Oberstar’s Bill Praised by Mayors, Engineers

The U.S. Conference of Mayors and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) are out with statements this afternoon hailing House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar’s (D-MN) new federal transportation proposal.

The mayors like Oberstar’s creation of a dedicated metropolitan-area program, while the engineers are most concerned with getting a higher level of reliable funding in place. Quoth ASCE President D. Wayne Klotz:

At a time when American’s are
spending more than 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic and more than one
in four of the nation’s bridges are deficient, it is obvious that our roads,
bridges and transit systems are in desperate need of leadership and investment,"
said ASCE president D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE. "ASCE believes
that." With SAFETEA-LU set to expire on September 30, the release of House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar’s blueprint is a more-than-welcome beginning.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

The Problem With “Infrastructure Week”

By Angie Schmitt |
You may have noticed that it’s “Infrastructure Week” in America — a time where engineering and construction industry groups beat the drum for more money, using big numbers and images of collapsing bridges. You can follow the dialogue on Twitter. It’s full of value-neutral statements like this one from Democratic members of the House Committee on Transportation […]

But What About the Highways-Transit Split?

By Elana Schor |
As transit fans and policy wonks digest the details of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar’s (D-MN) new proposal, one question is coming to mind: Does it change the typical 80-20 split in the percentage of funding that goes to highways versus transit? The short answer is, not really. While road programs got […]

Forty Transportation Experts, One Message

By Tanya Snyder |
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee just spent two days listening to 40 experts from different aspects of the transportation sector and advocacy community, from engineers to environmentalists to the Tea Party. Each person had just four minutes to speak and they crammed as much as they could into their time: observations, demands, recommendations for […]