Infrastructure

To ‘build back better,’ we need robust physical infrastructure and advanced technological infrastructure. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is a the right step at the right time.

While the United States Senate voting in favor of passing the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) this week, there comes a sense of relief that a long-awaited bill was finally passed, but more work needs to occur for everything to fall into place moving forward, according to various transportation infrastructure experts.

As expected, a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure deal passed the Senate today by a 69-30 vote. That included 19 Republicans in favor, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. It came after centrist senators in both parties and the White House reached a long-sought compromise on the bill. It now goes to the House where it is expected to pass and be signed into law after Labor Day.

It is somewhat hard to believe, at least sometimes, that good ideas and plans end up in the trash can. In this case, the good ideas and plans are the momentum we have, or had, in recent weeks, was the momentum building up for a new national infrastructure plan. Well, fast forwarding a few weeks later, it now looks more and more like we may once again be witnessing the interminable game of political football, or simply just kicking the...

One part of President Joe Biden’s “think big” infrastructure package appears set to pass with bipartisan support. The other, more innovative, infrastructure spending deal could be pass as a go-it-alone Democratic spending deal. First, there appears to finally be a bipartisan deal on a new infrastructure spending package that is about half what the president originally sought in his $2.25 trillion proposal.

Entitled the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021, the Senate subcommittee said that the bill establishes a new historic baseline funding level of $303.5 billion, which would be allocated for Department of Transportation (DOT) programs for highways, roads, and bridges, and is 34% higher than the current surface transportation authorization, the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act.

The future of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure is caught in a huge political battle largely over what counts as infrastructure. Democrats are united behind President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, which includes everything from highways and bridges to home care for elderly and pre-school for 3-year-old toddlers.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with two attorneys at Washington, D.C.-based Venable LLP—James H. Burnley IV, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and one of the nation’s foremost authorities on transportation law and policy, and Fred Wagner, former chief counsel of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Burnley and Wagner provided Berman with their respective takes on the current state of all-things U.S. transportation infrastructure-related, from both a policy and...

CAGTC Executive Director Elaine Nessle explained that, for years, there has been an ongoing conversation about insufficient levels of infrastructure funding across the entire transportation spectrum, specifically as it relates to freight-related infrastructure.

Now is the time for supply chain managers and related voices to make themselves heard. Both Democrats and Republicans seek to create jobs through construction programs and improve America's competitive advantage.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), which has more than 150,000 members in 177 countries, gave U.S. infrastructure a ‘C-‘ grade in its “2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure,” its latest quadrennial assessment of the nation's infrastructure. That’s actually a slight improvement from its ‘D+’ grade four years ago.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Phil Byrd. Byrd is well-accomplished in the trucking sector, as a past chairman of the American Trucking Association, the head of the Daseke Leadership Council, and currently the CEO of one of Daseke’s operating companies, Bulldog Hiway Express.

While it is still very much in the early innings of the Biden Administration, it is fair to say that there are certain aspects of its agenda that are going to be front and center in a shorter time period than others. One of those aspects, no doubt, is infrastructure and for good reason. Perhaps the main one being that while it is always viewed in the context its long overdue, and badly needed, upgrades being viewed as “mandatory” and �...

Pete Buttigieg has been overwhelmingly confirmed as the nation’s 19th Transportation Secretary. Let the cheerleading begin for President Joe Biden’s call for a “think big” approach to infrastructure modernization.

A trio of freight transportation experts expressed optimism over the possibility of Congress being able to lay down the groundwork to sign a needed long-term federal surface transportation authorization at the recently-concluded SMC3 JumpStart 2021 conference.