Outlook 2013

Better Roads Staff - Jan 10, 2013

Funds, Funds, Funds • Agencies intend to take advantage of MAP-21 reforms and also look to more private financing options. • Contractors say infrastructure damage will keep getting worse as funding remains inadequate. By John Latta, Editor-in-Chief jlatta@randallreilly.com At a time when economists and other ...

Lattatudes

Better Roads Staff - Dec 01, 2012

Get 'em Dirty By John Latta From the days when SAFETEA-LU’s expiration was way in the future, until today, I’ve followed Washington’s every move on reauthorization and visited the capital regularly to talk to people that mattered, officially or unofficially, in the ...

‘MAP’ing out the future of highway funding

Tina Grady Barbaccia - Aug 30, 2012

Now that the much-anticipated new highway bill has been passed, Congress and the transportation construction and equipment industries should be resting easier with guaranteed funding through the end of September 2014. The $105 billion, 27-month legislation, Moving Ahead for Progress in ...

Are the feds finally listening? $363M in grant money points to ‘maybe’

Tina Grady Barbaccia - Aug 08, 2012

Have the feds finally "turned on their listening ears?" That's a phrase I use with my 4-year-old and 6-year-old when they've finally decided to listen after I'm extremely frustrated about their complete defiance or not listening. I never thought I'd be using ...

The new highway bill, MAP-21: What’s in it for my business?

Tina Grady Barbaccia - Jul 19, 2012

Jack Schenendorf We finally have a highway bill. After three years and nine extensions, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) was signed into law on July 6. Now we have $105 billion and 27 months to keep our ...

Obama signs $105 billion highway bill

Tina Grady Barbaccia - Jul 05, 2012

President Obama on July 6 signed into law a combined transportation, student loan and flood insurance bill at a White House event. The House and Senate on June 29 passed a new two-year $105 billion surface transportation reauthorization bill, Moving Ahead for ...

The new surface transportation bill gives us a cast instead of a Band-Aid for funding

Tina Grady Barbaccia - Jul 03, 2012

A two-year bill isn't the answer to the need for a long-term transportation bill, but it's better than short-term extension after short-term extension. Now we have a cast instead of just a Band-Aid to fix the lack of funding. We were ...

Schuster: Obama will sign transportation bill by Fall

Tina Grady Barbaccia - May 15, 2012

Congress member Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, & Hazardous Materials, predicts President Barack Obama will sign a transportation bill — with a provision to build the Keystone Pipeline included — in ...

Lattatudes

Better Roads Staff - Apr 06, 2012

Reforming Reauthorization Much of the debate (if you can call it that) on a new highway bill has focused on the amount of funding that will be available for transportation infrastructure. Argument over the length of new legislation has also had ...

A bitter little House whine

John Latta - Mar 30, 2012

"I can't, it's too hard." There are a lot of ideographic catch phrases we associate with Americans. This isn't one of them. I don't believe George Washington or Admiral Farragut or John Paul Jones or Abraham Lincoln ever said it. For that ...

The link that is not missing, and Shakespeare 116

John Latta - Mar 21, 2012

So extension number nine appears inevitable. House Transportation and Infrastructure committee chairman John Mica says its likely to be a three month extension. It will allow the House Republicans to come up with a bill of their own to pass the ...