Congress

Recognizing the need for vast investment in the nation's infrastructure, the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Budget committees held the first of several paired hearings addressing ways to pay for maintaining and improving roads, bridges, rail and waterways and other public facilities.

Senators targeted a fix for the ailing Highway Trust Fund as part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization Tuesday, keeping debate on the bill open and its future in doubt as the Senate is scheduled to consider other pending legislation before the Memorial Day recess.

Bipartisan leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced ambitious legislation to reauthorize the national passenger rail carrier—Amtrak—this week, calling for $14.4 billion in capital and operating grants, state intercity passenger grants and high-speed rail investments over the next five years.

The House Judiciary Committee last week passed a bill that would eliminate antitrust exemptions in the area of collective ratemaking for the nation's rail industry, which claims the measure would limit its ability to expand service and meet growing freight demands.

Twenty-four Republican senators including presidential hopeful John McCain of Arizona sent letters to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week, suggesting it waive, or restructure, rules that require a five-fold increase in ethanol production over the next 15 years, the Associated Press reported.

AASHTO Spring Meeting

Meeting in Branson, Missouri this week, the AASHTO Board of Directors approved a resolution opposing the suspension or repeal of the federal motor fuels tax.

With a proposed "fix" for the $3.2 billion deficit in the Highway Trust Fund stalled in the Senate, AASHTO this week urged swift action by Congress to prevent a $13.5 billion reduction in federal highway programs and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs come October.

Federal Highway Administrator Nominee Jim Ray this week told the AASHTO Board of Directors that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will issue a policy paper in the next few weeks calling for a narrowing of the federal role as Congress considers the authorization of the next surface transportation legislation.

The AASHTO Board of Directors this week took steps to advance its preparation for the authorization of the federal highway and transit programs, which expire Sept. 30, 2009; enacting a statement of principles and recommendations on safety and research.

Information

The Minnesota Legislature has approved a $38 million compensation package for victims of last year's Interstate 35W bridge collapse, the Associated Press reports.

With the Atlantic hurricane season beginning June 1, Virginia's Department of Transportation (VDOT), Department of Emergency Management (VDEM), State Police and National Guard will conduct an emergency preparedness exercise on May 11 from 5-7 a.m. to test state agencies' ability to reverse Interstate 64 traffic between Hampton Roads and Richmond.

AASHTO has released the 2007 final report of the Survey of State Funding for Public Transportation. The report, produced annually as a joint effort with the U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the American Public Transportation Association, is based on 2006 summary data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Amtrak holds its first National Train Day Saturday, May 10, with a ceremony at its Washington, D.C., Union Station headquarters led by NBC-TV Weather Anchor Al Roker and the carrier's President Alex Kummant.

Infrastructure Financing Topic of House Joint T&I-Budget Committee Hearing

Recognizing the need for vast investment in the nation's infrastructure, the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Budget committees held the first of several paired hearings addressing ways to pay for maintaining and improving roads, bridges, rail and waterways and other public facilities.

House Budget Committee Chair John Spratt (D-SC) said infrastructure issues are "vitally important" to the country and that it was likely the first time the two committees have joined forces to explore how to pay for the critical needs.

Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN), Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said that under the federal government's current budgeting structure, there is a breakdown in long-term infrastructure investment.

In his opening statement, Oberstar said, "Many argue that our current method of accounting biases spending decisions against physical infrastructure by requiring infrastructure to be paid for all at once rather than over the useful life. Thus, infrastructure investments are not judged on their long-term economic return, but rather on a distorted view of their 'up-front' impact on the budget."

Oberstar said capital investments that have long-term benefits for the public and private sector need to be prioritized and urged for a change in the federal budgeting rules.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Peter Orszag said the nation currently invests more than $400 billion a year in infrastructure, which includes transportation, utilities and other public facilities. Of that, about $60 billion, or 15 percent, is used primarily for transportation in the form of grants to state and local governments.

