Two federal agencies, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, do not agree on the assessment of the environmental impacts of raising the Bayonne Bridge between Bayonne, NJ, and Staten Island, NY. The disagreement primarily concerns the impacts on air quality and the resulting effects on the local communities.
freight
Florida’s freight infrastructure investment named an innovation to watch
Florida’s statewide approach to freight infrastructure investments has been highlighted in the Brookings-Rockefeller Project on State and Metropolitan Innovation’s Top 10 State and Metropolitan Innovations to Watch. Florida’s strategy is unique in that it aligns infrastructure systems across the state, thus allowing the FLP to consider the entire state’s freight interests rather than just those of individual ports and intermodal centers.
Fiscal Cliff legislation restores tax credit for short line rail infrastructure
The legislation signed by President Obama on January 2nd to avert the tax increases scheduled to take effect as a result of the “fiscal cliff” included a two-year extension of the Section 45G tax credit for short line railroads to improve their infrastructure.
Fuel saving technologies for truck fleets
According to a new report from Carbon War Room, the adoption of seven fuel-saving technologies by the U.S. trucking industry could reduce carbon emissions by 624 million tons over the next ten years and repay implementation costs within 18 months through reduced fuel consumption.
Michigan voters give green light to new bridge to Ontario
With the results of the Ambassador Bridge referendum on November 6, the state of Michigan is now free to issue permits and construct a new bridge crossing between Detroit and Windsor, creating jobs, increasing cross-border trade, and reducing travel times.
Interactive map shows the cost of river lock failures
A new interactive map shows the importance of key locks on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Illinois Rivers and outlines possible economic shocks all across the country should one or more of them fail. Failures in this system affect not just the states that border these rivers, but many areas that receive goods – in particular corn, soybeans, coal, and petroleum products – from those states
The Innovative DOT: A Handbook of Policy and Practice (SSTI & SGA, 2012)
State officials across the country are facing the same challenges. Revenues are falling and budgets are shrinking while transportation demands grow. Most state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) have ambitious goals: improve safety, reduce congestion, enhance economic opportunity, improve reliability, preserve system assets, accelerate project delivery, and help to create healthier, more livable neighborhoods, just to name a few.
The handbook provides 31 recommendations transportation officials can use as they position their agencies for success in the new economy. The handbook documents many of the innovative approaches state leaders are using to make systems more efficient, government more effective and constituents better satisfied.
Car use down, bicycle and bus use up dramatically since 2001 in London congestion-pricing area
Since London’s congestion pricing plan went into place, traffic patterns have changed significantly. New maps show bicycle and bus/coach use is up and private car and large truck traffic is down. Further analysis of economic trend data demonstrates no significant impacts on the London economy.
Congress debates raising the 80,000 pound truck weight limit
Congress set the current 80,000-pound weight limit for trucks on Interstate highways in 1991. For years proponents of raising the limit have argued that it would reduce the number of trucks on the road, shipping costs, and congestion. On the other side of the argument are those who believe these benefits are outweighed by the fact that heavier trucks are more difficult to control and stop, and that heavier trucks cause greater damage to roads and bridges.
Value capture fuels transit expansion in Charlotte area
State and local transit planners in North Carolina are looking at a plan that combines two forms of value capture in order to construct and operate commuter rail running north from Charlotte. The plan, made …