delays hit ‘shovel ready’ projects in trump’s infrastructure plan
Tuesday 15 July 2025
Last Updated : GMT 09:40:38
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle

Delays hit ‘shovel ready’ projects in Trump’s infrastructure plan

Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle

Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicleDelays hit ‘shovel ready’ projects in Trump’s infrastructure plan

US President Donald Trump
New York - Arab Today

US President Donald Trump reassured manufacturers gathered in the White House Roosevelt room on March 31 that a massive infrastructure program was coming soon.
“We are going to make it happen” this year, he said, according to Drew Greenblatt, the president of Marlin Steel in Baltimore, who was present. “That was actually the first thing that he talked about behind closed doors with us,” Greenblatt added.
But putting a trillion-dollar infrastructure program to work could be easier said than done, as some of the projects suggested to the administration underscore.
Project lists submitted by the North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) and by an outside developer who helped with the transition both contain projects that infrastructure builders call “shovel ready.”
But, for a range of reasons, shovel ready does not always mean ready for shovels to break ground. After NABTU President Sean McGarvey met with Trump on Jan. 23, the group submitted a total of 26 bridge, pipeline and water projects. A second list of 51 projects was assembled by Ohio developer Dan Slane, who assisted with the transition, including everything from inland waterways to ports to a new FBI headquarters.
While details on Trump’s plans are scant, a senior administration official said they are looking for ways to shorten the lengthy permitting process. “The current system has just lost its way,” he said.
Nine projects have garnered the support of both Slane and the NABTU, appearing on both lists; of those, seven have yet to start construction, and one has only done preliminary construction, highlighting how hard it is to launch infrastructure projects as quickly as Trump wants to do.
“The shovel ready moniker that they put on projects, it is just rarely applicable,” said Bill Miller, president and chief executive of two companies that overlap the two lists. The Power Company of Wyoming LLC is building the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project, and TransWest Express LLC is developing the TransWest Express Transmission Project, crossing Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Nevada.
The Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind project, which is being built in part on federal land, took eight years and “tens of millions of dollars” before it could recently start construction. The TransWest Express transmission project is still waiting for several state-level permits, Miller said.
“To be shovel ready is incredibly expensive and time consuming,” Miller added.
The administration says it wants to get ground broken fast. But some of that just might be out of the president’s hands, such as state-level permitting.
“A significant part of the president’s infrastructure plan will focus on streamlining, regulating and permitting so that it is easier for all viable projects to move forward in a timely manner. These reforms might not be driven by the hurdles facing a single project, but rather will create more certainty in the process overall,” a White House spokesperson told Reuters.
The delays that have beset a desalination plant proposed by Poseidon Water, a developer of water-related infrastructure, in Huntington Beach, California illustrate how clashing interests and regulations can hold up projects.
Poseidon first proposed the idea of a plant to turn salt water into drinking water for Orange County in the late 1990s and started permitting in the early 2000s, said Scott Maloni, a vice president at Poseidon and the Huntington Beach project manager.
The city of Huntington Beach originally approved the project in February 2006. But Poseidon still needed to secure 24 permits from state agencies, such as approval from the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) for the plant’s national pollutant discharge elimination system, which is required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
After the city issued the necessary local approvals in 2006, project builder Poseidon was able to apply to the California Coastal Commission (CCC).
That application was amended several times over the years as the project evolved. For example, the plant had to alter its design after the state began phasing out power plants that use seawater for cooling purposes. Poseidon had planned to desalinate that wastewater, and changed its design to instead take in water directly from the ocean instead.
In 2013, Poseidon shelved the permit application after the state’s coastal commission directed the company to look into concerns about the effects of the operation on fish larva in the area.
The application was resubmitted in 2015 and then withdrawn yet again in September 2016, because the commission wanted proof the plans complied with new, 2015-passed rules from the State Water Board (SWB) on desalination plants.
That compelled Poseidon to redesign the plant’s seawater intake and discharge technologies.
The project still needs three more approvals, from the State Lands Commission (SLC), the Santa Ana RWQCB and the CCC.
Poseidon says they are confident they will secure the last approvals soon. But even then, construction might not start until the second quarter of 2018, Maloni said.
And the objections from environmentalists have not stopped.
The plant is “far from a done deal,” said Mandy Sackett, the California policy coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation. The foundation argues that the plant is unnecessary, expensive and energy-intensive, putting marine life at risk. Sackett said the foundation will continue to fight the project.
“There’s still several opportunities for public input and important regulatory review that is yet to be completed,” she said.

Source: Arab News

themuslimchronicle
themuslimchronicle

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

delays hit ‘shovel ready’ projects in trump’s infrastructure plan delays hit ‘shovel ready’ projects in trump’s infrastructure plan

 



Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle

GMT 13:15 2017 Thursday ,21 December

Saba Mubarak participates in new show

GMT 09:58 2017 Friday ,31 March

Manatees are no longer endangered: US

GMT 07:26 2017 Sunday ,24 December

Traders in Old Mosul rebuild their ruined market

GMT 15:13 2017 Tuesday ,04 July

Furlong braced for 'brutal' All Black backlash

GMT 10:19 2017 Tuesday ,14 November

Global 2% rise in CO2 'giant leap backwards

GMT 07:25 2017 Monday ,13 February

Grigor Dimitrov wins ATP title in Sofia

GMT 12:34 2017 Saturday ,18 November

U.S promises to remove Sudan from terrorism list

GMT 22:15 2017 Saturday ,15 April

Foreign Minister arrives in Kuwait

GMT 08:26 2013 Friday ,26 July

Khalife\'s talk show proves successful

GMT 10:48 2012 Thursday ,23 February

Aisha seeks death certificate

GMT 17:18 2016 Friday ,09 December

Israeli warplanes launch mock raids over Gaza

GMT 11:44 2012 Monday ,10 December

King Tutankhamen\'s tomb

GMT 22:17 2017 Wednesday ,15 February

Root determined to do things his way as England captain

GMT 07:01 2016 Friday ,19 August

Iran's language watchdog battles 'Nutella Bars'

GMT 08:25 2016 Thursday ,29 December

Swedish PM to visit Iran in February

GMT 17:48 2017 Wednesday ,19 April

President of Uganda Meets Deputy Prime Minister

GMT 10:23 2016 Thursday ,19 May

King Kohli crowned as IPL's highest ever scorer

GMT 16:29 2011 Tuesday ,12 July

Do anti-whaling campaigns backfire in Japan

GMT 02:59 2017 Thursday ,12 January

Emirates challenging us for future A380 version

GMT 13:42 2017 Wednesday ,29 March

Schumacher and piquet’s Grand Prix winner offered

GMT 10:23 2018 Thursday ,18 January

65 Israeli laws that discriminate against non-Jews
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle
 
 Themuslimchronicle Facebook,themuslimchronicle facebook  Themuslimchronicle Twitter,themuslimchronicle twitter Themuslimchronicle Rss,themuslimchronicle rss  Themuslimchronicle Youtube,themuslimchronicle youtube  Themuslimchronicle Youtube,themuslimchronicle youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2025 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2025 ©

muslimchronicle muslimchronicle muslimchronicle muslimchronicle
themuslimchronicle themuslimchronicle themuslimchronicle
themuslimchronicle
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle