John LattaRoadbuildingGoalposts and Speed LimitsLet’s say you want to set a speed limit of 20 mph on a neighborhood street. You need an engineering study and a traffic study, right? No. Not in Washington State. A new Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill empowers cities and towns to set lower maximum speed limits without going through those studies. This report comes […]May 31, 2013RoadbuildingMAP-21’s reform timetable: Can it be maintained?Ah, yes, the reforms of MAP-21. Like a breath of fresh air they were. Changes that would accelerate woefully slow project delivery times were finally coming, changes worth waiting for. With MAP-21, our current two-year surface transportation legislation, came lowered expectations from a lack of adequate funding but raised expectations from reforms in the act. […]May 30, 2013Roadbuilding2013’s bridges: A Skagit River reminderDid the collapse of the I-5 bridge across the Skagit River in Washington State demonstrate a need for increased investing in our increasingly substandard transportation infrastructure, particularly bridges? One argument says no. Then it sort of says yes as well. “No” in that the bridge was not failing and in desperate need of repair. “Yes” […]May 28, 2013RoadbuildingRemember the Alamo Bridge in WashingtonIf a bridge falls in Washington State does anyone in Washington D.C. hear it? Yes, but for how long will its crash echo in their thoughts? There has been, historically, a relationship between a collapsed bridge span and a collapsed attention span. When a section of the I-5 bridge over the Skagit River in Mount Vernon, […]May 24, 2013RoadbuildingThe Internet, the public and project inputWhat is–or, better yet, what could be–happening to the solicitation of public input into transportation infrastructure projects? “The advent of the internet is making it easier than ever to solicit public input.” It’s a simple statement from an online resource for sustainable transport news, research and best practice solutions from around the world. But it’s […]May 24, 2013RoadbuildingGas tax quizPop quiz: What do you pay in federal fuel tax for every gallon of gas you buy? What percentage of the price of a gallon of gas comes from fuel taxes? No Googling! As the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy points out, Americans are woefully short of understanding the factors that make up the […]May 23, 2013RoadbuildingSan Francisco-Oakland: Troubled bridge over waterClosing in on an end-of-summer opening, the $6.4 billion eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is getting set for its big day more with a whimper than a bang. Good point from Dan Walters in San Jose Mercury News. Do the trials and tribulations (that seems like a reasonable one size fits all description […]May 22, 2013RoadbuildingFrom A Connecticut Train CrashThis is a story to be careful with. This, of course, comes from someone who is concerned that our infrastructure is in bad shape, even though it may appear superficially not to be. Take a look at the Connecticut commuter train crash, which could be a poster accident for the cause. Leave the accident’s cause […]May 20, 2013RoadbuildingFlorida’s Red Light Camera Game: G R E E N orange R E DA lot of orange traffic lights in Florida don’t last as long as they used to. And that has stirred up a hornet’s nest. Are shorter orange light times just there to make money via red light cameras (RLC)? Do they risk intersection safety to make that money? Do they punish safe drivers unfairly? Or, […]May 17, 2013RoadbuildingFifty cents on the dollar for Illinois roadsAt a time when funding for roads and bridges–what there is of it–is squeezed to the maximum (a situation that isn’t likely to change any time soon) comes an unsettling new report. Check out this lead paragraph from a story the Chicago Tribune published this week: “Less than half of the money that the state […]May 16, 2013Previous PagePage 6 of 43Next PageTop StoriesWheel LoadersLiebherr Debuts World's First Large Wheel Loader with a Hydrogen EngineThe L 566 H's hydrogen reciprocating piston engine is the "optimal power source" for larger equipment, offering comparable performance to diesel, Liebherr says.DozersHyundai 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 AmericaCompact Track Loaders“There’s Something for Everyone” – Compact Track Loaders Continue to Evolve