By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 16, 2008
CHICAGO -- Federal investigators announced Tuesday that a "serious design error" was a key factor behind last summer's deadly collapse of a Minnesota bridge, but also said that the mistake would not likely have been discovered during routine state inspections.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said the Interstate 35W bridge had been built with gusset plates -- the steel parts that connect the girders, which support the bridge -- that were too thin to hold up the bridge with increased traffic and additional weight of infrastructure improvements.
The Aug. 1 collapse killed 13 people and injured more than 100.
Investigators have found 16 fractured gusset plates from the center section of the steel-deck truss bridge, Rosenker said Tuesday at a news conference.
"Basically, those 16 gusset plates were too thin to provide the margin of safety expected in a properly designed bridge such as this," Rosenker said. "These gusset plates were roughly half the thickness that would be required -- half an inch thick rather than an inch thick."
Safety board officials said their investigation was far from over, and the exact cause of the collapse was still unknown. But investigators don't think that deficiencies in materials, maintenance or inspections played a significant role.
A final NTSB report on the rush-hour tragedy is expected by the end of the year.
In the days immediately after the bridge collapse, the NTSB had raised concerns about the plates.
The board's finding, which suggests that the 40-year-old bridge was structurally unsound from its debut, could alter national debate over maintaining the transportation infrastructure.
It is unknown how or why "there was a breakdown in the design review procedures that allowed a serious design error to be incorporated into the construction of the I-35W bridge," Rosenker said.
Investigators haven't located the original designer's calculations, he said, so "we cannot determine whether the error was a calculation error, a drafting error, or some other error in the design process."
Inspectors don't look for design problems that could date back decades, Rosenker said.
"The National Bridge Inspection Standards are aimed at detecting conditions such as cracks or corrosion that degrade the strength of the existing structure," he said. "They do not, and are not intended to, address errors in the original design."
The bridge was designed by Sverdrup & Parcel, a Missouri-based civil engineering firm that also designed and oversaw construction of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which was once designated one of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World.
The company was later bought by Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. in Pasadena, which did not return calls for comment Tuesday.
Experts had warned for years that the I-35W bridge needed expensive repairs. In 1990, a federal inspection declared the bridge "deficient," noting a history of fractures along the plates that hold together its structural arches.
After opening to traffic in 1967, the I-35W bridge -- like many others -- was modified. Such modifications, which included thickening the driving deck, probably added strain to the bridge's weaker spots. And over the decades, traffic increased on the downtown bridge.
At the time that the bridge gave way, dropping traffic into the Mississippi River, maintenance crews were using tons of equipment and construction material on the bridge's deck.
The safety board urged that all states and contractors take extra care with how much weight they place on steel-deck truss bridges -- of which about 465 remain nationally -- and reexamine the original designs before adding to or otherwise modifying them.
In Minnesota, 23 state bridges and 36 bridges under the jurisdiction of local governments have similar steel-deck truss designs.
State investigators had been reviewing seven of the largest.
"Now we're going to expand that to all of the state bridges and try to work with the local governments, to see if they're looking at the same things," said GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
The $500,000 review is expected to be complete by June, he said.
Rebuilding of the I-35W bridge, estimated at $400 million, is underway.
The 10-lane bridge is to open this year.
That project has sparked federal and state political infighting, while weary commuters have been forced onto crowded surface streets.
And victims and their families have called for new state laws to compensate them
Transportation
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Minneapolis Bridge had design flaw
Green roads are just around the corner
PAVING THE WAY FOR GREEN ROADS
DURHAM, N.H. –Kevin Gardner sees green roads right around the corner.
“A lot of the infrastructure in this country needs to be re-built,” says Kevin Gardner, UNH Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Environmental Research Group in Durham. “A lot of the infrastructure in this country needs to be re-built,” says Gardner, UNH Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Environmental Research Group in Durham. “We have a real opportunity to re-build the infrastructure the right way with sustainable materials and socially sensitive designs that protect air, water, land, and human resources.”
Funded by the Federal Highway Administration and pooled state highway funds, as well as EPA grants for specific research projects, Gardner established the new Recycled Materials Resource Management Center (RMRC) at UNH in Durham on June 1, 2007. The RRMC is a collaboration between UNH environmental and social impact researchers and University Wisconsin-Madison geotechnical, or soil behavior, faculty. Working closely with a board of advisors composed of representatives from the EPA, the Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, as well as numerous other stakeholders, one of the Center’s activities is to establish a green roads program that develops criteria for what makes a roadway green.
Similar to the green buildings program established by the U.S. Green Building Council, which triggered a boom in green building construction, a green roads program, it is believed, will give the green light to sweeping reforms in the way we build roads. The project is full of twists and turns. Today’s urban sprawl requires road builders to confront a range of sensitive issues involving air, water, land, building materials, energy use, biodiversity, and social capital—an index of social productivity and quality of life.
To jump-start the process, the RMRC faculty teamed up with the UNH Stormwater Center in Durham. Their task is to account for both environmental and social impacts of road-building, as well as establish better uses of recycled and virgin aggregate materials, such as crushed rock, much of which must be transported from New Hampshire. Green standards, according to Gardner, will give road builders the guidelines they need to effectively reduce the environmental impacts (such as carbon footprint, wetlands disturbance, and stormwater runoff generation) and improve the quality of life in communities affected by infrastructure re-construction.
The first step is to figure out how to reduce the 300 million tons of virgin aggregate materials mined in this country every year. The U.S. currently recycles 90% of used asphalt, but still uses a large percentage of virgin materials in the recycled mix. The question is, can pavement be made with 90% recycled asphalt, or does it have to be less than 40% or even 20% to get a roadbed that lasts? What happens to the modifiers that bind these materials over time? How recyclable are the recycled materials?
“The cost of building a road is not reflected fully in the price of materials,” Gardner adds. “The total cost of mining virgin materials, for instance, involves not only the cost of materials and labor, but also the environmental cost at the mining site, the environmental costs (such as air pollution and it’s associated health care costs) of transporting these materials to the building site, and the environmental costs of building the equipment to mine and transport material and build the roads.”
