Our sister publication, ProPickup, is giving away a fully-customized 2008 GMC Sierra 3500HD Crew Cab SLE Dually 4×4. It’s called Big Red.

The pickup, powered by a tuned 6.6-liter Duramax diesel engine, could be yours. All you have to do is register to win before April 1. (Hurry; that deadline is in just a few days.)

Big Red’s editors and sponsors have worked for months to modify the truck to contractors’ needs. It features aftermarket products like Fleetwest Load ‘N’ Go Powerbody, Vanair Air-N-Arc 1500 with a control panel in the front driver’s-side compartment and BOLT Locks with One Key Lock Technology.

The video below shows BOLT Lock in action on Big Red at the NTEA Work Truck Show.

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Other contractor-friendly features include a Cognito six-inch lift kit, 22-inch Combat forged-aluminum wheels from American force, 35 x 12.50 R22 Toyo Open Country M/T tires, Fab Fours bumpers mounted on the front and rear and Mile Marker winches behind each bumper.

To learn more about Big Red and its features, visit propickupmag.com.

Read the official rules here.

The Outlook is intended as a strategic resource for NTEA members and the industry at large, offering work truck industry professionals a better understanding of the macro-level buying trends from the truck fleet manager’s perspective.

“We are thrilled to offer the 2013 Fleet Purchasing Outlook as another means of providing information to truck equipment manufacturers and distributors that helps them to be proactive and capitalize on shifting market conditions,” said NTEA Executive Director Steve Carey. “The data and interpretation provide valuable and timely information on upcoming trends, such as fleet acquisition and purchasing activity.”

Specifically, the 16-page Outlook includes insightful information on:

• Class 1-8 vocational truck fleet purchasing intent for 2013
• Anticipated changes in fleet size and replacement cycles
• Interest levels by fleets for alternative fuel and clean vehicle technologies
• Impact of financial incentives on vehicle purchasing
• Comparative data from 2012

The 2013 Fleet Purchasing Outlook is provided at no charge to all NTEA members and is available upon request to nonmembers for $199. To order a copy, call 1-800-441-6832.

Supporters can visit I Make America’s Facebook page or website to share their own stories, or nominate a friend, neighbor or co-worker. Supporters are encouraged to forward this communication to colleagues and co-workers so they can participate as well.

The “Who Makes America” contest winner will be announced after a period of public voting from March 18 to March 27, 2013. The winner will be featured as I Make America’s citizen spokesperson and will receive a $1,000 award.

Reading Truck and Body President and CEO Brian Nadel admits that his company has been playing its cards close to the vest lately. That was largely due to the wait-and-see nature of the economy the past few years. But that’s about to change. In response to growing customer optimism, Reading has been working hard on a range of diverse new products for several different market segments as well as making its mark with a line of CNG conversion platforms for light- and medium-duty commercial vehicles.

The company is now in what Nadel refers to as an “optimistic, innovative development phase relying heavily on real-world customer input. As a result, in a couple of weeks Reading will officially unveil its Enclosed Service Van body, and Nadel says the company will continue bringing out new products every couple of months or so for the remainder of the year.

He says the lighter aluminum bodies Reading is known for are tough enough to be offered with a standard 10-year warranty while providing substantial fuel savings compared to all-steel service bodies.

Jack Roberts is executive editor of trucks/truck equipment of Randall-Reilly, parent company of Better Roads.

INDIANAPOLIS–XL Hybrids will offer a hybrid-drive powertrain for Ford E-Series vans beginning in the third quarter of this year. This addition to the company’s lineup of retrofit/upfittable hybrid drive system marks the 7th Ford model platform the company’s system can be fitted to.

Clay Seigert, vice president, supply chain for XL Hybrids, says the company’s system can be purchased for under $10,000 with an ROI between 3 and 5 years (depending on duty cycles) while offering users up to 22 percent reduction in fuel use in real world conditions. He notes that because the hybrid drive systems provide immediate, usable torque at take-off, fleets can save even more fuel in E-Series vans by downsizing from the 6-liter V-8 engine to the more fuel efficient 4.8 liter Ford engine with little or no degradation in vehicle performance.

Jack Roberts is executive editor of trucks/truck equipment for Randall-Reilly, the parent company of Better Roads.

Additionally, Fair Oaks Dairy’s renewable compressed natural gas (RCNG) station in Fair Oaks, Indiana, project partners Kroger, State of Indiana officials, U.S. DOE Clean Cities officials, and fleets from across the Midwest will celebrate the official opening of the RCNG I65/I75 Indiana Corridor.

Fueled by the dairy’s waste from 11,000 head of cattle, the system pulls biogas from the digester that is then cleaned and odorized to be compressed and dispensed at the station, ready to provide CNG fuel on demand to their 42, Class 8 milk transports.