These grants include: the Federal-aid Highway Program, Transit Formula and Bus Program, Transit Capital Investment Program, Airport Improvement Program, and disbursements from State Infrastructure Banks.

Using data from 2004, Orszag said state and local governments funded 42 percent of the investment in infrastructure, with the private sector funding the balance.

From 1956 through 2004, CBO found that public spending on infrastructure capital grew by 1.7 percent annually after being adjusted for inflation. Since 1987, real annual spending has grown by 2.1 percent a year. He said highways and roads have taken up the largest share of federal capital spending. In 2007, CBO says the federal government spent $32 billion on highways and roads, $8.5 billion on transit, $5.8 billion on aviation and $3.5 billion on water resources.

Orszag said using approaches like congestion pricing could drive down demand, reduce wear and tear and maximize the lifespan of existing infrastructure. CBO said the use of special-purpose entities such as a federal infrastructure bank could provide funding for infrastructure needs outside the annual appropriations process, but costs will be borne by project users, state and local taxpayers.

Government Accountability Office (GAO) Managing Director of Physical Infrastructure Issues Patricia Dalton told the panels her office agrees that national capital infrastructure investment goals need to be defined. GAO also recommends defining the federal role in infrastructure investment, ensuring outcome-based accountability and return on investment, and fiscal sustainability.

Regarding surface transportation, GAO noted 97 percent of the nation's roads and highways are owned by state and local governments, with the latter holding a 77 percent share. States and local governments own 98 percent of the nation's bridges. Most transit systems are operated by public agencies created by state and local governments; most freight rail is privately owned, with the federal governments owning 650 miles of Amtrak's 22,000 mile network.

The GAO outlined a number of legislative proposals designed to raise additional federal infrastructure revenue outside general and dedicated infrastructure sources. These include: the National Infrastructure Bank Act; Build America Bonds Act; American Infrastructure Investment and Improvement Act, providing $3.4 billion to the Highway Trust Fund; Our Nation's Trade, Infrastructure, Mobility and Efficiency Act; Dam Rehabilitation and Repair Act of 2007; and the Freight Rail Infrastructure Capacity Expansion Act.

Senate Fails to End Debate on FAA Authorization; Highway Trust Fund Fix Targeted

Senators targeted a fix for the ailing Highway Trust Fund as part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization Tuesday, keeping debate on the bill open and its future in doubt as the Senate is scheduled to consider other pending legislation before the Memorial Day recess.

FAA is temporarily authorized through June 30 and the Highway Trust Fund is predicted to go into a negative balance come Fiscal Year 2009, which begins Oct. 1.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA) included language in the legislation restoring $5.2 billion to the Highway Trust Fund, as well as a tax package to pay for the satellite-based Next Generation Air Traffic Control System.

Tuesday, the Senate failed to get the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture, which would have brought the Senate FAA substitute to H.R. 2881 up for vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) scheduled the cloture vote and bill proponents were only 10 votes shy of closing off debate and forcing a vote. Reid later switched his vote to "no" so that he could enter a motion to reconsider the FAA vote.

Some GOP legislators oppose including non-FAA related items in the bill and are instead proposing their own legislation, S. 2972. Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the ranking minority member on the Aviation Subcommittee, objected to the Democrats' attempt to force a final vote on the legislation.

"I don't think most Americans would define obstruction as insisting that an FAA bill—that's the Federal Aviation Administration—not include unnecessary and imprudent tax increases; even worse, retroactive tax increases, unrelated to aviation," she said, Tuesday.

The Administration also said it objects to Highway Trust Fund solvency provision.

Senate aides said Baucus and Grassley may now pursue other legislative avenues to get the Highway Trust Fund fix as part of the American Infrastructure Investment and Improvement Act past the chamber.

The fix proposed by Baucus and Grassley would reclaim from the General Fund some $3.4 billion in emergency repair expenditures taken from the Highway Trust Fund over the past 10 years. Such expenditures have previously been paid for out of the General Fund.

