FHWA

October was the eighth month in which the trend line for total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on US roads declined in the second dip of the great recession, according to "Travel Monitoring" data released today by FHWA Office of Highway Policy Information.

Populist left Democrat congressmen scored points with their far-left and labor union base this week when they got the FHWA chief Victor Mendez to rescind $1.5m granted earlier in the year to study financial options for the Ohio Turnpike. Ohio will find its own money to continue with procurement of a consultant for the study which will look at a longterm concession lease or 'privatization' of the Turnpike - among various options.

A Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) study finds tolling of longer combination vehicles (LCVs) on a key link between the Chicago and Boston areas won't finance the project. The study finds that tolls on LCVs (mostly for long double trailer trucks) on a newly built truckway between the Ohio Turnpike near Cleveland and the western end of the New York State Thruway would not come close to being financially viable.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Offices of Operations and Innovative Program Delivery have launched a new webinar series, entitled “Overcoming the Challenges of Congestion Pricing.” These webinars are aimed at state and local agencies that are currently in the process of implementing or would like to implement congestion pricing; decision-makers/political leaders who want to better understand the benefits of congestion pricing; metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) that may be interested in incorporating pricing into their planning activities; and others who just want to lear

The word 'freeway' in road signs is a source of confusion at a time of increased toll financing. The Washington Post's Dr Gridlock gives this example, a letter from Paula Wiley of Silver Spring: "If you are driving the Intercounty Connector heading east and approaching the current final exit, the sign says the 'Freeway ends shortly.' Really? FREEway? For whom?"

Patrick DeCorla-Souza emails that the deadline for submissions to the Value Pricing Pilot Program has been extended from January 18, 2011 to February 2, 2011, at 5 PM, Eastern. 

- by Jerry Werner and Peter Samuel   Regular road construction conjures up images of brawny asphalt paving contractors getting together at a hamburger joint to agree whose turn it is to put in the "low" bid for local state highway work, and discussing which official needs to be "helped" in order to ensure that "that new bastard" - not "one of us" - is kept off the list of "qualified contractors."

FHWA has published undemanding if sometimes confused "rules" for tolls on value priced or express lanes, and newly tolled interstate construction under federal control.  The rules do nothing to "accelerate progress toward the national goal of achieving a nationwide interoperable electronic toll collection system," stated as an objective in federal SAFTEA-LU law enacted August 2005, but US legislators set FHWA an impossible task there, given the cons

Karen Hedlund, longtime head of the Washington DC area office of Nossaman, and a partner at the tollroad specializing law firm, is the new chief counsel at the Federal Highway Administration. Hedlund is well known in the industry as a confident, knowledgeable speaker on finance law, including toll revenue bonds, various federal support programs and the state of P3s in different states.

December estimates by FHWA of traffic  throughout the US in December 2008 (2008-12) show a decline of 1.6% in vmt on 2007-12, the smallest drop in the previous corresponding period (pcp) in eight months. Urban interstate traffic was level on pcp, while rural interstate traffic was 1.6% lower.