Second, a strange bias noted is that the use of consultants as opposed to CALTRANS seems to suggest either venality or incompetence and a preference for doing everything possible in-house. (Yet at another point the LAO argues the money will not stay in the state because out of state consulting firms will have to be hired for this type of project.)  I realize that there are firms that are not ethical but it is pretty hard to become big enough and respected enough to be shortlisted on such a huge project and not be honest and the state is the client who has oversight of the process. The quality of the engineering work might dictate using a firm known for their track record of success and quality as opposed to a “bottom line firm”, but even the lowest bidder is unlikely to be bilking the state of California, because projects are awarded in phases. There is no incentive to do a lousy job or to seriously underestimate costs for an engineering consulting firm.  The engineering and construction firms likely to be shortlisted are working on projects all over the world, and thus can maintain the staff with the various expertises necessary to complete this project. The states are likely stretched to their limit in their oversight role to the consultants and contractors. This particular section of the report is very confusing, because it seems instead of analysis leading to a conclusion, a conclusion is supported by conflicting analysis.

Redesign of the project and rerouting would cost a lot of extra money and cause many delays. None of these projects are likely to get cheaper by delaying. To think that starting over from the beginning of study will result in cost savings on design and construction of the project seems highly suspect.

The project is currently being supervised by the HSRA, High-Speed Rail Authority and the Legislative Analyst suggests that because the HSRA is understaffed oversight might be shifted to the DOT. The HSRA is supposed to have 40 staff members, and due to hiring freezes at the state, it is unable to expand beyond the current staff of 19.  In addition, it is suggested that CALTRANS has other expertise for which the HSRA has to pay. An example is in-house legal counsel.

The concerns about finding private partners to operate the system seem to be well founded. PPP is the new buzzword, but public private partnerships are still not the norm, and the partners have conflicting priorities in these deals. The private party may place an emphasis on profit over consumer satisfaction, and while loss is what the state fears the size of the profit is not the first concern of the state.  Worry about whether this project could end up costing more money than anticipated is understandable, but the assumption that the feds are not running out of patience with endless delays not just on rail but other infrastructure projects too (see Seattle tunnel) is a large one. But while the Legislative Analyst includes the airports and highway projects that will have to be funded if the project is eliminated, that seems to be dismissed by the report.

Frankly, a lot of the report seems to be driven by the very real fears that continued federal commitment to high-speed rail is uncertain.  In the current atmosphere, it has become unpopular in some political corners. But the report also seems to reflect that the LAO works for a state legislature, and that state legislatures these days are all about kicking the can down the road rather than getting something done.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/05/state-analyst-wants-to-put-brakes-on-high-speed-rail-until-changes-made.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/05/BA8S1JCGBA.DTL

The heavily traveled and economically successful Northeast Corridor received a boost. Amtrak was given $450 million in funds. States in the region were awarded a total of $345 million for other NEC-specific projects.  The investments will increase speeds from 135 to 160 miles per hour on critical segments, improve on-time performance and add more seats for passengers. $295 million will be used to alleviate congestion around Manhattan. new routes will allow Amtrak trains to bypass the busiest passenger rail junction in the nation. It  funds the entire amount requested for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Harold Interlocking plan. In a process that seems to be dribbling out small segments of the eventually pretty large pie, this is quite unusual.

The Empire Corridor, the new Erie Canal to connect all of New York State will receive money for improvements to the Albany station by adding a fourth  track. Albany Rensselaer accounts for a lot of delays on Amtrak, and this should help with that issue. The Schenectady train station will be replaced. This is long overdue; it is a pit that makes the area bus stations seem like the first class lounges at major airports.  Rochester will receive funds for preliminary engineering and environmental studies for a much-needed new Intermodal Station. The lion’s share of the money, and a grant of the amount requested, is going for Northeast Corridor congestion relief.

Other projects funded include improvements in the service between Detroit and Chicago and between St. Louis and Chicago in the Midwest. The goal is to cut the time of the trip between Detroit and Chicago by 30 minutes. One thousand construction jobs are expected to be added to the region.

There was an award to increase the current California Central Valley project by an additional 20 miles.

