Category Archives: roads

3 Benefits. City and County Transportation Sales Tax.

St. Louis County instituted a 0.5% transportation sales tax 3 years ago and the City of Duluth is gearing up to implement the same.

The local governements point to these benefits from the transportation sales tax:

  • The sales tax spreads the road maintenance burden
    • everyone who visits contributes, not just residents
  • The City believes it will triple available revenue for road maintenance
  • 3 years in and the county has invested $16 million in county roads within Duluth City Limits
    • The City…

Regulatory Trend. Procurement Opportunity. Tech to Detect Wrong Way Drivers.

Arizona Department of Transportation is rolling out 1st of its kind wrong way detection technology.

How does the new fandangled technology work?

  • Thermal cameras detect a wrong-way vehicle along an off-ramp
  • When triggered, an illuminated wrong-way sign with flashing lights alerts drivers

The winning contract: a $1.89 million bid from Contractors West Inc. of Mesa

Equipment World | Arizona moves forward on “first of its kind” wrong-way detection system

+1 Palmetto State Raises the Gas Tax.

South Carolina’s gas tax increase, the first in 30 years, went into effect on July 1, 2017. 

Revenues will be dedicated and prioritized including these qualifications for projects:

  • Roughly 1/2 of funds will go to prioritized SC DOT projects
  • The remainder will go to Country Transportation Committees projects

Equipment World | South Carolina DOT awards first projects from new roads bill

Record year of Truck Bridge Collisions. 3 Bits Informed Intel from Houston.

Why is Houston seeing more trucks hitting bridges this year?

  • good economy means more truck traffic
  • the Port of Houston traffic is up 11% since 2016

What transportation options are available?

  • TXDOT points to improving roads outside the Loop to keep trucks out of the city core
  • Researchers at Texas A&M are working on laser warning systems to keep overheigth trucks from hitting bridges.

How many truck – bridge hits have occurred in 2017?

  • 22
  • The record, 30, was set in 2016

Houston Public Radio…

Road Building Trend. 3 Key Elements of Reduced Conflict Intersections.

Minnesota is deploying Reduced Conflict Intersections to increase traffic safety.

Reduced Conflict Intersections are employed on multi-lane highway intersections and offer increased safety by:

  • limiting turns to right from a smaller roadway onto a higher speed road
  • allowing for u-turn at an opening in the median
  • prohibiting left turns

The safety data for reduced conflict intersections shows:

  • 100% reduction of fatal and serious injury right-angle crashes
  • 77% fewer all severity right-angle…

State Senate Unanimously Votes Against Mileage Tax

State: Connecticut

Is the opposition uniform and bipartisan? yes

What triggered it? A federal subsidy to study a switch to mileage based taxation

What warning are some legislators offering? If there isn’t a transportation funding solution soon, the state moves closer to more tolls on highways

Connecticut Post | Senate votes to prohibit ‘mileage’ tax