“AMP Americas produces biogas from dairy cattle waste and after cleaning and odorizing this gas, pipes the resulting renewable natural gas directly to the Fair Oaks Station for onsite use as CNG vehicle fuel,” said Mark Stoermann, Project Director. “The anaerobic digester is so big, the energy it produces also powers a 1 megawatt generator for the cleaning process and dairies’ electrical needs.”

AMP Americas fleets transport milk to processing plants owned by Kroger Co. in Indianapolis, Indiana, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Winchester, Kentucky. Returning from the southern Indiana and Northern Kentucky deliveries, fleets fuel at the sister station in Sellersburg Indiana.

Kellie Walsh, executive director of the Greater Indiana Clean Cities Coalition, a designated U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Clean Cities Program partner that works with local public and private sector fleets to deploy alternative fuels and related technologies, says that “by using dedicated compressed natural gas engines this deployment will reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil by 1.5 million diesel gallon equivalents (DGE) a year, while moving the dairy industry closer to it’s greenhouse gas (GHG) U.S. EPA mandated levels.”

The Indiana Office of Energy Development in partnership with the Greater Indiana Clean Cities contributed $750,000 toward the RCNG Station at Fair Oaks Dairy. These funds were from the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities Program American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) competitive award of $10,125,000.

Taking into account changes in wages, materials and inflation, state and local governments awarded $54.3 billion in real highway and bridge contract awards between February 2012-January 2013, compared to $55.8 billion in the same 2011-2012 time period.

Contract awards are a leading indicator of construction activity at the state level.  “We did see a significant jump in the value of awards in January 2013,” ARTBA’s Chief Economist Dr. Alison Premo Black said in a written statement.  “Although that is a positive sign, the increase was primarily due to several large projects in Arizona, Arkansas, California, New York and Virginia.”

The outlook on a state-by-state level is mixed. The real value of highway contract awards is down in 23 states and Washington, D.C., up in 20 states, and within a range of plus or minus five percent in seven states.  Bridge awards are down in 22 states and Washington, D.C., up in 24 states, and within a range of plus or minus five percent in four states.

“This tells us that nearly half the states are pulling back on their programs,” Black noted. “The good news is that we do expect to see an uptick in activity later this year given the recent increase in federal aid obligations – many of those projects should go through the bidding and awards process over the next few months. It remains to be seen, however, if it will be enough to provide real growth in the highway and bridge construction market by the end of 2013.”

There is better news for state and local government contract awards for docks piers and wharves, which were up nearly 30 percent in the past 12 months, to $1.4 billion. Awards in California, Georgia and New Jersey drove growth in January 2013.

Awards were also up nearly 30 percent to $3.5 billion for state and local government transit and railroad awards, reflecting an increase in demand following 33 months of extensions of the federal aid program. January awards were driven by projects in California, Illinois, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.

Finally, the value of state and local government airport runway contract awards was down 3.2 percent.

Note: Data accounts for changes in project costs, including material prices and overall inflation. Figures do not include contracts for planning and design work, environmental analysis, or project management associated with transportation capital improvement projects.

]]> http://www.betterroads.com/highway-bridge-contract-awards-down-3-percent-artba-report/feed/ 0 http://www.betterroads.com/poor-pavement-costs-md-residents-about-6-2-billion-each-year-report/ http://www.betterroads.com/poor-pavement-costs-md-residents-about-6-2-billion-each-year-report/#comments Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:00:22 +0000 Staff Report http://www.betterroads.com/?p=25333 More than two-fifths of Maryland’s major locally and state-maintained roads are in either poor or mediocre condition, one-quarter of bridges are in need of repair or replacement, and the state’s drivers experience increasingly worsening congestion, according to the report, Maryland Transportation by the Numbers: Meeting the State’s Need for Safe and Efficient Mobility, release Feb. 28 by TRIP, Washington, D.C.-based national transportation organization

In addition to deteriorated roads and bridges, Maryland’s rural roads have a significantly higher traffic fatality rate than all other roads in the state, according to the report.

TRIP says in the report that increased investment in transportation improvements could “improve road and bridge conditions, ease congestion, boost safety, and support long-term economic growth in Maryland.”

This report provides data on the following key transportation facts and figures in the state:

“Today we face traffic gridlock – the worst in the nation. Tomorrow, without sufficient funding to support our infrastructure needs, we may face economic gridlock that will cost us far more,” said Douglas M. Duncan, chair of the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance, in a written statement.

Maryland roadways that lack some desirable safety features, have inadequate capacity to meet travel demands or have poor pavement conditions cost the state’s residents nearly $6.2 billion each year in the form of additional vehicle operating costs, the cost of lost time and wasted fuel due to traffic congestion, and traffic crashes. Driving on roads that are congested, deteriorated and that lack some desirable safety features costs the average Washington, D.C., area driver $2,195 annually due to deficient roads.

According to the TRIP report, 41 percent of Maryland’s major locally and state-maintained roads are in either poor or mediocre condition. In the Washington, D.C., metro area, 62 percent of roads are in poor or mediocre condition, according to the report.

