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June 2006
Leave the Gas Tax Alone
—
or Raise It
Recent suggestions that federal gasoline
taxes should be suspended to ease gasoline prices show complete
lack of understanding of the tax by both the media and the
general public.
Not only can we not afford to cut these
critical taxes, which provide the funds to build and maintain
our roads, but we should consider increasing them. An increase
might help encourage the driving public to conserve fuel and
reduce their mileage driven.
Besides, although none of us wants to
pay more for gasoline, our current prices aren’t really out of
line. When you adjust them for inflation, we are still paying
less per gallon than we did in 1981.
And compared to Europe, our prices are a
bargain. According to the AA Motoring Trust in Great Britain and
the European Road Information Center in Geneva, the April 18,
2006 price of a U.S. gallon of gasoline was $7.00 in the
Netherlands, $6.58 in Belgium, $6.43 in Britain, $6.20 in
Germany and Sweden, $6.05 in Italy, $6.01 in France, $5.07 in
Spain, and $2.76 in the United States.
Sure, most of those countries are more
dense and drivers don’t put the mileage on their vehicles we do.
They also buy vehicles that get better mileage than many
Americans.
Suspending the federal gasoline tax is
not the way to deal with the cost of gasoline. If we don’t open
up drilling areas in the U.S. and allow refinery construction,
you can bet that our gasoline prices will continue to climb.
Even if we do these things, they are long-term projects that
won’t solve the problem quickly. Any kind of suspension of the
tax would only mean roads in poorer condition, which leads to
congestion and vehicle damage, which, in turn, lead to...you
guessed it — greater fuel consumption.
So let’s hear it for fuel conservation,
more combined trips, carpooling, and (I can hear the public
groans now) higher federal gasoline taxes.
May 2006
All the News....Part IV
The increase in meetings held to discuss
bridge and road technical and funding problems provides us with
a valuable way to find new information for you.
While most meetings or conventions a
decade ago were primarily aimed at exhibits of new equipment,
today’s sessions almost always include good technical
presentations as well. Many meetings are totally based on
technical or information-related sessions, with no exhibits.
If you could attend most of these
yourselves, that would be great. Of course, you can’t. Time and
funding won’t allow it.
And this is where we come in. By
attending and reporting on the best of these meetings, we can
share what we’ve learned with you. The meetings also provide us
with person-to-person communication that often helps us obtain
details when we need more information down the road.
Going out into the field to see what
specific departments or agencies are doing is another part of
providing you with the data you need. Whether it’s a trip with a
California Department of Transportation staffer to look at
innovative projects or a plant tour to check out the newest
paving machine, little beats personal reporting for giving
readers solid and objective information.
Most agencies and contractors are great
about sharing with us. Once in awhile we find someone who has
had bad experiences with the general press and hesitates about
talking to us. As business press editors, though, we’re not out
to crucify anyone. We don’t look for doom-and-disaster stories.
Instead, we look for ways you’re working that could help someone
in another agency or company.
Information from you, data from the
Internet, public relations efforts, and correspondents in other
parts of the countries — these are all tools we use in
reporting.
And the most important of these is, as
always, information from you, our readers. Thank you for your
help and cooperation.
April
2006
All the News....Part III
Correspondents or freelancers provide
another part of the total picture of how we gather information
for you.
An excellent correspondent contacts us
to see if the story idea they have is of any interest. He or she
asks for a deadline and meets it. They understand you, our
readers, and write with your needs in mind. They provide photos
taken on site to illustrate the technology or other information
provided.
Like good public relations firms, good
correspondents have become harder to find over the past decade.
It’s a tough life, often requiring driving around the country in
less than ideal conditions, trying to persuade busy agency and
contractor staff to find time to explain a problem and solution
to them, and then hoping the payment will be adequate for the
time they’ve spent.
A decade ago, many manufacturers hired
correspondents to provide such articles. And the good
freelancers were able to blend the needs of the reader and the
manufacturer into a well-done article. Some still follow this
policy, but it’s becoming rarer. Many manufacturers have turned
to using their own staff to provide articles, or just don’t
bother providing the information at all.
Like most editors, we have our favorite
correspondents — those we’ve come to rely on because they write
to your needs, meet their deadlines, and can be counted on to
provide truthful, objective information.
As these correspondents become fewer in
number, we find new ways to provide the same information — by
making more field trips ourselves and by making contact with
highway agency people or contractors who provide information
that we know is reliable.
