The Congestion Problem: TTI identifies the worst stretches of highway that offer unpredictable travel times.

In the first nationwide effort to identify specific stretches of highway responsible for significant traffic congestion at different times and on different days, the Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI) 2011 Congested Corridors Report helps motorists ascertain exactly where to expect traffic delays and how to plan for them.

The 328 corridors studied in the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2011 Congested Corridors Report represent just 6 per­cent of the nation’s lane miles, but account for 36 percent of the country’s urban congestion.

Researchers for the TTI (a Texas A&M University System agency) report noted that the corridors included in the report were identified by the data itself.

INRIX, a traffic data and analytics provider, originated the corridor approach using 10 hours of congestion per week to define a starting point for a congested corridor. To be considered a “corridor,” according to the INRIX standard adopted for this report, congestion should impact a freeway segment at least 3 miles long.

“Until now, we’ve been able to measure average congestion levels, but congestion isn’t an ‘average’ problem,” TTI Research Engineer Bill Eisele noted in a written statement about the report.

The report describes congestion problems in 328 seriously congested corridors over a variety of times — all day, morning and evening peaks, midday, and weekends. Not only were these roads found to have more stop-and-go traffic than others, they were also much less predictable — “so, not only does it take longer, commuters and truckers have a difficult time knowing how much longer it will take each time they make the same trip,” said co-author David Schrank.

However, even more significant, Eisele told Aggregates Manager, is that the 328 corridors studied represent just 6 percent of the nation’s lane miles, but account for 36 percent of the country’s urban congestion.

“There are a relatively small amount of roads representing more than one-third of the congestion on roadways,” Eisele said in a phone interview. “This is striking. These are the places that are ripe for investment.”

How investment is made will vary depending on location. In some areas, Eisele pointed out, investment might mean additional lanes or additional transit such as rail or bus. In other areas, it might mean aggressively clearing crashes off of a highway so additional congestion is not endured.

“It comes down to reassessing how and when we use the roadway system,” Eisele said. “Do we all need to drive at the same time? Flex time and telecommuting could make some impact on congestion.”

Although there is no single best way to fix the problem, the best solutions will come from efforts that have meaningful involvement from everyone concerned — agencies, businesses, and travelers.

The study finds that the “best approach” is to consider all of the following congestion solutions:

• Traditional road building and new or expanded transit facilities;

• Traffic management strategies such as aggressive crash removal;

• Demand management strategies like improving commuter information and employer-based ideas such as telecommuting and flexible work hours; and

• Denser development patterns with a mix of jobs, shops, and homes so people can walk, bike, or take transit to more and closer destinations.

Eisele suggests that development patterns be considered for communities and cities. “If we can place our schools and places of work closer together, we can minimize trips,” he said. “In some places it makes sense, but it in other places, it may not be an option. But when you’re thinking about buying a home, look at how transportation plays a role. This is all part of the decision…and part of the solution.”

Adds study author Tim Lomax. “If cities and states make the right investments in our most congested highway corridors, the return on those investments will be substantial. Not only will we see more reliable trips for travelers and trucks, but we can also expect to see greater productivity and more jobs.”

For the full report, go to http://www.mobility.tamu.edu/corridors/.

At a Glance

The Key Findings of the Texas Transportation Institute Study

• The 328 corridors, while accounting for only 6 percent of the nation’s total freeway lane-miles and 10 percent of the traffic, account for 36 percent of the country’s urban freeway congestion;

• The 328 corridors account for 8 percent of the national truck traffic and 33 percent of urban freeway truck delay;

• Travel time reliability is more of a problem around bridges, tunnels, and toll facilities, both because there are few alternate routes available in such circumstances and because a small incident can have a huge effect on corridor travel times;

• When travel time variability increases, your trip becomes less predictable. Every occurrence of an unpredicted travel disruption creates slower speeds than normal and contributes to an increase in reliability measures.

The Highway Trust Fund:

The bleeding is temporarily stopped but it continues its fight for life

The bumpy road the construction transportation industry has endured for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) may have taken a slight step forward. On Nov. 18, President Obama signed a bundle of appropriation bills for fiscal year 2012 into law — including $39.14 billion in obligation limitation for the highway program — a decrease of nearly $2 billion from this fiscal year. An additional $1.66 billion was also appropriated for highway-related “emergency relief.”

However, the solvency of the HTF is still in jeopardy, according to construction transportation expert Ken Orski, who writes and publishes Innovation NewsBriefs (www.innobriefs.com).

He says that Congressional conferees have warned that the bill will deplete almost all resources from the HTF by the end of fiscal year 2012. Without large amounts of additional revenues this year, the HTF is not expected to be able to support a highway program in fiscal year 2013.

The appropriations measure was passed in the House 298 to 121 and in the Senate with a 70-to-30 vote. Although the transit program is funded at about $10.31 billion — a $400 million increase from fiscal year 2011 — the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program has been kept at $500 million, which is a slight decrease from fiscal year 2011, according to Innovation NewsBriefs. No funding was provided for high-speed rail and the InterCity Passenger Rail Service program. The Livable Communities Initiative and the National Infrastructure Bank also were not allocated any funding for fiscal year 2012, according to the NewsBriefs report.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.), Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), and other House Republicans have made plans to proceed with a long-term transportation reauthorization bill. In a press statement, Mica called Boehner’s action to move ahead “a milestone and a great step forward” in building the nation’s infrastructure. Mica refers to it as a “key component” of the Republican jobs proposal that will get Americans working while providing then with “a long-term and fiscally responsible plan.”

At Aggregates Manager press time, Mica announced that the Transportation Committee would not act on the bill in December as previously anticipated. According to a report in Transportation Issues Daily, the earliest the House is expected to take action is the week of Jan. 16, but a February debate appeared more likely.