To account for these hidden costs, the RMRC created a computer model that Gardner’s Ph.D. student Alberta “Birdie” Carpenter uses to capture the full environmental, social and material costs of road-building. The model was recently “road-tested” in the Pittsburgh region to help identify the significant influence that materials recycling can have on regional air quality, hazardous waste generation, green house gas emissions and other environmental impacts.
Research and development of better ways to re-build infrastructure is only half the battle. The other half is education and outreach to developers, road-builders, and engineering students. In addition to publishing and publicizing the results of their research and green roads standards, the RMRC is now offering a sustainable engineering class at UNH and expects to have fellowship and Ph.D. programs by 2010.
“The first green roads will probably start with small housing developments and municipalities because developers and local developers have already seen the benefits of green building construction,” says Gardner, “but as the benefits and cost-savings begin to be realized on a bigger scale, we believe the RMRC green roads program will pave the way for rapid adaptation at all levels of road-building."
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Microsoft launches its own hi-tech Bus Rapid Transit service
9/7/07
Microsoft giving workers free ride -- with its own bus service
Wi-Fi-enabled system will debut this month
Windows, Office, Xbox, Zune -- and now, a regional bus system.
That's the surprise addition Microsoft Corp. made to its portfolio Thursday, announcing its own bus service -- complete with on-board wireless Internet access -- to shuttle its employees from their neighborhoods around the region to Redmond and back home again.
The 14-bus Microsoft "Connector" system, to debut later this month, was announced as the company unveiled plans to open new offices in Seattle's South Lake Union and Pioneer Square neighborhoods.
At launch, the bus system will handle no more than 1,000 employees a day. That's only a slice of Microsoft's more than 35,000 employees in the region.
But the fact that Microsoft would find it necessary to take such a step added new fuel to the debate over comprehensive regional transportation reform.
 | ||
"This is something that the county bus system should be doing and they're not," said Stephen Gerritson, executive director for Commuter Challenge, a Seattle non-profit. "To some extent, Metro is dropping the ball here."
Even as bus systems struggle to add routes and companies expand their van pools, the regional transportation system is maxed out, said state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle.
The region faces two major obstacles, said Murray, vice chairman of the Senate transportation committee. First: "Our population has grown so much and our employment base has grown so much that our transit system has not kept up with it."
Second: Roads and bridges are failing and aging, he said.
Microsoft drew praise from commuter groups Thursday.
"It is a great corporate decision to take a look at where the transportation system isn't meeting the needs of your commuters and fill in the gaps," said John Resha, general manager of the Urban Mobility Group, a partnership between King County, the city of Seattle and the Downtown Seattle Association. "The system we've got can't evolve quickly enough."
Will it catch on?
Microsoft isn't the first company to offer free bus service to its employees. Google offers about 150 bus runs daily across the San Francisco Bay Area, to and from its Mountain View, Calif., campus, spokeswoman Sunny Gettinger said.
"Part of the reason that we do it is because we really want people to have the opportunity to be able to work at Google in Mountain View and not feel like they're contributing to environmental issues by commuting," she said.
Gettinger, who uses the Google bus service, said it can end up being another place for employees to meet face-to-face. She has been able to resolve work-related issues just by running into the right person on the bus. Google has offices in Seattle and Kirkland but doesn't offer bus service in the Seattle area.
"I hope it will catch on. It's a fantastic idea. (Microsoft is) taking personal responsibility for the traffic that their company is generating," said Elaine Somers, a Seattle environmental protection specialist with the Environmental Protection Agency.
But others said that Microsoft probably will remain among the very few.
"This is not cheap what they're doing," said Kevin Desmond, general manager at King County Metro Transit. "Microsoft employees enjoy good benefits that many employers would give their right arm to be able to provide."
Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, acknowledged it is expensive but declined to say how much the company is spending.
The pilot program will include 14 buses, including seven large coaches with bike storage, and electrical outlets at each seat, in addition to Wi-Fi. Seven midsize coaches will be used for neighborhood pickups. There will be multiple runs in the morning and afternoon, Smith said.
Running one bus for one hour costs the Metro system about $110, which includes the driver, mechanic and fuel, Desmond said. At that rate, it would cost $9,240 per day to run 14 buses for six hours, or $2.4 million per year, not including weekends, the cost of new buses or Wi-Fi service.
Transit reform
Smith took the opportunity to voice the company's support for Proposition 1, the road and transit package on the November ballot. Microsoft's rapid growth has contributed significantly to clogged roadways, particularly on such arteries as the Evergreen Point Bridge.
He noted that the bus system builds on the company's existing efforts with bus passes for employees, car pooling, hybrid cross-campus shuttles and other initiatives.
"Microsoft has many short-term solutions, like the Connector, for transportation issues that our employees face," Smith said. "But our region needs a long-term solution for the transportation bottleneck that the entire region faces."
Under a 1991 Washington state law, employers with more than 100 workers are required to provide some sort of transportation program and must encourage alternatives to one-person cars.
The state offers tax incentives to businesses that provide ride sharing and public-transportation passes.
King County Metro works with hundreds of companies, said Desmond, who applauded Microsoft's system. For example, in a couple of weeks, Metro will beef up bus service to Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center -- an option partially funded by the hospital. Also, most of its monthly passes are sold through employers, who then give them to employees as benefits.
Microsoft worked with King County Metro Transit and Sound Transit on its new idea, Desmond said.
"We talked with them directly about how we route buses to meet their bus needs," he said. "There were elements of some of their route ideas which would have had a competitive nature with us."
Metro also works closely with The Boeing Co., which adds 70,000 commuters here each day. "We share data with Metro and Snohomish County," said John Hendricks, who manages commuting issues for Boeing nationally. "We run demographic data on where people live and what time they start to try to build better routes."
Boeing employees are avid users of van pools, though that system is suffering from a shortage of vehicles, Hendricks said. But the company would not consider a private bus system because of liability and the varying needs of employees, he said.
