Tag Archives: infrastructure

Trump budget to give first look at infrastructure plan

President Donald Trump's FY2018 budget is seen during printing process at the Government Publishing Office in Washington, U.S., May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump will propose $200 billion in infrastructure spending over 10 years in his first budget on Tuesday – funding the administration believes will boost private, state and local spending on projects, a White House official said on Friday.

The infrastructure plan, first reported by Bloomberg News, is likely to include funding to encourage state and local governments to lease assets to the private sector to generate funding for other projects.

Trump has long pledged a $1 trillion, 10-year plan to modernize U.S. roads, bridges, airports, the electrical grid and water systems, but has so far been vague on how much of the spending would come from the federal government.

Trump, who leaves on Friday for his first foreign trip, will miss the roll-out of his full budget. He was to meet with his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, on Friday before departing.

The budget will also include details about Trump’s proposals to cut foreign aid and boost military spending. It could provide clues on his plan to cut taxes.

The Washington Post reported that the budget will include funds for a program to give parents six weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child, expected to cost about $25 billion a year.

While Trump can propose programs, Congress ultimately controls spending and rarely approves White House budget plans as proposed.

Republicans control both the Senate and House of Representatives, but were lukewarm to Trump’s initial “skinny budget” plan for fiscal 2018, released in March.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and David Alexander; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Dan Grebler)

U.S. governors want say on Trump’s infrastructure plan

President Donald Trump

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. governors are flagging hundreds of “shovel-ready” projects they regard as high-priority for President Donald Trump’s plan to fix the nation’s infrastructure.

Scott Pattison, executive director of the bipartisan National Governor’s Association, said on Monday his group, at the request of the White House, has assembled a list of 300 projects costing billions of dollars from 43 states and territories, with more expected to come.

“The good part from a bipartisan standpoint is there seems to be full consensus that we have a lot of infrastructure problems in the U.S., a lot of maintenance issues, also things that need building,” he said in an interview.

In his inaugural address Friday, the Republican president said the nation’s infrastructure “has fallen into disrepair and decay.”

“We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation,” Trump said.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Monday told reporters that “infrastructure continues to be a huge priority.”

The American Society of Civil Engineers’ infrastructure report card has estimated the United States needs to invest $3.6 trillion by 2020.

Pattison said while it was still early in the process, disagreements are likely over how to fund infrastructure. He added that governors want “all the tools” to be made available, including cash, municipal bonds, public-private partnerships and federal matching programs.

“One of the biggest issues that has to be faced is that the gas tax has been primarily the way in which we funded a lot of our transportation projects, and that’s a declining revenue source,” Pattison said.

Governors also want to make sure their project priorities are immune from congressional earmarking, Pattison said, adding that states have developed “robust” prioritization programs.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Nepal says need more aid for quake rebuilding

A man works to rebuild a house a year after the 2015 earthquakes in Bhaktapur

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Aid-dependent Nepal needs $7.86 billion over five years, $1.17 billion more than earlier estimates, to rebuild homes and infrastructure destroyed by the deadly earthquake in 2015, the government said on Thursday.

In total, 9,000 people were killed across Nepal in the 7.8 magnitude quake, which the government said had affected 2.8 million of the Himalayan nation’s 28 million population.

International donors, who pledged $4.1 billion for reconstruction last year, have been left frustrated as little of that fund has been spent because of haggling between political parties, leading to a delay in helping millions of survivors.

Authorities said the increase in the amount of aid required was due to a larger scale of destruction than initially projected.

The Red Cross says four million people are still living in poor-quality temporary shelters, posing a threat to their health.

“The increased requirement of funds is due to a rise in the number of people affected,” Prime Minister K.P. Oli told lawmakers in Kathmandu.

“The government will construct community houses and move survivors who are living in the open to roofed shelters,” Oli said.

