(from the December 2010 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)
"It’s just interesting to theorize about the displacement of decomposed pollutant products from a chemical reaction within a concrete pavement." -Sandy Lender, AsphaltPro Editor
This is an editorial column, so I hope everyone sees this use of dramatic license as humorous. I guess I could have saved it for April 1st but this is the fourth annual State of the Industry issue of AsphaltPro and we should discuss what the competition is up to. Apparently, the Portland Cement Association (PCA) as a collective is preparing to release toxic decomposed organic compounds into the air and groundwater of densely populated communities as the association’s pavements erode, crack and fail during the next decade, slowly turning us into the walking dead.
By the time PCA officials complete this insidious plan, all DOT engineers will have been brainwashed into believing they helped the environment, when in fact they sped society’s eventual collapse by bringing about a zombie apocalypse. I wonder if anyone at MoDOT suspects they’re spurring the end of civilized society in the United States. See the fact-oriented, related article on page 24 and note the integrity of MoDOT to cooperate with AsphaltPro to get information to you about the Ladue Road/photocatalytic concrete project. My hat’s off to the gentlemen there for helping me present just the facts.
As most zombie-causing infectious diseases do, the concept of smog-eating concrete starts with intelligent science. Researchers in Europe have put Titanium dioxide (TiO2) in concrete. This ultra white pigment makes the concrete very pretty.
TiO2 also causes a chemical reaction within the concrete when exposed to ultraviolet light. Here’s where the zombie movie picks up speed and audience members lean forward in their seats.
The chemical reaction takes place between ultra-ickies from the air (like dirt, soot, mold, etcetera) and the TiO2. The “bad” reactants break down—decompose—but the TiO2 is supposed to remain unharmed and ready for more pollutants from the air to settle on the pavement and get caught in its wily web.
To be honest, that’s pretty cool. But where do the products of the chemical reaction within the pavement go? According to Italian research (Ground Zero in zombie apocalypse terms), the concrete matrix traps the decomposed toxins.
Once again, that’s pretty cool. But there’s a catch. We all know concrete spawls. We all know concrete fails. We all know concrete has those obnoxious bumps every few yards where water gets in and causes the rebar to rust and expand and send cracks up to the surface. We all know concrete has to be “fixed.” As the concrete fails, the decomposed pollutants do what? And, of course, some products of the chemical reaction, by the photocatalytic concrete pavement’s design, wash down and away.
I theorize that these decomposed pollutants escape into the ground water (by design) and into the air (through pavement failures) on a regular basis and en masse during a pavement’s reconstruction. This is the part of the movie where somebody on-screen breathes too deeply, convulses and starts eating his fellow construction worker’s brain. Someone in the audience screams and tosses popcorn. The camera pans to a bloodied hard hat on the ground.
Of course this whole editorial column is designed to be a bit corny. No zombies will rise up from the use of photocatalytic concrete pavements. It’s just interesting to theorize about the displacement of decomposed pollutant products from a chemical reaction within a concrete pavement. If smog suddenly defies its natural tendency to float skyward, that is. I mean…does it settle onto pavements? There’s a funneling trick I’d like to see.
I’m off to buy an industrial-strength can opener and more ammo for just in case! In the meantime, I wish you all a lovely holiday season devoid of monsters and filled with family and friends. May you have a peaceful and prosperous 2011.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy @ theasphaltpro dot com)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, concrete, additive, Titanium dioxide", zombies, zombie apocalypse
Friday, February 11, 2011
Have You Renewed?
(from the November 2010 Editor's Note in The AsphaltPro Magazine)
Funny. This note is NOT about recycling (or this month’s automation and technology theme). This note is about subscribing. Let me give you a short story that’s directly related to my point.
In my non-asphalt life, I write fiction. One of the most prominent magazines in my second career is called Realms of Fantasy (ROF). That magazine went under a couple years ago and a great outcry from the fantasy fiction community was heard around the world. A new publisher took up the reins immediately, and ROF had new life. They depend on both subscriptions and advertising to pay the bills. It has ample advertising support, but far too many readers believe it’s still defunct. The editorial board provided an awesome review of my second novel in their June 2010 issue, but I wonder how many readers saw it. They need more subscribers to sign up for the magazine.
Now let’s apply that story to the print version of your asphalt industry resource. AsphaltPro is advertiser-supported, so we get to mail it to you free of charge if you reside in the United States, Canada or Mexico. Overseas subscriptions are another ballgame, but we still get it to you.
