California contract for Central Parking
Posted on March 8, 2010 at 1:09 pmCentral Parking has snagged a City of Anaheim contract to manage about 2,400 downtown parking spaces. The Nashville-based company already runs the parking for the Hilton near Disneyland a couple of miles to the south.
Reshaping road funding
Posted on March 4, 2010 at 10:11 am
Gubernatorial candidate Ron Ramsey wants a flat tax on cars, albeit one that would be indexed to inflation.
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What David Manning is up to in Guam
Posted on March 1, 2010 at 7:22 am
Two years ago, former Metro Finance Director David Manning was appointed to fix Guam’s big garbage stink. The Birmingham News checks in on the progress he’s made.
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Contract awarded for last 840 section
Posted on February 25, 2010 at 2:02 pm
TDOT officials have given Eubank Asphalt Paving & Sealing the $55 million contract to complete State Route 840 by connecting the spur off I-40 in Dickson County with the segments under construction south of Franklin.
HT: Channel 4
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Forbes: Nashville in dregs of green-commute poll
Posted on February 16, 2010 at 1:34 pmAs if to reinforce the message of Joey Garrison’s City Paper piece this week on just how far Nashville has yet to go in developing viable mass transit, Forbes is now out with a chart ranking the top 60 U.S. metro areas by various metrics related to commuting. It is not a proud civic moment for the Music City.
Crunching census data on the percentage of commuters who got to work by carpooling, walking, biking or using public transport in 2008, the magazine ranked Nashville 55th as a “green commuting” city. In an overall ranking that factors in travel time and other data as well as greenness, we come in 49th, just ahead of Chicago and L.A.
Salt Lake City came in first overall. The snarl that is the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area came in last, a ranking many acrophobics out there will consider justified purely on the grounds of the big swoopy bridge you have to cross if you want to go south from the airport.
[h/t Freddie O'Connell]
State joins water pipe lawsuit
Posted on February 12, 2010 at 9:44 amTennessee is one of more than 40 government entities that have signed on to a whistleblower lawsuit against a maker of plastic pipes used in water and sewer projects. The complaint alleges the company made its products weaker than they should have been.
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Houston airport extends Central Parking deal
Posted on February 8, 2010 at 12:07 pmCentral Parking and its joint-venture partner Global Parking has been awarded a five-year extension to their management contracts at Houston’s Hobby and Bush airports. As part of the deal, the companies will upgrade their fleet to run only on compressed natural gas.
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Construction’s new sugar daddy
Posted on February 2, 2010 at 9:26 am
Between schools, prisons and roads, government has long been a significant player in the construction sector. But December numbers show just how much public spending is now driving what little growth there is for builders.
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‘The stars could be aligning’
Posted on January 25, 2010 at 8:14 am
Kathryn Thompson at West End-based TRG writes that the jobs stimulus bill being hammered out now is almost guaranteed to include a big chunk of cash for infrastructure spending that will allow states to better plan and staff for longer-term projects.
What is different now is the political will to do something about unemployment…even if it comes as a self-serving re-election strategy. [...] Fortunately for the construction industry, the Democratic party believes in only one formula for stimulating the economy, government spending programs. We expect to see more of it, and soon, in one form or the other. Ultimately, that will play out well for our building materials, E&C, and heavy equipment coverage universe.
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Brentwood firm taking heat over Virginia snow job
Posted on January 12, 2010 at 9:47 amInfrastructure Corp. of America is the target of some serious frustration in Virginia, where hundreds of motorists were stranded in a recent snowstorm on Interstate 81. Brentwood-based ICA won a $29 million contract three years ago to service about 100 miles of highways near Roanoke.
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Construction stimulus doesn’t create jobs
Posted on January 11, 2010 at 12:47 pmAn analysis by the AP shows that the stimulus dollars put to use on construction and infrastructure projects isn’t having an appreciable employment impact.
Even within the construction industry, which stood to benefit most from transportation money, the AP’s analysis found there was nearly no connection between stimulus money and the number of construction workers hired or fired since Congress passed the recovery program. The effect was so small, one economist compared it to trying to move the Empire State Building by pushing against it.
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Taxed by the mile?
Posted on January 5, 2010 at 9:58 amTexas researchers will soon begin studying alternative transportation funding mechanisms, including one that would generate revenue based on distances traveled. The idea was also floated by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood a year ago as a way to help fund infrastructure improvements.
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Moody’s raises airport outlook
Posted on December 26, 2009 at 9:36 amIn rating the upcoming issuance of $28 million in Airport Authority bonds, Moody’s credit analysts have raised their outlook for BNA’s mothership to ’stable’ from ‘negative,’ citing like the rise in debt service reserves.
At the completion of this transaction, the authority will have approximately $6.4 million in cash, a $15 million line of credit from First Tennessee Bank, N.A. (rated A3/P-2, negative outlook), and $42 million of sureties provided by National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. (rated Baa1, developing) in support of a debt service reserve requirement of $29.9 million.
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Locals hired for West Tenn. rail terminal
Posted on November 30, 2009 at 12:51 pmNorfolk Southern has selected the Nashville office of AMEC Earth and Environmental to help it prepare for the construction of a 570-acre intermodal facility east of Memphis. The rail giant has said the terminal will take 500,000 trucks off Tennessee’s roads each year.
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Here are some stocks that still have upside
Posted on November 24, 2009 at 11:54 amLocal researchers Kathryn Thompson and David Wells are pounding the table for a good number of the materials, engineering and construction companies they cover.
We believe the House will take up a jobs creation bill in early December. We believe the Senate will pass a six-month extension to highway spending in December that will restore funding to pre-rescission levels and begin debating a House passed job creation bill in early 2010. We also believe infrastructure spending will be included in any bill passed on job creation and funding will be in addition to the six month spending extension. If we are correct, all stocks in our coverage universe will rise.
Top picks from the Thompson Research team: Vulcan Materials (Ticker: VMC), Granite Construction (Ticker: GVA), Sterling Construction (Ticker: STRL) and Astec Industries (Ticker: ASTE).
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