Additional money would come from offsetting state and local government refunds from the Highway Trust Fund and an excise tax on certain removals of taxable fuel from foreign trade zones. This will not affect state tax exemptions. Other funds would come from increased tax evasion enforcement.

Transportation Weekly reports the Senate took up consideration of the flood insurance bill, S. 2284. Once it gets past the flood insurance legislation, the Senate could return to the FAA bill before the recess.

House Transportation Leaders Introduce Amtrak Reauthorization Package

Bipartisan leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced ambitious legislation to reauthorize the national passenger rail carrier—Amtrak—this week, calling for $14.4 billion in capital and operating grants, state intercity passenger grants and high-speed rail investments over the next five years.

Amtrak was last authorized in 1997 and has been sustaining its operations through annual appropriations.

The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 was introduced by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN); Ranking Member Rep. John Mica (R-FL); Rail Subcommittee Chair Corrine Brown (D-FL); and Rail Subcommittee Chairman Bill Schuster (R-PA).

The legislation proposes to increase capital and operating grants to Amtrak, authorizing an average of $1.34 billion a year in capital and operating grants amounting to $606 million a year. Facilities and equipment grants to states for improving intercity passenger rail comes to $500 million a year.

In accordance with the recommendations of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, legislators are proposing $1.75 billion in grants to states and Amtrak to finance the construction and equipping of the 11 authorized high-speed rail corridors. Federal grant shares can approach 80 percent. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation would award the grants on a competitive basis.

To address gridlock on Amtrak's heavily-used Northeast Corridor, the legislation calls for unspecified grants to states and Amtrak to identify high-priority rail corridors and increase ridership.

The legislation also authorizes $345 million a year for Amtrak to pay down its debt service through Fiscal Year 2013 and establishes a forum through the Surface Transportation Board to resolve track-use disputes between freight railroad and commuter passenger rail providers.

House Judiciary Committee Passes Bill Eliminating Anti-Trust Exemptions for Railroads

The House Judiciary Committee last week passed a bill that would eliminate antitrust exemptions in the area of collective ratemaking for the nation's rail industry, which claims the measure would limit its ability to expand service and meet growing freight demands.

The committee approved H.R. 1640, the Railroad Enforcement Act of 2007, sponsored by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). Similar legislation introduced by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI)—S. 772—is being considered in the Senate, Progressive Railroading reports.

American Association of Railroads President and Chief Executive Edward Hamberger said the legislation would retroactively undo agreements, decisions and rulings currently in effect. "This legislation will severely hamper the ability of the nation's railroad industry to expand, and to deliver the goods and products our economy depends on," he said. "It will force more freight off the railroad and onto the highway, dramatically increasing pollution and traffic congestion."

In attempt to move the legislation earlier this year, Kohl and other Senate sponsors wrote Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), saying the railroad industry is collectively raising rates on its customers, Logistics Management reported. The letter says the legislation "would bring the freight rail system under the nation's antitrust laws and provide needed protection to farmers, manufacturers, and electricity consumers."

AAR and the Transportation Communications Union (TCU) also noted that provisions allowing dual and potentially conflicting regulatory oversight by the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and courts could cause a "domino effect" of operational problems for freight and commuter railroads across the country.

"This could cause unwanted problems for the employees of the railroads including the members the TCU represents," the union wrote in a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).

In recent years, U.S. Class I rail carriers have made close to $10 billion in cumulative investments to improve infrastructure. A study released last fall by the AAR in conjunction with Cambridge Systematics reported that approximately $148 billion needs to be invested to expand the nation's freight railroad infrastructure over the next 30 years.

GOP Senators Urge Ethanol Curb

Twenty-four Republican senators including presidential hopeful John McCain of Arizona sent letters to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week, suggesting it waive, or restructure, rules that require a five-fold increase in ethanol production over the next 15 years, the Associated Press reported.

Congress passed a law last year mandating a ramp-up to 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol by 2015 and 36 billion by 2022. But McCain and other Republicans said those rules should be waived to put more corn back into the food supply for livestock, and to encourage farmers to plant other crops.