The thing is, we have a similar concern to ROF. We need subscribers to fill out a subscription card (found in every issue of AsphaltPro) to receive the magazine so we can prove to our advertisers that folks out there know we exist and read our pages.
You and I know readers are paying attention to AsphaltPro content. You call me on the phone. You send me notes—both e-mail and snail mail. You grab my arm at tradeshows and annual meetings to tell me about something you read in the magazine that you used at the plant or in the lab or on the paving site (such as the IC or plant controls articles in this month’s automation and technology issue).
Folks, that stuff makes my day!
But marketing reps can’t convince their bosses to advertise in a magazine based on the editor sharing anecdotes. We have to prove that you’ve sent in a signed subscription card. Gone are the days when people merely trust each other.
Isn’t that a shame?
If you enjoy AsphaltPro, fill out the subscription card in this magazine and send it back to us with your signature on it so we have it on file. If you have to share your issue of AsphaltPro with someone else in your company, fill out the card in this magazine to get your own copy. Maybe you want a lab tech or maintenance crew member in your company to get a copy; fill out the form for him or her. AsphaltPro makes an inexpensive Christmas present. (Although you probably ought to get him or her a Hickory Farms basket, too.)
If someone has already used the card in this issue, visit our website at www.theasphaltpro.com and click on the “Subscribe Now” link to fill out the form online. We’ll set you up with your own free subscription and we’ll be able to prove to the world what you and I already know.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy @ theasphaltpro dot com)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, subscriptions
Funny. This note is NOT about recycling (or this month’s automation and technology theme). This note is about subscribing. Let me give you a short story that’s directly related to my point.
In my non-asphalt life, I write fiction. One of the most prominent magazines in my second career is called Realms of Fantasy (ROF). That magazine went under a couple years ago and a great outcry from the fantasy fiction community was heard around the world. A new publisher took up the reins immediately, and ROF had new life. They depend on both subscriptions and advertising to pay the bills. It has ample advertising support, but far too many readers believe it’s still defunct. The editorial board provided an awesome review of my second novel in their June 2010 issue, but I wonder how many readers saw it. They need more subscribers to sign up for the magazine.
Now let’s apply that story to the print version of your asphalt industry resource. AsphaltPro is advertiser-supported, so we get to mail it to you free of charge if you reside in the United States, Canada or Mexico. Overseas subscriptions are another ballgame, but we still get it to you.
The thing is, we have a similar concern to ROF. We need subscribers to fill out a subscription card (found in every issue of AsphaltPro) to receive the magazine so we can prove to our advertisers that folks out there know we exist and read our pages.
You and I know readers are paying attention to AsphaltPro content. You call me on the phone. You send me notes—both e-mail and snail mail. You grab my arm at tradeshows and annual meetings to tell me about something you read in the magazine that you used at the plant or in the lab or on the paving site (such as the IC or plant controls articles in this month’s automation and technology issue).
Folks, that stuff makes my day!
But marketing reps can’t convince their bosses to advertise in a magazine based on the editor sharing anecdotes. We have to prove that you’ve sent in a signed subscription card. Gone are the days when people merely trust each other.
Isn’t that a shame?
If you enjoy AsphaltPro, fill out the subscription card in this magazine and send it back to us with your signature on it so we have it on file. If you have to share your issue of AsphaltPro with someone else in your company, fill out the card in this magazine to get your own copy. Maybe you want a lab tech or maintenance crew member in your company to get a copy; fill out the form for him or her. AsphaltPro makes an inexpensive Christmas present. (Although you probably ought to get him or her a Hickory Farms basket, too.)
If someone has already used the card in this issue, visit our website at www.theasphaltpro.com and click on the “Subscribe Now” link to fill out the form online. We’ll set you up with your own free subscription and we’ll be able to prove to the world what you and I already know.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy @ theasphaltpro dot com)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, subscriptions
Thursday, October 28, 2010
The Man Said No
With a concept similar to what state DOTs have dealt with for the past couple of years, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made a decision this week. He decided not to move forward with the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) project.
ARC was a large, multi-billion-dollar rail tunnel project that would move commuters from New York to New Jersey and back again. The published goal was to reduce congestion.