Employee needs
Besides reducing traffic congestion and minimizing air pollution, keeping employees out of bumper-to-bumper traffic also keeps them happy.
Microsoft's bus system coincides with a broader effort, spearheaded by human resources chief Lisa Brummel, to better recruit and retain employees amid stiff competition for talent against Google and others.
Smith said the idea for the bus system grew out of employee suggestions in response to an internal blog maintained by Chris Owens, Microsoft's general manager of real estate and facilities.
The wireless routers to be used for Internet access in the Microsoft buses are manufactured by Seattle-based Junxion Inc. They receive Internet signals through cellular data networks. They're also used by companies including Google and Yahoo and transit agencies such as King County Metro.
Microsoft employees will be able to reserve seats and track buses online.
"If demand grows, we'll listen to our employees -- they're really the ones who came up with this idea -- and we'll invest more," Smith said.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Amgen pays employees to leave their cars at home
Paid for not taking the car to work
Region's best job sites for commuters listed
By ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTER
Even on Seattle's drizzliest, chilliest mornings, Daniel Hirschstein leaves his new sports car in the garage and pedals through train yards and past petroleum tanks down a narrow industrial path to his lab at Amgen Inc.
COMMUTING HABITS
SeattlePI.com has asked readers periodically about their commute-to-work habits through the "daily poll" feature on the home page. Results are not scientific:
- Oct. 18, 2006
- March 7, 2002
- May 18, 2001
"I think that there's too many cars on the road as it is," said the 47-year-old research scientist. "I just came back from L.A., and believe me, I'd hate to see our city turn into something like that, traffic-wise."
His company agrees. That's why every time Hirschstein swings his leg over the bicycle saddle, the biotechnology firm pays him to do it.
Amgen, along with 248 other Puget Sound-area employers, was named a best workplace for commuters today by a coalition led by the Environmental Protection Agency, local non-profits and transit organizations.
Joe Parsons, who cycles to work at Amgen from his home on Capitol Hill, puts his bike away in the garage. A coalition of business and government organizations is releasing the first annual list of the Puget Sound's Best Workplaces for Commuters. The list spotlights 249 employers and two districts offering superior commuter benefits to 449,600 employees in the Puget Sound area.
The coalition wants benefits such as bus passes and free ferry rides to become as common as health insurance and 401(k) accounts.
Three-quarters of Seattle-area commuters, or 1.13 million people, drove to work alone last year, according to the Census Bureau. If Seattle's population grows as predicted, more than 25,000 extra parking spaces will be needed downtown in the next quarter century, said Steve Gerritson, executive director of Commuter Challenge, a Seattle-based non-profit and coalition member.
"That just isn't going to happen. We don't have the space," he said. "We really have to make some effort here to get people out of their cars."
Amgen spends slightly more than $1 million per year encouraging the 800 employees at its Interbay campus and 200 in Bothell to bike, car pool, take the bus or share a van. That averages $1,000 per employee. The company provides a smorgasbord of free commuter goodies: showers and lockers, onsite bike tune-ups, two bike shelters, ferry and bus rides, emergency cab rides, Flexcars for trips to the dentist and meetings, and a shuttle every 15 minutes to downtown.
The company gives $50 gift certificates monthly to everyone who bikes, walks or is dropped off. They are redeemable at various stores, including outdoor gear retailer REI. Car poolers get $25 gift certificates. "People love that REI one," said Amgen spokeswoman Carol Pawlak. "Seattle certainly has a traffic problem and this is a way around it."
Meanwhile, employees who drive pay $65 a month to park. As a result, two-thirds arrive at work via some method other than driving alone, and 10 percent ride bikes, says Jan Law, who works full time as Amgen's employee transportation coordinator.
Fewer than 1 percent of corporations nationwide qualify as a best workplace for commuters, according to the EPA, which has previously ranked Fortune 500 companies but today recognized Puget Sound employers specifically for the first time.
Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks and the cities of Issaquah, Redmond, Renton and Tukwila made the list. Seattle did not.
"If you just want to look at our core downtown businesses, we would be on it," said Gregg Hirakawa, spokesman for Seattle's Department of Transportation. But many people who work in the city's outlying field offices keep irregular hours and must drive, he said.
To qualify for the list, a business must:
# Employ someone to tell employees about commuter benefits.
# Provide a way for employees to get home in an emergency.
# Offer a key commuter benefit, such as a monthly transit subsidy or a telecommuting program.
# Offer at least three supporting benefits, such as incentives, showers or dry cleaning.
Also, at least 14 percent of employees must participate, says Puget Sound's Best Workplaces for Commuters Coalition.
"You can't force your employees to take the bus or to car pool," Commuter Challenge's Gerritson said. "They may be in locations where public transport doesn't operate."
About 12 percent of Puget Sound's work force car pools and about 23 percent of King County companies have telework programs allowing employees to work from home a couple of times per month, Gerritson said.
It's hard to get people out of cars because they equate wheels with necessity, Gerritson said. Immigrants seem to be leading the change in commuting habits nationally, representing 40 percent of people in large car pools, according to a report this week by The National Academies.
While not every company can afford $1,000 per head like Amgen, even minor benefits have big impacts on the number of cars on the road, Gerritson said. For example, if every company in Puget Sound allowed employees to telecommute one day per week, traffic would drop approximately 20 percent, he said.
Smaller businesses can buy FlexPasses from the Urban Mobility Group, a non-profit run by the Downtown Seattle Association, King County Metro and the city of Seattle. More than 160 small downtown businesses have purchased the passes, said Carrie Blanco, the group's director.
The cost is $285 per year per employee and businesses must buy one for every full-time employee, or none at all, she said.
As an incentive for businesses, the federal and state governments offer tax deductions for transit subsidies. But many Seattle-area businesses and commuters don't shun cars to enhance the bottom line, said Janis Hastings, an associate director in EPA's Seattle regional office.
