Passage of a highway bill has stalled in Congress less than two months before the 2015 law expires. The House has passed an update to the law, while Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is discussing the America's Transportation Infrastructure Act with Senate leadership.

Union Pacific has received approval from Arizona authorities to rebuild a bridge over Tempe Town Lake and Rio Salado Parkway in Tempe that was damaged after a freight derailment and subsequent fire. A revised plan calls for a prefabricated bridge span that extends over the parkway without supports.

A plan in Austin, Texas, for a $7 billion subwaylike light-rail system is expected to appear on the November ballot. The City Council is preparing to vote on ballot placement for Project Connect, the underground portion of which is designed to separate light rail from downtown car traffic.

Vermont Electric Power has signed on Catamount Solar and Northern Reliability to build a 500-kilowatt solar array and a 1.2-megawatt-hour energy storage system in Rutland. Catamount is the prime contractor, responsible for site work, construction and connections, while Northern is supervising battery energy storage.

A mixed-use development proposed for downtown Sunnyvale, Calif., has obtained City Council approval. The plan by developer Sares Regis Group of Northern California includes 793 apartments and condos, nearly 182,000 square feet of retail space and about 653,000 square feet for offices.

Rosendin Electric has used industrial-grade cooling units to sanitize surfaces at two prefabrication warehouses in Oregon and at two data center sites in Oregon and Washington, says Josh Johnson, the company's West Coast corporate safety director. Crews fill a 50-gallon tank on the cooler with water and cleaning chemicals and use the machine's swaying function to spray mist over targeted areas to protect workers from the coronavirus.

Hematite is key to using red bricks for energy storage, according to a study by Washington University in St. Louis. Researchers have added a coating of a conducting polymer composed of nanofibers to penetrate the inner porous network of a brick and to absorb ions that store and conduct electricity.

The University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering has begun offering a master's program in advanced design and construction technology. The curriculum includes computer science, 3D printing and other fields to prepare civil engineers and other builders for the growing role of technology and data in construction.

Some small businesses shied away from the Paycheck Protection Program because of complexities and ever-shifting rules. A redux of the program is raising concerns partly because of the continued role of the Small Business Administration, which is notorious for inexperience with businesses employing fewer than 100 people.

Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020, from 2 to 3 p.m. EDT

Have you been looking to explore elements of the AGC's Lean Construction Education Program in more detail outside of the Last Planner System®? Gilbane Building Company has placed a focus on Supply Chain Management as a Lean tactic and is leading a webinar on the ins and outs of the process. Representatives from Gilbane's Supply Chain Department will walk you through the theories of Supply Chain and how they apply to Construction Management as outlined in Unit 5 of the LCEP. In addition, there will be examples of successes and lessons learned at Gilbane and an opportunity for Q&A.

AGC of America recognizes this WebEd as qualifying for continuing education hours toward the renewal of AGC's Certificate of Management-Lean Construction (CM-Lean). Attendees may earn up to 1.0 hour of CE Credit by attending this webinar.

Lean more and register.