While that’s a nice goal, it left me with a few questions concerning its proposed drop-off points. I felt sympathy for the taxpayers who wanted New York’s DOT to foot a commensurate amount of the bill with New York’s benefits from the project, and with those who wanted more important stops added to the train’s destination. It looked as though political haggling would then delay a project that the higher-ups needed to ramrod through right away.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who seems more interested in where we have our hands when we’re driving than where we’ll get funding for making roads safer, made a special plea to Governor Christie earlier in October to keep the project alive. You see, the feds were only paying part of the bill, yet seemed to hang their political hats on the project’s success.
According to the Oct. 27 post on TransportationNation.org bemoaning Christie’s economic decision and giving LaHood yet another place to whine, “FTA does not require cash commitments to deal with such contingencies, and only requires that a project sponsor identify a non-Federal funding stream that could be called upon to cover contingency costs.”
Apparently, Christie didn’t want to search for additional funding streams. He didn’t want the offered loan from the USDOT Railroad and Rehabilitation Improvement Financing program. He didn’t want to set up a public-private partnership assuming some of the risk.
I wonder if he figured he’d be looking for streams to fund the drying federal well. Think about it. If you’re counting on funds from an unreliable national trough, why move forward with a $9 billion-plus project that someone has already said might creep over the $10 billion mark if a few small bits and pieces go awry?
So Governor Christie has made a sound business decision based on what all 50 states have been basing infrastructure decisions on for the past couple of years: lack of long-term funding reliability from the top. Where’s the reauthorization plan to back up the infrastructure plan LaHood wants Christie to sign off on? Ain’t seen it yet.
Let’s get a long-term authorization plan for transportation infrastructure in place before we badmouth the planners for not planning ahead. The project that Christie had no confidence in could have reduced congestion. It could have provided jobs and stimulated the economy exponentially because that’s what construction projects do. But construction projects don’t materialize out of thin air. They require reliable funding sources. I think Governor Christie gets that.
Tags: ARC, Governor Christie, reauthorization, federal highway funding
ARC was a large, multi-billion-dollar rail tunnel project that would move commuters from New York to New Jersey and back again. The published goal was to reduce congestion.
While that’s a nice goal, it left me with a few questions concerning its proposed drop-off points. I felt sympathy for the taxpayers who wanted New York’s DOT to foot a commensurate amount of the bill with New York’s benefits from the project, and with those who wanted more important stops added to the train’s destination. It looked as though political haggling would then delay a project that the higher-ups needed to ramrod through right away.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who seems more interested in where we have our hands when we’re driving than where we’ll get funding for making roads safer, made a special plea to Governor Christie earlier in October to keep the project alive. You see, the feds were only paying part of the bill, yet seemed to hang their political hats on the project’s success.
According to the Oct. 27 post on TransportationNation.org bemoaning Christie’s economic decision and giving LaHood yet another place to whine, “FTA does not require cash commitments to deal with such contingencies, and only requires that a project sponsor identify a non-Federal funding stream that could be called upon to cover contingency costs.”
Apparently, Christie didn’t want to search for additional funding streams. He didn’t want the offered loan from the USDOT Railroad and Rehabilitation Improvement Financing program. He didn’t want to set up a public-private partnership assuming some of the risk.
I wonder if he figured he’d be looking for streams to fund the drying federal well. Think about it. If you’re counting on funds from an unreliable national trough, why move forward with a $9 billion-plus project that someone has already said might creep over the $10 billion mark if a few small bits and pieces go awry?
So Governor Christie has made a sound business decision based on what all 50 states have been basing infrastructure decisions on for the past couple of years: lack of long-term funding reliability from the top. Where’s the reauthorization plan to back up the infrastructure plan LaHood wants Christie to sign off on? Ain’t seen it yet.
Let’s get a long-term authorization plan for transportation infrastructure in place before we badmouth the planners for not planning ahead. The project that Christie had no confidence in could have reduced congestion. It could have provided jobs and stimulated the economy exponentially because that’s what construction projects do. But construction projects don’t materialize out of thin air. They require reliable funding sources. I think Governor Christie gets that.
Tags: ARC, Governor Christie, reauthorization, federal highway funding
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
AP Website Delivers the How-to Industry Resource You’ve Been Waiting For
(from the October 2010 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)
Let’s face it: when creative minds get together, they tend to overproduce a project. I think that’s one of the reasons people roll their eyes when you suggest forming a committee to work on something. Committees tend to slow progress. For AsphaltPro magazine, we’ve been working on a creative project off and on for three years—our website. Here’s where the committee comes in.