If you enjoy writing or being
interviewed, ask yourself if the information is useful to others
in your position. If so, contact us and we will make use of what
you’ve learned, sharing it with your peers.
March
2006
All the News....Part II
The Internet has replaced some of the
material we used to receive from public relations firms, so that
we can provide you with timely information about how to do your
jobs better and at a lower cost.
Associations, highway departments, and
some companies provide Web sites that include a wealth of
material.
Still, this is a source that needs to be
explored with great care.
December 2005
Combat
Construction in New Hampshire
While hurricane damage in the billions
of dollars continues to make news, consider New Hampshire. Here,
flooding destroyed bridges and roads in a disastrous way.
Sure, the total damage will be many
millions rather than billions, but look at the cost per capita,
and you will find that the disaster equals that of New Orleans
and the surrounding area.
New Hampshire Governor John Lynch
declared a state of emergency before the flooding ended.
Transportation Commissioner Carol Murray
called emergency road repairs “combat construction”. Work crews
blocked damaged roads quickly and then turned to repairs. Bailey
Bridges were put in place to provide transit across rivers and
creeks.
Road repairs will require many months as
well as money. About 30 roads were closed or partially cut off
in the western part of the state, according to New Hampshire
Department of Transportation’s Bill Boynton. An historic double
arch stone bridge in Walpole washed away, along with more than a
dozen more modern bridge structures in the area.
Route 123 suffered especially severe
damage, with parts of the road simply disappearing along with
the flood.
Better Roads’ correspondents Dan and
Gini McKain drove over one 30-mile section with half of the road
“nothing but rubble”. Miraculously, they could still drive on
the other side of the road or on the shoulder, where damage was
not as disastrous.
Traffic engineers are also concerned
about roads that appear to be safe now, but which may have been
undermined, according to Murray.
A full report on the reconstruction will
appear in Better Roads in a later issue, but in the meantime,
let’s all be proud of the quick response and fast action of the
New Hampshire DOT and its people. And let’s remember to extend
any help we can give. The Gulf Coast is not the only location of
road disasters this year.
November 2005
Where's the Money?
Are public-private partnerships the
funding answer? Funding is the number-one problem cited by
engineers in our annual bridge inventory. This difficulty
carries across to all aspects of road, street, and bridge
construction and maintenance.
Like most problems, we need to approach
funding from multiple directions.
For instance, with gasoline prices
climbing so rapidly, I believe this would be an excellent time
to add $0.05 a gallon to the federal gasoline tax. States that
can increase their tax without a public mandate might consider a
quick increase, too. I’m paying $2.79 for a gallon of gasoline,
so going to $2.89 would not be a major jump.
Public-private partnerships, resulting
in more alternative financing, toll roads and bridges, and other
cooperative ventures, are other tools we can use.
In late September, the National Council
for Public-Private Partnerships joined with the Federal Highway
Administration, the Illinois DOT, the Missouri DOT, and others
to look at partnership implementation.
Better Roads will publish a major report
on this session soon.
Whichever funding approach we take, we
need new sources of monies to even keep bridges and roads in
their current conditions.
Many states face additional funding
challenges due to Katrina and Rita. Some cannot raise additional
public funds without legislative approval and/or a voter
mandate, further tying their hands. Both legislators and drivers
are suspicious of new funding of any kind, but it is up to us to
show them how public-private partnerships can be used to
alleviate money problems and improve our roads.
It’s time to bite the bullet and find
new sources and legislative backing so that having enough money
is no longer listed as the number-one agency problem by most all
who work there. Only then can we fully turn our efforts to our
real job — building and maintaining our bridge, street, and road
system.
October 2005
Lend a Hand
If Houston can take refugees from the
Superdome in New Orleans and house them in the Astrodome, and
homeowners across the south can offer a spare bedroom to one or
more persons made homeless by Katrina, we can do our share as
well.
Find an agency the same size as yours in
Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama, and contact them to see how
you can help. If you already know an engineer in one of those
agencies from attending meetings, start by contacting him or
her.
Maybe it will mean staying late and
running some design work or permits on your computer since
theirs was lost in the storm and since their electricity is
still out.
Maybe one or two of your engineers can
drive or fly to the nearest location and give their counterparts
a physical hand with the work.
Any bridge engineer will no doubt be
welcomed as hundreds of bridges have to be inspected and
evaluated before they can be reopened.
And then there is always taking up a
donation to help the agency set itself up again.
Highway and road departments are going
to be rebuilding streets, roads, and bridges for months.
