|
Wayne's main strip is newly-paved, with wider streets and re-layed sidewalks thanks to the hard work of construction crews. But, it's the businesses along those streets that kept the downtown alive during a bumpy construction season. Construction equipment stills decorates the streets in this Northeast Nebraska town. Reminders of a project that shut down the part of Highway 15 that runs through the heart of Wayne, Nebraska. But, while the road was closed, the real heart of the downtown kept its welcome sign on the door. Randy Pedersen, Wayne Business Owner says, "I think if all of us have made it through that, I think we'll continue to thrive and business will definitely improve with the new street, I think." Dozens of businesses endured months of heavy construction right outside their doors.
Tyco Electronics announced that it has been awarded a coveted Global Technology Award in the category of ID Systems for its unique Reel-to-Reel RFID Line. The crystal glass award was presented by Global SMT & Packaging Magazine's Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Trevor Galbraith to Alan Strassman, product manager of Tyco Electronics Automation Group's RFID systems, on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 in a ceremony that took place at the Sofitel Hotel during the Assembly Technology Exposition. This line is an industry first ? it is an entire assembly system. The system has many features, including throughput up to 9,000 cycles per hour (cph), a full 20" wide Web process capability, and 12 ?m placement repeatability ? 3 Sigma. In addition, user benefits are high ? the system offers either passive or active designs, direct die pick from wafers down to 0.008", and positive displacement dispense technology.
More than 170 business people, government officials, civic leaders and transportation experts assembled in Lubbock last week for the annual Summit of the Ports-To-Plains Coalition. What they heard from a parade of 17 speakers was largely encouraging, often exhorting. The PTP Corridor links commerce in four states as it snakes along existing highways, most under heavy construction to handle increasing truck and tourist traffic between the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and Denver, the vacation springboard and financial hub of Colorado. “The Color of Progress," declared captions on symbolic, miniature orange traffic cones serving as table décor at the PTP Summit. Representatives from transportation agencies in Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico gave brief progress updates to PTP Summit members and guests. Mehdi Baziar, mobility analysis manager, Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), described continuing construction of the state's “Super Two" highways. These two-lane roads, with very broad shoulders, incised grooves for traction on snow and ice, and passing lanes as necessary, are paved with concrete, requiring less maintenance than asphalt. Baziar explained that the thick cement is also less vulnerable to the movement of Colorado's expansive soils. The “Super Two" construction on the PTP Corridor, from Lamar, through Limon, Colorado on Interstate 70, has sufficient easement to permit expansion to four-lane divided highway, the “gold standard" of PTP development, when traffic volume or congestion demand it.
Hurricane Katrina sped along plans for a spate of new high-rise residential towers, but more than a quarter of the proposed housing units have already been killed or put on hold. Out-of-town investors "are circling like eagles" with capital ready to invest in downtown projects, said Kurt Weigle, executive director of the Downtown Development District. And inquiries from outside developers have increased five-fold, possibly because of special tax incentives being made available to building projects in hurricane-impacted areas. But not all of the residential projects will be built, experts say. The pricetags on most of the announced projects have risen 30 percent due to escalating prices on labor and building materials, developers say. That big of an increase is giving pause to both the developers behind the condo towers and the potential condo buyers who, in some cases, are backing out of sales contracts when presented with the higher prices.
Engcobo - Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has urged the Eastern Cape government to do whatever it takes to eradicate schools built in mud in the province.
"We must do away with mud-built schools more especially since this is a disaster-prone area," Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka told Education MEC Mkhangeli Matomela, during a Presidential Imbizo here on Saturday.
Parents had complained that their children's lives were threatened by the poor infrastructure.
Several such schools were washed away during heavy rains in the province recently.
Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said it was government's aim to do way with such conditions as they were not conducive to progressive learning.
Mr Matomela told BuaNews that the provincial government was so far left with 572 such structures to do away with, with R600 million had been set aside for this reason this financial year.
Under the guise of running labor coalitions for minority workers, four men have been conducting shakedowns at constructions sites across the city on one occasion last year even stopping work on a section of Water Tunnel #3 prosecutors charged yesterday. Their victims are numerous contractors across the city and minority workers who were forced, under threat of violence, to hand over to two labor organizations a large portion of their pay, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said at a news conference yesterday. The suspects are from two competing organizations, Akbar's Community Services and P&D Construction Workers. They were arraigned yesterday on charges of enterprise corruption and grand larceny. The stated purpose of the two groups was to put minority workers on jobsites, prosecutors said.
|