The staff at AsphaltPro is more than the Chris Harrison-Sally Shoemaker-Sandy Lender team that you’ve known for years and met at tradeshows and state association meetings. While the three of us have our experience in publishing and the asphalt industry to recommend us for building a first-class asphalt business website, we also have our creative sides that recommend us for building something aesthetically pleasing.
Then we have two artists in our headquarters office who can build, create and design in their sleep! Combined, the staff has 62 years in magazine publishing (more than 33 of it specifically in the asphalt industry). That’s a lot of creative juices. Add in a whole company in our headquarters town that designs websites for a living and I think you get the picture.
I don’t mind telling you that the team has pulled out a lot of hair over the website project. We wanted something that looked full, yet clean and easy to navigate. We wanted something filled with content and useful information, yet quick to load. We wanted something that complemented the print magazine, yet didn’t compete with it and certainly wasn’t redundant. I can’t tell you how annoyed I get with magazine sites that merely regurgitate their print information. Why would I pay for one when the other is free? Why would I support the murder of innocent trees to have a magazine sent to my home if the editor’s just going to put the information up on a website a week or two after it arrives? That’s stupid and irresponsible. I have no patience for it.
Creative minds want to build something superior to that.
So we did.
I present to you: TheAsphaltPro.com.
Of course there are departments and articles that bear regurgitation. But it doesn’t take an outside expert to tell us that magazine readers and web readers tolerate different styles. We’ve edited our content for the web to make it user-friendly. When you visit http://www.theasphaltpro.com/, you’re not going to be stuck in front of a monitor trying to read tiny type in magazine format. No…I give classes on website and blog development and intelligent online social media use. I’ll be presenting this kind of marketing information at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in March to assist contractors and producers to use their online presence effectively.
We know what we’re doing at AsphaltPro not just in the asphalt arena, not just in the magazine publishing arena, but also in the website presentation arena. Now we’re offering a pleasing, informative, useful website to the masses. I invite you to visit http://www.theasphaltpro.com/ often for updates and information that impacts your bottom line. Then be sure to send me a note about the site’s efficacy. Let me know what else we can add to the site or to this blog to enhance your business.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender (sandy @ theasphaltpro dot com)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, website, launch, CONEXPO-CON/AGG
Let’s face it: when creative minds get together, they tend to overproduce a project. I think that’s one of the reasons people roll their eyes when you suggest forming a committee to work on something. Committees tend to slow progress. For AsphaltPro magazine, we’ve been working on a creative project off and on for three years—our website. Here’s where the committee comes in.
The staff at AsphaltPro is more than the Chris Harrison-Sally Shoemaker-Sandy Lender team that you’ve known for years and met at tradeshows and state association meetings. While the three of us have our experience in publishing and the asphalt industry to recommend us for building a first-class asphalt business website, we also have our creative sides that recommend us for building something aesthetically pleasing.
Then we have two artists in our headquarters office who can build, create and design in their sleep! Combined, the staff has 62 years in magazine publishing (more than 33 of it specifically in the asphalt industry). That’s a lot of creative juices. Add in a whole company in our headquarters town that designs websites for a living and I think you get the picture.
I don’t mind telling you that the team has pulled out a lot of hair over the website project. We wanted something that looked full, yet clean and easy to navigate. We wanted something filled with content and useful information, yet quick to load. We wanted something that complemented the print magazine, yet didn’t compete with it and certainly wasn’t redundant. I can’t tell you how annoyed I get with magazine sites that merely regurgitate their print information. Why would I pay for one when the other is free? Why would I support the murder of innocent trees to have a magazine sent to my home if the editor’s just going to put the information up on a website a week or two after it arrives? That’s stupid and irresponsible. I have no patience for it.
Creative minds want to build something superior to that.
So we did.
I present to you: TheAsphaltPro.com.
Of course there are departments and articles that bear regurgitation. But it doesn’t take an outside expert to tell us that magazine readers and web readers tolerate different styles. We’ve edited our content for the web to make it user-friendly. When you visit http://www.theasphaltpro.com/, you’re not going to be stuck in front of a monitor trying to read tiny type in magazine format. No…I give classes on website and blog development and intelligent online social media use. I’ll be presenting this kind of marketing information at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in March to assist contractors and producers to use their online presence effectively.
