John LattaRoadbuildingNew highways create jobs. What if they are foreign?Uh oh. Is this something we are going to see more of? The case is among the first brought by a union to stop a public project being handled by private investors, an area that is growing in the U.S. as cities and states struggle financially. That’s the Wall Street Journal and the newspaper is […]December 8, 2010RoadbuildingIt’s this simple. Good roads cost us less.Here is a very simple observation made by a newspaperman after the release of a new report. He points out that it costs us more to have bad roads than to keep good ones in good shape. Pennsylvanians are spending more to have lousy roads and bridges than it would cost to keep them in […]November 30, 2010RoadbuildingBye Jim; Hi JohnI’m not surprised John Mica will become chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, but like most of you I am surprised that Jim Oberstar will not even be in the House. The turnaround adds more uncertainty to the existing uncertainty about reauthorization. Mica as ranking member of the committee and Oberstar as chairman […]November 3, 2010RoadbuildingThe Kansas CrunchI keep coming across scenarios that worry me because they could be the tips of icebergs. As funding for transportation projects at all government levels become harder to find and even harder to predict, more and more important projects have to line up for whatever is available. Some must inevitably miss out. Sometimes there are processes […]November 2, 2010RoadbuildingGentlemen, start your (cleaner, higher MPG) enginesHeavy trucks — including vocational trucks, mostly in our case dumps — future fuel mileage and emissions are coming under Washington’s control. Proposed federal standards for greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy for heavy-duty trucks announced Oct. 25 would reduce CO2 emissions and fuel consumption 20 percent by the 2018 model year. For vocational vehicles […]October 26, 2010RoadbuildingBridge Collapses in Minnesota IIThis is one of those stories I have to be careful with. The basic story is that a milling machine toppled partly into water when a section of the river bridge it was working on collapsed.It is not the I-35W story again, and it is not blogged here as a sensational story. If anything the […]October 20, 2010RoadbuildingCongestion fighting then; and now.You knew these stories were coming. There have surely been others already that I have missed. They address the question: what do we do now, now that there isn’t enough money for those grand congestion fighting highway expansion plans we had? This time its Atlanta looking for ways to scale back a massive expansion plan […]October 11, 2010RoadbuildingUpon further review — a Stimulus updateThe American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has released a new report on the Recovery Act, arguing with numbers and project stories that the Stimulus is working and working well. According to AASHTO executive director John Horsley ,”These are big numbers. Billions of dollars being invested in transportation projects that are creating […]September 29, 2010RoadbuildingYet more states are thinking outside the public funding boxWanna buy a road? Two more states are reacting to the inevitable. They must have money for roads but the usual sources are inadequate. Privatization and tolling are coming up again and again as the default option. As Congress leads the way in stalling (if you can do that) by keeping reauthorization hidden away at […]September 20, 2010RoadbuildingWe’ll drive further per gallon – but on what?So you know this story by heart. It goes like this: The Highway Trust Fund relies primarily on income from fuel taxes. Its hopelessly short of funds because the gas tax is too low and politicians won’t raise it. And of course the fuel tax is becoming less and less efficient as we drive more […]September 8, 2010Previous PagePage 32 of 43Next PageTop StoriesTelehandlersBobcat Unveils Electric Telehandler PrototypeThe new zero-emissions machine is powered by liquid-cooled batteries and has a rated operating capacity of 5,511 pounds.Safety & ComplianceContractor Faces $394K in Fines After Worker Dies in TrenchWheel 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-1E