07_23_12_News

ARTBA Washington Newsline

J U L Y 2 3 , 2 0 1 2

NewslineWashington

ARTBA National Convention Room Discount Ends August 8

Continued on page 3

Continued on page 2

Follow ARTBA:

July 31 Webinar on MAP-21 and Market Forecast

The deadline for receiving the discounted $192 hotel room rate at the 2012 ARTBA Convention in Memphis, Tenn., is Wednesday, August 8. The Peabody Memphis Hotel is a magnificent Forbes Four-Star, AAA Four-Diamond, historic property, which has been described as “legendary, charming, elegant and grand.”

The program features a slate of top notch speakers, including Scott McKain, one of

Register by August 1, Save $100! ARTBA P3 in Transportation Conference

ARTBA’s top economist and lobbyist will provide an overview of the likely impacts of the new highway/transit law—MAP-21—on the U.S. transportation design and construction market July 31 during a live 75-minute webinar.

Alison Premo Black, ARTBA’s chief economist will discuss the

2012 ARTBA Chairman Paul Yarossi, president of HNTB Holdings, told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee July 19 that regulatory inefficiencies and investment cuts enacted in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act could undermine the act’s significant policy reforms. Specifically, Yarossi warned that the “one-size-fits-all” hours of services regulations for construction industry truck drivers should recognize that driving short

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

distances to worksites is physically very different from the long stretches of highway driving freight transporters experience.

Further, Yarossi said draft guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would greatly expand the reach of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) to include temporary roadside ditches—used in “virtually every road and roadway improvements project.”

Finally, the ARTBA chairman noted EPA’s potential

designation of coal ash—used extensively throughout the construction industry—as a “hazardous” material would likely cost the public and private sectors more than $104 billion over the next 20 years, increase greenhouse gases, lower cement quality, and remove an important recycling method for coal byproducts, according to a 2011 ARTBA economic study.

Yarossi was the only transportation sector witness to appear before the panel. View the full text of his testimony.

Excessive Regulations Threaten MAP-21 Progress, ARTBA Tells Congress

Marsh and ARTBA Have Launched A Heavy Highway Insurance Program. Contact ARTBA’s Rich Juliano at 202.289.4434 for more information.

2 ARTBA Washington Newsline

Upcoming EventsVisit our Events Page for more information.

TransOvation WorkshopJuly 25-27Leesburg, Va. [Add to Calendar]

National ConventionSeptember 11–14 Memphis, Tenn. [Add to Calendar]

LōTrans Virtual Conference & Innovation ShowcaseSeptember 18 - 20[Add to Calendar]

P3s in Transportation ConferenceOctober 10–12 Washington, D.C. [Add to Calendar]

4th Annual Construction Law & Regulatory ForumOctober 24-25Washington, D.C.

Western Regional MeetingNovember 27-28San Francisco, Calif.[Add to Calendar]

Central Regional MeetingNovember 29-30Chicago, Ill.[Add to Calendar]

Southern Regional MeetingDecember 3-4Atlanta, Ga. [Add to Calendar]

Northeastern Regional MeetingDecember 5-6Boston, Mass. [Add to Calendar]

2012

Continued from page 1

July 31 ARTBA MAP-21 Analysis & Market Forecast

impacts of MAP-21 on the transportation construction market, examine how are markets are faring in each of the 50 states and provide an economic forecast for the remainder of 2012.

ARTBA Senior Vice President of Government Relations Dave Bauer will provide a broad overview of the law’s funding levels and policy provisions.

Both will also be available to answer your questions. Participants will receive the PowerPoint presentation, along with ARTBA’s comprehensive MAP-21 analysis.

Registration is $175 for ARTBA members and $200 non-members.

Register at www.artba.org/webinars. Contact ARTBA’s Brie Johnson with any

questions.

State and local government transportation bond issues up slightly in 1Q 2012

3ARTBA Washington Newsline

Products & Services

Continued from page 1

August 8 Hotel Deadline for ARTBA National Convention

Connect with Industry Leaders: Advertise in ARTBA’s Digital Buyers Guide

Promote your firm’s products and services before a wide audience of material suppliers, manufacturers, design firms and contractors.