We know what we’re doing at AsphaltPro not just in the asphalt arena, not just in the magazine publishing arena, but also in the website presentation arena. Now we’re offering a pleasing, informative, useful website to the masses. I invite you to visit http://www.theasphaltpro.com/ often for updates and information that impacts your bottom line. Then be sure to send me a note about the site’s efficacy. Let me know what else we can add to the site or to this blog to enhance your business.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender (sandy @ theasphaltpro dot com)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, website, launch, CONEXPO-CON/AGG
Thursday, September 9, 2010
What Nice Rhetoric You Offer, Mr. President
By Sandy Lender, Editor, AsphaltPro
At a Labor Day celebration earlier this week, President Obama unveiled a surprise for road-builders. He has a six-year plan for re-building roads and rail. Apparently, he doesn’t have a plan to PAY for re-building roads and rail, but he’d like to see us fix up 150,000 miles of road and put down 4,000 miles of track.
Not too shabby.
I’d like to suggest to my boss, whom many of you know, that we just hire some extra editorial staff, bump up the pages of AsphaltPro to about 102 per issue, add three safety features per issue, and tack on some producer and contractor profiles per issue so we can showcase more “here’s how your peers can help you succeed” information. Wouldn’t that be cool? Who cares how it gets paid for!? My plan is what’s important. Now aren’t all you readers behind me? You’d help me get the extra staff elected, right?
Not too shabby.
The fact of the matter is 20 percent of the construction industry is out of work right now. Fact check that at any unemployment, ARRA, or construction resource you like. We’ve all got the same figures. During President Obama’s speech Monday, he called it “nearly one in five construction workers.” (For non-industry readers visiting the blog, that number will see its seasonal increase this winter.) The scary thing is this: folks are afraid of how we’re going to pay to keep roads and bridges safe, thus the 80 percent of workers employed right now and the President’s strategy for transportation are endangered.
I think it would help if we could get it through representatives’ minds that user fees and taxes are different beasts, and they need to educate their constituents on that fact. Here’s an example:
I have a friend named Joe who owns a small red car. Joe purchases gas for that car regularly, thus pays a user fee for the Highway Trust Fund. Joe has a friend whom we’ll call Pete who does not own a car. Pete does not have a driver’s license. (Pete isn’t a conspiracy theorist, but he does live “off the grid,” if you catch my drift. In fact, I’m not using his real name.) Pete never pays the user fee for the Highway Trust Fund because Pete does not buy gas to walk around on our sidewalks and streets. When Pete has a doctor appointment in Miami, he borrows Joe’s little red car and has a friend, whom we’ll call Dolores, drive him across the state. At that time, Pete buys gas for the car. He’s using the system and paying the user fee that day.
Do you see? The gasoline user fee is not a tax. Pete doesn’t pay it when he’s not using it. Neither does anyone else who opts to ride a bike or walk around or take free transportation.
Is that how we’ll pay for the President’s new transportation strategy? Or will Congress, already hesitant to talk about “taxes,” shoot it down? You can visit NAPA's site to get more information. Also check out a popular Congressional opinion on tax increases.
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding, transportation, user fee
At a Labor Day celebration earlier this week, President Obama unveiled a surprise for road-builders. He has a six-year plan for re-building roads and rail. Apparently, he doesn’t have a plan to PAY for re-building roads and rail, but he’d like to see us fix up 150,000 miles of road and put down 4,000 miles of track.
Not too shabby.
I’d like to suggest to my boss, whom many of you know, that we just hire some extra editorial staff, bump up the pages of AsphaltPro to about 102 per issue, add three safety features per issue, and tack on some producer and contractor profiles per issue so we can showcase more “here’s how your peers can help you succeed” information. Wouldn’t that be cool? Who cares how it gets paid for!? My plan is what’s important. Now aren’t all you readers behind me? You’d help me get the extra staff elected, right?
Not too shabby.
The fact of the matter is 20 percent of the construction industry is out of work right now. Fact check that at any unemployment, ARRA, or construction resource you like. We’ve all got the same figures. During President Obama’s speech Monday, he called it “nearly one in five construction workers.” (For non-industry readers visiting the blog, that number will see its seasonal increase this winter.) The scary thing is this: folks are afraid of how we’re going to pay to keep roads and bridges safe, thus the 80 percent of workers employed right now and the President’s strategy for transportation are endangered.
