The National Transportation Safety Board has released its recommendations as a result of their investigation of the collapse of the interstate bridge in Minneapolis, MN last summer. Check out the ENR story. Their recommendations include better inspections and better quality assurance of bridge designs.
The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has proposed breaking up the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and giving their assets within Rt 128 to the Massachusetts Port Authority and the remainder to the Highway Department. Details on who will assume the debt and other budget issues would have to be worked out. Leaders in the legislature seem skeptical. The real question is, "What would this mean for maintaining and building the transportation system in the state?" As we've seen in Connecticut, Governors are prone to recommend organizational changes when faced with larger systemic problems within the state's transportation system.
The ConnDOT project to improve Route 7 in Western Connecticut has run into some problems with the original survey work. Read Stamford Advocate article. It doesn't appear to be anything on the scale of the I-84 fiasco, but it's never a good thing when a project in the Governor's town hits a delay.
Governors of the six New England states and four of the five Canadian province premiers met to discuss energy transmission, transportation, greenhouse gas emissions and workforce issues. See the New York Times article.
DOT officials discussed options being considered by Congress in the reauthroization of the highway legislation to be taken up by the next Congress. The Transportation Summit was attended by over 100 people from the engineering and construction industry in the state. See Connecticut Post article.
ACEC recently sent out the following message to state offices:
No doubt many of you have seen or heard reports about federal transportation funding and the status of the Highway Trust Fund. I want to briefly update you on the situation and let you know how ACEC is responding.
The one positive development in the announcement is the fact that the Administration has dropped its opposition to the legislative fix that ACEC and our industry allies have lobbied for over the past couple of months. H.R. 6532 provides an $8 billion transfer from the General Fund to the Highway Trust Fund – in effect a reimbursement for revenues lost by the Trust Fund during the final negotiations of TEA-21 in 1998 – which would restore the shortfall and avert funding cuts to the states. We scored an initial win in July when the House passed the bill with an overwhelming 387-37 vote. The bill is now pending in the Senate, where efforts to pass it yesterday and today by “unanimous consent” have been blocked by two individual Senators: Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Judd Gregg (R-NH).
We’re sending a letter from ACEC President Dave Raymond to the Senate leadership supporting immediate passage of H.R. 6532. We’re also working closely with our industry allies in this lobbying effort – right now, this is one of the few issues that must be resolved before Congress adjourns at the end of the month, so everyone is working this hard. It’s unclear when the bill might come up again for consideration, either as a stand-alone measure or attached to some other piece of legislation.
When the alert is sent out we will ask our members to support their effort.
The state Office of Policy and Management has issued a revised forecast of the state's growing budget deficit. The report shows a $146 million hole in the state's general fund and a $43 million deficit in the Special Transportation Fund. (See Journal Inquirer story.)
In spite of greater than projected revenue from the gross receipts tax on fuel products, the Special Transportation Fund is showing a deficit because politicians are siphoning more money from the tax into the general fund. The other problem is escalating costs for building materials like asphalt and steel. Senator Donald DeFronzo, Co-Chair of the General Assembly's Transportation Committee is talking about scaling back the state's plans to update mass transit, roads and bridges.
Not unexpectedly, the US Department of Transportation reports that Americans drove 53 billion fewer miles in 2008 as compared to the same time last year. That reduction has resulted in less revenue for the federal government's transportation trust funds. The funds are already expected to run out of money in 2009 unless Congress acts to provide supplemental money.
The state's Special Transportation Fund is also reliant on fuel sales in the form of a tax per gallon and a gross receipts tax. As drivers cut back on the miles, the consume less gas and the Fund receives less revenue. The state fund will also go into the red in 2009.
Both the federal and state government will have to rethink how transportation is financed. The answer will probably include a number of solutions including public private partnerships, tolls, higher fuel taxes and other user fees. If we let our transportation infrastructure deteriorate we will have another disaster like the Mianus River Bridge or I-35 bridge collapses. And there will be significant economic and quality of life problems.
During the coming campaign season, be sure to raise transportation funding as an issue when talking with politicians seeking your vote.
The Hartford Courant has an editorial, "A Dangerous Direction," which promotes transportation dollars for bridge repair rather than building new highways. The editorial make some good points, particularly the prioritization of transportation projects by Congress and local legislators, the Governor and others. Often, new highway projects are given priority over repair projects. To a politician (and the public) it is more satisfying to spend money and get a new bridge or highway rather than spend the same amount of money and end up with what you had before after several years of construction delays. Of course, the answer to this problem is to take away the decision making from politicians reliant on public opinion and give it to engineers and planners who can make the decision based on safety and other public-good factors like reducing pollution, economic growth, etc. But spending other people's money is what gets politicians elected so I wouldn't hold my breath.
