John LattaHomeLA’s 14-lane, $6 billion-plus freewayAnyone who has lived in L.A. or flown in (once you get below the brown air) can attest to the dominance of the veins and arteries of major roads in the layout of the city. One of them (I-710) is set to maybe almost double in width, from eight lane to 14. So — do […]August 14, 2012SafetyIssa: Obama strong-armed auto companiesNow comes the claim that President Obama basically strong-armed automakers into providing more fuel-efficient vehicles. California Congressman Darrell Issa, (R-Calif), no stranger to headline-making charges, says Emperor Obama and his ‘czars” had defenseless General Motors and Chrysler by the throat and used that grip to squeeze the fuel efficiency concessions out of them. His charge […]August 13, 2012HomeChez Amtrak.From the “speaks for itself” department: Over the last 10 years, losses to the taxpayers from Amtrak’s food and beverage service have added up to more than $833 million. Every $9.50 cheeseburger on Amtrak is subsidized $16.50 by the taxpayers, and every Pepsi sold for $2 costs the taxpayers $3.40. This from hearings at […]August 7, 2012RoadbuildingThe city under your feetUnder many of our big cities is another city. A place of tunnels and sewers and open spaces. Steve Duncan studies and photographs these places. If I am the Roadologist, Steve is the Sewerologist. In fact he calls his postgraduate studies work “sewerology.” It’s the sort of idea that can change your city experience. If […]August 6, 2012RoadbuildingMark this urgent! Until we lose interest.Where’s the urgency? After the I-35W bridge fell into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in August 2007, virtually everyone was jumping up and down about making sure our bridges were safe and no expense should be spared in getting the job done. But it wasn’t done; and isn’t being done. I remember talking to Minnesotan […]August 2, 2012SafetyThink DifferentlySeems to me it was Cool Hand Luke himself who told his jailers what they wanted to hear when he said he was trying to “get my mind right, boss”. But he never did. Something of an original thinker was our Luke. I am at a conference where some really original thinkers are trying to […]July 25, 2012HomeThe Greenest, Quietest MileThe star of the National Asphalt Pavement Association’s midyear meeting in Chicago is Michigan Avenue. The recently-rebuilt downtown thoroughfare is, by the accounts of a number of speakers singing its praises, the greenest, or one of the greenest, major roads in the country. It is certainly the result of some innovative thinking from origination, to […]July 17, 2012BusinessA Transportation BIll and a Gorilla SuitThe honeymoon’s not quite over. MAP 21 is our new highway bill and celebrations of it go on. But the hangover is coming. At the National Asphalt Pavement Association’s midyear meeting in Chicago today U.S. Chamber of Commerce transportation guru Janet Kavinoky and freshman Congressman Reid Ribble (R-Wi) agreed the bill is a good thing, […]July 16, 2012Construction EquipmentIngenious re-engineering. Maybe.Two things. I love the old Citroen 2CV and I am a skeptic. So I Iove this story but I present it with a grain of suspicion. Even so, it’s great read. Basically a man who owns one of the original mini cars, France’s Citroen Deux Cheveaux, has it hopelessly break down on him in […]July 9, 2012HomeReauthorization — first glimpses, second guessesSo compromise wins. So it should; that’s what a Senate/House conference committees does. But looking at the first details of the new reauthorization bill, it’s impossible not to feel that this is a compromise that could have happened way sooner. Much of it is simply dumping Senate clauses. Not too much discussion needed here because […]July 3, 2012Previous PagePage 22 of 43Next PageTop StoriesSafety & ComplianceContractor Faces $394K in Fines After Worker Dies in TrenchThe worker was buried at the bottom of a 12-foot-deep trench, and his employer had been cited for similar violations in the past.Wheel LoadersLiebherr Debuts World's First Large Wheel Loader with a Hydrogen EngineDozersHyundai Breaks into the Dozer Market with HD100The DirtTest Run & Review: The Market's First Electric Mini Excavator, JCB’s 19C-1ECompact equipmentTakeuchi's TCR50-2 Crawler Dumper is Coming to North America