We can do more than shake our heads and
say how sad the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is. If each of us
will help one other agency our size, the result will be a large
one.
And because I like to put my action
where my mouth goes, does any agency need help with putting out
a newsletter or other publication? Give me a call and we’ll give
you a hand.
September 2005
Patch, Patch, Patch
Grateful as we are for a highway bill,
passage hasn’t solved all of our funding problems.
Many states, cities, and towns still use
monies collected from gasoline and road-use taxes for purposes
other than road and street maintenance and/or construction.
The result is that, even when combined
with improved federal funding, our roads are left in a constant
condition of patch, patch, patch.
Dallas is a perfect example.
Where streets once were kept in good
condition by the use of dedicated highway funds, the city
council moved those monies into the general fund. Now,
construction and even decent repairs depend on voters’
willingness to pass new bond issues to borrow money to pay for
repairs that should be covered by fees and taxes they already
pay.
Potholes and expanded asphalt humps
exist citywide, jarring drivers and damaging the vehicles
beneath them.
Dallas isn’t alone in this situation, of
course, as government leaders try to move money into programs
they consider important.
Still, it seems to me that taxes and
fees paid by vehicle drivers and users ought to be dedicated to
the roads they use.
If every agency, at whatever level,
would push for this dedication, many of our funding problems
would be solved and our roads could be returned to a reasonable
level of functionality.
August 2005
Stormwater Compliance: Expect More Costs
Municipalities are most affected by
increasing regulation of stormwater control, according to
presentations made at the recent Transportation Research Board’s
Stormwater Management for Highways session. The increase in
urban land use is one main reason. Lakes, rivers, and other
water areas near or in urban areas are polluted. In fact, state
figures show as much as 90% of water is too polluted for fishing
or swimming in these areas. There are 7 billion cubic tons of
sediment finding their way to ponds, rivers, and lakes per year.
And, 30% of this comes from land and construction development —
such as when a roadway is temporarily unprotected in its
original graded, but not paved, condition.
Because the EPA has been sued, it has
now moved to establish maximum daily loads aimed at restoring
legislated clean water standards. The EPA is fining states if
their standards aren’t met, so state pressure on departments of
transportation and their contractors at all levels will climb.
You can expect regulations to become
more pollutant specific, with each state passing regulations to
show their accountability.
The positive side of the picture is that
there has been innovation and advancement in stormwater
treatment, including many manufactured devices. New stormwater
filter technologies for bridges can help.
State departments of transportation are
working with various transportation-oriented universities, such
as the University of Florida and Clemson, to find best practices
to help control stormwater. In South Dakota, the DOT requires
its contractors to have inspectors certified in stormwater
control regulations.
In the months ahead, we will be
reporting the problem, the regulations, and the solutions.
In the meantime, watch both our Web
site, www.BetterRoads.com
, and the TRB site
for new developments.
July 2005
Consider Your Flaggers
As July and August bring warm and often
humid days, be sure to arrange your maintenance crew schedules
with your flaggers in mind.
The flagger often holds the most
dangerous work-zone job. He or she also holds one of the least
savory chores when the weather heats up. Standing in the sun,
stopping, slowing, or directing traffic hour after hour in 90-
or 100-degree weather is tough.
Site managers can alleviate this problem
through scheduling. On a project with one lane closed and a lead
vehicle taking traffic through to the other end, for example,
the flagger may trade off with the driver of the lead vehicle
every hour or two, giving each person only a limited time in the
sun.
On shorter work zones without the need
for a lead vehicle, be sure the flagger is equipped with safety
head gear that provides as much sun protection as possible. Keep
plenty of drinking water on the site, along with sunscreen.
Flaggers can protect themselves by
wearing long-sleeved, light material shirts, using sunglasses,
and by making use of sunscreen. Drinking plenty of fluids is
essential to avoid dehydration. Frequent breaks can help ensure
that these simple rules are followed.
On some sites, setting up the flagger a
few hundred feet in one direction or another can mean that they
will be able to stand in a shaded or partially shaded area along
a tree-lined road. If you use this tactic, make sure lighting
still lets drivers see the flagger and his signal clearly.
Consider a piece of equipment not in use parked near the flagger
to cast some shade, and the check for visibility is just as
important in this case.
Be sure that foremen keep an eye on the
flagger, who is all too easily taken for granted. An occasional
check to make sure that he or she isn’t dehydrated or in
distress from the heat will pay off in improved site safety.
June 2005
Think Snow and Ice
Believe it or not, it’s time for those
of you in the Snow Belt to start planning for next Winter’s
work.