"This subsidized [ethanol] program—paid for by taxpayer dollars—has contributed to pain at the cash register, at the dining room table, and a devastating food crisis throughout the world," said McCain, in a statement.

Despite tough rhetoric from lawmakers, analysts say Congress is unlikely to roll back such a popular program during an election year.

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. analyst Kevin Book argued in a recent note to clients that Congress will not "turn on the corn belt" because of the significant number of votes held by ethanol-producing states. Ethanol subsidies could face greater risks, however, in 2009 and going forward, according to Book.

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said Monday "ethanol is unfairly taking the brunt of the criticism" for escalating food prices. Grassley's home state is expected to produce a quarter of all U.S. ethanol this year.

Farmers have responded to federal ethanol incentives by planting the largest crop of corn in 60 years, leaving fewer acres for soybeans, oats and other agricultural staples.

Tighter crop supplies means higher production costs for food processors of all types. In one recent example Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's largest chicken producer, said costs rose $200 million in the quarter on higher corn and soybean feed.

And Americans are paying those higher costs at the grocery store, where egg prices have jumped 40 percent in the last year and flour prices have risen 50 percent since January, raising the price of bread and other baked goods.

The EPA has the power to waive or restructure the requirements if they cause unintended harm to consumers or the environment.

AASHTO Opposes Gas Tax Holiday

Meeting in Branson, Missouri this week, the AASHTO Board of Directors approved a resolution opposing the suspension or repeal of the federal motor fuels tax.

In a unanimous vote, the board agreed that current proposals to suspend the tax for three months would cause a $9 billion drop in receipts to the Highway Trust Fund or increase the General Fund deficit by the same amount. Meanwhile the board found that the savings to the average motorist would amount to $28 dollars or one-half the price of a single tank of gas.

The board resolution also states that such a proposal would establish a harmful precedent that could disrupt the stability of federal highway and transit investments.

AASHTO urges members of Congress to oppose any suspension of transportation system user fees, such as the federal motor fuels tax, since this would do little to provide relief to the American public and would establish an unacceptable precedent for the financing of the user-fee based highway and transit programs in this country.

AASHTO President Pete Rahn, Director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, said "A gas tax holiday is no holiday for the American people, who depend on safe and reliable transportation. In short, it's a bad idea."

State Transportation Officials Urge Action to Shore Up Highway Trust Fund

With a proposed "fix" for the $3.2 billion deficit in the Highway Trust Fund stalled in the Senate, AASHTO this week urged swift action by Congress to prevent a $13.5 billion reduction in federal highway programs and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs come October.

The Board voted unanimously to approve a resolution urging the House and Senate to "adopt as soon as possible provisions crafted by Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) that will offset a potential $3.2 billion shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund." The two Finance Committee leaders had proposed a funding remedy as part of the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill now pending in the Senate.

But after the Senate failed to approve a cloture vote on Tuesday action on the Federal Aviation Administration bill has temporarily been sidelined. Concerned that the bill may be sidelined for the year, AASHTO members said, "It is critical that a Highway Trust Fund shortfall fix be enacted quickly."

"Many state fiscal years begin on July 1, and unless the states are assured that their guaranteed federal funding guaranteed will be available in Fiscal Year 2009, they will be forced to reduce planned programming," said John Horsley, AASHTO Executive Director. "In the face of our economic woes, this is no time to undercut good jobs here at home."

U.S. DOT to Issue Authorization Proposal

Federal Highway Administrator Nominee Jim Ray this week told the AASHTO Board of Directors that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will issue a policy paper in the next few weeks calling for a narrowing of the federal role as Congress considers the authorization of the next surface transportation legislation.

Ray, who currently serves as Deputy Federal Highway Administrator and was named Acting FHWA Administrator after the departure of Rick Capka, said that "There is a need for a refocusing of the federal role. But I do not agree that there is a need for a new mission." He said that the mission which was set by President Eisenhower for the Interstate Highway System was the creation of a safe, efficient and reliable highway system. "Have we lost sight of why we do things?" he asked.

