DOT announces $417.3 million in grants for state highway projects
TruckingInfo
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced $417.3 million in grants to fund an array of efforts ranging from interstate maintenance to research into innovative bridge materials and construction methods. The Federal Highway Administration invited states to apply in June for federal funding from 14 grant programs. Requests poured in from every state, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. — more than 1,800 applications, totaling nearly $13 billion, which is more than 30 times the funds available.More

TRB offers warm-mix asphalt design webinar
Rebuilding America's Infrastructure
The Transportation Research Board will be conducting a webinar on Sept. 12, from 2-4 p.m. EDT, that will explore procedures for designing dense-graded, asphalt concrete mixtures that will be produced using currently available warm-mix asphalt processes. Participants must register in advance of the webinar and there is a fee for non-TRB Sponsor employees.More

AASHTO sets limits for heavy metals in glass-bead highway markings
For Construction Pros
A task force with the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials has recommended that heavy metals in glass beads for highway markings must meet a maximum allowable limit of 200 ppm for arsenic, 200 ppm for lead and 200 ppm for antimony. The task force, which has studied heavy metals in glass beads used on highway markings for the past four years, made the recommendation to the association's materials committee, which voted unanimously to recommend that all member states adopt limits at least as stringent as these.More

2010 Urban Congestion Trends: Enhancing System Reliability with Operations
Federal Highway Administration
This report features a number of operations project evaluations demonstrating how system reliability can be enhanced through a variety of operational strategies. The report also includes three national snapshot performance measures derived from travel time data from 20 urban areas in the U.S. The measures include congested hours, travel time index and the planning time index.More

Congress needs to address transportation legislation, gas tax after recess
National League of Cities
With Congressional leaders at home for the August recess and unemployment numbers still high, advocates are stepping up the pressure for action on a new transportation bill that will put people back to work and get the economy moving.More

Engineers, ask yourselves: What would 'Hawkeye' Pierce do?
Engineering News-Record
This country is an infrastructure crisis: According to the American Society for Civil Engineers' 2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure, one-third of America's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition and 45 percent of major urban highways are congested. Nearly half of American households do not have access to bus or rail transit. The report also reveals that one of every four bridges in this country is either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.More

SHRP 2 Capacity Program Brief: August 2011
Transportation Research Board
TRB's second Strategic Highway Research Program has released the latest version of its Capacity Program Brief, which summarizes recent progress within the Capacity area of SHRP 2. The objective of Capacity Research in SHRP 2 is to develop tools for systematically integrating environmental, economic and community requirements into the analysis, planning and design of new highway capacity.More

EPA withdraws storm-water limits
Roads&Bridges
The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement in response to the decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw proposed "numeric limits" on the amount of dirt the agency will allow in storm water from construction sites.More