Speaking to a standing-room-only audience on January 25 at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, six U.S. transportation secretaries reminisced about the most challenging issues they faced during their tenures and offered their views about the future prospects for the federal transportation program.
View this complete post...Archive for the ‘Recovery’ Category
Six U.S. Transportation Secretaries Discuss Past and Future Challenges
Friday, January 27th, 2012Guest on The Infra Blog: Hon. Joseph P. Riley, Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina
Thursday, January 19th, 2012Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. is widely considered one of the most visionary and highly effective governmental leaders in America.Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. is widely considered one of the most visionary and highly effective governmental leaders in America. First elected Mayor in December 1975, Mayor Riley is serving an unprecedented ninth term. Under his leadership, Charleston has increased its commitment to racial harmony and progress, achieved a substantial decrease in crime, experienced a remarkable revitalization of its historic downtown business district, seen the creation and growth of Spoleto Festival U.S. A., built the beautiful Waterfront Park, developed nationally-acclaimed affordable housing, and experienced unprecedented growth in Charleston’s size and population.
View this complete post...What Lies Ahead for Transportation in 2012?
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012Innovation NewsBriefs Vol. 23, No. 1 As we enter 2012 ( and begin our 23rd year of publication), we wish our readers the best in the New Year! As befits this time of year, our thoughts turn to the events that await us in the days ahead. Putting aside the major imponderable — the outcome [...]
View this complete post...Building a Better Gas Tax: How to Fix One of State Government’s Least Sustainable Revenue Sources
Friday, December 30th, 2011INSTITUTE ON TAXATION AND ECONOMIC POLICY
State gasoline and diesel taxes (often just called “gas taxes”) are the most important source of transportation funding under the control of state lawmakers. Every state levies both of these taxes.
Unfortunately, most state gas taxes are built to fail. Thirty six states levy only a fixed-rate tax that collects the same number of cents in tax, year aft er year, on every gallon of fuel purchased. But as this report shows, inflation has been eating away at these fixed rate taxes as the price of asphalt, concrete, and other transportation construction inputs continues to grow almost every year.
View this complete post...Building America’s Future – New Hampshire: Bumpy Road
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Uploaded by InvestNewHampshire on Youtube
Building America’s Future of New Hampshire (BAF-NH), a statewide and bipartisan coalition dedicated to smart infrastructure investment and reform, today announced a television ad to run for three weeks on local network and cable.
“This is a substantial television ad buy intended to educate New Hampshire policymakers and voters on the need for smart infrastructure investment and reform,” said State Senate President Peter Bragdon (R-11), co-chair of BAF-NH. “According to an annual TRIP report, our state’s rural roads rank ninth-worst and deficient rural bridges rank 11th-worst in the nation. The shoddy condition of New Hampshire’s roads and bridges needlessly puts our neighbors in harm’s way, hurts our businesses, makes us less competitive and costs the state jobs. We support a long-term plan, reforms and increased accountability through audits, performance measures and bans on earmarks. Unless we make significant changes in our course and direction, our infrastructure will continue to deteriorate and a real opportunity to restore New Hampshire’s economy will be lost.”
View this complete post...MAP-21 – Possible Impacts of Revised Core Transportation Programs
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011Transportation Issues Daily The MAP-21 proposal would consolidate the current seven “core” highway programs into five. Core highway programs are the primary programs through which funding is allocated to states and on to local jurisdictions. I’ve taken a stab at the possible impacts of the consolidation. If you’re analyzing the bill and have additions or [...]
View this complete post...Newsflash: Transportation Project Creates Jobs, Stimulates Economy
Friday, November 4th, 2011Transportation Issues Daily One of the most frustrating and puzzling arguments against investing in transportation projects is that it doesn’t really have a positive impact on jobs and economic recovery. Here’s the latest example of how investing in infrastructure does have a positive impact. In Washington state rural county with an unemployment rate of 13%, [...]
View this complete post...A STEP FORWARD: N.C. 12 reopens
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011After 1,500 man hours of backbreaking work and innovative engineering, the old familiar hum of traffic returned to N.C. 12 when the N.C. Department of Transportation reopened the road on Oct. 10. It was an important moment for residents and signaled a huge step forward in the recovery efforts made by NCDOT following Hurricane Irene.
View this complete post...Discretionary Grant Programs: State by State
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION
FY 2011 Discretionary Program Awards: Alternative Analysis (AA), State of Good Repair (SOGP), & Bus Livability
Follow InfrastructureUSA
CATEGORIES
- Accountability (49)
- Aging Infrastructure (260)
- Aviation (25)
- Biking (75)
- Bipartisan (135)
- Bridges (151)
- Broadband (17)
- Buses (58)
- Carbon Tax (10)
- Clean Air (58)
- Climate Change (34)
- Competitiveness (114)
- Congestion (146)
- Dams (28)
- Democrat (64)
- Drinking Water (41)
- Economic Stimulus (94)
- Employment (100)
- Energy (141)
- Environment (149)
- Equity (70)
- Funding (273)
- Global (37)
- Great American Infrastructure (2)
- Green (113)
- Hazardous Waste (13)
- High Speed Rail (129)
- Highway (239)
- Inland Waterways (53)
- Jobs (131)
- Land Use (53)
- LEED (9)
- Levees (19)
- Local (451)
- National (516)
- Policy (348)
- Pollution (61)
- Private Investment (53)
- Public Opinion (66)
- Public Parks & Recreation (38)
- Public Transportation (308)
- Racism (6)
- Rail (203)
- Recession (57)
- Recovery (160)
- Republican (50)
- Roads (325)
- Schools (30)
- Seaports (20)
- Smart Grid (33)
- Smart Growth (172)
- Solid Waste (10)
- Sustainability (164)
- Tax (61)
- Technology (76)
- Telecommunications (12)
- Transit (427)
- Urban Planning (269)
- Wastewater (37)
- Water Treatment (30)
Video, stills and tales. Share images of the Infra in your community that demands attention. Post your ideas about national Infra issues. Go ahead. Show Us Your Infra! Upload and instantly share your message.
Is the administration moving fast enough on Infra issues? Are Americans prepared to pay more taxes for repairs? Should job creation be the guiding determination? Vote now!
What do the experts think? This is where the nation's public policy organizations, trade associations and think tanks weigh in with analysis on Infra issues. Tell them what you think. Ask questions. Share a different view.
The Infra Blog offers cutting edge perspective on a broad spectrum of Infra topics. Frequent updates and provocative posts highlight hot button topics -- essential ingredients of a national Infra dialogue.





RSS Feed