Citing the economic costs of congestion, however, Ray said that the nation must move from an Interstate era to a "Performance Era" to make the highway system work better and to expand where needed. He said that "We can't address the funding needs of this country with the status quo. We have to have a sea change in the way we do things." Such a change in the transportation system "is going to be hard," he concluded. "The leaders of the transportation community have a big job to do." He said that the policy paper would "push the envelope" and he hoped others would flesh out the ideas presented for reauthorization.

Ray noted that U.S. DOT Secretary Mary Peters had decided to tackle some of transportation's toughest issues, and had provided her leadership to such initiatives as the Urban Partnerships and Corridors of the Future. He expressed disappointment in New York's decision to reject congestion pricing, but expressed enthusiasm for congestion reduction projects in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and other cities that have been implemented through the U.S. DOT's efforts.

AASHTO Advances Work on Highway, Transit Authorization

The AASHTO Board of Directors this week took steps to advance its preparation for the authorization of the federal highway and transit programs, which expire Sept. 30, 2009; enacting a statement of principles and recommendations on safety and research.

AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley noted the urgency of Congress enacting a new authorization, particularly in light of the potential $20 billion reduction of the federal highway program in 2010 unless new resources are provided by Congress.

Horsley said that AASHTO is pursuing five strategies to address the authorization:

• Initiation of a National Transportation Marketing Campaign to build public support;
• Development of an authorization proposal that includes program reforms designed to ensure value for the dollar and accountability for results. AASHTO has 10 policy teams that are developing recommendations;
• Building consensus among a wide range of interests and stakeholders;
• Identification of options for financing transportation needs; and
• Rallying leadership from state governors, legislators, local officials and industry to "put us across the finish line."

Reauthorization Principles

The AASHTO Board of Directors addressed principles such as solvency of the Highway Trust Fund, program reform, and environmental impact in a resolution providing a wide-ranging statement of principles for authorization of the federal highway and transit programs. The resolution also recognizes the recommendations of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission (the Commission), noting that, "they closely parallel policies that AASHTO supports and will continue to review."

The resolution states that, "By October, 2008, AASHTO will have developed a recommended structure for highway and transit programs which will enable states and local governments to achieve the objectives outlined by the Commission. Reforms will be recommended to reduce the number of highway and transit program categories, and to increase funding flexibility and eligibility. Recommendations are also expected to restructure the program so it is more performance-based, outcome-driven, and accountable for results."

The AASHTO authorization principles state:

Vision: The United States needs a safe, world-class transportation system that enables Americans to enjoy expanding opportunities for jobs, places to live, time with family, education, healthcare, international trade, recreation and other services.

Funding Crisis: Insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund may force drastic cutbacks in federal highway and transit programs. Unless Congress acts to avert this crisis, the reduction in investment would result in a dramatic slowdown in transportation construction, and could lead to the loss of over one million jobs.

Economy: Ensuring an adequate level of investment in the nation's transportation system is needed to support a healthy economy, sustain jobs, and keep America globally competitive.

Mobility: Improvements in system performance and capacity will be needed to deal with traffic congestion, a tsunami of freight, crumbling infrastructure, high traffic fatalities, and to provide mobility in and across rural and urban areas, throughout our growing nation. We need to preserve highway and transit facilities built over the last century so they last for generations to come.

Environment: The transportation solutions pursued in the future will need to help minimize transportation's impact on global climate change; enhance community quality of life, air quality, water quality, and a healthy environment.

Program Reform: Reform of the program can increase public confidence in the federal transportation program's ability to deliver what the nation needs. Reform should reduce, and not increase, federal requirements on states or other transportation fund recipients, to improve, not burden program delivery.