Maxwell Anderson/Kurt Weill’s September
Song goes “Well, it’s a long, long time from May till
December...”
But unlike the song, you can’t afford to
wait until September to start on ways to cost-effectively
control snow and ice on your roads. In fact, snow will be flying
before you know it.
This issue includes some special
features and departments to help you plan for the 2005-2006
Winter season.
Winter Strategies tells you about new
technology and how it’s being used. Additional work with the
Federal Highway Department’s Maintenance Decision Support System
could just be the key to making your Winter maintenance more
manageable. The system has gone from trials to real-life use in
more maintenance garages, and recent developments offer the
potential for saving millions of dollars annually according to
the FHWA.
Two applications stories give you a city
and a county view of Winter problems and solutions.
And, this month’s Bid List provides the
latest details about commercial deicing and anti-icing materials
and systems.
So before “the days dwindle down to a
precious few,” read about what’s available to help you, skip
playing the “waiting game”, and head to your computer to plug
into the knowledge that’s there for you to use.
May 2005
Keeping Dust Under Control
Many counties and towns still maintain
gravel and, yes, even dirt roads and streets.
For them, dust control is a major problem.
What can be done about it other than
pray for rain?
Chemical stabilization is a key way of
controlling dust particles of all sizes.
Depending on the part of the country,
chemical spraying should be started in the spring and continued
periodically as needed. In northern areas, winter snow and cold
weather will help control dust during that part of the year. In
the south, chemical application will be needed year-round.
Water tank trucks spraying the street
can provide temporary relief.
A good and economical way to help reduce
dust is to post and enforce very low speed limits on dirt and
gravel streets and roads. Vehicles traveling at 15 miles per
hour, for example, create little dust to annoy the residents in
the area. When drivers move to 40 miles per hour, the dust
flies, and so do homeowners’ tempers.
Even paved roads have some dust-control
problems as wind blows dirt from nearby ground or tosses falling
leaves, branches, and debris onto the street. Sweeping in the
spring and at other appropriate times can provide a more
dust-free environment for those who live nearby.
Requiring trucks hauling dusty materials
to use roll-over tops to protect vehicles from flying dust and
rock chips is worthwhile, too.
Some towns require operations that
produce dust, such as gravel pits, to place in-ground sprinklers
(similar to those used on a golf course) along both sides of the
road. Sensors in the road can be used to turn the water spraying
on and off as needed. Or, a cycle of 10 minutes on and 50
minutes off can be programmed, depending on the severity of the
dust.
If you think this is much ado about a
little dust, consider new pollution regulations going into
effect, including those on control of respirable dust. While
most affect industry today, they can also affect agencies
tomorrow.
April 2005
In Spring, Our Thoughts
Turn to...
Pothole repair.
As the last of the freezing
temperatures leave, your driving public will be phoning your
office daily with news of the latest popped-out pothole. Some
potholes may even go beyond this category and be deep enough to
be dangerous if a vehicle drops into them.
And some drivers may go beyond a phone
call about the problems, using personal visits to you or your
boss to complain bitterly about the number and severity of the
street problems.
Let’s make this the spring that we do
more than patch potholes in a desultory way.
With new materials and equipment
available to do long-lasting repairs, there really isn’t a good
reason to use short-term patching except for a temporary
emergency.
Yes, I know. It costs more for these
better materials and equipment.
But, the cost is less than repeatedly
returning to repatch a single pothole numerous times during the
year.
And the wear and tear on your own psyche
from fewer vitriolic complaints will help, too.
If you want to know just what is
available to help you do a better and more permanent job, go to
our Web site at www.BetterRoads.com.
Check the editorial indexes for the past
two or three years, with a search for pothole patching.
You will be amazed at the wealth of
excellent material available to help you do you your job.
And, once the potholes are repaired,
perhaps you can turn your Spring thoughts to something more
traditional and pleasant.
March 2005
Are We There Yet?
The final highway bill may be on the
table. At press time, both the American Road and Transportation
Builders Association and the Associated General Contractors had
endorsed the bill, which was unveiled in the House of
Representatives.
The bill would provide a guaranteed
$283.9 billion for highway, transit, and highway safety
investments from FY2004 through FY2009 — a $4.5-billion increase
over legislation that passed the House last year.
H.R.3, called the Transportation Equity
Action: A Legacy for Users, was introduced by Don Young
(R-Alaska).
Guaranteed highway investment would grow
from $34.4 billion last year to $41 billion in 2009.