"People look beyond the fact that it's saving them money here," she said. "Hopefully people are connecting it with saving the environment."
BEST WORKPLACES FOR COMMUTERS
The best workplaces for commuters, according to Puget Sound’s Best Workplaces for Commuters Coalition:
4culture, Seattle
5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle
Advanced Computer Solutions Ltd., Seattle
Aetna, Seattle
Alaska Airlines, Seattle
Alliance Data Systems, Seattle
American Heart Association, Seattle
Amgen, Seattle
Amicus Law Group,PC, Seattle
Anchor Environmental, LLC, Seattle
AttachmateWRQ, Seattle
Attenex Corp., Seattle
Badgley Phelps & Bell, Seattle
Badgley-Mullins Law Group,PLLC, Seattle
Barry Kaimakis DDS, Seattle
Benefit Administation Co., Seattle
Berger/Abam Engineers Inc., Seattle
BHC Consultants, Seattle
Black Lowe & Graham,PLLC, Seattle
Blue Frog Mobile, Seattle
Brown and Caldwell, Seattle
Building Owners and Managers Association, Seattle
Callison Architecture Inc., Seattle
Cancer Research & Biostatistics, Seattle
Capital One, Federal Way
Carter and Burgess, Seattle
Cascade Land Conservancy, Seattle
Cascade Natural Gas Corp., Seattle
Cascadia Law Group, Seattle
CB Richard Ellis, Seattle
CBRE Melody, Seattle
Century Square, Seattle
Chef’n, Seattle
Chicago Title Insurance Co., Seattle
Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center, Seattle
Christensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC, Seattle
Cigna, Seattle
City of Bellevue
City of Issaquah
City of Redmond
City of Renton
City of Tacoma - Public Works/Environmental Services
City of Tukwila
Clausen Law Firm PLLC, Seattle
ClearPoint, Seattle
CleverSet Inc., Seattle
Coldwater Creek, Seattle
Collins Woerman, Seattle
Columbia Bank, Seattle
Columbia Tower Club, Seattle
Commerce Bank of Washington, Seattle
Community Transit, Everett
Continental Reporting Service Inc., Seattle
Corr Cronin Baumgardner & Preece LLP, Seattle
Cosse International Securities, Seattle
Coughlin Porter Lundeen, Seattle
Cowan Miller & Lederman, Seattle
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Seattle
DiMartino Associates, Seattle
Discovery Institute, Seattle
DKS Associates, Seattle
Downtown Seattle Association, Seattle
Dr. Kegel’s Office, Seattle
Easter Seals Little Eagles, Seattle
Ecology & Environment Inc., Seattle
Eddie Bauer, Redmond
Ederer Investment Co., Seattle
EDS, Federal Way
Entranco Inc., Bellevue
EnviroIssues, Seattle
eProject, Seattle
ERA Care Communities, Seattle
EvergreenBank, Seattle
Exbiblio, Seattle
Expedia Inc., Bellevue
Federal Aviation Administration - Northwest Mountain Region, Renton
FileNet Corp., Kirkland
Financial Security Group, Seattle
First Choice Health, Seattle
Flexcar - Seattle, Seattle
Foote Cone & Belding, Seattle
Fox’s Gem Shop, Seattle
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
Frontier Bank, Seattle
Genie Industries, Redmond
Genworth Financial, Seattle
Geomatrix Consultants Inc., Seattle
Global Energy Concepts, LLC, Seattle
GM Nameplate, Seattle
Goodrich Aviation Technical Services Inc., Everett
Gordon & Polscer, L.L.C., Seattle
Greater Redmond TMA, Redmond
Green Tree Childcare Center, Seattle
Greenfield Advisors LLC, Seattle
Group Health Cooperative, Seattle
Guido Perla Associates, Seattle
Hamlin and Associates, Seattle
Harbor Properties, Seattle
Harborview Medical Center, Seattle
Heller Ehrman LLP, Seattle
Heritage House at the Market, Seattle
Hewitt Architects, Seattle
Holland America Line, Seattle
Honeywell, Redmond
Integrated Benefits, Seattle
Intel Corp., DuPont
Intercontinental Insurance Services, Seattle
Jones & Jones Architects & Landscape Architects Ltd., Seattle
Joshua Green Corp., Seattle
Kinetic Books, Seattle
King County Bar Association, Seattle
Korry Electronics, Seattle
KPFF Consulting Engineers, Seattle
Laidlaw Transit, Seattle
Laird Norton Tyee, Seattle
Legal Foundation of Washington, Seattle
LeGros Buchanan & Paul, Seattle
LeSourd & Patten, P.S., Seattle
Levy von Beck & Associates, P.S., Seattle
Linville Ursich, PLLC, Seattle
LMN Architects, Seattle
Makers Architecture and Urban Design, Seattle
Mattei Companies LLC, Seattle
McIntyre & Barns, PLLC, Seattle
Microsoft Corp., Redmond
Mikkelborg Broz Wells & Fryer, Seattle
Minor & James Medical Clinic, Seattle
Montgomery Purdue Blankinship & Austin,PLLC, Seattle
Morisset, Schlosser, Jozwiak & McGaw, Seattle
Nature Conservancy, Seattle
Neuhaus Chocolates, Seattle
Nielsen Shields PLLC, Seattle
Nintendo of America Inc., Redmond
Nordstrom Inc., Seattle
Northwest Airlines Inc., Seattle
Northwest Defenders Association, Seattle
Nyhus Communications LLC, Seattle
O’Connor Consulting Group, LLC, Seattle
Office Lease, Seattle
Ogden Murphy Wallace, PLLC, Seattle
OMD, Seattle
Open Interface North America, Seattle
Oracle Corp. USA, Bellevue
Otak, Seattle
Overlake Hospital Medical Center, Bellevue
PACCAR Inc., Bellevue
Paladino & Company Inc., Seattle
Par3 Communications, Seattle
Paragon Investment Management, Seattle
Parametrix Inc., Kirkland
Parker Services Inc., Seattle
Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc., Seattle
Patrick A. Fleege, DDS, Seattle
Philips Medical Systems/Philips Ultrasound, Bothell
Pierce Transit, Lakewood
Pogo Linux Inc., Seattle
Porter, Kohli & LeMaster, P.S., Seattle
Premera Blue Cross, Mountlake Terrace
Princess Tours, Seattle
ProBusiness Services of Washington, Bothell
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health - PATH, Seattle
PRR, Seattle
Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle
Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, Seattle
Puget Sound Regional Council, Seattle
R.W. Beck, Seattle
RA Bench, Seattle