Reforms should include provision for each state to:

• Continue systematic planning to guide all investment to where it is most needed;
• Certify to the U.S. DOT that it has established performance-based, outcome-driven programming of funding in pursuit of national- and state-interest objectives and advise U.S. DOT of its performance-based approach;
• Provide accountability for achieving results; and
• Focus investments in a limited number of core programs directed to objectives of genuine national interest.

U.S. DOT could be required to report on the various performance measures utilized in the states, so that each state could learn of and consider utilizing other approaches.

Priority objectives could include: preservation, freight movement, safety, metropolitan mobility and reducing congestion, mobility in and connectivity for rural America, intercity passenger rail, environment, national defense and homeland security, federal lands, and research.

A multi-modal approach will be needed: improving highways, transit, and rail, access to ports and aviation, and non-motorized modes of transportation.

Improvements should be delivered by continuing today's partnership between the federal and state governments, together with their local governments and the private sector. The strong state role in this overall arrangement should be continued.

Synchronization of transportation, land use, housing, environment, and energy policies should occur.

Reforms in environmental reviews and permitting will be needed to speed project delivery. Federal planning requirements also should be simplified.

Funding: Meeting national needs will require a strong federal funding role and shared funding responsibilities with state and local governments and the private sector.

A significant increase in Highway Trust Fund revenues will be required to avert a major cutback in highway and transit funding, restore the program's purchasing power, and enable future improvements.

Further increase federal transportation funding assistance to states and their local governments through tax credit bonding.

Improve the national freight network through an initiative funded through freight-related user fees generated outside the Highway Trust Fund.

Transition to a diversified portfolio of revenue sources.

Supplement revenues at the state and local levels by making greater use of tolls and public-private ventures, when determined by the state or applicable local government to be in the public interest.

Safety and Research Program Recommendations

In adopting the legislative safety recommendations, AASHTO called upon Congress to set a goal of halving highway fatalities over the next two decades. Currently more than 40,000 fatalities occur annually on the nation's highways. AASHTO also calls for the continuation and updating of state Strategic Highway Safety Plans and the adoption in each state of an "aggressive fatality reduction goal."

AASHTO also will urge Congress to call for and fund a National Summit on Highway Safety to place highway safety on the national agenda.

In approving its legislative recommendations for research, AASHTO calls for the continuation of the State Planning and Research program in its current formula-based configuration, with a 25 percent minimum set aside for research, development and technology transfer activities. It also proposes that Congress reinstate the originally planned research plan for the Strategic Highway Research Program II by providing $50 million annually for FY 2011 and 2012 for research, plus additional funding for implementation.

Further legislative recommendations will be considered by the Board of Directors at the AASHTO Annual Meeting in Hartford, Connecticut in October.

Minnesota Approves Compensation Package for I-35W Bridge Collapse Victims

The Minnesota Legislature has approved a $38 million compensation package for victims of last year's Interstate 35W bridge collapse, the Associated Press reports.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously Monday after clearing the House on a 127-5 vote. Senators observed a moment of silence in memory of the victims, before applause broke out on the floor and in the gallery above.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he plans to sign the bill. "It's a needed and important thing for the bridge victims," he said.

AP reports the bill recognizes "a catastrophe of historic proportions" when the bridge fell on Aug. 1, killing 13 and injuring 145. Everyone who was on the bridge when it fell—and their survivors and legal guardians—would qualify for up to $400,000 under the plan.

Those whose injuries and losses were more severe could get more money for uncovered medical costs and wage losses from a $12.6 million supplemental fund. Exact amounts will be determined later by a panel of lawyers.

The bill also contains $750,000 for administration and $610,000 for social services for a group of child victims through a Minneapolis community center.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are still probing the cause of the bridge collapse. A final report is expected later this year. Their focus so far has been on a design flaw involving gussets, the plates that connect steel beams, and the weight of construction materials at vulnerable points in the bridge.

Victims who take a settlement must give up the right to sue the state and other units of government in Minnesota, but they don't waive the right to sue others. The state isn't admitting any liability.

The Minnesota Supreme Court must appoint the compensation panel by June 30, and collapse survivors have until Oct. 15 to file a claim.

