January 30, 2018
Duterte to Shift Thousands of Government Workers to New City
Thousands of government workers will be moved from Manila to a new city that’s being built in a former U.S. military base, as President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration seeks to ease a traffic gridlock in the capital.
The government and private companies are investing more than 50 billion pesos ($1 billion) to build an administrative center in New Clark City. Within five years, the area is expected to have at least eight mid-rise government towers, 8,000 housing units and a train connecting it to Manila, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) away.
“The vision is to build a new thriving city outside metro Manila that’s well-planned, future proof,” said Vince Dizon, president of the state-run Bases Conversion Development Authority which is overseeing the 9,450 hectare development. “We will slowly move some government activities to Clark to pump-prime the city.”
The project is part of Duterte’s plan to decentralize state offices away from Manila’s gridlocked streets. The capital, home to 13 million people and accounting for about one-third of the nation’s economy, will become a “dead city” within 25 years, Duterte said in a speech last month supporting the development of the city, whose name is derived from the former Clark Air Force Base that was closed in 1991.
About 1 million people in the capital region work for the government, adding to traffic congestion that a 2014 Japan International Cooperation Agency study said costs the economy about 2.5 billion pesos a day in lost productivity. That’s expected to climb to 6 billion pesos a day by 2030.
Gridlock
Philippine drivers are the most dissatisfied in the world
Source: Waze Inc.
Index ranks driver experience on a scale of 1-10, with 1 the least satisfying. Factors include traffic density, road quality and infrastructure.
Bases Conversion will start moving to Clark this year. The Department of Transportation transferred its office to Clark in 2017.
The first phase of the 200-hectare administrative center also involves the development of back-up offices for government agencies to ensure continuity in case of disaster. An aquatics and athletics center that will serve as the venue for the 30th SEA Games in late 2019, is also planned, Dizon said.
An expansion of Clark Airport is scheduled to be completed by the first half of 2020, enabling it to handle 12 million passengers a year and double the number of domestic flights from about 240 weekly. Bases Conversion, the manager of former military properties, will publish the bidding terms for the contract to operate Clark Airport this week.
At least 12 billion pesos of roads and bridges will be built in the next two years, while an industrial park planned by Filinvest Land Inc. may have an initial investment of at least 10 billion pesos, Dizon said.
To help fund the Clark City development, Dizon said Bases Conversion will sell up to 60 hectares of real estate in Taguig City near the financial district of Makati, where land prices are at a record high.
March 7, 2018
East Coast Travel Recovering After Noreasters Winds and Rain 0
by MeDaryl • Cars • Tags: Boston, business, Federal Aviation Administration, Laguardia Airport, Maine, Massachusetts, New England, New York, Port Authority, Real Estate, Washington
The impact of a powerful nor’easter diminished on Saturday after the storm caused chaos along the U.S. East Coast, halting trains and forcing airports to ground flights as high winds and heavy rain knocked out power and flooded Boston streets.
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were still without power on Saturday along the Atlantic Coast, and flight delays continued but at a lower rate as the storm system pulled away from the New England coast.
Strong winds on Friday prompted the federal government to close offices in Washington, and flights were temporarily suspended at New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports. Downed trees led Amtrak to suspend service between Boston and Washington.
“This could be one of those storms that goes into the record books,” said Kim Buttrick, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
In Washington, winds of almost 99 miles-per-hour (159 kilometers per hour) prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to close Dulles International Airport’s control tower around noon Friday local time, said Christina Saull, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Controllers were able to move back to the main tower about 30 minutes later, Saull said.
Planes, Trains
More than 3,400 flights were canceled and almost 5,000 were delayed across the U.S. on Friday, according to FlightAware, an airline-tracking service. More than 40 percent were at LaGuardia, JFK and Newark Liberty International Airport, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
High winds downed a tree onto power lines, blocking the street and damaging a vehicle March 2, in Takoma Park, Maryland.
By 1 p.m. ET on Saturday some 585 cancellations and 1,349 delays had been logged, mostly in the Northeast, with Boston’s Logan International Airport heading the list.
In addition to the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak suspended service between New York City and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Friday. The rail service was still operating on a modified schedule Saturday; partial service resumed between Washington and New York.
Power outages climbed Friday as the advancing storm toppled trees and power lines. At the peak, more than 2 million homes and businesses from Ohio and North Carolina to Maine were without electricity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from utility websites.
Slow Motion
Tropical-storm-force gales roiled waters off Massachusetts and flooding streets in Boston. The city’s harbor recorded its third-highest tide ever. Cities from Maine to Virginia reported minor to moderate flooding.
Tides were far higher than normal in Jamaica Bay in Queens and along southern Long Island. Heavy surf was also recorded along the coast, and buoys in Massachusetts Bay logged waves of 15 feet (4.6 meters). They were nearly 14 feet south of Montauk, Long Island, according to the National Data Buoy Center in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi.
Powerful 20-foot waves crashed into coastal towns in the vicinity of Boston and on Cape Cod, washing out roads, damaging homes. That could leave people stranded “for an extended time,” the National Weather Service said.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency urged residents along the coast to make evacuation plans. Many schools in coastal cities and towns closed on Friday.
$468 billion
Coastal flood warnings, watches and advisories are in effect along the New Jersey coast and as far south as Virginia. More than 1.2 million homes worth more than $468 billion are at risk from coastal flooding in 11 states from Maine to Virginia, according to the Insurance Information Institute in New York.
“Nor’easters can cause higher tides than hurricanes,” Ronald Busciolano, a supervisory hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said in a statement.
In addition to the coastal flooding, heavy rain may send rivers over their banks, the weather service said.
Buttrick said residents should heed evacuation notices and no one should go sightseeing. “We don’t want any casualties,” she said.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-02/nor-easter-grounds-flights-leaves-thousands-without-power