Tag: highways: Page 9

Roadbuilding

Let ‘em have it this week!

I’m repeating myself, I know, but I want to urge as many of you as possible to take advantage of this week’s Congressional recess. Members are back in their districts and this is an election year. Put a little heat on them, a little pressure. Or, preferably, a lot. Congress has dithered and dithered when […]

February 20, 2012

Roadbuilding

Mica’s Move is Made: Now let’s keep moving

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica and Members of the committee unveiled the American Energy an Infrastructure Jobs Act yesterday. I would like to think contractors, subs, agencies,equipment dealerships and OEMs are excited and getting ready to move quickly if this bill can become a reality. After some years of flatlining it has […]

February 1, 2012

Roadbuilding

Think Locally, Act Nationally – Carnegie Report

The best thinkers — and doers — in transportation infrastructure might just be found far far from our nation’s capital. When it comes to giving America the best transportation infrastructure it can have, the  Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says, basically, think locally, act nationally.” That is, Washington should look at successful local and regional […]

January 9, 2012

Roadbuilding

I’d borrow for infrastructure says leading GOP candidate

Guess who said this? “You have to prioritize those things which are most important to you and infrastructure and having good roads and bridges and rail lines and air traffic lines and so forth are essential for a strong economy.” Promising to find money for infrastructure was Mitt Romney on the campaign trail in New […]

December 19, 2011

Roadbuilding

Reading CONEXPO’s Upbeat Signs

The “official” stamp of success will come later when all the numbers are run, but CONEXPO certainly feels like we have reached the end of the beginning of the turnaround.I’m enjoying the upbeat feeling here. OEMs have presented numbers that are evidence of a slow but concrete upward movement and their lead executives’ press conference […]

March 25, 2011

Roadbuilding

Texas’ transportation funding nightmare

Here is a very scary prediction: “By 2025, only 21 percent of Texas’ roads will be in good or better condition.” It’s not my prediction, it comes from the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas, and its contained in a story from the Houston Chronicle’s chron.com.  The story should upset us. It […]

March 10, 2011

Roadbuilding

Climate-controlled street and traffic lights

It’s Cornhusker common-sense. Nature is being called on to provide light at night for people using roads in Lincoln, Neb. The city is testing wind and solar power as a source of energy to power street and traffic lights. It’s a green initiative of course, but it’s also aimed at saving money. When we talk […]

March 9, 2011

Roadbuilding

Build now, pay later

A $1.8 billion road project in Florida is being done for the state without the state itself paying a penny for it. Yet. The repair and widening of I-595 will be finished before the contractor gets paid. It’s a public-private arrangement and another example of creativity in finding ways to work on our bridges an […]

January 24, 2011

Roadbuilding

Road funds low? Use Canadian money

Slowly, but inevitably, there are stories surfacing that show just how much our roads need work and just how badly underfunded are the agencies that would do that work. In Michigan, Canadian money will help kin the short term. It’s not a loan, it’s part of a new trans-border bridge deal. Creativity comes along with […]

January 24, 2011

Roadbuilding

Zen and the Art of Parachute Jumping

I wonder. If politicians, wearing government-issue parachutes,  jumped out of airplanes (or were pushed, remember they’re politicians) and decided not to deploy the chute to show their voting constituents how reluctant they are to waste taxpayer dollars (remember, they’re politicians) would they pull the rip-chord when the ground got dangerously close?  You bet your (fill […]

January 6, 2011

Roadbuilding

Mike Anderson’s American Iron

Please keep telling anyone and everyone you can about the need for proper funding of infrastructure, including but not exclusively highways and bridges.

December 1, 2010

Roadbuilding

The Kansas Crunch

I keep coming across scenarios that worry me because they could be the tips of icebergs. As funding for transportation projects at all government levels become harder to find and even harder to predict, more and more important projects have to line up for whatever is available. Some must inevitably miss out. Sometimes there are processes […]

November 2, 2010