A total of 25 percent of Maryland’s bridges show significant deterioration or do not meet modern design standards. Seven percent of the state’s bridges are structurally deficient, which indicates that there is significant deterioration of the bridge deck, supports or other major components. An additional 18 percent of Maryland’s bridges are functionally obsolete. These bridges no longer meet current highway design standards, often because of narrow lanes, inadequate clearances or poor alignment. (For more on the state of Maryland and Washington, D.C., bridges as well as throughout the nation, see Better Roads‘ Annual Bridge Inventory, published each year in the November issue.)

Growing traffic congestion, particularly in the state’s urban areas, threatens to choke commuting and commerce. The average commuter in the Washington, D.C., metro area loses 67 hours each year stuck in congestion.

Traffic crashes in Maryland claimed the lives of 2,897 people between 2006 and 2010. The state’s traffic fatality rate of 0.88 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel (VMT) is lower than the national average of 1.11 fatalities per 100 million VMT. However, the traffic fatality rate in 2010 on Maryland’s non-Interstate rural roads was 1.67 traffic fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel, nearly two-and-a-half times higher than the 0.69 traffic fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel on all other roads and highways in the state. Roadway features are likely a contributing factor in approximately one-third of all fatal and serious traffic crashes. Where appropriate, highway improvements can reduce traffic fatalities and crashes while improving traffic flow to help relieve congestion.

Traffic safety in Maryland

“These key transportation numbers in Maryland add up to trouble for the state’s residents in terms of deteriorated roads and bridges, reduced traffic safety and constrained economic development,” said Will Wilkins, executive director of TRIP, in a press release. “Improving road and bridge conditions, improving traffic safety and providing a transportation system that will support economic development in Maryland will require a significant boost in state and federal funding for road, highway and bridge improvements.”

WEX Inc.

The WEX Construction FCI measures national fuel consumption statistics for the construction industry.

WEX worked with IHS to capture and analyze transaction data from its closed loop network which includes over 90 percent of the domestic retail fuel locations. With this data, the WEX Construction FCI can be used to identify emerging trends within the construction industry and the national economy.

The indicators were tested at monthly, quarterly and annual frequencies, with the greatest insights produced using the year-over-year percent change of the monthly data. For January 2013, the WEX Construction FCI reported that fuel consumption by U.S. construction companies increased 5.8 percent versus January 2012 and increased 0.4 percent versus the previous month.

The January 2013 WEX Construction FCI reflected the nearly flat growth indicated by the seasonally-adjusted index in most of the government’s subsequent construction data releases. Construction spending excluding improvements – a good measure of activity – decreased by 0.6 percent in December; however, private residential construction rose by 1.6 percent.

December housing permit statistics were mixed, with total permits increasing by 0.3 percent. Housing starts jumped 12.1 percent in December, to an annual rate of 954,000 ― the highest since June 2008. The construction industry added 28,000 jobs in January, after gaining 30,000 in December, but the gain in employment was not accompanied by a noticeable uptick for the WEX Construction FCI. Total construction put-in-place, which is also released a month later than the WEX Construction FCI, rose by 0.9 percent in December.

IHS Analysis

According to the IHS analysis, despite the month-to-month mild growth in January for the WEX Construction FCI, the U.S. housing market has shown signs of growth; however, new home sales fell by 7.3 percent in December to an annual rate of 369,000 units. Existing home sales slipped by 1 percent in December and inventories fell to 1.82 million units, which is the lowest since January 2001.

“Inventories are lean and dropping because builders are not building enough homes, which is why home prices are rising in most markets today,” according to the WEX report. “In turn, higher home prices are bringing more builders into the market. The housing market is expected to continue to improve and outperform the rest of the economy over the next few quarters due to the low level of housing inventory and low interest rates.”

Click here for the WEX Construction FCI for January 2013.

Los Angeles County’s has opened 14 miles of express lanes on the San Bernardino Freeway. Back in November it was the city’s Harbor Freeway that was set up with this system. The idea of course is to ease congestion.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says, according to the L.A. Times that, “This shows we are willing to address traffic, gridlock and congestion in the region. Other cities are going to do this across the county. We are going to see smarter use of highways.”

This is a venture into “congestion pricing” and the goal is to keep traffic flowing at about 45 mph. It has the usual quirks:  drivers pay more, solo drivers are blocked if speeds fall too low, solo drivers can’t use HOT lanes in rush hour unless they pay.Pack a vehicle like clowns in a cab and you travel for nothing. L.A. would seem to be an acid test. There are no “minor” backups on L.A.freeways. And, as Villaraigosa says, other cities are waiting to see if it works in his city. I drove L.A. freeways for years, and for just as many years played the map game (pre-GPS) of finding short cuts. If we look at my W-L it’s probably about 50-50. But anything that cuts into commute congestion is extremely valuable to our health and to the robustness of local businesses. Congestion pricing has been one of the most discussed anti-congestion options. It’s up to you L.A. L.A.