I think it would help if we could get it through representatives’ minds that user fees and taxes are different beasts, and they need to educate their constituents on that fact. Here’s an example:
I have a friend named Joe who owns a small red car. Joe purchases gas for that car regularly, thus pays a user fee for the Highway Trust Fund. Joe has a friend whom we’ll call Pete who does not own a car. Pete does not have a driver’s license. (Pete isn’t a conspiracy theorist, but he does live “off the grid,” if you catch my drift. In fact, I’m not using his real name.) Pete never pays the user fee for the Highway Trust Fund because Pete does not buy gas to walk around on our sidewalks and streets. When Pete has a doctor appointment in Miami, he borrows Joe’s little red car and has a friend, whom we’ll call Dolores, drive him across the state. At that time, Pete buys gas for the car. He’s using the system and paying the user fee that day.
Do you see? The gasoline user fee is not a tax. Pete doesn’t pay it when he’s not using it. Neither does anyone else who opts to ride a bike or walk around or take free transportation.
Is that how we’ll pay for the President’s new transportation strategy? Or will Congress, already hesitant to talk about “taxes,” shoot it down? You can visit NAPA's site to get more information. Also check out a popular Congressional opinion on tax increases.
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding, transportation, user fee
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Give Us Something We Can Rely On
(from the August/September 2010 Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)
For quite some time now I’ve suggested that raising the gasoline user fee to supplement the Highway Trust Fund would be problematic. I’ve encouraged members of the asphalt industry to write in with their ideas for funding; I’ve offered some painful ideas of my own. Now, I’m disappointed to say, the secretary of transportation has made what I consider an irresponsible announcement for someone in his position by stating “raising the gas tax is not an option.”
How dare he slam that door?
He’s falling back on the already disproved concept of toll roads and the not-yet-disproved Obama plan for highway funding. I cringe. I assume I don’t have to explain to the AsphaltPro audience the problems with relying on tolls for funding—or the sudden detriment to parallel corridors and those corridors’ pavement maintenance plans when tolls are set in place.
We can all agree the current gasoline user fee doesn’t cover Highway Trust Fund needs. You don’t need me to tell you it’s been losing “currency” for years due to inflation and, more recently, due to fewer miles driven and ethanol additives, etc.
What the trust fund needs is a good shot in the arm with a cost-of-living tax hike. Whether or not such a beast can be conjured during this economy is for the pundits to debate. Although I have an opinion on the matter that’s south of positive, I’m not ready to go down without a fight. There are people who can read a graph, if you present it to them logically. There are people who will understand that the gasoline user fee is a deficit-neutral item that is truly a user fee. If you don’t use the road today, you don’t pay the fee on gasoline today. It’s pretty simple.
Unfortunately, the loss of the gasoline user fee’s effectiveness coupled with Congress’s inaction on a long-term reauthorization bill has gutted infrastructure planning and expenditures. Jay Hansen of NAPA pointed out during a transportation coalition webinar at the end of July that this means highway jobs and conditions are at risk. Jobs are at risk to the tune of 870,000 people over the next two years. That’s something your representatives need to know. They have a chance to save their constituents’ jobs if they’ll just get on the ball and get a user fee increase and a reauthorization bill taken care of.
While we’re on the topic, Congress has bandied about a new transportation bill that throws another $4 billion on top of the expired SAFETEA-LU’s allotted monies. Again, where does the funding come from? We love to see Congress finally give attention to an industry that can rescue the economy and create lasting jobs from one end of the construction spectrum to the other, but we must enforce the idea that this industry of superheroes deserves to have a strong, reliable, lasting bank account behind it. Congress needs to put in place not just the rosy idea of planned projects that make a safe, positive transportation infrastructure, but also the resources that make the building of those very real and solid projects possible.
We must enforce the idea that long-term planning at the state level happens when agencies and owners can rely on the money promised in a transportation bill. The bill must be lasting, it must be stable, it must be adequate for the times. Otherwise, a soft and mushy set of half-plans and half-promises leaves unsteady work orders on tap. What Congress must do is deliver a strong and reliable bill backed by a strong and reliable funding stream so we, as an industry, can deliver a strong and reliable work force with strong and reliable infrastructure for the future.
