The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published its Final Rule Friday to end coercion and protect both commercial truck drivers and bus drivers from being forced to break safety regulations. The Final Rule was published in the Federal Register. It gives the FMCSA the power to act against motor carriers, shippers, transportation intermediaries and receivers, if needed. Read More »

ESL Shipping Ltd. signed a long-term frame agreement with SSAB to guarantee that inbound raw material for SSAB has sea transportation from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. The partnership was developed to allow the two companies to benefit from mutual, long-term gains pertaining to efficiency. The agreement currently applies to approximately 6 to 7 million tons each year. Read More »

Lear Corporation recently acquired Arada Systems. Arada Systems is an automotive technology company located in Troy, Michigan. Its specialty is communications from Vehicle-to-Vehicle as well as Vehicle-to-Infrastructure. The acquired software as well as hardware solutions will allow Lear to conduct short range communications, such as wireless communications protocols as well as GPS. Read More »

Remix introduced its new public transit planning platform, which is designed to allow public agencies to design and improve their respective transportation systems, Monday. The new platform will help transportation planners draft and plan potential routes. The information gained from the software will also help them to better understand the effect of their potential plans. Read More »

Scorpio Tankers, Inc. will upgrade its Newbuilding Program and Fleet, and establish a new loan facility. The Newbuilding Program is designed to build four MR product tankers. The program will end in December and will not be implemented by the company, which now has a new contract for another 12 newbuilding product tankers. Read More »

Indiana Department of Transportation officials have scheduled a series of public meetings this week to discuss the I-69 Section 6 route extension from Martinsville to Indianapolis. The purpose of the meetings is to gather public requests and input about the routes. The five preliminary routes were first announced in June 2015. Officials hope to scale these down to a smaller number.  Read More »

GE recently finalized the sale of its GE Capital, Transportation Finance company located in Canada and the United States to BMO Financial Group. The company gained $8.7 billion from ending net investments. This is equal to $8.9 billion from net earning assets. This sale is just one part of GE’s strategy to prioritize the company’s high-value industrial businesses. Read More »

The Association of American Railroads published data Wednesday for U.S. rail traffic throughout the week that ended on Nov. 21. For the second to last week of November, U.S. weekly rail traffic totaled 532,532 intermodal units and carloads, showing a 5.7 percent decline compared to the same time period from 2014. Cumulative carloads for the week amounted to 267,830. Read More »

Crews with the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) will continue paving westbound Interstate 10, from Benson to Tucson, until next week. The construction zone extends from a mile eastward from Exit 299 for Skyline Road to a mile eastward of Exit 291 for Marsh Station Road. The crews will need to close the westbound ramps for Mescal Road/J-Six Ranch and Skyline interchanges. Read More »

Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. recently delivered one of its Q-Cab160 back-of-cab CNG storage systems to OEM. The new storage system is the top in its industry. It will be installed on an OEM natural gas-powered tractor at the Truck Mod center, allowing the systems to be applied using secondary installation methods or using direct OEM trucks. Read More »

A long-term transportation bill that includes funding would significantly impact engineering and construction businesses in creating new jobs and sustaining long-term viability in the industry, among numerous other benefits, according to ACEC. ACEC members would like to see such a bill come from current U.S. House-Senate conference negotiations to reconcile differences. Read More »

Leaders from the House and Senate committees announced a bipartisan, bicameral agreement Tuesday for the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act. The leaders include U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Read More »

Construction investments for the month of October achieved its highest level of growth in nonresidential, residential as well as public categories. Investments in construction for October amounted to $1.107 trillion. This is a seasonally adjusted yearly rate. It is 1 percent more than the total from September and an additional 13 percent more than the figure from October 2014. Read More »

The Idaho Transportation Department is holding an open house event Wednesday to explain plans and designs for the replacement of the Broadway Avenue bridge located in Boise’s downtown area. The project requires crews to remove as well as replace the bridge that crosses the Boise River. They will also make improvements on Broadway Avenue, from Front Street to University Drive.  Read More »

The Government and Accountability Office released the latest bridge conditions for all bridge structures within the United States, which has a total of 610,749 bridges. Twenty-three percent of them are part of the National Highway System, which makes up 58 percent of the total deck area for the United States. Deck area refers to the width of the surface of the road on the bridge. Read More »

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) congratulated Congressional conferees Tuesday for coming to an agreement about the first long-term surface transportation legislation in approximately 10 years. The agreement includes the railroad industry in the United States and calls for safety improvements for tank cars when they transport flammable liquids throughout the nation. Read More »

A railroad crossing in Breitung Township in Dickinson County will now be signed as “exempt,” allowing trucks and buses that typically stop at the crossing to continue across the railroad tracks. The review of the Wisconsin Central (WC) crossing was completed by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). Third Street runs along US-141, just east of the highway. Read More »

The AAR published the latest U.S. weekly rail traffic for the week ending Nov. 28 as well as for the first 11 months in this year. For November, carload traffic amounted to 1,041,605 carloads. This is a decline of 10.4 percent or 120,259 carloads compared to November of last year. Additionally, U.S. railroads generated 1,024,162 trailers and containers for the month. Read More »

Leaders from the Michigan Department of Transportation published a new research report. The report is entitled “Research on Evaluation and Standardization of Accelerated Bridge Construction Techniques." There is now a full listing of research reports that MDOT has published between 1940 and 2015 available on the MDOT website. All of the reports are online in the form of PDFs. Read More »

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has scheduled a public meeting Tuesday about the Allston I-90 Interchange improvements. The meeting will be held at the Jackson Mann Community Center and give the public the chance to learn more about the progress and improvements that have been made throughout the last six months in replacing the I-90 Allston Interchange. Read More »