Contact ARTBA’s Peter Embrey for more information.

only 150 living members of the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame and an expert on brand differentiation; Bill Logue, president and chief executive officer of FedEx Freight Corporation, who will share the company vision for the nation’s transportation network; John Schroer, Tennessee’s transportation commissioner, who will provide a report on the state’s infrastructure plans and potential market opportunities; and Dexter Muller, a senior vice president with the Memphis Chamber of Commerce, who will lead a discussion called “Memphis

Logistics: We’ve Got the Moves.” Attendees will also have the opportunity

to visit Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, and take an exclusive tour of the FedEx Express Memphis World Hub to witness thousands of FedEx team members working together to process more than 1.5 million daily packages. See the full convention schedule on pages 6-7 of this “Newsline.”

Contact ARTBA’s Ed Tarrant for information, or call the Peabody Memphis Hotel at (901) 529-4000 to book your room.

Reservations made after August 8 will be on a space-available basis.

October 10 -12, 2012Renaissance Downtown Washington, D.C. Hotel

The 24th Annual ARTBA P3s in Transportation Conference is the private infrastructure investment community’s premier oppor-tunity to connect with hundreds of key decision makers, project sponsors, private sector finance executives, consortium leaders

and officials from all levels of government.

For more information, contact ARTBA P3 Division Manager Hank Webster at [email protected] or 202.289.4434.

P3 Conference Early Bird Rate Expires August 1

Re g i s te r : w w w. a r t b a p 3 . o rg

4 ARTBA Washington Newsline

Overheard

“ ”

TRB Newsletter: July 10 Highlighting new research, technologies, industry best practices and information resources available to the transportation design and construction industry.

A service of ARTBA’s multi-modal councils, it features current transportation developments making news across all modes and regions. Contact: Caitrin Reed to become a subscriber.

Fostering Innovation

MultimodalNews

Below are very interesting insights from some of the nation’s leading syndicated columnists about the current political dialogue in America.

“A central issue for November’s winner will be to bridge the gap between government’s spending commitments and its tax resources — without so jolting the economy that its feeble performance deteriorates further or, alternatively, so shocking public opinion that it creates a backlash and collapses. This is the real but ignored challenge: to redefine government in a way that is economically viable and politically acceptable. To the extent that the presidential campaign might clarify choices or encourage a consensus, it is (so far) being squandered. Character assassination is a diversion, not a policy.”

July 15 op-ed “Character assassination on the campaign trail” by “Washington Post” columnist Robert Sameulson.

“Extreme political polarization is the product of democracy that undermines democracy. It increases incivility and magnifies distrust of government. It causes some to abandon civic engagement in disgust, and others to join angry ideological insurrections. In Congress, it adds to the obstructive power of cohesive partisan blocs and makes bargaining and compromise in the public interest more difficult.”

July 16 op-ed “The Politics of Polarization” by “Washington Post” columnist Michael Gerson.

“The ultimate Obama fallacy, however, is the conceit that belief in the value of infrastructure — and willingness to invest in its creation and maintenance — is what divides liberals from conservatives. More nonsense. Infrastructure is not a liberal idea, nor is it particularly new. The Via Appia was built 2,300 years ago. The Romans built aqueducts, too. And sewers. Since forever, infrastructure has been consensually understood to be a core function of government.”

July 19 op-ed “Did the State Make You Great?” by “Washington Post” columnist Charles Krauthamer.

Legislative & Regulatory News

LaHood: MAP-21 “Highway-Centric”

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said July 19 the MAP-21 law enacted earlier this month is “probably a little highway-centric” and “there could have been more of our livable and sustainable communities programs in it. LaHood has been integral in the Obama Administration’s efforts to make communities more “livable” by focusing investments in housing, the environment, and non-highway transportation options such as public transportation, and bicycle/pedestrian facilities.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ most recent report on surface trade with Mexico and Canada indicates 69 percent of surface trade value was moved by truck on the nation’s highways, bridges, and other roads

representing a value of $79.78 billion. The report does not contain statistics for freight moved on bicycle or pedestrian paths.

MAP-21 represents an overwhelmingly-supported compromise between many factions in Congress. While bike and pedestrian facilities may be desired in some areas, there is not widespread support on Capitol Hill or among the broad transportation community for a federal emphasis on “livability.” MAP-21, however, still permits states to use federal funds for bike and pedestrian paths if that fits their needs.

