ARTBA Washington Newsline

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NewslineWashington

Highway & Transit Conference Committee Moves—Slowly

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Top Speakers On Hand for ARTBA & TCC Programs

LaHood Outlines Conference Priorities

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

ARTBA Board of Directors Meeting May 30. Full schedule: www.artbafederalissues.org.

Members of the congressional conference committee tasked with negotiating a reauthorization of the surface transportation programs continued to meet last week making steady progress. Much of the work underway involves members’ staff going through each section of the House’s short-term extension legislation and the Senate’s 1,600-page bill and identifying areas of agreement and conflict. Staff will work through many of the issues and elevate sticking

points to members of the committee to resolve. Conferees to date have not reported any debilitating disagreements, though issues like the House proposal to approve the Keystone XL pipeline remain wild cards in this process.

As ARTBA has repeatedly said, one of the key determiners in the conference process will be the tax committees’ ability to agree on revenues to pay for the bill. The following members of the reauthorization conference are leaders on

either the House Ways and Means and Committee or the Senate Finance Committee and will play a major role in the financial components of the bill: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.); Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio); Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.); Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.); and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Marsh and ARTBA Launch Heavy Highway Insurance Program. Contact ARTBA’s Rich Juliano at 202.289.4434 for more information.

A stellar lineup of congressional speakers, federal agency officials and industry executives will be on hand for the May 29-31 ARTBA Federal Issues Program (FIP) and Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) Fly-In. This is your last week to register and make plans to be in the Nation’s Capital to meet with your members of Congress about the

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood wrote reauthorization conference Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) May 16 outlining the Obama Administration’s priorities in the committee’s ongoing negotiations. LaHood indicated the Administration’s support for much of the Senate bill’s policies while, in general, opposing the House bill. Specifically, LaHood expressed support for the Senate bill’s program consolidation, focus on

2 ARTBA Washington Newsline

Upcoming EventsVisit our Events Page for more information.

Federal Issues Program & TCC Fly-InMay 29 - 31 Washington, D.C. [Add to Calendar]

TransOvation WorkshopJuly 25-27Leesburg, Va. [Add to Calendar]

National ConventionSeptember 11–14 Memphis, Tenn. [Add to Calendar]

LōTrans Virtual Conference & Innovation ShowcaseSeptember 18 - 20[Add to Calendar]

P3s in Transportation ConferenceOctober 11–12 Washington, D.C. [Add to Calendar]

4th Annual Construction Law & Regulatory ForumOctober 24-25Washington, D.C.

Western Regional MeetingNovember 27-28San Francisco, Calif.[Add to Calendar]

Central Regional MeetingNovember 29-30Chicago, Ill.[Add to Calendar]

Southern Regional MeetingDecember 3-4Atlanta, Ga. [Add to Calendar]

Northeastern Regional MeetingDecember 5-6Boston, Mass. [Add to Calendar]

2012

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Conference Committee Work Moves Slowly

Your House members will be home this

week while staff remains in Washington, D.C. working on the transportation conference. Use the ARTBA Grassroots Hotline at 888.448.2782 to connect with them and urge them to support moving ahead with a final product that, at a minimum, authorizes the Senate’s investment levels for FY 2012 and FY 2013 and makes significant policy and project delivery reforms.

OVERHEARD: CONFERENCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

“There is no more certain way to jump-start our economy, to put people to work and to improve our long-term economic competitiveness than with a robust transportation bill. Now is the time to work together to pass a bill that meets our nation’s needs.”

Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) in a May 14

“One of the big challenges is going to be how to pay for it. The Senate wants to raise revenues, and we want to see spending cuts.”

Representative Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) in comments May 17 about preventing the transportation bill from adding to the deficit.

3ARTBA Washington Newsline

Products & Services

Speaker Lineup at May 29 - 31 ARTBA FIP & TCC Fly-InContinued from page 1

Connect with Industry Leaders: Advertise in ARTBA’s Digital Buyers Guide

Promote your firm’s products and services before a wide audience of material suppliers, manufacturers, design firms and contractors.

Contact ARTBA’s Peter Embrey for more information.

pending highway/transit reauthorization bill.Among the presenters at FIP-related

meetings:

May 29 • Joint ARTBA M&S and TOD: Hari Kalla,

FHWA • Contract Administration Committee:

Jerry Yakowenko, FHWA • Environmental Committee: Dr. Connie

Hill, FHWA & Janet Goodwin, U.S. EPA• Bridge Policy & Promotion Council:

Butch Wlashchin, FHWA• Ports and Waterways Council: James

Walker, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers & Dave Gatton, U.S. Conference of Mayors

May 30• Contractors Division: John Baxter,

FHWA• Planning & Design Division: Dr. Jon

Obenberger, PE, FHWA• Transportation Safety Advisory Council:

Tony Furst, FHWA

The ARTBA co-chaired TCC Fly-In will feature House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.), the committee’s Ranking Member Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Congressman Reid Ribble(R-Wis.), who will offer their perspective on the status of the transportation bill conference committee discussions. Charlie Cook, one of the nation’s most respected political analysts, will handicap the November presidential and congressional election races.

