GRID Logistic Incorporated » Infrastructure

Beyond Freeways: Commerce, Community, and Contention along Los Angeles’s 710 Corridor

gridadmin — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 16:24:38 +0000

How a freeway crushes communities, how residents are fighting back plans to make it even bigger, and what alternatives have been presented to yet more of the same….

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UK’s Largest Container Railfreight Depot Just One Year From Opening

gridadmin — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 18:21:05 +0000

Dubai Port London Gateway is a £1.5bn development covering 560 acres on the north bank of The Thames on the site of the former Shellhaven refinery near Stanford Le Hope. It has, literally, the capacity to change the Railfreight container business and directly challenges Southampton and Felixstowe docks.

The new port is scheduled to open for business in Quarter 4 next year with trials commencing in as little as six months. From day 1, Carston Hinne DB Schenker MD said, DB Schenker will be operating four daily trains to the port which is just 25 miles from London. The message given out at an Industry preview day was that Rail services to and from London Gateway will offer regular, easy and efficient movement of goods to and from the major commercial and population centres across the UK.

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Bipartisan BRIDGE Act Bridges Infrastructure Investment Gap

gridadmin — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 20:05:50 +0000

Washington, D.C. (November 15, 2013) – General President of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – Terry O’Sullivan, praised the Building and Renewing Infrastructure for Development and Growth in Employment Act, introduced by a bipartisan group of ten senators today, which would create an infrastructure financing authority that will help ‘jump-start investment, job creation and boost U.S. competitiveness,’ with the following statement:

“LIUNA applauds the Republicans and Democrats who put partisan politics aside for the good of our country today by coming up with this proposal to help rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure. This financing mechanism provides a much-needed incentive for future private investment in our transportation system, which has been relying on a highway trust fund that is on the brink of insolvency. Along with strong federal and state investments private capital could go a long way toward restoring America’s economic competitiveness in the world for generations to come. With new public and private investments in transportation, water and energy infrastructure across the country, LIUNA will provide some of the best trained workers in the world to help get the job done.”

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In New Orleans, Obama pushes exports

gridadmin — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 05:22:06 +0000

President Obama headed to the Port of New Orleans on Friday to call on Congress to get behind his plan to pour tens of billions of dollars into the nation’s infrastructure, action that he says is crucial to bolster U.S. exports.

The visit to New Orleans, an effort to remind Americans that bolstering the economy is still Obama’s top priority, comes as his administration has struggled to right the ship after a bungled rollout of the federal health exchange.

Obama wants Congress to spend $50 billion for roads, bridges and ports, and establish a National Infrastructure Bank. He says such steps would help attract more private-sector investment to repair the nation’s infrastructure and create American jobs.

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Obama Promotes Ambitious Plan to Overhaul Nation’s Infrastructure

gridadmin — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 05:18:52 +0000

MIAMI — President Obama came to the congested ocean port here on Friday to promote his plans to rebuild the nation’s “raggedy” roads, bridges, schools and other infrastructure with a marriage of public and private investment.

At the end of a week absorbed by social issues like gun control and gay rights, the president returned to the economic challenges he has called his top priorities with a set of proposals to generate money for construction projects.

“What are we waiting for?” Mr. Obama asked, surrounded by massive cranes and cargo containers. “There’s work to be done. There are workers who are ready to do it. Let’s prove to the world that there’s no better place to do business than right here in the United States of America, and let’s get started rebuilding America.”

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Dawn of the super-ports? Mammoth ships force ports to adapt

gridadmin — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 17:22:31 +0000

On the northern banks of the Thames Estuary outside London, a soft tide laps against the perimeter of Britain’s latest multi-billion dollar development project.

Situated just 25 miles downriver from the ornate splendor of the Houses of Parliament and the suave sophistication of the Shard Tower, the DP World London Gateway is a new deep-sea container port that will welcome its first vessel at the beginning of November.

The 995 acre site has taken more than three years to construct, carries a price tag of £1.5 billion ($2.4 billion) and has the advanced technological capabilities to host the ever increasing heft of the world’s biggest ships.

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The Golden Age of Arabian Rail

gridadmin — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 17:32:03 +0000

Until recently the Arabian Peninsula had long been a backwater for rail development.

Despite hosting the now-defunct Hejaz railway made famous by the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia, until 2009 the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (the GCC) – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia – between them had only operational railway, a 200 km single-track link between Riyadh and the oil hub of Dammam.

In the oil-rich region, where petrol costs are as low as $0.45 a gallon, it is no surprise that the car has been king. However, increasing congestion, especially in cities, and a growing environmental awareness have led the GCC states to start investing billions of dollars in new rail and metro networks, in one of the world’s most ambitious new state-funded rail-build programmes.

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Are Mega-Projects Really As Bad As Everyone Says?

gridadmin — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 01:29:57 +0000

Pity the mega-project – the white elephant, the boondoggle, never on time, always over budget.

No one can build anything ambitious these days, it seems, without being second-guessed. Most recently, Brazil is being criticized for its $495 million, 70,000-seat World Cup soccer stadium. Taxpayer backlash and lawsuits have slowed California’s high-speed rail project to a crawl.

But the list of hectored mega-projects goes back years, all around the world: The Chunnel, The Big Dig, bullet trains in Japan and China. The price tag is typically the number one concern, but so is the rationale, the usefulness, the promised economic development returns, and on to many other themes including the design, the execution, and the maintenance. There is an assumption as well that corruption works its way into all modern-day public works.

But is that what happened?

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