Key provisions include efficient reviews
for:
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Project decision making.
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Historic preservation.
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Transportation planning.
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Work-zone safety grants.
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Innovative financing.
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Toll financing.
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Warranty highways.
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Highway safety improvement program.
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Trade corridors and border
infrastructure.
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Truck-only lanes in some locations
and other projects.
There’s still a way to go before this
bill becomes law. But this could be the one that’s acceptable to
the Administration, Congress, and our industry.
Let’s all hope that the bill passes and
that TEA-LU lets us arrive at our needed destination — a good
handle on funding for the years ahead.
February 2005
Should Driver Re-education
Be Mandatory?
Has road rage leveled off? Not if my
recent few days in Washington, DC during the Transportation
Research Board meeting are any example.
Drivers without the right of way, even
outside of rush hour, cut in front of a solid line of traffic
that did have the right of way. That saved half second could
easily have cost thousands of dollars in vehicle damage, driver
injuries, and possibly even a fatality — but the driver didn’t
care.
If this were an occasional event,
perhaps it wouldn’t be so important. The sad truth is that road
rage and reckless driving exist in every city, and, yes, in
smaller towns as well.
Even though my driving mileage per year
is moderate, here is what I see on the road almost every day:
One or more drivers running a light
that turned red several seconds before they reached the
intersection.
Drivers cutting off others to their
left or right, in an effort to move one, two, or even three
lanes to make a turn they’d forgotten about until they were
almost at the intersection.
Drivers turning right on red without
allowing sufficient room for oncoming traffic or without
considering a left-turn sign allowing oncoming traffic to
proceed.
Drivers pulling into heavy traffic
from a dead stop, even though there is no space in the line
of vehicles for them to move.
Drivers pulling across the street in
an attempt to turn onto the far lanes of a divided highway
without considering what will happen when the light below
them changes and heavy traffic moves into the lane where
they are sitting.
Drivers who drive too slowly, going
20 miles an hour in a 45-mile-per-hour zone, for example,
encouraging tailgating and reckless passing.
Drivers who drive too fast,
endangering pedestrians and other vehicles as well.
Perhaps it’s time to make driver
re-education mandatory when it’s time for license renewal. While
not all defensive driving classes are perfect, they do remind
drivers of the rules of the road, the craziness of risking their
life to save part of a second or minute, and the need to show
courtesy to other drivers.
A few hours every four years is a small
price to pay if such re-education efforts can save even 10% of
our current traffic fatalities.
January
2005
What's Your Winter Plan?
Nature’s signs indicate a cold and
probably snowy winter, so it’s your last chance to double check
your 24/7 plan to make sure your roads provide the safest
possible driving surfaces for drivers in your area.
Planning is a big part of successfully
carrying out winter maintenance at an economical cost, with
anti-icing as a just-in-time preventive being a key element that
costs a lot less than cleanup after the big snow event.
In late November, visiting the St. Louis
area, the snow began to fall — their first of the season. As
someone who dislikes driving in snow and who gets even more
concerned about ice, I watched the temperature as it dipped near
freezing and the heavy rain began to freeze. Because the ground
was still warm, no ice formed on the highways during the day,
but snow did begin to accumulate, with more than 6 inches in the
western part of the metroplex.
How did this happen, I wondered, since
the St. Louis area was among the first to have a SCAN system to
tell them when it was time to put out deicers.
As we slipped and slid our way to the
airport through slushy snow to pick up the last of the
Thanksgiving holiday guests, it was obvious that no anti-icing
had taken place.
Maybe the state Department of
Transportation was hoping for warm ground temperatures to solve
their problem, although by morning, with temperatures in the 20s
and solid ice in many locations, reports of wrecks on the
Interstates were frequent.
Did the key person take a vacation over
the holiday leaving no one to make a decision to anti-ice? Did
they decide to copy Dallas and just wait for the ice to melt?
The ice did melt the next day, but those
involved in wrecks on Thanksgiving Eve were probably not
consoled.
As the winter season progresses,
hopefully you have a sound plan in place to keep your critical
highways as snow and ice free as possible. And, hopefully, you
will implement that plan in time to avoid excessive problems on
your roads.
If your plan leaves something to be
desired, it may be too late to alter it much for this season,
but you can start on a better plan for next year now. You’ll
find helpful information throughout the year in Better Roads and
when attending the Transportation Research Board conference in
Washington or the annual Snow Conference, slated for Kansas City
this year.
Anti-icing not only saves costs, it
saves lives.
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