Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority Up For Renewal on November 6th
October 15, 2012
On November 6th, our country will face many difficult decisions about its future. However, one issue in Colorado Springs, CO is not difficult whatsoever: the renewal of the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA). Question 5A asks voters in El Paso County, Colorado to approve the extension of the PPRTA, a one percent tax to......
New Mexico Releases New State Infrastructure Report Card
October 01, 2012
On September 21, the New Mexico Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers released the 2012 Report Card for New Mexico’s Infrastructure(Report Card). In its newest report, the New Mexico Section graded the state’s infrastructure a C overall, with aviation, rail, road, and solid waste infrastructure worsening since the last report in 2005. The......
Senate Passes Temporary Spending Bill
September 26, 2012
Early last Sunday, the Senate voted to pass a continuing resolution (CR) that funds the government for the first half of Fiscal Year 2013, which begins October 1. The bill expires March 27, 2013 and will provide $1.047 trillion in discretionary spending, which matches the cap set in the Budget Control Act (BCA) signed in......
Congressional Budget Office Shows Concern for HTF
September 04, 2012
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts both accounts of the Highway Trust Fund will go broke sometime in FY 2015 unless Congress acts to shore up the fund that pays for surface transportation projects. According to a CBO chart obtained, the highway account will end FY 2012 with $8.7 billion and the transit account with......
ASCE Makes The Case For Infrastructure at NCSL
August 15, 2012
Legislators from around the country gather every year at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Legislative Summit to talk about policies that work in the real world. State legislators are literally hunting for ideas they can bring home to their communities to help them bolster their local economies and create jobs. Among the key......
Georgia T-SPLOST Referenda – What Happened?
August 01, 2012
Yesterday, Georgia voters went to the polls and voted on, among other things, whether to impose a new 10-year Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST). The referenda offered Georgians an opportunity to vote for a one percent regional sales tax to fund transportation improvements in every corner of the state. If it had......
New Report Shows Mississippi’s Infrastructure Needs a Different Approach
July 30, 2012
Last week, the Mississippi Section Report Card for the state’s infrastructure was featured in a front-page article in the Jackson Courier-Journal and Acey Roberts, P.E., M.ASCE, chair of the Report Card Committee, was interviewed on the Marshall Ramsey show, heard in Jackson on WFMN-FM. Roberts talked about Report Card which gave grades of D for......
Transportation Referenda On Next Week’s Ballot in Georgia
July 25, 2012
On July 31st, voters in Georgia will head to the polls to vote on a referendum important to both the people of Georgia and the Civil Engineering Profession. Each of Georgia’s 12 economic development regions will separately vote on whether to impose a new 10-year Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST). These referenda......
Obama Announces Major Port Projects to Be Expedited
July 23, 2012
The Obama Administration has announced that as part of its “We Can’t Wait” initiative, seven nationally and regionally significant infrastructure projects will be expedited to help modernize and expand five major ports in the United States, including the Port of Jacksonville, the Port of Miami, the Port of Savannah, the Port of New York and......
ASCE Needs Your Help — Give Us Your “Success Stories”!
July 13, 2012
ASCE is currently developing the 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure and we need your help in identifying “Success Stories” – examples of how public and private organizations have addressed specific infrastructure problems with some creativity and determination. While the 2009 Report Card showed there is much work to be done to raise the grades,......