Rafel Manville, Seattle
REI, Kent
Ridolfi, Seattle
Rogers & Norman Inc., Seattle
Romax Inc., Seattle
Ross & Associates Environmental Consulting Ltd., Seattle
Russell Investment Group, Tacoma
Mellon Analytical Services, Tacoma
Safeco Insurance, Redmond
Sasquatch Books, Seattle
Savitt & Bruce LLP, Seattle
Schlosser Geographic Systems, Seattle
Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, Seattle
Seattle Chapter 13, Seattle
Seattle Infant Development Center, Seattle
Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Seattle
Seattle-Northwest Securities Corp., Seattle
Security Properties, Seattle
Seed IP Law Group,PLLC, Seattle
Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co., Tacoma
SMR Architects, Seattle
Snohomish County, Everett
Soha & Lang, P.S., Seattle
Spacelabs Healthcare, Issaquah
Sparling, Seattle
Sprague Israel Giles Inc., Seattle
Starbucks Coffee Co., Seattle
State Farm Insurance, Dupont
Stevens Pass Ski Area, Skykomish
Stewart Title Guaranty, Seattle
Swedish Medical Center, Seattle
Symetra Financial, Bellevue
Tacoma Public Utilities, Tacoma
The Boeing Co., Everett
The Myers Associates, PC, Seattle
The Seattle Foundation, Seattle
Therapeutic Associates, Seattle
Thomas S. Maring MD, Seattle
TKG Consulting Engineers, Seattle
Trillium Publishing, Seattle
U. S. Bank, Seattle
U.S. Department of Labor, Seattle
U.S. EPA Region 10, Seattle
Unico Properties Inc., Seattle
University of Washington, Seattle
University Village, Seattle
USI Northwest, Seattle
UW Physicians Network, Seattle
Verdiem Corp., Seattle
Verizon - Washington, Everett
Verizon Wireless, Bellevue
Visions Northwest, Seattle
Vulcan Inc., Seattle
Wachovia LLC, Seattle
Washington Appellate Project, Seattle
Washington Capital Management, Seattle
Washington Community Reinvestment Association, Seattle
Washington Court of Appeals, Seattle
Washington Department of Social and Health Service, Seattle
Washington Mutual, Bothell
Washington Protection Advocacy System, Seattle
Washington State Attorney General’s Office, Seattle
Washington State Bar Association, Seattle
Washington State Department of Ecology, Olympia
Washington State Department of Human Rights Commission, Seattle
Washington State Department of Social & Health Services, Olympia
Washington State Department of Transportation, Olympia
Washington State Department of Transportation, Seattle
Washington State Department of Transportation, Tumwater
Wechsler Becker LLP, Seattle
Weyerhaeuser Co., Federal Way
WhitePages.com, Seattle
Widemile, Seattle
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC, Seattle
Winterbauer & Diamond PLLC, Seattle
Wohlman & Toschi Inc., Seattle
Wurts & Associates, Seattle
Yarmuth Wilson Calfo, PLLC, Seattle
Zillow Inc., Seattle
Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, Seattle
ZymoGenetics Inc., Seattle6
Chuck Collin's Ride-Free Express
New group wants free bus rides, not light rail
Seattle Times staff reporter
There's a new group in town opposing Sound Transit's light-rail project.
Ride Free Express, a nonprofit outfit promoting free bus and van-pool rides as an alternative to light rail, will open shop this morning.
High-profile members of the group include former governors Booth Gardner and John Spellman and former King County Metro bus director Chuck Collins, according to a statement released yesterday.
Collins came up with the plan the group will promote. "We're going to talk about a proposal that we feel is far more effective at relieving congestion, decisively so, and we feel it can be done much sooner with much less risk" than light rail, he said.
Collins would not go into details, saying the group expects to release its plan today, but in recent months he has advocated investing millions of dollars in more car-pool lanes, van pools and buses and making all the rides free.
"Sound Transit's proposal for light rail is that it will carry 31,000 new riders a day (within a few years of starting)," Collins said. "Our proposal would result in 192,000 new riders per day and we believe we could do it in the next four years. That would be more new riders than Metro transit has added in the last 25 years."
Ride Free will propose that Sound Transit spend the money it has set aside for light rail on its plan instead, Collins said.
Sound Transit revealed last month that the 21-mile light-rail project is $1 billion over budget and three years behind schedule.
Dave Earling, chairman of the Sound Transit board, would not comment on Collins' idea, saying he had not seen the plan yet.
The Sound Transit Board is expected to decide tomorrow whether to move ahead with the $3.8 billion light-rail project and accept $500 million in federal money.
Both Gardner and Collins are members of another light-rail opposition group called Sane Transit, which formed several months ago to oppose the project.
Collins said Ride Free is not affiliated with Sane Transit. "There's some overlap, but it's a different group," he said.
President Bush's Budget includes $100 million for University Link
Sound Transit may get $100 million boost 2/5/08
Sound Transit's University Link could receive a $100 million boost, thanks to an announcement made Monday by the Bush administration.
President Bush has included $100 million in his fiscal year 2009 budget for the 3.2-mile light rail extension from downtown Seattle to the University of Washington -- an unprecedented single-budget allocation for the light rail project, Sound Transit officials said.
The money is a vote of confidence and will allow groundbreaking to proceed on schedule this fall, said Ric Ilginfritz, Sound Transit's executive director for policy and public affairs.
