Our Man Wins Big

Jack Roberts, our trucks editor, has won a Jesse H. Neal Award, the Business to Business media’s highest award for journalism, for an article that was our feature story last December. Robert’s won for “Best Technical Content.” The story was an incisive look at the battle between the two different engine technologies that are fighting for supremacy in trucks this year as Environmental Protection Agency regulations demand cleaner and cleaner exhaust.

“It’s always an honor to be recognized for your efforts as a journalist – particularly for a story as

important to our readers as this one. This is really a team award, because no editor works alone,” said Roberts after the awards ceremony in New York City.

This is Roberts’ second Neal Award. He is the truck editor for Randall-Reilly magazines in both the construction and trucking industries.

A new Hall of Fame

Move over Babe Ruth, Joe Namath and Michael Jordan, there’s a new “Hall of Fame” coming to America that will honor the visionaries and game-changers in the transportation design and construction industry.

The American Road and Transportation Builders Association’s Transportation Development Foundation (ARTBA-TDF) is creating a “Hall of Fame” to honor individuals or families from the public and private sectors who have made extraordinary contributions to U.S. transportation development and demonstrated exceptional leadership throughout their lifetime.

“The transportation design and construction industry is full of talented, and often daring, men and women who helped build an infrastructure network that dramatically improved the economic, cultural and social fabric of America,” says ARTBA-TDF Chairman Leo Vecellio.

Anyone can nominate a candidate. ARTBA membership is not required. Individuals can be living or inducted posthumously. Information about the criteria and nomination forms are available at www.artbatdf.org. Nomination forms must be received by close of business Friday, July 2.

Are Tolls Inevitable?

It was an overwhelmingly favorable audience, but regardless Michigan Chamber of Commerce president Rich Studley wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to reinforce his belief that tolling highways is part of the solution to the funding crunch crumbling his state’s thoroughfares.

“Nearby states like Ohio, Indiana and Illinois all make good use of toll roads,” Studley stated in a live online chat hosted by the Michigan press organization MLive.com on the heels of a series of articles on transportation funding. “One of the recommendations from the Transportation Funding Task Force is that we should consider that option as part of a comprehensive solution.”

Of the online participants issuing their votes, 71 percent agreed that toll roads are a good solution for Michigan’s funding issues.

Asked by Better Roads for examples of highway stretches Studley would consider as tolling candidates, the co-chair of the Michigan Transportation Funding Task Force cited the interstates that freely move commuters through his automobile-patriarchal state en route to its toll-toting neighbors in the Great Lakes region.

“Toll roads would not be appropriate for local streets or county roads,” wrote Studley. “They would be more appropriate for sections of our interstate highway system, especially in areas where there is a need for new construction to complete the system or major expansion projects. The east-west route from Detroit to Chicago along I-94 carries a lot of interstate traffic and might be appropriate for consideration.”