Oberstar Holds Hearing on Structurally Deficient Bridges

U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) on Wednesday held a full committee hearing to consider testimony on structurally deficient bridges within the National Highway System (NHS).

This hearing follows the Interstate-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis.  Since the bridge collapse occurred, it's been revealed that 6,175 of the 116,172 NHS bridges are "structurally deficient."
The hearing was seen as a means of taking immediate, bipartisan action toward shaping a bill, tailored around Oberstar's recently proposed NHS Bridge Reconstruction Initiative.   

Elements of the initiative include a temporary 5-cent increase in the federal gas tax to provide revenue for a bridge reconstruction trust fund; tougher federal standards for bridge inspections; and a new formula, to be developed by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, for distributing the envisioned additional bridge aid among states.

The Oberstar initiative would also prohibit Congress as well as federal and state agencies from setting aside the new bridge money by "earmarking" for individual projects. Generally, panelists at the hearing emphasized the importance of more and better allocated funding for bridge repair, rehabilitation, and replacement. Panelists also cited outdated or insufficient standards in bridge inspection methods.

Representing the views of the Administration, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters resisted the idea of raising the Federal gas tax.  Secretary Peters stated that "it makes no sense to my mind to raise the gas tax at a time when we are rightfully exploring every conceivable mechanism to increase energy independence and clean our air, promote fuel economy in automobiles and stimulate the development of alternative fuels as well as reducing emissions."

Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) is arranging to hold a second hearing on the Oberstar initiative within the next two weeks.

In related news, members of the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC), including PCA, ACPA, and NRMCA, met with Chairman Oberstar last week to hear about the Chairman's bridge plan.  Although not all of the TCC members are directly involved with bridge construction or rehabilitation, the coalition unanimously agreed to support the Chairman's initiative, which represents a critical component of the nation's infrastructure.

Contact Kevin Walgenbach, David Hubbard, or Leif Wathne.

As part of its recently released mid-session budget and economic review, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revised the projections for the Highway Trust Fund to predict a $5.1 billion cash deficit in the Highway Account by the expiration of SAFETEA-LU. 

The new projections predict that the Mass Transit Account, by contrast, will hit a cash balance high point of $8.1 billion in FY 2008 before starting a gradual decline.  The difference in the highway and transit balances is due to the SAFETEA-LU provision that reset the outlay calculation for transit programs.

The new CBO calculations resemble those of the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from mid-July.   Those figures included an estimated $4.3 billion cash deficit in the spending levels of the Highway Account under the SAFETEA-LU spending levels, set to expire on September 30, 2009.

The OMB and CBO numbers have forced the Department of Transportation to begin notifying Congress of its contingency plans in the event that the Highway Account reaches zero cash balance. (Source: Transportation Weekly.)

Contact  Robert Sullivan, David Hubbard, or Leif Wathne.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is proposing a rule to require first-time pollution controls on existing off-road diesel engines in the construction industry, among others.

To effect the rule, CARB would need a Clean Air Act waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in order to impose the standards, which also allow other states to adopt identical rules.

Currently, federal rules impose stringent new emissions requirements on new off-road diesel engines and fuels, but not on existing engines.  This proposal would apply to both new and existing engines.  

As proposed, the initiative is aimed at a phased reduction in emission of PM (particulate matter) and NOx among large fleets (> 5,000hp total) between 2009 and 2015, and then small fleets (<2500hp) between 2015 and 2020. Included are most off-road equipment engines over 25hp, except for those used for agriculture, ports and railroads.  The rule will, in effect, force contractors to retrofit or replace equipment. The total cost is estimated to be anywhere between $3.5B and $13B over the rule’s lifetime

A comment period will open shortly and will allow industry groups to weigh in.

NACA partner ACPA is working proactively with other groups, as well as its Equipment Division partners, to assess the full impact of the proposed rule.

Contact Leif Wathne.

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