Administration Expedites Port Improvements; Creates Port Task Force

Making good on a March 22 executive order to improve the performance of federal infrastructure permitting and reviews, President Obama July 19 ordered expedited reviews of seven infrastructure projects designed to improve five major Atlantic ports: Jacksonville, Fla.; Miami, Fla.; Charleston,

5ARTBA Washington Newsline

Download a PDF copy of the digital “Washington Newsline.”

ARTBA Welcomes New Member

S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; and the Port of New York and New Jersey.

The White House released a fact sheet indicating 43 more expedited review orders in the coming weeks, although it is not clear how many transportation infrastructure projects are included. The President noted, “One way to help American businesses grow and hire is to modernize our infrastructure.”

View more information on the specific project scopes in the full release.

President Obama also announced the establishment of a ports task force, originally called for in the President’s FY 2013 budget proposal, consisting of officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Departments of Transportation, Commerce, Homeland Security, and Treasury as well as representatives from the National Economic Council, Office of Management and Budget, Council of Economic Advisers, Council on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Trade Representative.

Airline Traffic Up in April

U.S. Airlines carried 61.5 million passengers in April, a 1.6 percent increase compared to April 2011, and three percent above April 2010 figures. The figures show passengers returning to the air following historic lows in the wake of the Great Recession—April’s 2012 passenger data is the highest total for that month in four years. Continued economic recovery will place a greater burden the nation’s transportation network, including airport facilities.

April Domestic & International Passenger Totals (in Millions)

2007 64.92008 63.12009 59.52010 59.62011 60.52012 61.5

Source: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Momentive is a world leader in specialty chemicals and materials with a long heritage of technology innovation, applications expertise and personalized service. Our portfolio is comprised of market leading technologies in silicones, quartz, specialty epoxy and phenolic resins, Versatic Acids™ and Derivatives, and specialty waxes. Momentive serves many global markets, including energy, electronics, construction and transportation.

Contractor Safety & Roadway Work Zone Safety Awards Deadline August 10

CONTRACTOR SAFETY AWARDS

The “Contractor Safety Award” is open to all ARTBA members in the Contractors Division and recognizes industry firms that have implemented outstanding employee health and safety programs. Successful applicants will demonstrate a low “OSHA Recordable Rate” rate as measured against benchmark statistics established by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in three categories based on number of employee hours worked during the previous year:

1. 1,000,001 or more employee hours 2. 500,001 – 1,000,000 employee hours 3. 500,000 or less employee hours

Nomination Form

ROADWAY WORK ZONE SAFETY AWARENESS AWARDS

The “Roadway Work Zone Safety Awareness Award” is open to all individuals and organizations and recognizes employee and public outreach campaigns, training programs and innovations in technology that demonstrate excellence in promoting safety in roadway construction zones.

Nomination Form

Awards will be presented September 12 at a lunch during the ARTBA National Convention in Memphis, Tenn.

Questions? Contact ARTBA’s Holly DiGangi at (202) 289-4434 or visit www.artbatdf.org.

2012 ARTBA National Convention Program of Events

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 118:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. ARTBA Contractor Safety Awards Judging

1:00–6:00 p.m. Safety Leadership Workshop “Best of the Best in Safety” (Lunch provided) (open to all attendees)

2:30–4:30 p.m. Council of State Executives

3:30–6:00 p.m. Young Executive Leadership Council/First Timers/Young Executive Development Program (PDH-1.5)

4:30-5:30 p.m. ARTBA Past Chairman’s Meeting

6:00–7:00 p.m. Welcome Reception

7:00–9:30 p.m. ARTBA Past Chairmen’s Dinner (Chez Phillipe, located in the Peabody Hotel). Invitation only.

10:15 p.m.–1:45 a.m. Fed-Ex Super Hub Tour at Mem-phis Airport—Pre-registration required. (PDH–3). Includes 30 minute bus ride back and forth to FedEx Hub.

Customer Experience” (PDH-1)

Speaker: Scott McKain, author, What Customers Really Want and co-founder of the Value-Added Institute

11:00–11:30 a.m. General Session: “State Trans-portation Spending and Budget Challenges: The Tennessee DOT Perspective” (PDH-.5).