"It's tremendous news; this is absolutely what we'd hope for," Ilginfritz said. "It makes the north line viable ... and we'll be able to roll from construction of the south line right into construction of the north line."
Bush's budget also proposes spending $36 million to help complete a project to deepen 103 miles of the Columbia River sooner than expected.
The president's budget request would boost annual spending by $6 million to complete the channel deepening next year, instead of 2010 as planned.
Northwest lawmakers hailed the proposal, which they said would save money and allow the region to reap the economic benefits of the deepening project a year earlier than expected. A deeper Columbia River "means more jobs, more trade and smarter use of energy," said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.
But the Columbia project was one of the few bright spots for the Northwest as President Bush released his final spending request.
The $3.1 trillion plan would slash funding for the Forest Service, for cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and for the restoration of Puget Sound, among other projects, Northwest lawmakers said. Bush is relying on spending cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other programs to help ensure the budget blueprint is balanced, at least on paper, in a time of war.
Congressional Democrats said they would make major changes before the plan, which covers the budget year that begins Oct. 1, is adopted.
Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., chairman of the House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee, called cuts proposed for the Forest Service "breathtaking," adding that Bush's plan could result in a layoff of nearly 1,200 employees -- 10 percent of the agency's work force
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the second-ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee and a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that with his final budget request, Bush "gave us more of the same. More promises, fewer dollars. More rhetoric, less investment in America."
Bush's plan would cut spending for Pacific salmon recovery from $67 million this budget year to $35 million next year, a figure Murray said would threaten efforts to restore and protect salmon habitat.
But Sound Transit's Ilginfritz said the allocation also bodes well for Sound Transit's hopes for a $750 million Full Funding Grant Agreement to complete the light rail line. The Federal Transit Administration is expected to make a final decision on the grant by late spring or early summer. The FTA has already given the rail line its highest rating for proposed transit projects nation-wide.
Sound Transit is expected next year to open its 15.6-mile south line from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport. The president included $28.8 million to finish that line, the final installment of a previously awarded $500 million grant.
WS DOT explains SR 167 HOT Pilot Program
What are HOT Lanes? 2/1/08
High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes are your ticket to the fast lane when you just can’t be late. This four-year pilot project will test a new congestion management tool that allows solo drivers to pay an electronic toll, without ever stopping, to use the carpool lanes.
Toll rates fluctuate with the level of congestion to ensure that traffic in the HOT lane flows at least 45 mph, even when the regular lanes are congested.
The project is scheduled to launch in spring 2008. A single HOT lane in each direction will run along nine miles of State Route 167 between Renton and Auburn in King County. Carpools of two people or more, transit, vanpools and motorcycles will use the HOT lanes toll free.
SR 167 drivers need to know:
* No Double-Crossing. The HOT lane will be separated from the general-purpose lanes by a double white line. It will be illegal to cross the double white line. All vehicles may enter the HOT lanes only at designated entry points marked by a single dashed line.
* Watch the Signs. A sign will announce a HOT lane access point is approaching a half-mile before each dashed-line entrance zone. Another electronic sign will indicate the current toll price at the beginning of each access point.
* Pilot Project. HOT lanes on SR 167 is a four-year pilot project, during which time WSDOT will be monitoring, evaluating and adjusting the system. If the program is a success, HOT lanes someday could open on other highways across the state.
Why a Toll?
A toll that adjusts with congestion levels will help maintain an optimal level of traffic in the carpool lanes. By adding more cars to the HOT lane when there's extra space, the entire highway will run more efficiently with less stop-and-go traffic.
Variable tolling eases congestion. The fluctuating toll amount ensures that traffic in the HOT lane is moving at least 45 mph virtually all the time. Revenues from the toll will help fund the program.
Good To Go!
The toll will be collected automatically using a Good To Go! transponder. That means no toll booths! Radio-frequency sensors electronically debit the toll.
When driving in HOT lanes with a passenger, motorists can avoid paying the toll by deactivating their transponder. A small shield that adheres with Velcro over the e-sticker transponder on the inside of a vehicle's windshield will disable the transponder by interupting the radio signal from the overhead sensor. Good To Go! shields will be availabe from WSDOT for a small fee shortly before HOT lanes open in spring 2008.
Why is WSDOT studying HOT Lanes on SR 167?
WSDOT is always looking for innovative ways to improve traffic flow.
Thanks to advances in technology, HOT lanes can help make our roads work better and more efficiently, so everyone benefits.
SR 167 connects communities between Renton and Tacoma and provides the Puget Sound region with a vital alternative to Interstate 5. It was chosen as the site for the HOT lanes pilot project because it's high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are underused.
Preliminary data from other states show that with HOT lanes more vehicles could travel on SR 167 daily, improving traffic flow for all drivers while also preserving speeds of at least 45 mph for transit, carpools and vanpools.
HOT lanes have been successful and popular in other U.S. states -- they are in operation in California, Texas, Minnesota and Colorado.
The End Result
SR 167 soon will have the first HOT lanes in Washington State. The pilot project will provide WSDOT with more information to help determine how HOT lanes could be used to improve traffic flow and what modifications will be needed to fine tune the system. WSDOT also will be asking both carpoolers and solo drivers how they feel about this the new commuting option throughout the four-year pilot period.
In addition to opening nine miles of HOT lanes in the southbound and northbound lanes of SR 167, WSDOT also is improving the northbound SR 167 exit ramps to I-405 as part of this project.
Project Benefits
* New Commute Option. Drivers can choose if and when they want to use the HOT lanes for an express trip.
* Fast, Reliable Travel. HOT lanes will maintain free flow speeds, even when the other lanes are congested.
* Increased Efficiency. More vehicles and more people will be able to travel SR 167 daily, benefiting all drivers.
* Increased Enforcement. WSDOT will pay for additional State Patrol troopers to enforce the new HOT lane rules.
* Toll-free Trips for Carpools and Transit. Carpools, vanpools, buses and motorcycles may continue to use the lane toll-free during the test project, like they use the HOV lane today.