AggBeat to Go

To get daily news updates, enter http://www.gettag.mobi into your smart phone browser and download the free app. Then scan this tag to access AggBeat Online and keep up-to-date on what’s happening in the aggregates industry.

The report was requested by U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-W.V.), top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

For Better or Worse?

Industry leaders say the final CAFE standards will mean a $65 billion-plus loss for highway and transit improvements.

By Tina Grady Barbaccia, News and Digital Editor

The Obama Administration’s July 29 proposal to increase fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks to an average 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) between 2017 and 2025 would result in the loss of more than $65 billion in federal funding for state and local highway, bridge, and transit improvements, according to an analysis by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). The original Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard, set in 1975, demanded a 40-percent increase in fuel efficiency.

The impact on the nation’s transportation improvement program, ARTBA President Pete Ruane said, would be like eliminating all federal highway funding for nearly two years.

“Like everyone else, we are supportive of efforts to reduce carbon emissions and improve fuel economy,” Ruane said in a written statement. “However, from a public policy perspective, this is a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. It’s irresponsible to advance such proposals without acknowledging and attempting to mitigate the adverse effect they would have on other areas of federal responsibility like making infrastructure improvements that improve safety, reduce traffic congestion, create jobs, and help grow the economy.”

Per gallon federal gasoline and diesel taxes collected at the pump are deposited into the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF). By law, these excises are the primary revenue source for financing road, bridge, and transit projects. The less motor fuel used by drivers, the less revenue generated for improvements financed through the HTF.

The analysis, conducted by Dr. William Buechner, a Harvard-trained economist and ARTBA vice president of economics & research, assumes the increase in fuel efficiency standards between now and 2016 will occur as required (in 2010, the Obama Administration put in place an increase from an average 28.3 to 34.1 mpg by 2016). It also assumes the mpg requirement will be phased in at 5 percent per year from 2017 through 2025 as proposed.

The baseline for calculating revenue losses is the U.S. Treasury’s February 2009 projections of HTF revenues. As new cars and light trucks are purchased in the future and old ones retired, average fuel economy will improve, reducing the 2009 forecast of gasoline sales and HTF revenues.

Buechner says the HTF has already taken a revenue hit with the standards put in place in 2010. From fiscal years 2010-2016, he estimates that action will cost the HTF about $9 billion. This means, if the new standards are enacted, the total loss of revenue for transportation improvements through 2025 is projected at $75 billion.

Ruane said the nearly two-year overdue federal highway and transit program reauthorization bill “provides a ripe opportunity for Congress and the President to identify all possible options to generate the revenues necessary to maintain and improve the system.”

In a prepared statement, President Obama said “an agreement such as this would have been considered impossible. This announcement…represents not only a change in policy in Washington, but the harbinger of a change in the way business is done in Washington. As a result of this agreement, we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years. And at a time of historic crisis in our auto industry, this rule provides the clear certainty that will allow these companies to plan for a future in which they are building the cars of the 21st century.”

In a July 29 letter from Volvo Car Corp. to Secretary Ray LaHood and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Doug Speck, senior vice president for marketing, sales, and customer service said, “Volvo Car Corp.…commits to working with the EPA and NHTSA, the states, and other stakeholders to help our country address the need to reduce dependence on oil, to save consumers money, and to ensure regulatory predictability and certainty by developing this kind of strong, coordinated National Program [sic].” For a downloadble PDF of the letter, go to http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/letters/volvo-commitment-ltr.pdf.

For a commentary analysis on how the standards may be “ambitious, but not out of the range of feasibility,” go to http://www.1.usa.gov/n69isg.

Caterpillar Settles alleged Clear Air Act violations for $2.55 million

Peoria, Ill.-based heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar agreed to pay a $2.55 million penalty — $2.04 million to the United States and $510,000 to the state of California — on July 28 as part of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for alleged Clean Air Act violations. For a downloadable PDF of the United States vs. Caterpillar, go to http://www.1.usa.gov/USvsCat.

Cat allegedly shipped more than 590,000 highway and non-road diesel engines without correct emissions controls, according to the EPA. Caterpillar also allegedly failed to comply with emission control reporting and engine-labeling requirements.

The settlement requires Cat to recall the known defective engines, install the correct ATDs — devices that control engine exhaust emissions once the emissions have exited the engine and entered the exhaust system — and reprogram the fuel injector and fuel map settings. The recall will continue until all engines with incorrect catalysts, fuel injectors, or fuel map settings have been addressed or until Dec. 31, 2011, whichever is earlier, according to the EPA.

Caterpillar also will mitigate excess emissions through permanent retirement of banked emission credits, according to the settlement. Within 30 days of entry of the Consent Decree, Caterpillar agrees to retire credits equivalent to the lifetime excess emissions from the 925 engines that did not receive the correct ATD or that were programmed with incorrect fuel injector or fuel map settings.

“The vast majority of these engines have already been addressed in the company’s ongoing recall program,” Bridget M. Young, a media relations representative from Cat’s corporate affairs department, tells Aggregates Manager.

“As the decree indicates, Caterpillar denies any wrongdoing, but does agree that the decree represents a good faith effort between the parties to resolve their differences and avoid potentially lengthy litigation,” Young says. “Caterpillar is committed to following the terms of the decree.”

The EPA complaint points out that about 925 of the 590,282 engines shipped to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with separately shipped aftertreatment and/or fuel programming software actually entered use without correct assembly by the final product OEMs, Young notes.

And the Award Goes to AggMan

The American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) has honored Randall-Reilly Publishing Co., parent company of Aggregates Manager magazine, with three national editorial awards, 12 regional editorial awards, and three design awards in the organization’s Azbee Awards of Excellence.