Speaker: John Schroer, commis-sioner, Tennessee Department of Transportation

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 128:00–10:00 a.m. Safety Leadership Workshop “Roadway Safety +” (open to all attendees)

9:00–10:00 a.m. Transportation Officials Division

8:30–10:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast

10:00–11:00 a.m. General Session: “Increase Sales, Improve Retention, Enhance Profits and Deliver the Ultimate

ARTBA Safety Leadership Workshop: September 11-13 Held in conjunction with the ARTBA National Convention, the “Safety Leadership Workshop” will be chock-full of “state-of-the-practice” training and information for senior company officers, project manag-ers, safety professionals and others who recognize the critical linkages between safety and production. You’ll also earn Professional Develop-ment Hours (PDHs).

Industry leaders whose companies have developed award-winning safety programs will spearhead interactive sessions. Winners of the annual ARTBA “Contractor Safety Awards” will tell you what they are doing to achieve the lowest injury rates and insurance modifiers in the industry.

In the “Best of the Best in Safety Academy,” listen to Bob Johnson, ARTBA Safety Committee chair and safety director for Granite Con-struction Inc., and other industry leaders, share the “secrets of suc-cess” in managing programs for some of the largest contractors in the nation—with some of the most consistent, safety records. ARTBA’s top safety expert, Brad Sant, will also highlight the training programs available to industry professionals through several federal govern-ment contracts. And don’t forget to bring your laptop to receive and be instructed on how to use one of the most effective safety training programs ever designed for this industry.

As a bonus, you’ll be able to participate in some of the general ses-sions and other events of the ARTBA National Convention.

Learn from the industry’s top safety leaders. Earn PDHs. Connect with your peers. It all awaits you in the Blues City!

Contact ARTBA Senior Vice President of Safety & Education Brad Sant at 202.289.4434 or [email protected] for more information.

11:45 a.m.–1:30 p.m. ARTBA Foundation Safety Awards Luncheon

Speaker: William Logue, president & CEO, Fed-Ex Freight

1:30–3:30 p.m. Division Meetings: • Public Private Partnerships • Planning & Design • Materials & Services • Research & Education • Contractors Division

2012 ARTBA National Convention Program of Events

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 137:00–9:30 a.m. Buffet Breakfast

7:00–9:15 a.m. Executive Committee

8:30–9:30 a.m. Transportation Safety Advisory Council

9:30–11:00 a.m. Safety Leadership Workshop “OSHA Update”

9:30–9:45 a.m. Annual Meeting of Members

9:45–11:00 a.m. General Session: Federal Legis-lative & Regulatory Report and Transportation Construction Market Forecast (PDH-1.25).

Speakers: Dave Bauer, senior vice president of government relations, ARTBA Nick Goldstein, vice president of environmental and regulatory affairs, ARTBA Dr. Alison Black, chief econo-mist and vice president of policy, ARTBA

11:00–11:15 a.m. Networking Break

11:15–12:00 p.m. “Memphis Logistics: We’ve Got the Moves”

Speaker: Dexter Muller, Memphis Chamber of Commerce senior vice president

Noon–1:00 p.m. Buffet Lunch

1:00–3:30 p.m. Board of Directors

6:00–11:00 p.m. Chairman’s Reception & Banquet & Incoming Chairman’s Hospitality Event

Chairman’s Banquet Entertainment: Comedian Henry Cho

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 Departures

1:30–3:30 p.m. Safety Leadership Workshop “Preventing Runovers & Backovers” (open to all attendees)

3:30–5:00 p.m. Council of University Transportation Centers Ports and Waterways Bridge Policy and Promotion Council Traffic Safety Industry Division

5:15–10:00 p.m. Optional Event: ARTBA Political Action Team Reception at Graceland (Pre- registration required).

We invite you to the home of the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Elvis Presley. Walk in Elvis’s steps at Graceland Mansion while enjoy-ing an audio-guided tour featuring com-mentary and stories by wife Priscilla and daughter, Lisa Marie. The mansion tour includes Elvis’s living room, music room, parent’s bedroom, dining room, kitchen, TV room, pool room and the famous Jungle Room. Stroll down a tree lined street with a drive-in theatre through the Elvis Presley Car Museum where his favorites such as his famous pink Cadillac, Harley Davidson motorcycles and a 1975 Dino Ferrari are on display and step aboard Elvis’s customized jets. The full experience will take you from Elvis humble beginnings through his rise to super stardom. See how this music legend lived and relaxed with his family and friends at his Memphis home.