* Congestion Relief. By encouraging transit and carpools, and allowing solo drivers to pay a toll to use the lanes, HOT lanes will allow SR 167 to carry more people and vehicles to help accommodate future population and employment growth in the region.
* Safety. The project includes adding a two-foot buffer between the HOT lanes and the general-purpose lanes. There will also be designated areas where vehicles can enter and exit the HOT lanes.
* Environment. The project will maintain or improve air quality and support regional environmental goals.
What is the project timeline?
* The SR 167 HOT Lanes Pilot project is anticipated to open in spring 2008.
* Following the opening of the SR 167 HOT Lanes Pilot Project, a detailed monitoring and evaluation period will begin.
* Data will be collected and assessed to determine the overall success of the project.
* WSDOT will provide annual reports to the legislature and the Transportation Commission. Resports will be available on the WSDOT Web site.
Public Involvement
Your thoughts and opinions are important to us. Public outreach activities will be conducted throughout the HOT Lanes Pilot Project. Outreach activities will include community meetings, focus groups and briefings to any organization that is interested in learning more about this project.
The project team will also periodically develop informational materials, such as a project folio and updates to this Web site to keep you informed about the project’s progress and provide information about upcoming project events. Let us know if you would like to be added to the South King County e-mail updates list, and we’ll keep you informed on projects in your area, including this one.
The Outreach Events page will be updated with project announcements and dates when project staff will be in your community.
Title VI: WSDOT assures full compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, national origin and sex in the provision of benefits and services. For language interpretation services please contact WSDOT at 206.382.5287. It is necessary to speak limited English so WSDOT can respond appropriately.
For information on WSDOT's Title VI Program, please contact the Title VI Coordinator at 360.705.7098 or visit our Web site.
Environmental Protection
WSDOT and our study partners make every effort to identify and avoid or minimize environmental effects from our projects. This project is not expected to result in significant environmental impacts since no new lanes will be added to SR 167.
Please visit the WSDOT Environmental Services Web site for more information.
Increasing safety is one of our priorities
Similar projects across the country have demonstrated that HOT lanes are safe for drivers. WSDOT will expand the current HOV buffer from a single white stripe (eight-inch buffer) to a double-white stripe (two-foot buffer).
It will be illegal for drivers to cross the double white line and weave in and out of the HOT lanes from the general-purpose lanes. The HOT lanes will have electronic signs with the toll rate and limited access points for entering and exiting. Wherever possible, the presence of law enforcement and incident response teams will help ensure the safe use of the HOT lanes.
Enforcement
WSDOT will pay for additional Washington State Patrol troopers to monitor HOT lane traffic.
When solo drivers with a valid GoodToGo! e-sticker enter the HOT lanes, a light will flash on the overhead sensor. If the light doesn’t flash and there is no passenger in the vehicle, a State trooper will stop vehicle and issue a citation.
Any violation of HOT lane rules could result in a fine of $124 or more.
Will this project impact tribal resources?
WSDOT seeks to address the concerns of the tribal nations using the process outlined in Section 106 of The National Historic Preservation Act and the WSDOT Tribal Consultation Policy adopted in 2003 by the Transportation Commission as part of the WSDOT Centennial Accord Plan.
For more information, please visit the WSDOT Tribal Liaison Web site.
Financial Information
This project is funded through the following sources:
* 2005 Gas Tax - $12.74 Million
* Federal Highway Administration - $5.13 Million
These funds are provided through Federal Formula Funds and a grant from the Federal Highway Administration's Value Pricing Program.
WSDOT.com
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Minneapolis Bridge had been recently passed inspection
August 3, 2007
Minneapolis Bridge Had Passed Inspections
By MATTHEW L. WALD and KENNETH CHANG
The eight-lane bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed on Wednesday had been diligently inspected for years and had always passed, state officials said yesterday.
It did not, however, get stellar grades for its condition.
Additionally, officials said the bridge’s design had been considered outmoded for decades because a single failure of a structural part could bring down the whole bridge. About 11 percent of the nation’s steel bridges, mostly from the 1950s and 1960s, lack the redundant protection to reduce these failures, federal officials said.
Over all, the bridge was rated 4 on a scale of zero to 9, with 9 being perfect and zero requiring a shutdown. An inspection report last year said the supporting structure was in “poor condition,” far from the lowest category. Hundreds of other working bridges are in similar shape, but the report did indicate that the bridge had possible issues that needed to be regularly inspected.
The bridge has been inspected annually since 1993, but independent engineers acknowledged yesterday that there are well-known limits to how useful an inspection can be. Bridges, they said, are prone to a variety of problems, and some are hard to spot. At the Minnesota Department of Transportation, shaken engineers made it clear that they knew something crucial had somehow been overlooked.
“We thought we had done all we could,” said Daniel L. Dorgan, bridge engineer at the department’s bridges division. “Obviously something went terribly wrong.”
On Thursday, the United States Department of Transportation said it had told all states to inspect bridges similar in design and construction to the one that collapsed, or to review inspection reports. The department said there were 756 such bridges.
In 1982, a bridge inspector looked at the Mianus River Bridge in Greenwich, Conn., and did not see the metal-fatigued pin that would break nine months later, collapsing three lanes of Interstate 95 and killing three.
In 1987, a New York Thruway bridge near Amsterdam, N.Y., also had a clean bill of health, but inspectors had never gone underwater into the Schoharie Creek to look at the bridge’s footings, where flood waters had scoured the concrete base. When the footings slipped, the bridge fell. Ten people died.
Today, inspectors use ultrasound to check the pins in bridges similar to the Mianus one, and bridge footings receive much more attention.
"I think bridge inspections are the best they’ve ever been," said David Schulz, director of the Infrastructure Technology Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago.
The cause of the Interstate 35W bridge failure on Wednesday will probably become clear through metallurgical examinations of the wreckage, experts said, but recovering the metal parts will be delayed by the search for human remains and the need to keep investigators safe in the swirling waters of the Mississippi.
