Asphalt Pavement Association
Of Oregon
Warm Mix & Other Sustainable Practices Make the News
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CURRENT NEWS
June 08, 2010 Fly-in Participants Keep Pressure on Congress The annual Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) Fly-in was held on May 25-26 in Washington, D.C. More than 400 grassroots transportation advocates representing members of the TCC traveled to the nation’s capital to keep the pressure on Congress to pass a six-year highway reauthorization. -- Pit & Quarry * * * * * * * * * * March 30, 2010 Smooth Pavements Save Fuel Smoothness is the one pavement characteristic that has a direct, provable impact on vehicle fuel consumption. This simple fact has been demonstrated by more than 30 years of research. The latest document released by the Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA), "Smoothness Matters",** is a short overview of how pavement smoothness affects vehicle fuel economy. The document references more detailed information and scientific articles that support this case, including the fact that a good maintenance program that increases pavement smoothness could reduce vehicle fuel consumption by about 7 billion gallons annually. This is the equivalent of taking over 10 million vehicles off the road every year. Pretty dramatic effects for something so simple as placing smooth pavements and keeping them smooth. The latest concrete industry-sponsored study on vehicle fuel consumption based on pavement type released by the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) concludes that concrete pavements produce better fuel efficiency than asphalt. However, as the researchers themselves acknowledge, the study is not conclusive because many of the important variables known to influence fuel consumption could not be controlled and only two pairs of pavements were included in the analysis. NAPA has produced a detailed analysis ** laying out the problems associated with the design and results of this latest study. In the real world, concrete pavements start off rougher and become even rougher with time. Asphalt is smoother, and a well-maintained asphalt pavement is as good as new throughout its service life. -- NAPA Action News 3/29/10 ** To view articles - Go to "Technical Resources" portion of this website and look for title on body of page. * * * * * * * * * * Congress Passes HIRE Act, Restores Transportation Funding President Obama signed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act on March 18. Among other things, the HIRE Act enables state and local governments to move forward with needed transportation projects by extending authorization for the highway and transit programs through the end of this year; providing $19.5 billion to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent; and restoring $8.7 billion in highway contract authority to the states that had been rescinded at the end of 2009. Still, the Congress has left in limbo a six-year, $450 billion spending plan for highway construction, mass transit and other projects. Without reauthorization of the highway bill, transportation funding remains at current levels. Two recent commissions on that subject have called for $106 billion a year investment over the next 20 years to maintain the current system, compared to the $80 billion a year currently spent by all levels of government. Click here for a summary of the HIRE Act. -- NAPA Action News 3/29/10 * * * * * * * * * * January 12, 2010 “Jobs Bill” Highway Investments Critical To The Economy As one of its first activities of the 2010 session, the Senate will be debating the “Jobs for Main Street Act”. The bill is a smaller, more targeted version of last year’s stimulus bill and it doubles down on the $27.5 billion in highway and bridge investments made under that bill. “The Jobs Bill is a significant improvement over last year’s stimulus and we strongly support it,” said Greg Cohen, President and CEO of the American Highway Users Alliance. “It is important to consider that highway and bridge investments made up only 3% of the total cost of the old stimulus. In the new, smaller Jobs Bill passed by the House, the $27.5 billion in highways and bridge investments make up 18% of the total cost. In other words, Congress is providing new focus in this bill and choosing programs that ‘work’ – both in the short and long term.” Recently, the AP released a flawed analysis that was critical of the highway spending for job growth. The analysis failed to fully consider the number of jobs created and saved outside of the immediate vicinities of projects. It also failed to consider that the vast majority of the highway money will be spent in the coming months. By only looking at local employment, the study failed to recognize the positive effects of highway spending for materials suppliers, equipment makers and dealers, truckers and others. Of the 30,000 jobs sustained by each billion dollars in federal spending, about two-thirds are indirectly created in supporting industries or induced in totally different industries. In fact, nearly half of the jobs created by highway investments are induced. The AP report fails to consider that a large portion of the jobs are created far from an individual stimulus project’s location but still benefit the country as a whole. “Analysts should think about our highways as the economic circulatory system of our country,” said Cohen. “Like a cardiac stent, an improvement to the circulatory system in one part of the network creates benefits throughout the entire system. Better, safer, and more efficient highways have a long track-record of proven positive impacts on the regional and national economy. There should be no doubt that they protect and create hundreds of thousands of American jobs.” For more information on jobs created by highways and bridge investments, please visit http://www.dot.gov/recovery/reports.htm. -- www.highways.org * * * * * * * * * *
December 29, 2009 HOUSE PASSES JOBS BILL Prior to adjourning for the year, the House passed a jobs bill by a 217-212 vote, NSSGA reported in a Special Legislative Update. The Senate failed to act on additional economic stimulus legislation. The bill, which included a supplemental $27.5 billion for highways, $8.4 billion for transit, $500 million for airports and $11 billion in other infrastructure investments, also includes an extension of the surface transportation programs through FY 2010. The extension would eliminate the state matching requirement for core highway, transit and safety programs. Additionally, the bill would go a long way to ensure the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund by crediting it with $19.5 billion in lost interest on trust fund balances and allow the HTF to earn interest on unexpended balances going forward. Also, the jobs bill would charge the general fund with state and local fuel tax exemptions rather than the HTF, which is expected to result in an additional $2.5 billion per year in new HTF revenues. According to NSSGA, health care legislation advanced by the Senate contains some troubling news for the aggregates industry. A little-noticed provision slipped in removes the small business exemption for construction companies. Companies with fewer than 50 employees not offering health insurance generally are exempt from the fines and new regulations that apply to larger employers, but under the just-added amendment offered by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., construction firms employing as few as five people will be subject to fines and regulatory requirements. This mandate will only further curtail job creation in a sector where the unemployment rate is currently nearly double the national unemployment rate. NSSGA said it would work with its transportation construction industry partners to remove this provision in a conference on the bill. On Dec. 19, the Senate cleared the final spending bill of the year when, by a vote of 88-10, it passed the Defense Department Appropriations bill, which included extensions of several expiring programs, including surface transportation programs. Under the bill signed by President Obama on Dec. 21, the highway and transit programs are extended until Feb. 28, at the FY 2009 post-rescission funding levels. President Obama also signed the FY 2010 DOT Appropriations bill on Dec. 16. The DOT spending bill served as an “omnibus” appropriations bill carrying six other spending bills with it. The bill funds highways at $41.8 billion and includes $650 million in additional highway funding for the states. This is an increase from $40.7 billion in 2009. Transit is funded at $10.73 billion in FY 2010, an increase of $602 million over 2009. The Airport Improvement Program (AIP), which funds improvements at airports, is funded at $3.5 billion, including $500 million for “significant transportation project” grants in a wide variety of modes. -- Pit & Quarry * * * * * * * * * *
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