Links to the press releases and to some early coverage are below:

http://fastlane.dot.gov/2011/05/hsr-grant-announcement.html#more

http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2011/dot5711.html

http://www.facebook.com/notes/amtrak/amtrak-awarded-450-million-to-upgrade-new-york-washington-high-speed-rail-servic/10150172672491127

http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Capital-Region-gets-58M-that-Fla-rejected-for-1371753.php

http://origin.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/05/rail-gain-in-federal-funding-for-nys-trains

Enter piezoelectricity. And, imagine what this could do to hopscotch.  What if the cars driving on the highways actually generated power and your children playing on your sidewalk generated electricity to your home?

http://www.govtech.com/technology/Energy-Ecosystem-of-the-Future.html

http://solarroadways.com/main.html

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-08-28-could-we-replace-roads-and-parking-lots-with-solar-panels

http://challenge.ecomagination.com/home

This is another recognition of the region’s importance in this 21st century technology. The college already has 250 corporate partners, and the industry is expected to drive economic growth in the region. Links below:

http://assets.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2011/04/19/intl-nanotech-conference-moved-from.html

http://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=22277

http://cnse.albany.edu/Newsroom/NewsReleases/Details/11-04-19/UAlbany_NanoCollege_to_host_prestigious_International_Nanotechnology_Conference_on_Communication_and_Cooperation.aspx

http://www.slate.com/id/2287539

http://www.economist.com/node/18620944

Don’ts:

• No matter what you use for an email address, do not forget to check it every day; now on to the meat;
• Unless you want a part time job as a greeter at Walmart, do not use an AOL email address; it makes you look like you are not familiar with any recent technology and old;
• If you are a woman,do not have an email address that refers to kittens, puppies or anything else that is cuddly; if you are a man, nothing that refers to your frat, penchant for easy women or beer;  these rules actually do apply to any and all permutations of gender and sexual preferences;
• If you are married, congratulations, but an email address for the family or the happy couple looks thoroughly unprofessional and is mildly creepy; if either  john or joan jones has sent me a resume, I do not, as a potential employer, want to send an acknowledgement to keepingupwiththejones@yahoo.com. I only want to talk to John or Joan, the applicant;
• If your email address gets hijacked at any point in time, do not ignore it. Your whole address book is being offered drugs for off market purposes or gambling accounts at offshore banks; fix it and send an acknowledgement that this has happened to your address book. This has happened in the past few months to two candidates in my database. The one who has done nothing about it I would not wish as an employee on my ex in-laws. He has been deleted from my database.  I hate getting daily emails from his account with what could links to viruses or worms. If you are giving up an account, then shut it down; it is possible to close an email account;
• Particularly in the South, people have a strong affiliation for certain college sports teams, and they sometimes like to celebrate this in their email addresses. However, this also means that there are alumni of many other institutions that loath fans of this or that team. This seems to be more prevalent in football, but the best example is in basketball. Would  you really want to advertise that you are a Duke Blue Devils Basketball fan by sporting an email address like bballbluedevils@roadrunner.com? Many college basketball fans hate Duke. Why make the road a little longer for yourself by advertising that you are an avid fan of any team?
• Similarly, anyone who identifies themselves by a hobby or sport might plant a subconcious seed that they lack a certain seriousness about their job; gonefishin399@ is not an address that inspires confidence in  your work ethic;
• Last, but not least nothing that can offend people of other racial or religious backgrounds or can be taken as overtly sexual; should you be the sort of person who shares emails that can be considered to be offensive, I suggest  you use a separate account; for more in this topic google carl paladino;
• In a slightly different vein, do not use your company email address to conduct the business of investigating a new job; it looks indiscreet; unless you have announced that you are leaving to you employer do not use their resources to find a new job; it is okay to send a recruiter a home email address  from the one at which they contacted you at work, but use your personal email address for all future correspondence;

Dos:

• If you have a lifetime email address provided to alumni of your academic institution, particularly if it is a technical school, consider using it;
• If you went to Harvard, ignore the immediately preceding piece of advice; people who went to Harvard have a reputation of slipping this into every conversation at intervals that never exceed ten minutes, so this just plays into that subconscious prejudice about Harvard grads;
• Gmail has gotten to be really standard in business dealings and amongst younger workers; it is less hip thirtysomething than Yahoo, and this is an image you might want in business;
• Simpler is better, and if  in order to make it unique and attainable you need to add something to suebrown make it a degree or professional designation: suebrownesq@ or suebrownpe@ or suebrownpt@ are all infinitely preferable to susieloveskittens@;
• Broadband internet provider email addresses show that you are willing to pay for reasonably fast internet access; but keep in mind they can be hard to access remotely from an address other than your home ip address, so if you might be traveling during this process use another account for your employment related emails;
• Make sure you have an account with enough storage to keep each and every email related to each and every job search; it is also best if it is searchable, so you can keep all your balls in the air; back it all up on a thumb drive or in the cloud.

Email has hastened the hiring process; every recruiter and human resources person I know uses it extensively. This is a business where speed is important. But like any tool, you need to be mindful to how you are presenting yourself. And your email address is one of the first impressions you will make on that potential employer.

So many graduate level engineers are working and getting a degree part time that location must select the school, and if your employer will reimburse tuition is not the most highly ranked school for most engineers the one that is subsidized by their bosses?

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/civil-engineering-rankings

http://www.infozee.com/channels/ms/usa/civil-engineering-rankings.htm

http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/civil-engineering