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Posts Tagged ‘Department of Transportation’

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Analysis Of Federal Sustainable Communities Grants

Thursday, November 11th, 2010
TIGER II

RECONNECTING AMERICA
The past few months have been an exciting time as large and small communities, representing all corners of the country, have worked on developing collaborative planning processes that will address the unique conditions in their region and which will improve the quality of life for the diverse people that live, work and play there…The impetus for this has been competition for grants springing from the unprecedented partnership announced last year between the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Posted in Competitiveness, Economic Stimulus, Environment, Funding, Infra Views, Jobs, Land Use, Local, National, Policy, Recovery, Smart Growth, Sustainability, Urban Planning

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Well Within Reach: America’s New Transportation Agenda

Monday, October 4th, 2010
Congestion

MILLER CENTER OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Transportation systems are the backbone of America: They keep our nation strong and moving. But we have not been taking good care of this resource. Lacking a coherent vision for our transportation future and chronically short of resources, we defer new investments, fail to plan, and allow existing systems to fall into disrepair.

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Posted in Accountability, Aging Infrastructure, Bridges, Competitiveness, Congestion, Employment, High Speed Rail, Highway, Infra Views, Jobs, National, Policy, Public Transportation, Rail, Recovery, Roads, Transit

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Breaking the Impasse

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Writing in last week’s Innovation NewsBrief we wondered if the intent behind the White House September 6 proposal to invest an extra $50 billion in transportation infrastructure was primarily a political gesture — to give the economy a short-term pre-election boost — or whether it was a belated but genuine change of heart about the need to act, and act convincingly, on a multi-year surface transportation program. In conversations we held during the past week, we sensed that the transportation community, including senior officials of U.S. DOT, would clearly prefer the $50 billion to be part of a long-term reauthorization effort.

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Posted in Innovation Newsbriefs, National, Policy, Public Opinion, Recession, Recovery, Tax, The Infra Blog

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THINKING AHEAD: High-Speed Rail in Southern California

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
FT1Y Jobs created

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORTATION STUDIES
Just as the Interstate Highway System transformed the way Americans live and where they work, high-speed rail has the same transformative potential. In the arena of transportation, it is a disruptive technology, with the power – as LaHood noted – to reshape entire regions and communities in a more sustainable manner. Southern California will be ground zero for this transformation: of the seven corridor segments identified in the California High Speed Rail Authority business plan, Los Angeles to Anaheim is currently the most advanced in the planning and environmental review process, and could see limited service commence as early as 2017.

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Posted in Competitiveness, Congestion, Funding, High Speed Rail, Infra Views, Jobs, Local, Rail, Sustainability, Transit

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Congratulations to FRA on a Sensible Decision

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Two months ago we reported on the railroad industry’s reaction to the FRA’s directive setting forth the terms of the so-called “Stakeholder Agreements.” Those are the agreements between state authorities and Class I railroads that will govern the shared-use freight-passenger rail service in rail corridors receiving federal aid under the Administration’s high-speed rail (HSR) program. The FRA directive stunned and angered railroad executives by what they regarded as unreasonable demands, and burdensome requirements…We are happy to report that reason and good sense have prevailed. In a press conference on August 20, FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo announced that the agency has withdrawn the controversial directive.

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Posted in Funding, High Speed Rail, Innovation Newsbriefs, National, Rail, Sustainability, Tax, The Infra Blog, Transit

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Winners of AASHTO’s “Faces of Transportation 2010” Photo Contest

Monday, August 23rd, 2010
Julie Duewel; Nevada Department of Transportation

Nearly 100 photos were submitted from state DOTs across the country for this competition. The photos represent the positive effects of transportation on individuals and/or communities. The environmentally-friendly project that is enriching a neighborhood, the new bridge that is making commuting times shorter; the widening project that revitalized a neighborhood; the resurfacing of a rural road that employed members of the community. Also, view the separate album with this year’s winning photos.
-American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) on Facebook

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Posted in Congestion, Local, National, Roads, Show Us Your Infra, Sustainability, Transit, Urban Planning

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Two Promising New Proposals For Solving the Fiscal Shortfall

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Both proposals stem from a conclusion that the obstacles standing in the way of enacting a new multi-year federal surface transportation program are of a long-term nature and will not be overcome any time soon. These obstacles include the inability of Congress to come up with a meaningful way to pay for the program; the increasingly shaky and uncertain status of the Highway Trust Fund; the pressure for deficit reduction in the fiscal and budgetary actions of the next Congress, especially in the likely event of a Republican takeover; and a low priority given to the reauthorization by the Obama White House (see our NewsBrief of July 16, “New Political Realities May Sidetrack the Transportation Reauthorization”).

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Posted in Funding, Highway, Innovation Newsbriefs, National, Policy, Recovery, Roads, Tax, The Infra Blog, Transit

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Transit Report: National State of Good Repair Assessment

Monday, July 26th, 2010
SGR Pie Charts

FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION
Roughly one-third of the nation’s transit assets (weighted by replacement value) are in either marginal or poor condition, implying that these assets are near or have already exceeded their expected useful life.

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Posted in Buses, Funding, Infra Views, National, Public Transportation, Rail, Transit, Urban Planning

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New Political Realities May Sidetrack the Transportation Reauthorization

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Over the past eight months the U.S. Department of Transportation has been conducting a series of “listening sessions” around the country to solicit new ideas from stakeholders and interested citizens for the next multi-year surface transportation bill…The latest listening session took place amid growing speculation by political analysts that the Democrats may lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November. This speculation has been reinforced by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs who commented on last Sunday’s “Meet the Press” and again at his regular press briefing the following day, that “there are enough seats in play that could cause Republicans to gain control.”

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Posted in Bipartisan, Democrat, Highway, Innovation Newsbriefs, National, Policy, Republican, Roads, The Infra Blog, Transit, Urban Planning

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Rail Transit Expansion Reconsidered — Commentary

Monday, May 24th, 2010

…fiscal realities can do wonders to bring federal officials down to earth. The Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund is barely solvent. The U.S. DOT budget will grow by only one percent in 2011. With commendable consistency and fairness, the Administration seems to have decided to apply the same investment standard to transit as it has preached and laid down for highways: Forget about massive capacity expansion; focus on getting the most out of the assets already in place by maintaining them in a state of good repair. To critics of the DOT’s new posture— and there will be some—a good answer could be: It’s just a different way of looking at what it means to be pro-transit.

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Posted in Aging Infrastructure, Innovation Newsbriefs, National, Policy, Rail, Recovery, Roads, Smart Growth, The Infra Blog, Transit

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