America Must Set a Transportation Agenda

The Detroit Free Press reports that America must soon set up a transportation agenda, and more in this installation of Infrastructure in the News!

National News

AFL-CIO Now: Transportation Dept. Launches Buy American Website
Now the U.S. Department of Transportation, following a TMAP recommendation, has launched a new website that will post all Buy American waiver requests in one central location so that any American company can see easily if they can fill a particular need.

Streetsblog Capitol Hill: Actually, Highway Builders, Roads Don't Pay For Themselves
You’ve heard it a thousand times from the highway lobby: Roads pay for themselves through “user fees” — a.k.a. gas taxes and tolls — whereas transit is a drain on the taxpayer. They use this argument to push for new roads, instead of transit, as fiscally prudent investments.

Detroit Free Press: America must set agenda for transportation soon
At issue is how to pay for hundreds of billions of dollars of transportation improvements and shore up the depleted Highway Trust Fund, supported largely by fuel taxes. The Obama administration has already signaled that it won't support an increase in the 18.4-cent federal gasoline tax, which hasn't risen since 1993. Opposing a gas tax increase may be good politics, but it's also poor policy. Inflation alone has eroded the purchasing power of the federal gas tax by 80%.

State News

Commercial Carrier Journal: Crescent Corridor intermodal freight projects get $105M grant
Work soon will begin on construction of two intermodal freight facilities in Memphis and Birmingham following the signing of a U.S. Department of Transportation grant agreement with the Alabama and Tennessee Departments of Transportation for $105 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. DOT says the facilities are a key part of a larger effort to increase rail capacity and relieve traffic congestion along the 2,500-mile Crescent Corridor from the Gulf Coast to the Mid-Atlantic.