Virginia DOT and Related Agencies Conducing Hurricane Preparedness Drill

With the Atlantic hurricane season beginning June 1, Virginia's Department of Transportation (VDOT), Department of Emergency Management (VDEM), State Police and National Guard will conduct an emergency preparedness exercise on May 11 from 5-7 a.m. to test state agencies' ability to reverse Interstate 64 traffic between Hampton Roads and Richmond.

The reversal of I-64 is part of the commonwealth's overall hurricane response plan. A reversal can be ordered by the governor to speed the evacuation of the Hampton Roads region in the event of a hurricane or other disaster.

The exercise involves closing I-64 east between I-295 near Richmond (Exit 200) to just east of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (Exit 272). The agencies will rehearse all of the steps needed to place westbound traffic in both the westbound and the eastbound lanes of I-64, but no actual westbound traffic will be routed onto the eastbound lanes during the exercise.

The exercise will test the commonwealth's lane-reversal plan and will allow the agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of communications tools, inter-agency procedures and the incident-command structure. It will provide real-world experience for the crews that will have to quickly close 36 interchanges and safely reverse the direction of travel on the interstate if an evacuation is ordered.

Fewer than 1,000 vehicles normally use the busiest stretch of I-64 in the exercise area during the two early morning hours of the exercise. The agencies involved in the exercise have notified motorists, businesses and major transportation hubs in the corridor to minimize traffic delays.

"Although we never want to cause motorists delays, emergency response is a key focus for VDOT and our partner agencies," said David S. Ekern, VDOT commissioner. "All emergency responders must possess the training and experience to conduct safe and efficient evacuations in a crisis. We have planned this exercise for a time that impacts the fewest motorists while ensuring that our crews get the training they need to safely and efficiently conduct any lane reversal ordered during an emergency event."

Detailed hurricane evacuation information, lane-reversal maps and other hurricane preparedness resources are available at http://www.ReadyVirginia.gov and at http://www.VirginiaDOT.org/hurricanes.

State Funding for Public Transportation Continues to Increase

AASHTO has released the 2007 final report of the Survey of State Funding for Public Transportation. The report, produced annually as a joint effort with the U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the American Public Transportation Association, is based on 2006 summary data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The report was released this week at the AASHTO Spring Meeting. Order a print copy or download the report at the AASHTO bookstore.

States provided $11.1 billion in funding for transit in Fiscal Year 2006, compared to $8.1 billion provided by the Federal Transit Administration. Twenty-eight states increased transit funding in 2006, resulting in a $1.5 billion increase from 2005. Thirty-one states used state general funds or state tax proceeds to fund transit.

The report contains historical comparisons of federal and state transit funding, and state-by-state capsules on how transit is funded. The report also includes a summary of state and local transit ballot initiatives from 2006. The public transportation funding report featuring 2007 data is scheduled to be released later this year. The next survey will include statistics on state funding for transit-related ferry services. For more information contact Rachel Beyerle, AASHTO Multi-State Technical Assistance Program Coordinator, at rbeyerle AT aashto.org or (202) 624-3625.

Amtrak to Celebrate National Train Day on Saturday, May 10

Amtrak holds its first National Train Day Saturday, May 10, with a ceremony at its Washington, D.C., Union Station headquarters led by NBC-TV Weather Anchor Al Roker and the carrier's President Alex Kummant.

Amtrak selected Saturday as National Train Day as it marks the 139th anniversary of the inauguration of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways, which together comprised the nation's first transcontinental railroad.

In Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869, the final spike was driven into the ground and the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads were opened for business. Since then, America's railroad system has expanded drastically and is one of the most carbon efficient modes of transportation today.

The 139th anniversary of America's railroad system will be celebrated across the country this weekend at four of Amtrak's largest stations: Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, New York City's Penn Station, Chicago's Union Station and Los Angeles's Union Station.

For a full itinerary of events, visit http://www.nationaltrainday.com/home.