Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 25, No. 3A
It may come as a surprise to you, but there is a quiet revolution in transportation funding underway these days. Faced with a depleted Highway Trust Fund and uncertain prospects for more money from a deficit-conscious Congress, many states are taking matters into their own hands and aggressively pursuing more fiscal independence.
Archive for the ‘Policy’ Category
Rethinking the Way Transportation Infrastructure Is Funded
Friday, February 14th, 2014Federal Highway Administration: Seek, Simplify, and Solve through Research
Thursday, February 13th, 2014![](https://infrastructureusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/federal-highway-administration-seek-simplify-and-solve-through-research-300x300.jpg)
FHWA’s Office of Planning, Environment and Realty’s video — Seek, Simplify, and Solve through Research — is the first in a series of videos that feature FHWA research activities. The Office’s research focuses on improving transportation decision making and promoting efficiency, while protecting communities and the environment.
View this complete post...Critical Issues in Transportation
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014![The freight transportation system must adapt to a projected 80 percent growth in gross domestic product in the next 25 years.](https://www.infrastructureusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/TRB-1.jpg)
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD
The United States depends on transportation to compete globally and to help revive a sluggish domestic economy. Individuals depend on transportation not only to get to work but to shop, socialize, and access health care, among other goals (1). For all of its benefits to the nation and individuals, however, transportation imposes large costs—lost time in traffic congestion, deaths and injuries from crashes, demand for imported petroleum, and the release of greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution.
University Transportation Research Center, Region 2: Annual Report
Wednesday, February 5th, 2014![utrc](https://www.infrastructureusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/utrc.jpg)
UNIVERSITY TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER
PLANNING TODAY in Region 2, requires knowledge of multi-modal and intermodal systems serving both freight and passenger movements. Planning in the region involves not only MPOs, but all of the many agencies taxed with the need to move people and goods 24/7. Planning is constrained by institutional mandate and history, the need to catch up with a backlog of capital needs, and a chronic shortage of adequate funds for both maintaining and building the infrastructure.
Caltrans: Recommendations for Improvement
Tuesday, February 4th, 2014![Figure 1, VMT and per capita VMT on California state highways, 1992-2012. Sources: Caltrans (VMT) and Department of Finance (population).](https://www.infrastructureusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/caltrans1.jpg)
STATE SMART TRANSPORTATION INITIATIVE
This report provides an assessment of the performance of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and recommendations for improvement…The report provides a brief history of Caltrans and of the demands placed on it, a set of findings about Caltrans’ current state, and recommendations for improvement. Throughout, it focuses on the need for modernization and culture change at the department.
Keystone XL: Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
Monday, February 3rd, 2014![U.S. Department of State](https://www.infrastructureusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/statedepartment.jpg)
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE
The Keystone XL Pipeline (the proposed Project) is a proposed 875-mile pipeline project that would extend from Morgan, Montana, to Steele City, Nebraska. The pipeline would allow delivery of up to 830,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) in Canada and the Bakken Shale Formation in the United States to Steele City, Nebraska, for onward delivery to refineries in the Gulf Coast area (see Figure ES-1). TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, LP (Keystone) has applied for a Presidential Permit that, if granted, would authorize the proposed pipeline to cross the United States-Canadian border at Morgan, Montana.
Alaska: Potential Mining Effects on Salmon Ecosystems
Wednesday, January 29th, 2014![salmon](https://www.infrastructureusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/salmon.jpg)
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) launched this assessment to determine the significance of Bristol Bay’s ecological resources and evaluate the potential impacts of large-scale mining on these resources. It uses the well-established methodology of an ecological risk assessment, which is a type of scientific investigation that provides technical information and analyses to foster public understanding and inform future decision making. As a scientific assessment, it does not discuss or recommend policy, legal, or regulatory decisions, nor does it outline or analyze options for future decisions.
California’s Bullet Train Hobbled by Fresh Legal, Fiscal and Political Uncertainties
Monday, January 27th, 2014Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 25, No. 2
Barely recovered from the damaging effects of the Sacramento Court ruling denying the California High Speed Rail Authority access to Prop 1A bond funding, the bullet train project has had to face fresh challenges.
Power Surge: Department of Defense and Energy Security
Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014![pewenergy thumb](https://www.infrastructureusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/pewenergy-thumb.jpg)
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS
The U.S. Department of Defense defines installation energy security as the ability to assure access to reliable sources of energy and deliver that power to meet operational needs on its bases in the United States and abroad. The U.S. military needs safe, secure, reliable, and affordable energy to operate facilities on an uninterrupted basis. To meet essential power requirements, defense leaders have initiated far-reaching steps to harness advanced technologies capable of conserving energy, enabling on-site production from renewable sources, and saving taxpayers millions of dollars.
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