Western Dakota Tech and the Associated General Contractors of South Dakota hosted more than 130 students for a construction camp. Students learned about operating heavy equipment, electrical jobs, how to work with wood and concrete, and more.
Florida's building codes were improved after Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida in 1992, but the rules are not as strict on the Florida Panhandle, which is now reeling from Hurricane Michael. When the area's new regulations were implemented in 2002, the American Society of Civil Engineers' warned that the Panhandle was still susceptible to strong storms despite low historical precedence, and many homes there were built before the codes were adopted.
The cracked girders at the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco have been shored up. The center remains closed, but the street beneath the center has reopened for traffic.
The proposed Sonoran Corridor, which would link interstates 10 and 19 south of Tucson, Ariz., is touted as a major economic improvement project, and a recent study said it would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and add billions to the economy. Plans for the corridor are still nascent, as no route, funding source or construction timeline has been identified yet.
A proposed highway connecting Clermont, Fla., and Orlando could include charging stations for electric vehicles as well as solar-powered roads and futuristic tire-monitoring stations. It may be roughly five years before the Lake-Orange Connector's high-tech future comes to fruition, but a study could be finished by next summer.
A beachfront house built to withstand 250-mph winds was the only building on a block in Mexico Beach, Fla., that was undamaged by Hurricane Michael. The house is made of reinforced concrete, with additional concrete used to fortify its corners, and sits on tall pilings to prevent flooding.
The C5 South Link Expressway toll road in the Philippines is under construction and is expected to be completed by 2020. One segment of the road is almost halfway done and is expected to be finished by March.
A shortfall in transportation investment is hindering Connecticut's economic growth, said Joseph McGee of the Business Council of Fairfield County, and two of the state's three candidates for governor have plans that favor tolling. Democrat Ned Lamont has proposed tolls for heavy cargo trucks as part of an infrastructure plan to raise $350 million a year, while independent Oz Griebel said he wants to conduct a Hartford-area tolling pilot that could expand statewide.
Transurban is establishing a program in Australia to help drivers who are facing difficulty paying tolls and fines, with the goal of keeping people out of the criminal justice system. The company will set up a national phone line where people can access financial and legal help.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has proposed a $9 billion plan to expand major roads near Washington, D.C., with express toll lanes. A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll of registered voters in the state found 44% of respondents favoring tolled express lanes and 50% opposing such lanes.