California's proposed bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco—which Gov. Jerry Brown is likely to sign off on soon—has been characterized by the Obama administration and its other supporters as an effective way to reduce highway congestion. These costs amount to more than $100 billion annually in wasted time and higher fuel expenses.

In fact, a much better technological solution is on the horizon, if we pave the way by getting rid of obsolete highway design. It is already possible to imagine a world in which you could predict exactly how long it would take to drive in your car from one point to another. No worries about rush hour, vacation congestion, bad drivers, speed traps and accidents. You could also text while you drive with no safety implications.

All this may be possible thanks to a "driverless" car that does a human driver's normal job and much more. The car is operated by a computer that obtains information 10 times per second from short-range transmitters on surrounding road conditions, including where other cars are and what they are doing.

That's exponentially faster than the human mind can process the same information. By gathering and reacting immediately to real-time information, the technology can drastically reduce highway fatalities by preventing collisions. It also can significantly reduce delays by creating a smoother traffic flow and rerouting drivers who have

programmed their destinations.Google's version is being

piloted in Nevada, and it could prove that faster, reliable and safer road travel is within reach. But one stumbling block would remain: the government-run roads this innovation must use. Auto makers have made one technological improvement after another since the car was introduced to consumers more than a century ago. Unfortunately, the paved road systems on which cars travel have not advanced much in comparison. Without reimagining the way we design and maintain highways, the driverless car will achieve little of its potential.

Despite the frustratingly frequent lane closures for repairs, about one-third of the nation's highways are still in poor or mediocre condition. Driving on damaged roads is hard on vehicles and is estimated to cost motorists billions of dollars annually. Those potholes could also defeat the purpose of the driverless car because it would be unable to avoid them, or succeed in doing so only by significantly disturbing the traffic flow.

Most highways in major metropolitan areas operate under congested conditions during much of the day. Yet highways are designed around standards based on higher free-flow travel speeds that call for wider but fewer lanes. Driverless cars don't need the same wide lanes, which would allow highway authorities to reconfigure roads to allow travel speeds to be raised during peak travel periods. All that is needed would be illuminated

lane dividers that can increase the number of lanes available. Driverless cars could take advantage of the extra lane capacity to reduce congestion and delays.

Another design flaw is that highways have been built in terms of width and thickness to accommodate both cars and trucks. The smaller volume of trucks should be handled with one or two wide lanes with a road surface about a foot thick, to withstand trucks' weight and axle pressure. But the much larger volume of cars—which apply much less axle pressure that damages pavement—need more and narrower lanes that are only a few inches thick.

Building highways that separate cars and trucks by directing them to lanes with the appropriate thickness would save taxpayers a bundle. It would also favor the technology of driverless cars because they would not have to distinguish between cars and trucks and to adjust speeds and positions accordingly.

Traffic management also suffers from obsolete technology that could hinder implementing the driverless car. On local streets, signal timing contributes to hundreds of millions of vehicle hours of annual delay because it is based on out-of-date historical data that inaccurately measure relative traffic volumes at intersections. Without signals based on real-time traffic flows, driverless vehicles may not be able to accurately align their speeds with them.

The future also holds the promise of new communications technologies that could let

road authorities use electronic tolls to charge motorists for their contribution to congestion, based on actual traffic conditions, and thus encourage them to travel during off-peak periods, use alternate routes, or switch to public transit. Driverless cars would significantly help motorists respond to congestion tolls because their technology can balance the cost of a toll with its travel time savings to optimize motorists' route choices.

The driverless car represents one of the most amazing breakthroughs in safety and quality of life in recent history. Instead of focusing on enormously expensive high-speed rail as our transportation future, the government would do well to stop hindering driverless cars by its obsolete thinking about our nation's roads.

One promising approach that would not require taxpayer funds would be to turn to innovative private highway companies, which have leased the Indiana toll road, Chicago Skyway and Dulles Greenway. By working closely with auto makers, they could significantly shorten the time that motorists must wait before they fully realize the benefits of driverless technology.

Mr. Winston is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and author of "Last Exit: Privatization and Deregulation of the U.S. Transportation System" (Brookings Press, 2010).

Clifford Winston: Paving the Way for Driverless CarsInstead of focusing on an enormously expensive high-speed rail system, government

should promote modern highway design for cars of the future.

July 17, 2012

Another in a series of opinion pieces that should be of interest to ARTBA members.