Wed May 20, 2015
Are Rural Roads Being Neglected?
The National Transportation Research Group TRIP has released a new report focusing on the special challenges that rural roads face in the current aging infrastructure crisis. Among the findings of the report:- Rural residents tend to be more heavily reliant on their limited transportation network – primarily rural roads and highways- than their counterparts in more urban areas....
Alan Fram - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Mon May 18, 2015
House GOP Plans 2-Month Extension of Highway Funds
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans introduced a two-month extension of the federal highway and mass transit program Friday, barely two weeks before the government’s authority to help finance projects around the country expires....
Mon May 18, 2015
Senator Proposes National Infrastructure Bank
Reuters is reporting that a Republican senator last week proposed that Congress create a new bank to overcome a drought in federal infrastructure funds partly by using voluntarily repatriated corporate dollars to help states finance road and bridge projects....
Thu May 14, 2015
Foxx Exhorts Congress to Spend Big on Roads, Bridges
The Hill is reporting that Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx last week said, “we ought to be embarrassed as a country” about the state of the nation’s infrastructure, as lawmakers scramble to beat a May 31 deadline for extending federal transportation funds....
Tue May 12, 2015
Radio Ad Campaign on Highway Trust Fund Targets Congressional & Tax Committee Leaders
Two of the nation’s leading transportation advocacy organizations have joined forces to launch a radio campaign urging key members of Congress to stop playing games with federal transportation funding and find a permanent solution for the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF)....
Mon May 11, 2015
Construction Jobs Fueled April Employment Gains
WASHINGTON (AP) - Construction and manufacturing - two bedrock sectors of the American economy - landed on opposite ends of April’s jobs report. Construction companies added 45,000 jobs during the month, bringing their year-to-date total to 108,000....
Melinda Deslatte - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Fri May 08, 2015
Louisiana Borrows $335M to Continue Construction Projects
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Despite budget question marks and the collapse of a recent LSU bond sale, Louisiana borrowed $335 million Wednesday without running into problems with investors. The state sold the general obligation bonds to low bidder Wells Fargo Bank, with the money slated to replenish the state’s construction project fund....
LAURYN SCHROEDER - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Fri May 08, 2015
Governor Signs Bill Repealing Construction Wage Law
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Local boards will no longer set minimum wages for public construction projects in Indiana under a law signed Wednesday by Republican Gov. Mike Pence. The bill will eliminate the boards that set what is known as the common construction wage that workers must be paid on most state or local government projects....
Tue April 28, 2015
Philadelphia Ironworkers Union Agent Gets 8 Years in Prison
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A top official at an ironworkers’ union was sentenced on Thursday to eight years in prison in what federal prosecutors say was a campaign of violence and intimidation to coerce building contractors into hiring his workers over non-union competition....
Tue April 28, 2015
NYC Launches Massive Affordable Housing Program
NEW YORK (AP) New York City aims to lift 800,000 people out of poverty within a decade in its OneNYC program - a blueprint for making the city more resilient and equitable. City administration officials on Thursday outlined Mayor Bill de Blasio’s goal of pulling nearly 10 percent of New York’s 8.5 million residents out of poverty or near poverty, with a sweeping plan that will utilize a potpourri of proposals, not all of them yet well-defined, and a significant reliance on a steep minimum wage increase that is far from guaranteed....