Reconstruction of private homes will be completed in two years, he added, urging donors to provide additional support for rebuilding.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Toby Davis)

Temporary housing first step for wildfire ravaged Fort McMurray

A charred vehicle and home are pictured in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood of Fort McMurray

By Rod Nickel and Liz Hampton

FORT MCMURRAY/LAC LA BICHE, Alberta (Reuters) – Reconstructing Fort McMurray will be easier than first feared since much of the city’s critical infrastructure remains intact but the once booming oil town will be smaller than before, according to its mayor.

The first priority is getting new temporary housing so companies can resume shuttered oil production.

Fort McMurray Mayor Melissa Blake said the fire is a chance to “right size” the city after the energy slump left it with vacant houses and unemployed workers well before wildfires hit last week.

With 10 percent of the city burned and more than 90,000 residents evacuated, the combination of a glut of prefire homes and quick-build housing are a solution as the government and oil executives try to jump-start rebuilding.

“If I look at what the circumstance gives to us, I think it’s an opportunity to right-size the community,” Blake told Reuters. “I recognize that this horror is probably going to get some people reconsidering what their futures are, whether it’s in the region or not.”

The fire may have been the final push that some residents needed to leave the isolated northern city, but major oil producers need it back on its feet quickly to restart some 1 million barrels per day of shuttered production.

The wildfire, which has spread over 229,000 hectares (566,000 acres), is still burning, though favorable weather overnight was seen helping firefighters.

While many companies have work camps at the site of their oil sands projects around Fort McMurray, workers from across Canada and around the world moved into the city with their families when the sector was booming years ago.

If energy companies can’t house workers and their families quickly, they risk losing them permanently.

The industry will support efforts to rebuild the hospital, pipelines and electrical distribution center, Suncor Inc <SU.TO> Chief Executive Officer Steve Williams said on Tuesday after a meeting of industry and provincial officials.

“FIRST WAVE”

A recovery will be easier due to the city’s largely intact infrastructure and downtown, but people are already fighting over available housing because several major residential neighborhoods were destroyed.

“We’ve got banks, companies, restoration companies, engineering companies all looking for space now. People need to stay somewhere,” said Bill de Silva, construction manager of Liam Construction, one of the city’s biggest builders.

He said the “first wave” is already trying to secure space in hotels, condominiums and apartments undamaged by the fire, but the approval process in the still-evacuated city isn’t easy.

“We’ve got to get there as quickly as we can. We can play a big role but they have to let us in. All the government red tape doesn’t help us now,” de Silva said.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said officials need to finish damage assessments, set up a welcome center and transportation plan and secure food and supplies before anyone can start moving back in.

“There are hazardous materials and broken power lines. Basic services, gas, water, waste disposal, healthcare and much more needs to be re-established,” she said.

“The city was surrounded by an ocean of fire only a few days ago but Fort McMurray and the surrounding communities have been saved, and they will be rebuilt.”

The province is already speaking to temporary builders.

“They’ve been asking very general questions about what kind of temporary housing solutions we can provide (and a) rough timeline of how long it would take to be installed,” said Troy Ferguson, CEO of Redrock Group, which builds modular work camps and homes in Alberta.

Marc Roy, who was chief of staff for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, sees parallels between the two disasters, including the total destruction of some homes.

Longer term, Roy said, authorities need to allocate resources carefully, because some residents likely will not return.

“Are you building with the hopes that you build a field of dreams and people come to fill it, or are you using your resources as wisely as you possibly can at the moment?” he said. “You just can’t put it back exactly like it was and make that your plan. That does not work.”

One wrinkle may be home insurance policies that do no pay out in full unless homeowners rebuild.

“If a customer chooses not to repair or replace, they will receive the actual cash value of the building at the time of the loss,” said Intact Insurance, Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer, in a statement. Because of the oil downturn, that cash value could be less than owners hope.

Debra Bunston, an Alberta realtor, said the disaster may fill vacant homes or spur sales of homes that are already on the market, “a bit of a silver lining in this horrible cloud of smoke.”

(Additional reporting by Allison Martell and Andrea Hopkins in Toronto and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)