With the passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, an unprecedented opportunity has opened up for both the public and private construction markets. CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION and PUBLIC WORKS magazines created this supplemental publication focused on helping contractors successfully bid projects, and infrastructure managers invest in long-term solutions.

The term "infrastructure" as used in both the supplement and web pages is defined as related to transportation, energy, and water management. This includes roads, bridges, mass transit, airports, water and wastewater systems, and power grids—the public works services and structures that support U.S. citizens.

The editors of CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION and PUBLIC WORKS magazines hope you enjoy and benefit from the following content and additional resources.

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Table of Contents

Editorial

• Land of Opportunity
  E-mail Editor-in-Chief Tim Gregorski

Departments

• News & Events
  The American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) introduced an online calculator that helps calculate estimated fuel and cost savings associated with building with concrete pavement versus asphalt.
• Concrete Bridges: The Rush to Build Bridges
  Will the stimulus package make a difference for our nation's infrastructure and the concrete industry?
• Products Solving Problems: Cement Product Offers Benefits Over Asphalt
  Although asphalt has dominated the road repair market for years, recent studies and changing market conditions now indicate the numerous benefits of concrete over blacktop.
• Products Solving Problems: Finding Buried Treasure With Diamond Grinding
  With an unprecedented number of roadways in need of repair across the U.S., cost-effective pavement rehabilitation techniques remain a pressing issue for roadway engineers and owners.
• Products Solving Problems: Staying Ahead of the Weather
  Knowing when inclement weather is on the horizon can make all the difference on a jobsite, especially when it's imperative to stay on deadline and within budget.

Features

• Winning Government Work
  You have heard all about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)—more popularly known as the Stimulus Bill that passed in February 2009—and all the money that will soon start flowing out of Washington.
• Expediting Opportunity
  In January 2009, President Barack Obama named Ray LaHood as the 16th Secretary of Transportation.
• Concrete Overlays
  Interest in concrete overlays, as well as the use of these versatile pavement solutions, has grown significantly in the past decade. More recently, the enactment of the ARRA has created an imperative for roadbuilding and rehabilitation solutions that can be used for shovel-ready projects.
• We Love Pavement!
  We Americans love our pavement. We drive 3 trillion miles a year on more than 4 million miles of U.S. roadways. Clearly we're a nation on the go and we expect our roads, streets, and highways to be available and ready whenever, and wherever, we are.
• Enhancing Infrastructure
  One of the cornerstones of the Obama administration's economic stimulus package is investment in U.S. infrastructure, including roads, bridges, ports, airports, and water management systems from the federal level all the way to small-town, USA.

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Editors' Picks

Every month CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION magazine assembles additional interactive features, online resources, and reference materials from each issue. Looking for more information on a particular topic? Want to read a related article? Find them here assembled for you by the editors of CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION magazine. In case you miss these exclusive Editors' Picks, here is a complete archive of past issues so you can always access our Web-exclusive content.

Web-Exclusive Articles

• Flail Selection—Plane and Simple, by Dennis Von Ruden, discusses four flail configurations available for surface planer applications.
• Barry LePatner supplies some of his ideas on how stimulus money should be doled out for infrastructure in Opinion: Filling Potholes on the Road to Repair.

Winning Government Work

• Federal Acquisition Regulation governs the purchase of goods and services for the executive branch of the U.S. government. Individual agencies supplement with their own rules. You can get a copy and lots of background information on the site.
• FedBizOpps lists all federal business opportunities, including all construction contracts as they are let.
• Central Contractor Registration is where any company must register first before doing business with any federal executive branch agency.
• Economic Recovery Resource Center, created by Public Works magazine, is a listing of where all the ARRA funds for infrastructure are going, plus news about the stimulus package.
• Business.gov, administered by the Small Business Administration, is the U.S. government's primary link to small businesses. There's a lot of information about how to register and find government business and what rules and regulations apply. It contains links to the business offices in every state.
• Recovery.gov is the federal effort to document where all the stimulus money is going; there also are links to recovery Web sites in all 50 states.
• Prevailing Wage Resource Book is a good resource if your project must meet the requirements of the Davis Bacon Act.
• Associated General Contractors has a number of great guidebooks for sale on how to negotiate your way through federal contracting requirements.

Expediting Opportunity

• For more information on Ray LaHood, visit http://www.dot.gov.

Concrete Overlays

• To learn more about concrete overlays, visit American Concrete Pavement Association.

We Love Pavement!

• The American Concrete Pavement Association and the National Asphalt Paving Association both maintain informative Web sites.
• The Federal Highway Administration provides annual statistics regarding U.S. roadways. The 2007 report is the latest available.
• Check out this 50-year retrospective on the Interstate Highway system.
• Take a look at the Pennsylvania Turnpike history as well as a quick overview of the turnpike today.
• Read about the history of asphalt.
• Learn more about the history of concrete pavement.
• Take a look at the ASCE Infrastructure Report Cards, or specifically for the Roads section.
• Wikipedia offers a good overview of the federal government's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
• More information about the National Partnership for Highway Quality is on the Web at http://www.nphq.org.
• A good explanation of ESALs is presented at http://pavementinteractive.org/index.php?title=ESAL.
• Learn more about SF-SCC, SCC for slipform paving.
• The Washington (state) Asphalt Paving Association offers an excellent collection of information about asphalt paving.
• Learn about new asphalt pavement technology that's allowing longer working time and temperature reductions.
• The PCA report on asphalt's future can be found.

Enhancing Infrastructure

• To learn more about concrete mixes, the Portland Cement Association and American Concrete Pavement Association.

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General Resources

• Visit our Economic Recovery Resource Center, updated routinely on all the details about the $150 billion allocated for public infrastructure.
• To learn more about the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, visit www.recovery.gov.
• Learn how innovative technologies took the I-35W bridge construction to new heights that will contribute to future bridge design in Bridge to the Future, by Joe Nasvik.