Aggregates Manger was honored for its two awards — one gold and one silver award — in the Midwest-South region at an awards banquet on July 28 in Chicago. ASBPE presented its national awards during an awards banquet on Aug. 4 during the organization’s national conference in Chicago.

Last year, ASBPE presented Aggregates Manager with two awards, including a silver and a bronze regional award, honoring both editorial and design work. From 2005 to date, ASBPE has awarded Aggregates Manager a combined 14 regional and national awards.

The Azbee Awards of Excellence is a peer-judged contest that honors the top b2b publications in various categories.

“I’ve always believed Aggregates Manager editors, designers, and contributors are among the best in the business, but it’s particularly gratifying to receive consistent recognition of Aggregates Manager’s editorial quality from our peers,” says Therese Dunphy, editor-in-chief of Aggregates Manager, of the magazine consistently being recognized by ASBPE and other organizations.

Adds Joe Donald, publisher of Aggregates Manager: “We are proud and honored to be recognized by ASBPE. We look forward to continuing to work hard to serve our industries.”

AggMan Awards At a Glance

The following is a list of the 2010 Azbee Awards of Excellence won by Aggregates Manager.

Category Awarded Award                                   Editor/Staff Member Named

Organizational Profile Gold, Regional                     Kerry Clines, Brad Kelley

Regular Column, Silver, Regional                            Bill Langer, Therese Dunphy

Contributed

The impact on the nation’s transportation improvement program, ARTBA President Pete Ruane says, would be like eliminating all federal highway funding for nearly two years.

“Like everyone else, we are supportive of efforts to reduce carbon emissions and improve fuel economy. However, from a public policy perspective, this is a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing,” Ruane said. “It’s irresponsible to advance such proposals without acknowledging and attempting to mitigate the adverse effect they would have on other areas of federal responsibility like making infrastructure improvements that improve safety, reduce traffic congestion, create jobs, and help grow the economy.”

Per gallon federal gasoline and diesel taxes collected at the pump are deposited into the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF). By law, these excises are the primary revenue source for financing road, bridge and transit projects. The less motor fuel used by drivers, the less revenue generated for improvements financed through the HTF.

The analysis, conducted by Dr. William Buechner, a Harvard-trained economist and ARTBA vice president of economics & research, assumes the increase in fuel efficiency standards between now and 2016 will occur as required (the Obama Administration in 2010 put in place an increase from an average 28.3 to 34.1 mpg by 2016). It also assumes the mpg requirement will be phased in at 5 percent per year from 2017 through 2025 as proposed.

The baseline for calculating revenue losses is the U.S. Treasury’s February 2009 projections of HTF revenues. As new cars and light trucks are purchased in the future and old ones retired, average fuel economy will improve, reducing the 2009 forecast of gasoline sales and HTF revenues.

The HTF is already taking a revenue hit with the standards put in place in 2010, Buechner says. From fiscal years 2010-2016, he estimates that action will cost the HTF about $9 billion. Thus, if the new standards are enacted, the total loss of revenue for transportation improvements through 2025 is projected at $75 billion.

Given the nation’s overwhelming infrastructure needs, Ruane said the nearly two-year overdue federal highway and transit program reauthorization bill provides a ripe opportunity for Congress and the President to identify all possible options to generate the revenues necessary to maintain and improve the system.

“We commend House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica for his leadership in moving this long-overdue process forward. Despite strong political headwinds, he has produced a proposal with much-needed reforms that would reduce red tape and bureaucratic hurdles that stand in the way of many important projects critical to our economic vitality. His goal of expediting product delivery and facilitating public-private partnerships is clearly a step in the right direction.

“We realize it’s difficult to write such an important and far-reaching bill under the constraints of false budget choices. But every member of the House needs to clearly understand that any highway and transit program bill constrained by the existing revenue stream into the Highway Trust Fund — as proposed in the Ryan [House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)] budget — would be a sure-fire job killer. The Ryan approach would also ensure further significant declines in system performance, which will negatively impact U.S. business productivity and international competitiveness.

“As the process moves forward, we will work to increase the proposed investment levels.

“We urge the House leadership to schedule a floor vote on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee’s highway/transit program bill before the August recess and let the House exercise its will. Doing nothing on this legislation is not an option because that, also, would guarantee greater unemployment in the transportation construction industry and the economy at large.”

Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.) and Committee leaders on July 6 presented a framework for a six-year reauthorization of federal highway, transit, and highway safety programs. The multi-modal initiative also incorporates significant policy reforms for rail and maritime transportation.

(For a detailed presentation of the framework, click here.)

“Given U.S. House rules and budget constraints, this proposal maximizes the value of our available infrastructure funding through better leveraging, streamlining the project approval process, attracting private sector investment, and cutting the federal bureaucracy,” Mica said. “Most importantly, this six-year proposal provides the stability states need to plan major transportation improvements and create long-term jobs.

“While some continue to advocate the same old tax-and-spend approach, I prefer a new direction,” Mica continued. “More short-term extensions or a two-year bill are recipes for bankrupting the Highway Trust Fund. These options will cut the legs from under our states and hamper their ability to move forward with many needed, large-scale projects.

“This long-term plan is the only fiscally responsible proposal and will ensure the continued solvency of the Highway Trust Fund,” Mica said.

(To see a video of the proposal rollout, click here.)

Mica and Rep. Duncan also invited Democrat Committee leaders who are asking for higher spending levels to appear with them before the Ways and Means Committee to discuss revenue issues.

“This is an important first step in implementing a six-year highway plan that will dramatically improve the efficiency and safety of the Nation’s transportation system and stimulate the economy by creating thousands of long-term jobs,” said Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.). “The plan we are laying out today takes away the red tape and streamlines a process that has become entangled with bureaucracy. I am looking forward to advancing a bill through the full Congress.”

Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) says that the proposal is “a new direction in the transportation reauthorization bill [and] is an important step in the right direction for our nation. This is a bold vision for a reauthorization that focuses on multiple modes, including rail and hazardous materials transportation as well as our highway system. We can do this with America’s rail system at the same time we improve our highways.”

Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) is applauding the Committee “for recognizing the critical role the maritime industry plays in the nation’s economy, global commerce, and job creation.”

LoBiondo notes that the important role it plays makes it appropriate to include a maritime title for the first time in the proposed multi-year legislation. “It is our shared goal to improve coordination between agencies and streamline the bureaucratic process to increase efficiency of our marine transportation system,” he said.

While the U.S. economy is fueled by maritime commerce and millions of Americans depend on jobs created by imports, exports, and the commercial shipping industry, Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio) says government red tape has “stifled the flow of commerce and our ability to effectively build and maintain our maritime infrastructure.” Gibbs says the July 6 proposal “cuts through the bureaucratic red tape, streamlines project delivery, eliminates double taxation on shippers, enhances our ports and waterways, and strengthens our economic foundation to help us to compete globally. These reforms are critical as we work to grow our economy and create jobs.”

Highways and Transit Subcommittee Vice-Chair Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) says that one of the most important aspects of this proposal is that it provides predictability for states and public transit agencies to plan for multi-year projects. “The Stimulus forced states to focus on short-term projects like pavement resurfacing and guard rail replacements,” Hann said. “The long-term certainty provided by a long-term bill empowers states to take on major projects, including bridge replacements, highway interchange improvements, and investment in our nation’s transit systems. These types of projects will provide jobs for years to come and have the potential to have a real impact on the unemployment rate in the construction industry.”

The proposal authorizes nearly $230 billion throughout six years from the Highway Trust Fund for highway, transit, and highway safety programs. These funding levels match current revenue being deposited into the Highway Trust Fund and comply with House rules that do not permit authorization of more funds than those collected.

House Republicans say that Congress will not support a gas tax increase. They say that the proposal does not raise taxes. Without an increase in revenue, other current options, such as a two-year bill, the Administrations’ proposal, or extending expired law at the current funding levels, all lead to the Highway Trust Fund going broke by 2013.

“The fiscally responsible Committee proposal better leverages our limited resources, reduces the federal bureaucracy, and expedites projects to ensure greater value per dollar,” House T&I Committee Republicans purport.

However, T&I Committee Democrats disagree with Committee Republicans that the bill is fiscally responsible. They’ve dubbed the proposed legislation the “Republican Road to Ruin.”

Dems are saying that, although they still have to see many of the legislation’s details, “just based on the funding levels alone, it appears that this bill can best be called the ‘Republican Road to Ruin’ because it would take our Nation in the wrong direction,” U.S. Representative Nick J. Rahall (D-W.V.), Democratic Ranking Member on the full Committee, told HuntingtonNews.com in a July 8 report. “The dramatic, mindless cuts proposed to surface transportation programs will destroy nearly 500,000 American jobs next year alone, undermine our Nation’s long-term economic competitiveness, and jeopardize our economic recovery.”

Highlights of the proposal include the following:

Streamlining & Reform

• Streamlines the project delivery process by cutting bureaucratic red-tape, delegating more decision making authority to states, allowing federal agencies to review transportation projects concurrently, and setting hard deadlines for federal agencies to approve projects.
• Reforms the surface transportation programs by consolidating or eliminating approximately 70 programs that are duplicative or do not serve a federal purpose.
• No longer requires states to spend highway funding on non-highway activities, but permits them to fund those activities if they so choose.
• Provides states the flexibility to fund their highest project priorities, but holds them accountable for those decisions through performance measures.

Better Leveraging

• Provides additional funding for the TIFIA loan program to meet demand for low-interest loans for transportation projects.
• Allows states to toll new lanes on the Interstate System, while ensuring that existing Interstate lanes remain toll-free.
• Encourages states to create and capitalize State Infrastructure Banks to provide loans for transportation projects at the state level.

Highways

• Distributes nearly all federal highway funding to state DOTs through formula programs designed to preserve existing highways, build new highway capacity, and address congestion, freight mobility, and highway safety.
• Focuses the federal highway program on the Interstate Highway System and the National Highway System — the highways that facilitate interstate travel and interstate commerce.

Transit

• Removes current barriers that prevent the private sector from offering public transportation services.
• Provides more of a focus on transit programs that benefit suburban and rural areas and will improve transit options for the elderly and disabled.

Highway and Motor Carrier Safety

• Prioritizes safety funding by holding highway and motor carrier safety programs harmless from any spending cuts in the bill.
• Ensures that federal regulators keep unsafe trucks and buses off the road while allowing companies that operate in a safe and responsible manner to continue to do so.

Rail Transportation

• Improves access to the underperforming Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program.
• Expedites project review process and streamlines project delivery.

Maritime Transportation

• Ensures that Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund revenues are invested as intended in maintaining the nation’s harbors, not tied up in a federal budgetary shell game.
• Expedites Corps of Engineers permit processing to reduce project backlog.
• Encourages short-sea shipping by eliminating double taxation on vessels transporting freight between domestic ports.

Hazardous Materials Transportation

• Achieves greater safety through regulatory certainty and uniformity.
• Reduces regulatory burdens that do not enhance safety

For the Transportation Committee Schedule the Week of July 11, 2011, click here.

NSSGA: ‘We cannot rest until fatalities among aggregates workers reach and are sustained at zero.”

by Tina Grady Barbaccia, News and Digital Editor

Mining fatalities in the United States increased in 2010, following a year marked by the fewest deaths in mining history, according to a recent report from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Seventy-one miners died on the job last year, compared to 34 in 2009. Forty-eight of those deaths occurred in coal mines, and 23 occurred at metal and non-metal operations, according to MSHA.

