An investigative update issued by the National Transportation Safety Board Nov. 15 regarding the fatal Florida International University pedestrian bridge collapse on March 15 this year indicated that “errors” were made in the design of the 174-foot span, with the cracking observed prior to the bridge’s collapse “consistent” with those design errors. [Above photo by […]

The Government Accountability Office issued two transportation-related reports in early November; one that called for “greater flexibility” in federal funding provided to the states for railroad grade crossing safety measures, with the other recommending that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers develop a way to measure the cost of “deferred maintenance” for inland waterways so […]

The Federal Highway Administration issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on Nov. 14 that it said will provide “greater flexibility” to state agencies to use “proprietary or patented materials” in Federal-aid projects. [Photo by Utah DOT.] Currently, FHWA requires that states wanting to use a specific proprietary or patented material in a project using federal […]

In a speech at the Annual Airports and the Rental Car Industry Workshop on Nov. 5, Heidi King, deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said her agency remains extremely interested in “automated driving systems” due to their potential to “save lives and prevent injuries” – even though “there are no vehicles sold […]

The Nov. 6 congressional elections not only gave control of the U.S. House of Representatives to the Democrats and kept the Senate in Republican hands, but also sent at least 47 of the 60-member House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee back to Capitol Hill. House members winning reelection include Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who is currently […]

Nine major transportation funding-related ballot initiatives were placed before voters in eight states on Nov. 6 – two of them in Colorado alone – and once the votes were tallied, five of those ballot initiatives failed while four of them succeeded. [Above photo by Caltrans.] Yet one of those “failures” regarded an effort to repeal […]

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials filed a letter with USDOT on Nov. 5 to offer comments on the agency’s Oct. 9 Federal Register notice regarding its planned study of how automated vehicle technologies may impact the U.S. workforce. [Above photo by GM.] AASHTO noted that states are facing more and more […]

A new report compiled by the World Road Transportation Organization or IRU finds that transport companies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East region are “extremely optimistic” about the deployment timeline for vehicle automation, with 76 percent of those polled by the IRU expecting autonomous trucks to become a “viable option” within the next decade. […]

A 20-page report issued by the USDOT’s Office of Inspector General on Oct. 29 determined that there was “no evidence” connecting the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery or TIGER grant approval process and the March 15th collapse of a pedestrian bridge under construction at Florida International University in Miami, FL, on March 15, as “decisions […]

During a special summit on railroad grade crossing safety hosted by the Federal Railroad Administration on Oct. 30 in Washington, D.C., USDOT Secretary Elaine Chao said that “statistics show that progress has leveled off the last 5 years” in regards to reducing railroad grade crossing crashes involving trains and motor vehicles. [Above photo by NTSB.] […]