Last week President Obama signed into a law a 90 day extension of the federal surface transportation programs. As reported last week (link to last weeks CLWIR), Congress passed the 9 extension of SAFETEA-LU before leaving Washington for a two week recess. When the House and Senate return to session on April 16, there will be continued focus on passing a bill.
鶹Ƶannually participates in the National Work Zone Awareness Week to highlight the dangers to construction workers and motorists from not obeying speed limits and not being alert in highway construction work zones. This year’s National Work Zone Awareness Week is scheduled for April 22-28, 2012, with the theme “Don’t Barrel Through Work Zones.” 鶹Ƶwill also participate in a National event in St. Louis, Missouri on April 23, 2012 to accentuate the message.
A half day Civil, Industrial, and Utilities VDC Forum will be held on April 24th in conjunction with the April 25-26 BIMForum in San Antonio, Texas. This session will feature implementations of BIM and VDC on Highway, Road, Bridge, Utility, Treatment Plants, and Power Distribution projects. These projects will show the potential of BIM and VDC to realize substantial financial and schedule savings. Presentations will focus on the use of BIM and VDC to enhance work flow, minimize schedules, increase safety, provide a better end product, and increase field productivity.
Facing expiration of the latest extension of transportation authorization on March 31, the House and Senate today passed a 90-day extension (the 9th) allowing for funding of the highway and transit programs and collection of the federal motor fuels taxes (the gas tax) to continue through the end of June. The bill will now go to the president who is expected to sign it before the current extension expires.
鶹Ƶteamed up with our transportation and construction industry allies in sponsoring the “Rally for Roads” which took place on March 20 on the National Mall. Local construction companies transported construction equipment and nearly five hundred industry representatives, including workers in hard hats, provided the backdrop for the rally to draw attention to the economic importance of enacting a multiyear transportation reauthorization bill.
The House Budget Committee completed action on a proposed FY 2013 budget resolution, introduced earlier in the week by Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). The proposal would reduce federal transportation funding investment from $88.6 billion in FY 2012 to $57.1 billion in FY 2013, a reduction of $31.5 billion (36 percent).
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) announced that he will introduce a “clean” three-month extension of highway and transit programs that contains no policy changes. The extension will not be taken up until next week. Chairman Mica said that the extension will give House Republicans time to work on completing a five-year version of reauthorization. H.R. 7, as reported from House committees. Current program authorization expires on March 31, 2012. In addition to spending, authorization to collect the federal motor fuels tax expires at the same time. The proposed extension would run until June 30.
Today, the Road Information Program (TRIP) released a report discussing road and bridge conditions in Hawaii. The report highlights the additional costs a typical driver incurs, from wasted fuel, time lost in congestion and additional maintenance and repairs because of poor road and bridge conditions. Joining TRIP at the press conference was John Romanowski, president of AGC’s General Contractors Association of Hawaii chapter and vice president of Jas. W. Glover Ltd. who reported on the latest construction job numbers, showing that the Honolulu area lost another 600 construction jobs - a 3 percent decline - between January 2011 and January 2012.
On Wednesday, the Senate passed their 鶹Ƶsupported, 2- year, $109 billion surface transportation reauthorization bill, S. 1813 the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) by a strong bipartisan vote of 74-22. Funding levels and key provisions of MAP-21 can be found here.
Last night, the Senate finally reached a unanimous consent agreement that limits the number of amendments that can be offered to the S. 1813, the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP-21), its two-year $109 billion authorization. The Senate has now started the process of debating and voting on approximately 30 amendments to MAP-21; many of the amendments are not germane to the bill.