The (Almost) Daily Brief

The Met Council Puts 363 Interchanges Out for Study

By Megan Dayton · 9/14/2026

POLICY  Canadian steel and aluminum structural products face combined additional duties of 75 percent starting tomorrow. The Federal Register published five proclamations today, all signed Sept. 8. Two of them modify the scope of the 50 percent Section 338 duties on Canadian goods, effective at 12:01am eastern on Sept. 15, and reverse the original non-stacking policy so that Section 338 duties now apply in addition to Section 232 duties. Troutman Pepper Locke reads the combined additional rate at 75 percent on aluminum and steel structural products and notes that qualifying under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement provides no relief. The revised list adds specialty paper, metal fittings, welding inputs, furniture, and lamps, and it drops cement, which was on the list this brief reported Aug. 24. Three companion proclamations exclude certain Canadian alcohol, dairy, and motorcycles from importation beginning Sept. 29. The product annexes publish as images rather than text, so a firm checking a specific commodity should read the annexes on the Federal Register document pages or wait for Customs and Border Protection guidance.

Sources: Federal Register, Sept. 14 (91 FR 58331); Troutman Pepper Locke client alert; Construction Dive, Sept. 9

POLICY  Minnesota Power will convert one Boswell coal unit to natural gas and wait on the other. The Public Utilities Commission approved the utility’s integrated resource plan on Sept. 10 in docket E015/RP-25-127. The commission approved refueling Boswell Unit 3 with gas by 2030. Minnesota Power had also asked to refuel Unit 4 with 40 percent natural gas, and the commission pushed that decision to the next resource plan. The approved plan requires the utility to hold periodic community meetings on the plant’s future, a condition Itasca County sought. Boswell sits in Cohasset and carries 20 percent of the county’s tax base. Itasca County commissioner John Johnson told the commission the utility had joined the county’s ten-year economic resilience planning. The commission has not yet posted a written order.

Source: KAXE, Sept. 11

ENG  The Twin Ports Interchange is one of twelve national finalists for the America’s Transportation Awards. AASHTO named the finalists Sept. 11 from 127 nominations submitted by 45 state departments of transportation. The $435 million Duluth interchange replaced a layout whose left exits and blind merges gave it the fourth-highest crash rate in the state, and whose load-posted, non-redundant bridges limited oversize and overweight freight moving to and from the Port of Duluth. Several bridges came out in favor of roadway built on improved ground, which lowered life-cycle cost, and the replacement is designed for a minimum 75-year service life. Public voting for the People’s Choice Award opened Sept. 11 and closes at 11:59pm eastern on Nov. 15. The grand prize and People’s Choice winners are announced in November at the AASHTO annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, and each carries $10,000 for a charity or transportation scholarship.

Sources: AASHTO Journal, Sept. 11; America’s Transportation Awards project profile

BIZ  No rival bidder emerged for Bowman Consulting. The 35-day go-shop period in Bowman’s merger agreement with Bernhard Capital Partners expired at 5pm eastern on Sept. 13 with no alternative proposals received. Bowman contacted 76 potentially interested parties during the window and entered confidentiality agreements with eight of them. None qualified as an excluded party under the merger agreement, which means the original terms stand. The all-cash deal values the engineering and geospatial firm at $43.00 a share, or $1 billion, and it is expected to close in the fourth quarter subject to shareholder approval and regulatory clearances.

Source: Bowman Consulting Group, Sept. 14

WORKFORCE  More contractors cut headcount than added it over the past year. That is the first year since the pandemic in which reductions outnumbered increases, AGC of America chief economist Ken Simonson said during a Sept. 3 webinar on labor supply. Simonson’s reading is that some firms are adjusting to weaker demand while many others still compete for a limited supply of qualified workers. Contractors speaking at AGC and Associated Builders and Contractors sessions this month described moving spending from recruitment toward training and internal development. “You cannot hire your way out of this situation,” said Mindy Bates, human resources director at Ace Electric.

Source: Construction Dive, Sept. 14

POLICY  Federal regulators have taken a Syracuse freeway off the national truck network and added the street grid replacing it. The Federal Highway Administration published the final rule Sept. 11 and made it effective the same day, at the request of the New York State Department of Transportation. It de-designates the I-81 Viaduct from the National Network, the network of highways on which certain authorized commercial vehicles may operate, and adds the signalized surface arterial system built to replace it, designated Business Loop 81. The remaining stretch of I-81 between the I-690 and I-481 interchanges becomes Business Loop 81 and stays on the network. I-481 is reclassified as I-81. FHWA skipped notice and comment, finding good cause under the Administrative Procedure Act because the changes are technical and the agency has “no discretion but to make changes” for a nearly complete project. The first phase contract was issued in January 2023 and interstate traffic is permanently rerouted late this year. Docket FHWA-2026-0498, RIN 2125-AG31. In Minnesota, MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94 study has narrowed the Minneapolis to Saint Paul corridor to four alternatives - No Build, Maintenance B, Reduced Freeway, and Reconfigured Freeway - with an updated alternatives page due mid-September and the final scoping decision document later this year.

Sources: Federal Register, Sept. 11 (91 FR 57789); MnDOT, Rethinking I-94

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