Of the 71 mining fatalities reported, 23 of those victims were killed in surface mining accidents, while 48 miners died in underground mining accidents, 29 of whom were killed in the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in April 2010, according to MSHA. The leading cause of coal mining deaths was ignition or explosion, followed by powered haulage and roof falls. The leading cause of metal/non-metal mining deaths was powered haulage, followed by falling or sliding material, and machinery.

“While 2010 will be remembered for the explosion that killed 29 men at the Upper Big Branch mine, we are mindful that 42 additional miners’ lives also ended in tragedy,” Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, says in a written statement. “Increasing our efforts to ensure a safe and healthy workplace for our nation’s miners is the best way to honor the memory of those who died.”

The most important task is for mine operators to “take responsibility for the health and safety conditions in their mines to prevent tragedies,” Main adds, noting that mining deaths are preventable “so actions must be undertaken to prevent them.”

Where should MSHA go from here?

Joe Casper, vice president for safety services at the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA), says the association “recommends that the agency focus on the areas of the greatest risk.

“Sadly,” he tells Aggregates Manager, “five members of the aggregates industry workforce lost their lives in 2010. NSSGA’s Safety and Health Guiding Principles and our Safety Pledge remind us that we cannot rest until fatalities among aggregates workers reach and are sustained at zero.”

For almost every state and company, this is already the case, Casper says, adding that “finding what else we can do to prudently manage against fatal risk continues to be our challenge. NSSGA members are committed to workers returning home every night in at least as good a condition as when they arrived at work.”

Casper also notes that there continues to be what he says is progress in protecting workers from the highest risks as the number of fatalities reduces. There were five fatalities to aggregates operator personnel in 2010 compared to seven in 2009, according to NSSGA.

“NSSGA member companies and their personnel, from board house to scale house operators, continually renew their commitment to safer and safer operations, to eradicating fatal accidents, and to continuing reduction of injuries,” Casper says. “This applies not only to our member operations but to the industry nationwide by sharing with any other operators all we know about improving the safety and health of the entire workforce.”

MSHA has taken a number of actions to identify mines with safety issues, and has initiated a number of outreach and enforcement initiatives, including “Rules to Live By,” a fatality prevention program spotlighting the safety and health standards most frequently cited during fatal accident investigations. In addition, MSHA says it has “engaged in a number of targeted enforcement, awareness, and outreach and rulemaking activities in 2010 to reduce the number of mining fatalities, accidents, and illnesses.”

New rules and legislation: Pattern of violations and mine safety

On Feb. 2, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on Pattern of Violations (30 CFR Part 104), but the proposal may be troubling to aggregates operators.

The rule would specify the criteria such as compliance, accident, injury, and illness records to be used for identifying facilities eligible for pattern status. It also would drop the previously promised mandate that MSHA would forewarn operators of the potential that one of its facilities could be placed onto pattern status.  

Additionally, the rule would call for MSHA to solely rely on issued citations — as opposed to those that will have been fully adjudicated — when determining whether a facility should be placed on pattern status. 

Concern has been raised in the aggregates industry about due process rights for facility operators.

Interestingly, MSHA would post the specific POV criteria, along with compliance information, in a database that would be searchable by mine, at

www.MSHA.gov. The site would allow operators to monitor their own records against the POV criteria and take steps to eliminate persistent, systemic safety and health hazards, and bring their mines into compliance with regulations.

However, it would eliminate the potential POV procedure, which involves written notification that a potential POV exists at a particular mining operation.

This means that mine operators would no longer receive advance warning. Screening under the proposed rule would be for mine operators that meet criteria for a pattern of violations, and the proposal would increase the frequency of MSHA’s review of a mine for a POV to twice a year.

However, according to MSHA, the proposed rule would: 

1) Simplify the existing POV criteria and MSHA’s procedures for issuing a POV notice;

2) Provide for a more open and transparent process;

3) Encourage chronic violators to comply with MSHA’s safety and health standards;

4) Result in improved health and safety conditions for miners; and

5) More effectively achieve the statutory intent.

(The proposed rule is available for viewing at the Federal Register Public Inspection Desk at zzMSHA-Comments@dol.gov" target="_blank">http://www.federalregister.gov/inspection.aspx. The comment period for the proposed rule will close on April 4. To submit comments electronically, send an e-mail to zzMSHA-Comments@dol.gov.) For additional information on the proposed POV rule, see Rock Law on page 56.

A new mine safety bill is also in the works. Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have reintroduced a mine safety bill.

The Robert C. Byrd Mine and Workplace Safety and Health Act of 2011 (S. 153) is almost the exact same bill that was introduced in the Senate last year — the only changes were minor stylistic edits.

The legislation would provide for major changes to both the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The legislation is considered “a placeholder until the investigation into the Upper Big Branch disaster is completed,” notes the Industrial Minerals Association — North America (IMA-NA)

The goal was to complete the investigation by April, but there may be a delay in the public release of those materials as a criminal investigation proceeds. “It is important to note that it is very unlikely that this legislation would be able to pass either the Senate or the House in its current form,” according to IMA-NA.

For a downloadable PDF of the full legislation go to http://www.newsmanager.commpartners.com/linktrack.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewsmanager.commpartners.com%2Fimana%2Fdownloads%2FRockefeller%2520Safety%2520Legislation.pdf or use the shortened link http://bit.ly/dVUQHJ.

U.S. is ‘grossly under-investing in infrastructure

The Texas Transportation Institute’ s (TTI) 2010 Urban Mobility Report released in January “is the clearest evidence yet that urban congestion is increasing alarmingly and costs to the economy skyrocketing,” according to leaders of the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA).

