New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s decision to cancel the proposed commuter trans-Hudson rail tunnel (ARC) offers another example of a resolve by the new wave of fiscally conservative governors to rein in spending on public works that, in their judgment, present an unacceptable level of risk and cost. While Christie’s decision was widely condemned as shortsighted by members of the infrastructure lobby, it was supported as fiscally prudent by a majority of New Jersey voters. (By a margin of 51 to 39 percent according to a Rutgers University poll).
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Update: The Federal High-Speed Rail Program: A Post-Election Reality Check
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010High-Speed Rail Debate Refuses to Quiet Down
Monday, November 1st, 2010In a November 1 column in the Washington Post reproduced below, the respected economist Robert J. Samuelson attacks the Administration’s high-speed rail program as “wasteful spending masquerading as a respectable social cause.”…Samuelson’s blunt assessment appears in stark contrast to the Administration’s confident prediction, in the words of top federal transportation officials, of “a world class network of high-speed corridors” that would connect “80 percent of America in the next 25 years at a cost of $500 billion.” How can professional judgments be so diametricaly opposed and whose judgment will prevail?
View this complete Infra Blog post...Guest on The Infra Blog: Samuel Schwartz, P.E., President, CEO & Founder, Sam Schwartz Engineering
Monday, October 25th, 2010Sam Schwartz has nearly 40 years of experience in the field of Transportation Engineering and Traffic Safety. He is considered a worldwide authority in traffic, highway, bridge, transit and parking systems. He was New York City’s traffic commissioner and the chief engineer for highways, bridges, ferries and other New York City infrastructure. Schwartz specializes in development of urban traffic programs utilizing his expert knowledge in traffic demand management, transit systems management, traffic calming and transportation planning and engineering. He has been in the vanguard of Intelligent Transportation Systems development and wrote the seminal paper, Intelligent Traffic, which received the International Institute of Transportation Award in 1985. Schwartz is also the author of Gridlock Sam, a popular New York Daily News column addressing traffic matters in New York City. His links with multimedia networks are extensive, spanning radio, television and the internet.
View this complete Infra Blog post...Guest on The Infra Blog: Andrew Herrmann, P.E., SECB, F.ASCE, President-Elect, American Society of Civil Engineers
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010Andrew Herrmann, P.E., SECB, F.ASCE, is President-Elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for 2011. He will be inaugurated in late October at ASCE’s 140th Annual Conference in Las Vegas and will succeed to the Presidency in 2012. He is a Principal of Hardesty & Hanover, LLP, a transportation consulting engineering firm founded in 1887 and headquartered in New York City.
View this complete Infra Blog post...The Miller Center Proposes a New Transportation Agenda
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010In the relentless 24/7 news cycle of the news media, the release of another policy report by a group of experts causes hardly a ripple. At best it earns a perfunctory mention by the news services and in a few trade publications, only to be buried and forgotten in the next day’s avalanche of fresh news. The report “Well Within Reach: America’s New Transportation Agenda,” published by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia on October 5, deserves a more considerate treatment. The report not only stands out because it is the product of a distinguished bipartisan group of national thought leaders in transportation but also because it shows a keen grasp of the issues surrounding contemporary transportation policy.
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