-St. Paul airport - $125.17 million, and Philadelphia - $116.28 million.

This funding will support continuing operations and replace lost revenue resulting from the decline in passenger traffic and other airport business due to the pandemic. The funds are available for airport capital expenditures, airport operating expenses including payroll and utilities, and airport debt payments.

Washington, D.C. - Seven East Coast states created a council and three West Coast states entered a pact on April 13 to develop plans for reopening and restoring their economies.

New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Rhode Island governors announced a multi-state council assigned to gradually lift stay at home orders while minimizing the risk of increased coronavirus spread.

Their council will include one health expert, one economic development expert, and chiefs of staff from each state.

California, Oregon, and Washington governors formed the Western States Pact designed to reopen their economies and control the virus into the future.

The group will focus on four goals of protecting vulnerable populations at risk for severe disease, ensure the care of those who are suffering from COVID-19 and other conditions, mitigate non-direct COVID-19 health impacts, and protect the general public.

They stated that any successful lifting of state requirements would require developing a system for testing, tracking, and isolating and sharing of best practices.

Oklahoma - A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) final report is expected by May 1 after federal engineers accelerated a feasibility study of the Tulsa-West Tulsa levee system by 18 months.

Completion of the study is a prerequisite to funding and starting repairs across the 20-mile system. Recommended improvements include filtered berms with toe drains, a landslide impervious blanket, pump station reconstruction, and detention ponds.

Design and pre-engineering could take up to two years with construction taking several additional years.

Total project costs are estimated at approximately $150 million to $200 million. The federal government will cover approximately 65 percent of costs, and local city and county governments will be expected to cover the remaining 35 percent.

Massachusetts - Three local governments in the U.S. were set to sign letters of intent last week to use a new location tracking app to help prevent further COVID-19 outbreaks.

MIT and Harvard professors and researchers developed the free, open-source Private Kit: Safe Paths app with a team of epidemiologists, engineers, data scientists, digital privacy evangelists, and other public and private sector partners.

After a user installs the Private Kit: Safe Paths app, the system's trail generator logs the device's location once every five minutes to create a 28-day "location trail."

The system relies on "chirps," which are Bluetooth signals communicated between Private Kit users' phones, to record contacts of app users in close proximity to each other.

The app allows users who contract COVID-19 to opt to provide their 28-day location trail to their health official. Using the web app Safe Places, the health official redacts the patient's personally identifiable information from the location trail. Then, the location trail is released, and the Private Kit app notifies users who came in close contact with a diagnosed patient. A healthy user's data never leaves his or her phone.

The agreements with local governments cover collaboration, training, and support. A MIT spokesperson said 17 more communities across the nation are considering launching the app within the next two weeks. He declined to name the specific communities, but he said they range from some of the largest U.S. cities to remote vacation communities.

Stanford University and the University of Southern California also are developing location tracking apps, some of which may interface with the Private Kit app.

Virginia - School construction and renovation funding could get a boost if state legislators approve Gov. Ralph Northam's amendments to a gaming law referendum proposed for November's election.

Both the Virgina House and Senate passed SB 36 that would allow the cities of Danville, Bristol, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Richmond to hold separate public referendums to determine if they wanted to allow a maximum of one privately owned casino to do business in each city.

Under the proposed bill, two-thirds of the state's portion of casino gaming revenues would go to Virginia's general fund. Northam proposed a policy amendment on April 11 that would commit the funding to K-12 school construction, renovation, and repairs.

The legislative session is set to reconvene on April 22. If lawmakers approve the governor's amendment, SB 36 becomes law and the five cities would be allowed to place the local referendums on the November 3 ballot.

A study last year by a joint audit and review commission projected the combined revenues of the five casinos at more than $900 million within five years.

Minnesota - Elk River councilmembers approved funding on April 6 for the design of a third fire station and improvements to the city's Public Safety Facility financed by its building reserve fund.

During their videoconference meeting, they determined that the city's architectural firm would begin preliminary design work on the city's Fire Station No. 2 at the Public Safety Facility by fall 2020 with work on Fire Station No. 3 to come later.

Per the city's request for proposals for design services in late 2019, a 17,500-square-foot satellite station would be built in east Elk River.

At the Public Safety Facility, about 3,800 square feet of additional space would be built at Station No. 2 for station personnel support spaces including locker rooms, showers, offices, kitchen, and dayroom facilities. It also would feature expansion of the training room used for the Fire Academy and upgrades to office space, including the expansion and security of the front entrance.

For the Police Department, which also is located in the Public Safety Facility, the project scope includes expansion of the indoor parking garage to accommodate 26-plus squad cars, the completion of an interior renovation, and expansion of a 4,000-square-foot second floor space to improve security and workspace efficiency to accommodate department growth. In addition, modifications will be made to the main floor secured entrance and improvements made to existing work stations/roll call areas.

Once construction designs, plans, cost estimates, and specifications are prepared, the city will seek bids for a general contractor for the construction services.

Massachusetts - The director of the Harvard Global Health Institute is advocating the creation of a new public health workforce similar to the Peace Corps or Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Such a workforce would address gaps in community and public health staffing and resources and a growing number of unemployed workers.

Doctors say these specialized workers could help conduct contact tracing, which is the monitoring of individuals who have been in contact with an infected person, such as family members, friends, co-workers, or health care providers.

They also could deliver food to residences, facilitate telehealth appointments, and collect and distribute home essentials.

When not engaged in a public health crisis, the public health workforce could support health care systems by providing education and advocacy in communities and assisting individuals suffering from undertreated chronic illnesses.

Health care officials are looking for potential sources of funding that could include the $4.3 billion in stimulus funding that will go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to disperse to state health departments.