View the full agenda and register today!

DEADLINESAWARDTRANSOVATION AWARDS

Deadline: June 12

Honoring innovative transportation infrastructure-related products, services, technologies and techniques introduced over the past five years that can be documented to provide a high return-on-investment by: improving transportation safety; saving transportation users and taxpayers time and/or money; or making our transportation infrastructure more environmentally sustainable.

WOMEN LEADERS IN TRANSPORTATION DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION AWARDS

Deadline: June 12

Honoring extraordinary efforts of individuals, companies and public agencies that have demonstrated leadership and dedication to innovation in the transportation construction field as well as the promotion of women leaders within the industry. Three categories: Lifetime Achievement, Company Awards, and Student Awards.

Contact ARTBA’s Holly Bolton with any questions.

4 ARTBA Washington Newsline

Overheard

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TRB Newsletter: May 8Highlighting new research, technologies, industry best practices and information resources available to the transportation design and construction industry.

A service of ARTBA’s multi-modal councils, it features current transportation developments making news across all modes and regions. Contact: Caitrin Reed to become a subscriber.

Fostering Innovation

MultimodalNews

Legislative & Regulatory News

ARTBA News

LaHood Lays Out Administration’s Conference Priorities

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“Modern roads, rails, broadband and their kin are essential to a strong free-market economy, enabling private enterprises to grow on and near them and to be more efficient as they do. Even advocates of much more limited government should agree that this function belongs squarely within the sphere of public responsibility. “

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels in a May 10 op-ed, “Indiana didn’t ‘sell’ its toll road.”

“There are sensible policies to promote this long-range goal. An economy-wide, anti-carbon policy, such as a carbon tax, would fit the bill. Short of that, the best policy would be a higher gasoline tax, which could also fund transportation needs.”

May 13 editorial, “What the Keystone pipeline won’t do.”

ARTBA Participates in White House Transportation Week Event

ARTBA joined Secretary LaHood, senior White House officials, and several federal agencies for a National Transportation Week event emphasizing the development and use of new data to improve

national goals, performance and accountability, continuation of the earmark ban, increasing local decision making authority, and “Buy American” provisions. LaHood also expressed support for the Senate’s environmental streamlining reforms while warning that the House-passed streamlining provisions went too far and threatened the environment.

Interestingly, the letter did not discuss investment levels, but does advocate for expanding the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) and Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) programs, both of which are discretionary accounts under control of the secretary.

The letter also reiterated the Administration’s veto threat of any legislation that includes approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and opposition to the House provision that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from classifying coal ash as a hazardous substance.

While the letter expresses the Administration’s well established positions, it also provides an overview of the various policy areas under consideration by the conference committee. View the full text.

ARTBA Supports FTA Effort to Reduce Project Delays

ARTBA May 14 praised a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) proposal aimed at shortening the review and approval process for public transportation capital projects. The FTA proposal focuses on creating 10 new classes of categorical exclusions (CE) during the environmental review process. A CE is used when impacts to the environment are minimal and involves less regulatory burden than more cumbersome reviews, such as environmental assessments (EA) or environmental impact statements (EIS). The difference in time involved in a CE as opposed to an EA or EIS is years and can even be as much as a decade in some instances. ARTBA applauded FTA’s efforts at broadening the use of CEs while also stressing the agency should take as broad and flexible an approach as possible. ARTBA’s comments can be found on the “regulatory” section of www.artba.org.

Online Greenhouse Gas Calculator Upgraded

The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) has expanded its online greenhouse gas calculator to account for the use of warm mix asphalt technology and increased use of recycled materials. The calculator is used by some companies and state departments of transportation to benchmark emissions while producing asphalt pavements. It allows users to compare emissions associated with various fuels used in the transportation construction process. For more information, visit: www.asphaltpavement.org.

5ARTBA Washington Newsline

Download a PDF copy of the digital “Washington Newsline.”

Transportation Construction Community Mourns Loss of McMinimee

safety. The administration initiative includes the launch of a new website, www.safety.data.gov, which provides a blog, offers challenges to increase safety and includes resources states and local governments can use to shape their safety policies.

Call for ARTBA Officers & Directors

The ARTBA Nominating Committee will meet May 29 during the ARTBA Federal Issues Program to consider candidates for the ARTBA Board of Directors and Executive Committee.

Please contact the following members of the nominating committee to suggest potential nominees for a future leadership role in our association: Bill Cox, chairman, bcox@cormanconstruction.com; Larry Tate, tate_larry_c@cat.com; Charles Potts, cp@thgrp.com; Larry Peterson, lpeterson@kleinfelder.com; and Steve McGough, steve.mcgough@hcss.com.