The bridge was undergoing repair work this summer, and Mr. Schulz said he would be stunned if the work did not play a major role in the collapse. “It’s too much of a coincidence,” he said.
But Mr. Dorgan said he saw no connection between the repair work, which was taking place mostly on the roadway, and the collapse of the steel support structure far below.
Mr. Dorgan said the bridge was believed to be in good enough shape until 2020, when it was due for either a major overhaul or replacement.
Parts of the bridge were considered structurally deficient because of corroded bearings and tiny metal cracks that had been spotted years ago but were considered stable. The rating of “deficient” is a common one that indicates the need for regular inspection and does not mean the bridge is dangerous, said Thomas D. Everett, a top bridge official with the Federal Highway Administration.
The most visible threat to a bridge is usually corrosion. But metal fatigue — the weakening of steel by the repeated weight of heavy trucks bouncing across the bridge surface — is harder to see. Bridges in northern climates are particularly vulnerable to metal fatigue because steel becomes more brittle and prone to cracking when it is cold.
“A crack is very difficult to observe visually,” said Steven J. Fenves, a guest researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the Commerce Department, and a professor emeritus of civil engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “There may be paint over it, or maybe many layers of corrosion over it. It may be in an invisible place, in the second plate, not the outermost plate.”
The possibility that metal fatigue could cause a bridge to fail was not even considered by bridge engineers in the 1950s and 1960s, when the Minneapolis bridge was designed and built, Mr. Dorgan said. Research at Lehigh University in the 1970s showed that stresses could be much larger than had been thought. The I-35W bridge, which had been designed according to less rigid standards devised by the American Association of State Highway Officials in 1961, had components that would not be included in a bridge built today.
Fatigue cracks appeared in the approaches to the bridge, but no significant problems were detected in the center span. A study in 2001 by University of Minnesota researchers concluded: “The bridge should not have any problems with fatigue cracking in the foreseeable future.”
In a study completed in 2001 by the Federal Highway Administration, 49 working inspectors from around the country visually examined test bridges in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The inspectors correctly identified fatigue cracks only 4 percent of the time.
Additional techniques like X-rays, ultrasound, magnetic particles or dye can help identify cracks.
Mark V. Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said yesterday that his agency would determine whether the criteria for inspections were adequate. “They may well not be enough,” he said. Or the procedures may be adequate but may not have been followed, he said.
Safety board investigators will use computer modeling to study the failure, Mr. Rosenker said, and will also reconstruct parts of the bridge from the wreckage to determine the cause. The board’s final report could be many months away, he said.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
WSDOT Update - Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement
Project Phase: Design
Project Facts
* About 110,000 vehicles use the viaduct each day.
* The viaduct is 2.1 miles long.
* The existing structure has an overall width of 51 feet (near Madison Street).
Project Status
March 1 2008
Overview
The Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Program is composed of the Moving Forward projects, located in the north and south ends of the viaduct, and the central waterfront project.
The Moving Forward projects will repair or replace about half of the seismically vulnerable viaduct. These projects are necessary to improve public safety and keep traffic moving no matter what replaces the viaduct in the central waterfront section.
The central waterfront project will be decided through a collaborative process managed by the State of Washington, King County, and the City of Seattle.
Why is WSDOT pursuing this program?
The Alaskan Way Viaduct plays a major role in sustaining our economy and maintaining our citizens' ability to travel to and throughout Seattle. However, the viaduct, along with the seawall, is at risk of failure from earthquakes (with unacceptable risk to lives as well as property) and irreversible loss of use from age and deterioration. The structure must be replaced.
Our Partners
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), King County, and the City of Seattle have formed a partnership to lead this program.
The End Result
The end result for this program will be the replacement of the viaduct and seawall.
Project Benefits
* Safety. This program will create safe, seismically sound replacement structures for the viaduct and seawall.
* Traffic. This program will maintain traveler mobility within and through Seattle.
What is the project timeline?
Construction on the first Moving Forward project began in 2007. All of the Moving Forward projects are expected to be completed by 2012, when we will begin to remove the viaduct along the central waterfront. Visit the Timeline for more information.
Public Involvement
Your thoughts and opinions are important to us. The viaduct and seawall replacement program offers many opportunities for your involvement. Please contact us if you would like to schedule a presentation or share your ideas.
Environmental Protection
We make every effort to assess and avoid or minimize environmental impacts from our projects.
Environmental impacts from this program are analyzed and described in our Environmental Impact Statements. Additional environmental analysis may be required for each of the Moving Forward projects. Appropriate plans for mitigation of impacts will be developed and documented as part of the environmental documentation and permitting processes.
Please visit the WSDOT Environmental Services Web site for more information.
Increasing safety is one of our priorities
Time, wear and tear from daily traffic, the salty marine air, and earthquakes have taken their toll on the viaduct. We continue to monitor and inspect the viaduct as we move forward with these critical safety and mobility projects.
Will this project impact tribal resources?
At WSDOT we seek to address the concerns of tribal nations using the process outlined in Section 106 of The National Historic Preservation Act and the WSDOT Tribal Consultation Policy, which was adopted in 2003 as part of the WSDOT Centennial Accord Plan.
Government-to-government consultation has been initiated between WSDOT (on behalf of FHWA) and the Muckleshoot, Tulalip, Snoqualmie, Suquamish and Yakama Nation tribes. Under Section 106 regulations, we are also meeting with the Duwamish tribe. Coordination with the tribes will continue throughout the project. For more information, visit our WSDOT Tribal Liaison.
Financial Information
This program is funded through the following sources:
* 2005 Gas Tax (Partnership Funding) - $2 Billion
* 2003 Gas Tax (Nickel Funding) - $177 Million
* 2005 Federal Earmark Funds - $207.5 Million
* Other Funds - $19 Million
These funds are provided by the City of Seattle ($15.8 million), Puget Sound Regional Council ($1.2 million), the US Army Corps of Engineers ($100,000 for the seawall), and the federal 2003 budget ($2 million).
Total Funding Available From All Sources - $2.4 Billion
