With Hurricane Florence dumping in excess of 10 trillion gallons of rainwater on North and South Carolina – enough to fill 15 million Olympic-sized swimming pools – not only is the storm water resulting in floods that are damaging roads and bridges, those floods are releasing petroleum products, chemicals, coal ash, hog manure, and other […]

A final rule issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Sept. 19 will allow diabetic individuals with a “stable insulin regimen” and properly controlled “insulin-treated diabetes mellitus” or ITDM to be qualified to operate commercial motor vehicles or CMVs in interstate commerce. Previously, individuals with ITDM were prohibited from driving CMVs in interstate […]

Due to the impact of Hurricane Florence, the Federal Railroad Administration extended the application deadline for $318 million in Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements or CRISI grant funding originally opened in July from Sept. 17 to Oct. 12 this year. FRA said in its original statement three months ago that this Notice of Funding […]

The Federal Transit Administration made $6.3 million available in competitive grant funds on Sept. 12 via a Notice of Funding Opportunity to foster “transit coordination projects” that improve access to healthcare. The FTA said in a statement that those Access and Mobility Partnership Grants are focused on developing more transportation options for those who rely on public […]

The House of Representatives Subcommittee on Aviation delved into the issue of integrating unmanned aerial vehicles – known as UAVs or drones – as well as flying cars into the national airspace system or NAS, especially in terms of smoothing out “interoperability” issues within the existing system. “We are in the early days of a […]

The Federal Transit Administration began accepting what it called “expressions of interest” from transit project sponsors on Sept. 12 for a pilot program for expedited project delivery, accompanied by a notice in the Federal Register. “Expediting transportation projects is a key part of meeting our nation’s infrastructure needs,” said FTA Acting Administrator K. Jane Williams in a […]

On Sept. 12 the Federal Aviation Administration awarded $586 million in airport infrastructure grants; the fifth round out of a total of $3.18 billion worth of Airport Improvement Program or AIP funding for U.S. airports. This fifth increment of funding awards – a process that began on June 8 this year – provides 217 grants to […]

The Federal Railroad Administration announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity on Sept. 12 for at least $46 million in Positive Train Control or PTC Systems grants. This NOFO represents the balance of the $250 million PTC Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements or CRISI program grants that remained after FRA made its initial selections in late […]

The Federal Highway Administration initiated $8.4 million in Accelerated Innovation Deployment or AID demonstration awards to nine state departments of transportation on Sept. 7 to fund a variety of what the agency called “innovative” highway projects, focused on improving the safety and operational efficiency of roads and bridges using “cutting-edge” pavement materials, engineering techniques, and […]

The Governors Highway Safety Association elected Darrin Grondel, director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, to serve a one-year term as the organization’s chair during the group’s annual meeting in Atlanta in late August. [Grondel can be seen above, standing in the middle between FMCSA’s Ray Martinez on the left and the Insurance Institute for […]