The association says that Congress needs to “act now” to bring relief to American commuters. NSSGA Chairman of the Board Bill Schneider says that everybody in America “uses” its highways and basic infrastructure systems, and the TTI report just reinforces that without proper attention to repairing and modernizing the nation’s transportation systems, congestion is getting worse and costing the economy more.

Drivers have paid user fees into the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) to ensure responsible maintenance of our vast national highway system, which is about 10 percent of the 4 million road miles in America, notes Schneider, who is president and CEO of Bismarck, N.D.,-based Knife River Corp. However, the user fees of 1993 aren’t able to keep up with the maintenance or improvement demands of 2011, he points out.

“Efficient mobility is safe mobility and makes us competitive,” Schneider says in a written statement. “Providing for interstate commerce is not only rooted in our Constitution, it also creates good-paying private sector American jobs. Delay means higher costs to repair later; more wasted fuel and time; and continued crumbling of our basic national transportation systems.”

The nation has been “grossly under-investing” in U.S. infrastructure, says NSSGA President and CEO Joy Wilson. “Its capacity has simply not kept up with an ever-increasing population and traffic,” she says in an association press release. “We’re paying the price in congestion now, but also in less visible ways.”

In a Jan. 18 letter to the President, the Association of Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) used the results of the TTI study as just one of several reasons that Congress must be urged to pass a strong, six-year surface transportation reauthorization bill. “Over the last six months…there has been no tangible movement towards enactment of a long-term surface transportation bill, which is now 15 months overdue,” Pete Ruane, president and CEO of ARTBA, wrote in the letter. “Disturbing signs, though, continue to appear.”

The “disturbing signs” Ruane cites include construction industry unemployment continuing to rise, which he cites at close to 21 percent, more than double the national average. He also points out the TTI study’s findings report that traffic congestion in the United States is costing a “record” $115 billion annual drag on the U.S. economy.

“Your active and aggressive leadership is urgently needed now to break the languor in Congress and avert the serious, short- and long-term economic consequences of allowing the nation’s surface transportation improvement programs to take a several decades step backward.”

For a summary of the TTI report or for the full report and appendices, go to http://www.mobility.tamu.edu/ums/.

TTI report key findings:

• Congestion costs continue to rise at astronomical rates.

• Congestion costs have gone from $24 billion in 1982 to $115 billion in 2009. This equates to a cost to the average commuter of $808 a year.

• Congestion wastes a massive amount of time, fuel, and money. In 2009, 3.9 billion gallons of fuel were wasted and 4.8 billion hours of extra time spent.

• Congestion affects people who make trips during the peak period. Yearly peak period delay for the average commuter was 34 hours in 2009, up from 14 hours in 1982.

• Congestion is also a problem at other hours.

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The details of the added enforcement remain somewhat vague, but NSSGA is upgrading its efforts to help operations comply with the new standards.

 By Tina Grady Barbaccia, News and Digital Editor

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has increased its focus on exposure monitoring at metal and non-metal mines throughout the country “to ensure better worker protection from overexposure to harmful airborne contaminants,” and, accordingly, the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) has upgraded efforts to assist industry operators in complying with the standard.

NSSGA sent a letter to industry operators notifying them of the importance of this future MSHA enforcement initiative. Additionally, NSSGA issued a copy of its Occupational Health Program (available at www.nssga.org), which details ways to conduct exposure monitoring necessary for complying with the standard, to executive directors of all state aggregate associations in the hope that this facilitates wider awareness of the upcoming enforcement initiative. NSSGA says that it “is also working to find other vehicles for assisting operators.”

Although NSSGA says it doesn’t know in-depth details of MSHA’s planned enforcement emphasis, the organization says it “is committed to compliance with this and all standards.”

MSHA issued a Procedure Instruction Letter (PIL) 56.5002 on Dec. 16, 2010, stating that ramped-up enforcement is forthcoming on standard 5002 on conducting surveys to ensure the adequacy of controls for airborne contaminants including dust, gas, mist, and fumes. 

MSHA says its efforts will include stakeholder outreach, education and training, and enhanced implementation of existing standards.

In particular, MSHA will focus on 30 Code of Federal Regulations 56.5002 and 57.5002, which require mine operators to conduct dust, gas, mist, and fume surveys for harmful airborne contaminants’ fumes to determine the adequacy of control measures.

NSSGA participated in a stakeholder briefing held at MSHA headquarters, at which agency representatives outlined the initiative aimed at reducing illnesses and diseases due to such overexposures and began explaining MSHA’s enforcement approach on complying with the standards. NSSGA reported that, at the meeting, the agency pledged to prospectively share training materials being used for inspector training on the initiative. MSHA believes that the inspector training will be concluded by the end of February.

“This should assist our operators in getting a more precise sense of how MSHA will conduct its enforcement,” Joe Casper, vice president of safety services for NSSGA, tells Aggregates Manager. “All operators should have, and have implemented, the NSSGA Occupational Health Program, which is an excellent primer on establishment of a good exposure monitoring program that this rule speaks to.”

Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, said in a written press statement that the agency wants “to ensure that miners are protected from overexposure to harmful contaminants.”

In the same prepared statement, Dr. Gregory Wagner, deputy assistant secretary for mine safety and health, said that many diseases and illnesses can be caused by overexposure to harmful airborne contaminants. “Some health conditions can take a long time to develop and may not be apparent at the time of exposure,” Wagner pointed out. “Exposure monitoring programs to identify unhealthful levels of contaminants are critical to disease prevention.”

Main says the increased effort is the first step from the agency in what it calls a wide variety of industry stakeholder outreach, education, development of training programs, and  enhanced enforcement of existing standards. A procedure instruction letter has been issued to provide mine inspectors instructions on determining compliance with MSHA’s standards or surface and underground metal and nonmetal mines pertaining to surveys for airborne contaminants required under 30 C.F.R. 56.5002 and 57.5002., available at http://www.msha.gov/regs/complian/PILS/2010/PIL10-IV-01.asp.