James C. McMinimee, a former Utah DOT official and national leader in transportation construction policy, passed away unexpectedly on May 10 at the age of 51. Jim was the recognized authority on the emerging “construction manager general contractor” (CMGC) project delivery method, as well as a prominent expert on accelerated bridge construction. A career highlight was his key role in preparing Utah’s highway and bridge system for the 2002 Winter Olympics. At the time of his passing, Jim was coordinating AASHTO’s implementation of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP-2) and also developing a CMGC Institute. He was a presenter on his areas of expertise at numerous ARTBA conferences, workshops and webinars, and was generous with his time and knowledge. Jim is survived by his wife Sally and three children. View his full obituary, including information on a memorial fund. ARTBA joins the transportation community in offering condolences to Jim McMinimee’s family and many friends.

LōTrans™ 2012, the Local Transportation Asset Management Virtual Conference & Innovation Showcase featuring “Best Practices in Work Zone Safety,” is scheduled for September 18-20 at a computer near you.

This industry-first event is primarily aimed at public officials and will feature more than 30 educational sessions from national industry leaders.

There are no travel costs. No booth shipping and set-up costs. You can monitor activity from your office computer and talk with visitors to your booth in real time.

You’ll also have the ability to select from a series of booth options and we’ll help you put it together.

Most importantly, LōTrans™ will help you reach your target audience: key decision-makers at public agencies.

View the exhibitor prospectus by clicking on the image below or visit: www.lotransvirtualconference.org.

Questions? Contact ARTBA’s Peter Embrey or Ed Tarrant: 202.289.4434.

LōTrans™ will bring world-class companies with products and services that can help deliver safer and more efficient transportation services to taxpayers—together with public agency decision-makers.

Become an exhibitor today!

Current sponsors & exhibitors:

• Federal Highway Administration

• 3M

• “Better Roads”

• Caterpillar

• HCSS

• Honeywell Safety Products

• National Steel Bridge Alliance

• National Association of County Engineers

• National Local Technical Assistance Program Association

• National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse

• “Roads & Bridges”

• Transpo Industries

8connections collaborations solutions

Standard two “node” booth: $1,900 ARTBA member; $2,600 non-member

“Innovation Showcase” Exhibit Hall: Standard Booth Package Options

Jetson Aperture

Ellipse Flare

View standard and expanded branding booth options at www.lotransvirtualconference.org.

1connections collaborations solutions

LoTrans™ 2012Local Transportation Asset Management

Virtual Conference & Innovation Showcase

Featuring Best Practices in Work Zone Safety

September 18-20 at your desktop

Exhibitor Prospectuswww.lotransvirtualconference.org

LōTrans™ 2012 Exhibit Opportunities

Information provided by the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse, award #DTFH61-06-H-00015, does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, (FHWA) or the American Road & Transportation Builders Association-Transportation Development Foundation. References to specific products and services do not imply endorsement by the Clearinghouse or FHWA.

Best Practices in Work Zone Safety @ Local Transportation Asset Management

Virtual Conference & Innovation Showcase

We know that budgets are tight and travel limited. That’s why the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse is bringing a 21st century educational and exhibit experience directly to you…virtually! No registration fees. No travel expenses. No time out of the office or away from family. Scheduled for September 18-20 at your desktop or laptop, the Clearinghouse will host the comprehen-sive “Best Practices in Work Zone Safety” at the Local Transportation Asset Management Virtual Conference & Innovation Showcase, or LoTrans™ 2012. Top industry firms will be exhibiting their products and services, and the following industry leaders are confirmed for presentations on these topics: Roadway Safety+ Series • Don Elisburg, consultant: “Overview of Roadway Safety”• Melisa Finley, Texas Transportation Institute associate research engineer: “Speed Management in Work

Zones”• Emmett Russell, IUOE safety and health director (retired): “Preventing Runovers & Backovers”• Travis Parsons, LHSFNA senior safety and health specialist: “Work Zone Safety: Motorcyclists & Bicyclists”• Omar Lopez, ARTBA safety and Spanish training specialist: “Occupational Hazards” (Spanish) Hot Topics • Dave Fosbroke, NIOSH statistician: “Internal Traffic Control Plans”• Tim Gardner, manager, regulatory affairs, performance safety materials, 3M Occupational Health &

Environmental Safety Division: “The Art of Conspicuity”• T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, FIA Foundation safety director: “Decade of Action for Roadway Safety”• Bob Johnson, Granite Construction Company director of safety: “Best Contractor Safety Practices”• Bud Wright, Barrier Systems transportation policy consultant: “Why Investment in Safety Pays Back”• Jim Keaton, Barrier Systems vice president of sales and marketing: “Moveable Barrier in Work Zones”• Eric Hedman, marketing operations manager, 3M Traffic Safety Systems Division: “Sign Management

Strategies”• Kelly Hardy, AASHTO highway safety program manager: “Towards Zero Deaths”• Tracy Scriba, work zone program manager, FHWA Office of Operations and Paul Pisano, work zone team

leader, FHWA Office of Operations: “Work Zone Safety – The Federal Government’s Perspective” Free registration is available now: www.lotransvirtualconference.org. Contact Clearinghouse Communications & Project Manager Lisa McCluskey with any questions.

www.lotransvirtualconference.org LoTrans™ 2012

September 18-20, at your desktop

save the date