The Infra Blog

U.S. DOT’s Strategic Plan Creates Controversy With Its Emphasis on “Livability”

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

The Administration’s desire to impose its own vision of how Americans should live and travel represents a stubborn and in the end futile gesture. The gesture is futile for, as generations of political appointees before them have discovered, policies that do not resonate with the majority of Americans seldom survive after their authors have left office.

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Polly Trottenberg, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, U.S. Department of Transportation

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
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Polly Trottenberg is currently the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation. She was previously the Executive Director of Building America’s Future, a new non-profit organization dedicated to bringing about a new era of U.S. investment in infrastructure that enhances our nation’s prosperity and quality of life.

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Thomas Murphy, Senior Resident Fellow, ULI/Klingbeil Family Chair for Urban Development, Urban Land Institute, and former Mayor of Pittsburgh

Thursday, May 6th, 2010
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Thomas Murphy is a senior resident fellow, ULI/Klingbeil Family Chair for urban development, Urban Land Institute. Since January 2006, Murphy had served as ULI’s Gulf Coast liaison, helping to coordinate with the leadership of New Orleans and the public to advance the implementation of rebuilding recommendations made by ULI’s advisory services panel last fall. Prior to his service as the ULI Gulf Coast liaison, Murphy served three terms as the mayor of Pittsburgh, from January 1994 through December 2005. From 1979 through 1993, Murphy served eight terms in the Pennsylvania State General Assembly House of Representatives. He is an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects; a board member of the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities; and a board member of the National Rails to Trails Conservancy.

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Janice Tuchman, Editor-In-Chief, Engineering News-Record (ENR)

Thursday, May 6th, 2010
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Janice L. Tuchman is editor-in-chief of Engineering News-Record, where she directs the editorial operations of the Engineering News-Record enterprise online, in print and at in-person events. In 2002, she became only the sixth woman to be elected to membership in “The Moles,” a prestigious heavy-construction industry leaders organization. She also serves on the Industry Advisory Committee of the Department of Civil Engineering at Columbia University. She co-authored a book on Exposed Structure in Building Design and won McGraw-Hill Corporate Achievement Awards for Information Technology and Editorial Excellence.

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Two Bold Predictions

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Two bold predictions concerning the future of the federal surface transportation program have caught our eye in recent days. Both have come from respected veterans of the transportation scene so they cannot be lightly dismissed as speculations of some anonymous bloggers.

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Adolfo Carrión, Jr., Director, White House Office of Urban Affairs & Deputy Assistant to the President

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
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“Anything that will stir up the conversation among the citizenry about the future of our country, both in its physical manifestation and in its social and economic manifestation, is a good thing, and I think what InfrastructureUSA.org is doing is laudable and should be applauded. We need more of this kind of civic engagement.”

Adolfo Carrión is the first Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs and Deputy Assistant to the President. He was elected to the New York City Council in 1997, and served one term. He was then elected Borough President of the Bronx, where he served for 7 years. Under Carrión’s leadership, total investment in the borough increased from $361 million/year in 2002, to almost $1 billion/year in 2008. Unemployment dropped by five percent, due in large part to Carrion’s aggressive pursuit of employment assurances for members of the Bronx community as he implemented the largest infrastructure, residential and commercial redevelopment since the 1920’s.

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Innovative Financing Is No Substitute for New Funding

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Hoping to sustain interest in the Committee’s efforts to enact a new multi-year transportation bill during this session of Congress, Reps. James Oberstar (D-MN) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR), leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, convened a hearing on April 14 to explore innovative ways of financing highway and transit investments. But while the hearing provided a useful survey of available financing tools and programs, it produced no new answers to the key question that has bedeviled transportation advocates for many months and remains as the chief obstacle to moving the legislation forward— the question of how to pay for the proposed multi-year surface transportation program.

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Iona College Hosts Infrastructure Conference

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

On April 8th, 2010, Iona College in New Rochelle, NY hosted the conference, “Confronting the Crisis: Solving Our Regional Transportation Infrastructure Issues.” Steve Anderson, Managing Director, InfrastructureUSA.org talked with some of the speakers:
Thomas DiNapoli, Comptroller, State of New York
Brother James Laguori, President, Iona College
Stanley Gee, Acting Commissioner, New York State Department of Transportation

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Just Released: Infra report from Urban Land Institute

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
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Infrastructure 2010: Investment Imperative, the latest annual infrastructure report by Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young, focuses on water infra and urges decision-makers to view infrastructure as a long-term investment.

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Port Infrastructure Projects: Interactive Map

Monday, April 12th, 2010
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According to a U.S. DOT Report on freight traffic, the number of trucks on our highways will more than double by 2035. Inland waterways, or “marine highways,” could reduce congestion by taking on some of the freight burden.

To make the port-and-waterway system more familiar, the U.S. Maritime Administration offers an interactive map, with information on current maritime infrastructure projects around the U.S. The map also shows inland waterways, interstate highways, railroads, and port locations around the country.

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Dear Friends,

 

It is encouraging to finally see clear signs of federal action to support a comprehensive US infrastructure investment plan.

 

Now more than ever, our advocacy is needed to keep stakeholders informed and connected, and to hold politicians to their promises to finally fix our nation’s ailing infrastructure.

 

We have already engaged nearly 280,000 users, and hoping to add many more as interest continues to grow.

 

We require your support in order to rise to this occasion, to make the most of this opportunity. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to InfrastructureUSA.org.

 

Steve Anderson

Managing Director

 

SteveAnderson@InfrastructureUSA.org

917-940-7125

InfrastructureUSA: Citizen Dialogue About Civil Infrastructure