Mine operator assistance in planning and implementing a system to conduct surveys to determine the adequacy of control measures is available at www.msha.gov/S&HINFO/ExposureGuidance/ExposureGuidance.asp.

Transportation funding extended — for now

Although the nation still lacks a new surface transportation bill, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) will remain solvent — at least temporarily — and transportation agencies can keep their projects moving — for now.

The House of Representatives in early December approved a continuing resolution (HR 3082) funding the federal government until Sept. 30, which marks the end of the current fiscal year. The resolution also extends authorizations for federal highway, mass transit, and aviation programs from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30. (To see a blog post about this from Aggregates Manager’s sister magazine, Better Roads, go to http://www.betterroads.com/safetea-lu-extended-again-again/.)

According to the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) reading of the continuing resolution, or CR, it “will give state DOTs a full fiscal year of authorization to plan for their 2011 construction season. The Federal Highway Program will receive a total of $41.9 billion in contract authority that FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) will allocate to the states under the SAFETEA-LU formula. The CR will provide $41.1 billion for the Federal Highway Program for 2011, the exact amount provided for in 2010. There are no earmarks of any kind in the Continuing Resolution — $41.1 billion is the amount states can actually spend on their Federal Highway Program in 2011.”

The Senate also voted 79-16 on Dec. 21 to temporarily extend federal highway and transit programs, as well as appropriations for the U.S. Department of Transportation and other government agencies, until March 4, according to a report from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).

Funding for the federal government under the just voted on CR was set to expire Dec. 21, and temporary authorization for highway and transit programs had been set to expire on Dec. 31.

This current “stop-gap measure” would be the sixth short-term extension of the 2005 SAFETEA-LU surface transportation authorization law, which originally expired on Sept. 30, 2009.

The previous surface transportation bill, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991, was extended 12 times before SAFETEA-LU was signed into law.

To see the 28-page section of the continuing resolution dealing with transportation reauthorization, go to http://bit.ly/HouseCRtext.

House Rules Package ‘would hurt investment in transporation infrastructure’

Although the nation still lacks a new surface transportation bill, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) will remain solvent — at least temporarily — and transportation agencies can keep their projects moving — for now.

The House of Representatives in early December approved a continuing resolution (HR 3082) funding the federal government until Sept. 30, which marks the end of the current fiscal year. The resolution also extends authorizations for federal highway, mass transit, and aviation programs from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30. (To see a blog post about this from Aggregates Manager’s sister magazine, Better Roads, go to http://www.betterroads.com/safetea-lu-extended-again-again/.)

According to the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) reading of the continuing resolution, or CR, it “will give state DOTs a full fiscal year of authorization to plan for their 2011 construction season. The Federal Highway Program will receive a total of $41.9 billion in contract authority that FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) will allocate to the states under the SAFETEA-LU formula. The CR will provide $41.1 billion for the Federal Highway Program for 2011, the exact amount provided for in 2010. There are no earmarks of any kind in the Continuing Resolution — $41.1 billion is the amount states can actually spend on their Federal Highway Program in 2011.”

The Senate also voted 79-16 on Dec. 21 to temporarily extend federal highway and transit programs, as well as appropriations for the U.S. Department of Transportation and other government agencies, until March 4, according to a report from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).

Funding for the federal government under the just voted on CR was set to expire Dec. 21, and temporary authorization for highway and transit programs had been set to expire on Dec. 31.

This current “stop-gap measure” would be the sixth short-term extension of the 2005 SAFETEA-LU surface transportation authorization law, which originally expired on Sept. 30, 2009.

The previous surface transportation bill, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991, was extended 12 times before SAFETEA-LU was signed into law.

To see the 28-page section of the continuing resolution dealing with transportation reauthorization, go to http://bit.ly/HouseCRtext.

An audit by the Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General reveals that 56 percent of ‘experienced’ journeymen MSHA inspectors aren’t trained properly.

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Predictions for the election’s impact on infrastructure policy and safety law.

by Greg Louer

The 2010 election produced game-changing results for industries impacted by infrastructure policy and safety law. Washington, D.C. stands ready to embrace a new reality: in 2011, President Obama can no longer count on the Democratic Party’s majority to shepherd his agenda through the legislative process. After a lame duck session that will focus on taxes and jobs, but is unpredictable, Republicans will enjoy more than a 60-seat margin in the U.S. House and will likely elect Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio-8) — the former Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee — as the next Speaker of the House. On the Senate side, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) likely will be re-elected to lead a strengthened minority GOP conference, infused with at least six freshman members.

The lame duck session will permit the Democratic Congressional majority one last opportunity to advance its agenda before at least two years of a Republican-controlled House. For example, Senator Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) announced he will seek to pass his safety law amendments, S. 3671, including massive enforcement power and regulation increases for the mining and quarrying industries. While we believe the odds are against passage of the Rockefeller bill in the lame duck session — or Rep. George Miller’s (D-Calif.) companion bill (H.R. 5663) — vigilance and extensive industry opposition must continue as members and their staff are being educated regarding the legislation’s deficiencies.

Following the selection of each party’s leadership slate, the “steering committee” for each party selects the chairs and ranking members for key committee leadership positions. This process was expected to unfold after the Thanksgiving holiday and to produce new leaders for committees with jurisdiction over safety and health and infrastructure policy.