Have you shared this message with your representatives? Do they know how important their actions are when it comes to transportation funding legislation? I encourage you to fill them in. Please visit NAPA’s website to download toolkits for contacting your representatives. Also, be sure to take advantage of the brief window you have with your representatives while they’re in their home districts as this issue of AsphaltPro hits your desk. They return to Washington soon and you can reach them in their offices there after Sept. 13.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Highway Funding, reauthorization
For quite some time now I’ve suggested that raising the gasoline user fee to supplement the Highway Trust Fund would be problematic. I’ve encouraged members of the asphalt industry to write in with their ideas for funding; I’ve offered some painful ideas of my own. Now, I’m disappointed to say, the secretary of transportation has made what I consider an irresponsible announcement for someone in his position by stating “raising the gas tax is not an option.”
How dare he slam that door?
He’s falling back on the already disproved concept of toll roads and the not-yet-disproved Obama plan for highway funding. I cringe. I assume I don’t have to explain to the AsphaltPro audience the problems with relying on tolls for funding—or the sudden detriment to parallel corridors and those corridors’ pavement maintenance plans when tolls are set in place.
We can all agree the current gasoline user fee doesn’t cover Highway Trust Fund needs. You don’t need me to tell you it’s been losing “currency” for years due to inflation and, more recently, due to fewer miles driven and ethanol additives, etc.
What the trust fund needs is a good shot in the arm with a cost-of-living tax hike. Whether or not such a beast can be conjured during this economy is for the pundits to debate. Although I have an opinion on the matter that’s south of positive, I’m not ready to go down without a fight. There are people who can read a graph, if you present it to them logically. There are people who will understand that the gasoline user fee is a deficit-neutral item that is truly a user fee. If you don’t use the road today, you don’t pay the fee on gasoline today. It’s pretty simple.
Unfortunately, the loss of the gasoline user fee’s effectiveness coupled with Congress’s inaction on a long-term reauthorization bill has gutted infrastructure planning and expenditures. Jay Hansen of NAPA pointed out during a transportation coalition webinar at the end of July that this means highway jobs and conditions are at risk. Jobs are at risk to the tune of 870,000 people over the next two years. That’s something your representatives need to know. They have a chance to save their constituents’ jobs if they’ll just get on the ball and get a user fee increase and a reauthorization bill taken care of.
While we’re on the topic, Congress has bandied about a new transportation bill that throws another $4 billion on top of the expired SAFETEA-LU’s allotted monies. Again, where does the funding come from? We love to see Congress finally give attention to an industry that can rescue the economy and create lasting jobs from one end of the construction spectrum to the other, but we must enforce the idea that this industry of superheroes deserves to have a strong, reliable, lasting bank account behind it. Congress needs to put in place not just the rosy idea of planned projects that make a safe, positive transportation infrastructure, but also the resources that make the building of those very real and solid projects possible.
We must enforce the idea that long-term planning at the state level happens when agencies and owners can rely on the money promised in a transportation bill. The bill must be lasting, it must be stable, it must be adequate for the times. Otherwise, a soft and mushy set of half-plans and half-promises leaves unsteady work orders on tap. What Congress must do is deliver a strong and reliable bill backed by a strong and reliable funding stream so we, as an industry, can deliver a strong and reliable work force with strong and reliable infrastructure for the future.
Have you shared this message with your representatives? Do they know how important their actions are when it comes to transportation funding legislation? I encourage you to fill them in. Please visit NAPA’s website to download toolkits for contacting your representatives. Also, be sure to take advantage of the brief window you have with your representatives while they’re in their home districts as this issue of AsphaltPro hits your desk. They return to Washington soon and you can reach them in their offices there after Sept. 13.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Highway Funding, reauthorization
Highway Funding from a Local POV
Your AsphaltPro Magazine editor, Sandy Lender, was invited to prepare an article for a Southwest Florida magazine, Business Currents, on the topic of highway funding after ranting about the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act to the editor one evening. (You will find information about the Kerry-Lieberman bill in the posts below.)
If you're interested, you can read the locally-slanted piece titled "Highway Funding Affects You, Your Clients" at the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce website, or try this shortened URL:
http://tinyurl.com/SandyHwyFunding
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Sandy Lender, Highway Funding
If you're interested, you can read the locally-slanted piece titled "Highway Funding Affects You, Your Clients" at the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce website, or try this shortened URL:
http://tinyurl.com/SandyHwyFunding
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Sandy Lender, Highway Funding
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