On the House side, Republican leaders were expected to select Rep. John Mica (Fla.-7) to lead the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The veteran South Florida lawmaker currently serves as the committee’s ranking member and will likely depart from the infrastructure philosophy adopted by his predecessor, Rep. James Oberstar, an 18-term lawmaker who, surprisingly, failed to earn a nineteenth term. While Rep. Oberstar shares President Obama’s philosophy of investing heavily in infrastructure funding, reflected in his support for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the committee’s draft proposal to invest $500 billion to reauthorize surface transportation programs, Rep. Mica will likely take a more measured approach.

Rep. Mica will face the surface transportation reauthorization process with a new crop of freshman Republican members elected with a mandate to reduce the size of government, slash the deficit, and restrain federal spending. This political pressure reduces the probability that a $500 billion reauthorization product will see the light of day. To this end, legislators and prognosticators are already evaluating alternatives to the current “gas tax” funding structure for surface infrastructure projects. While consumers currently invest 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline (24.4 cents for diesel) in the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) to pay for infrastructure projects, some advocate for replacing the system with an 8.4-percent and 10.6-percent tax, respectively. Yet any similar proposal must first convince Rep. Mica, who recently rejected calls for increasing gas-tax revenue by any means. Republican rank-and-file committee members are similarly reticent to embrace an increase in the gas-tax formula and will likely explore alternatives to ensure the long-term solvency of the HTF and the future needs of the nation’s infrastructure system.

As a “down payment” on the reauthorization process, President Obama called on Congress to pass a $50 billion surface transportation bill during a Labor Day address. However, the proposal received little attention before the midterm election and any prospect for immediate passage will require Democrat leaders to attach infrastructure funding to a “must pass” lame duck bill, such as a continuing resolution of FY 2010 appropriations that will keep the government running into the new Congress. In the wake of the returns from Nov. 2, however, Democrat leaders are less likely to debate partisan, contentious legislation that cannot win bipartisan support beyond the appropriations process. Thus, a $50 billion stand-alone infrastructure bill may raise concerns among newly emboldened fiscal conservatives and imperil the legislation’s chance at passage.

If the lame duck session does not pass the pending safety law amendments, the bills’ fate will fall into the hands of the new 112th Congress. It is noteworthy that a Republican president signed the original OSHA and MSHA legislation, and that a Republican Congress passed the 2006 MINER Act, under a Republican administration. Assumptions that the Republican-controlled House will not pass safety law amendments are not supported by experience.

The House committee markup of the Democratic Mine Act amendments in July 2010 suggests that all members were prepared to legislate if a bipartisan compromise can be reached. However, provisions of the Rockefeller and Miller bills that included OSHA amendments to enhance whistleblower protections and victims’ rights as well as to increase civil and criminal penalties across American industry are unlikely to pass in the 112th Congress due to broad-based Republican, moderate Democrat, and business opposition. Mine safety legislation, however, is more likely to receive bipartisan consideration.

Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) is expected to chair the House Education and Labor Committee in the new Congress. While he previously considered tightening mine safety laws to “clamp down on unsafe operators,” job creation is his priority — as evidenced by his comment: “If I am selected by my colleagues to chair the Education and Labor Committee, I will immediately focus this panel’s work on the steps needed to restore economic certainty and promote job creation.”

Moreover, Kline reportedly wants to wait until the completion of the investigation of the Upper Big Branch coal disaster before addressing mine safety. Following the Upper Big Branch disaster, House Republicans committed to strengthening the MSHA “pattern of violations” system, increasing penalties and criminal sanctions for willful violations, stopping operators from “frivolously” challenging penalties, and promoting new safety technology. Legislative action on these issues in the 112th Congress likely will be preceded by oversight hearings, including an examination of whether MSHA actually needs additional authority, given an inspector general report criticizing MSHA for not fully using its authority.

Finally, the 112th Congress, with a Republican House majority rendering Democratic priorities less likely to be achieved, is expected to cause the Administration to accelerate its efforts to achieve goals through agency actions. That means more regulatory proposals and policy interpretations as well as further increases in enforcement actions — not only collecting increased penalties, but forcing changes in company operations and providing evidence for lawsuits. In turn, agency actions will result in further Congressional oversight and investigations and, potentially, agency budget and appropriations cuts. An interesting two years lies ahead under our soon-to-be-divided government. AM

Greg Louer is a public policy advisor in the Washington, D.C., office of Patton Boggs LLP. He can be reached at 202-457-6418 or at glouer@pattonboggs.com.

“We applaud the draft proposal released today [Nov. 11] by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform co-chairs to increase the gas tax by 15 cents to support vital transportation infrastructure improvements. This preliminary recommendation is bold, but necessary, and our organizations urge commission members to support its adoption as part of its report to Congress and the President.

“This proposal recognizes the integral relationship between improving transportation infrastructure, economic health, and fiscal responsibility. If enacted, it will help prevent economically devastating cuts in federal infrastructure investment and remove the primary obstacle to passage of a multi-modal surface transportation reauthorization bill.

The organizations (see the list below) issued the following statement:

“The issue of transportation investment is directly linked to balancing the federal budget. Without new Highway Trust Fund revenue, policymakers will be forced either to impose highway and transit program cuts that would reduce payrolls and impede economic growth; or add an estimated $34 billion over the next six years to general fund spending. Either outcome undermines efforts to balance the budget. It is also important to recognize that a small number of transportation programs are currently funded with general funds, and those programs meet important needs and should be continued.

“We are grateful for the leadership of Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) on this issue and look forward to working with the commission, Congress, and President Obama to resolve our federal budget challenges and support vital infrastructure investment.”

The coalition of organizations included in this statement include the following:

• American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
• American Public Transportation Association
• American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA)
• American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
• Associated General Contractors of America
• International Union of Operating Engineers
• Laborers’ International Union of North America
• National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA)
• National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association
• Portland Cement Association (PCA)
• American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA)
• Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM)
• Associated Equipment Distributors (AED)
• National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA)