October 19, 2018 | Articles
By T. Peter Ruane, ARTBA President & CEO
The NCAA college basketball tournaments are an annual rite of spring where millions of Americans of all ages engage in an unofficial national holiday (of at least an hour or two) to fill out, and then monitor brackets. For two dramatic weeks each March, fans and casual observers come together to follow tournaments routinely filled with buzzer beaters, Cinderella stories and excellence.
As I reflect on the sensational men’s and women’s tournaments just completed, there are several interesting parallels between these celebrated events and our industry’s advocacy efforts to secure necessary levels of federal transportation investment.
Throughout both tournaments, we saw countless examples of teams who never quit. Sometimes they were able to overcome seemingly insurmountable deficits, other times they were not. Regardless, these young adults routinely demonstrated a belief in themselves and their cause that would never allow them to back down.
As all ARTBA members know, we never quit. We also make no apologies for our zealous pursuit of federal policies that will lead to a safer and more efficient national transportation network. Attempting to advance innovations or new solutions to long-standing dilemmas isn’t always easy or popular, but failure to do so almost assuredly preserves an unacceptable status quo.
Another similarity between the NCAA college basketball tournaments and federal advocacy is that both are replete with talking heads and odds makers. Interestingly enough, both also demonstrate that so-called “experts” are often wrong.
For two straight years, the juggernaut that is the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team has failed to make it to the championship game despite a 2016-17 season that was part of 111 straight victories and an undefeated 2017-18 campaign. Similarly, the men of Loyola-Chicago, aided by their chaplain “Sister Jean,” beat long odds on their way to the Final Four becoming one of only three 11 seeds in history to reach that goal.
The odds makers in our case are the Washington, D.C., political class and the media. Each have been throwing cold water on the outlook for a robust infrastructure bill and a Highway Trust Fund fix since before the 2016 presidential election was complete. While I certainly wish we were further along in that process, there is no denying it is still moving forward.
Trump administration officials testified on their infrastructure proposal weekly in the House and Senate during March. The president also recently gave an infrastructure-focused speech in Ohio where he once again pledged to deliver “the biggest, boldest, infrastructure plan in the last half-century.” Republican leaders on Capitol Hill appear settled on moving a series of infrastructure bills as opposed to one measure and will start with reauthorization of the federal aviation and water transportation programs.
No one said this was going to be easy or quick, but it is also too soon to be writing any obituaries. Unfortunately, some cannot resist the urge to pronounce a final score before halftime.
The take away is that players in the game—be it college basketball or lobbying Congress—are not deterred by the talking heads because they are too focused on doing what they know is necessary to be successful.
With that in mind, make plans to attend the May 14-16 ARTBA Federal Issues Program and Transportation Construction Coalition Fly-In. Flooding the halls of Congress with industry advocates pushing for a permanent Highway Trust Fund fix is one of the most meaningful things we can do to ensure the infrastructure discussion continues to move forward on Capitol Hill.
This column appears in the March/April issue of Transportation Builder magazine.
###
October 19, 2018 | Articles
By T. Peter Ruane
The U.S. transportation construction industry has a long history of positive safety results … and shortcomings.
Construction of the famous Brooklyn Bridge, a generation before ARTBA’s 1902 founding, is an example. One late 1870s photo shows a sign on the cable walkway leading to one of the tower tops:
Safe For Only 25 Men at One Time. Do Not Walk
Close Together, Nor Run, Jump, or Trot. Break
Step! — W.A. Roebling, engineer in chief
Roebling was clearly thinking about safety. But nearly 30 workers are estimated to have been killed on the job. Roebling himself suffered a debilitating case of “the bends” after ascending too quickly from an underwater caisson pumped with compressed air where men dug the river bottom.
Hard hats didn’t exist on this project, and safety harnesses were rare, if used at all. Such now-common safety gear is also missing from many 20th century transportation construction photos.
But, that’s not how we design and build today.
ARTBA has been a transportation construction industry safety leader since its early days. The association’s safety programs can be viewed as a three-legged stool:
- Through ARTBA’s Transportation Development Foundation (TDF), we provide a wide variety of safety education programs that have trained more than 100,000 industry workers in recent years alone. The National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse (workzonesafety.org), the world’s largest online resource devoted to the topic, annually fulfills 200,000 information requests.
- TDF also offers professional development and management training programs and recognizes industry excellence through its safety awards.
- ARTBA’s legislative and regulatory advocacy—via the Traffic Safety Industry Division, the Transportation Safety Advisory Council, and Safety & Insurance Committee—helps ensure that Congress and federal agencies also keep safety top of mind.
There are many outstanding volunteer industry leaders, senior ARTBA staff and other outside expert consultants engaged in each of these three segments, and they all work to help underline one main point: safety is an ARTBA core competency. That’s why in the past year, we created the Transportation Construction Safety Center (www.artbasafetycenter.org) as a gateway to all these valuable programs and services. And it also explains why the Safety Certification for Transportation Project Professionals™ program recently earned international accreditation from the American National Standards Institute.
Many ARTBA members and firms are equally dedicated to the safety of their employees. You can read about a few of them in this annual “Safety Source.” Joined by other industry partners and public agencies, we have made great strides in reducing work zone injuries and fatalities. I suppose we could pause here to slap high-fives and pat ourselves on the back. But I’m not ready for that, not now, and not until injuries and fatalities are reduced to zero.
ARTBA’s vision for our industry is to reach the day when we don’t talk about “doing a job safely.” Rather, we look forward to when we simply say, “This is how the job is accomplished correctly.” There will be no special discussion about safety procedures because all aspects of project development and construction will incorporate the latest best practices to save lives and prevent injuries. Nobody will consider working any other way. It will simply be the only way we build.
As an advocacy group, ARTBA is relentlessly committed to pursuing this goal. We know you are with us!
Pete Ruane is president and CEO of ARTBA
###
October 19, 2018 | Articles
By ARTBA Chairman Matt Cummings &
ARTBA Foundation Chairman Paul Yarossi
You’ve been hearing a lot about safety on the highways. You should hear a great deal more. This is one subject which cannot be over emphasized… It is a grave national situation and one in which we all have a part. It is not an overstatement to say that your life may depend on it.”
Doesn’t this sound like a statement you might have heard recently from an ARTBA volunteer or senior staff? Think again.
It’s from a 1945 column in “Road Builder’s News” by then American Road Builders Association (ARBA) Engineer-Director Charles M. Upham. He explains further the association “for more than 20 years has stressed the need for greater safety on our highways and has worked to bring it about.”
Upham’s column makes clear at least three things. First, ARTBA’s leadership and commitment to improving roadway safety for motorists and workers has been a key part of the mission since the association’s 1902 founding. Second, as an advocacy organization, the quest for “better and safer roads” truly never ends. Third, all of the association’s safety initiatives wouldn’t happen without the intellectual and financial contributions, and personal involvement of its volunteer leaders.
Road safety topics and products were part of the program in 1909 when the American Road Makers (ARM) launched the “Road Show”—the forerunner to today’s CONEXPO-CONN/AGG. ARBA was a key participant in the 1940s-era “President’s Highway Safety Conferences,” hosted by former association member Harry S. Truman.
In the 1960s, the association supported establishment of the U.S. Department of Transportation and its oversight on safety matters. In 1979, industry leaders launched ARTBA’s Traffic Safety Industry Division to provide a home for manufacturers of roadway safety hardware, including barricades and barriers, signage, pavement markings, crash cushions, and other temporary traffic control devices. Creation of the Transportation Safety Advisory Council, and Safety & Insurance Committee soon followed.
In 1985, ARTBA hosted the first National Conference on Highway Work Zone Safety in partnership with FHWA and the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO). This led to a second conference in 1994, and out of its proceedings, emerged the idea of a National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse (www.workzonesafety.org) to serve as a centralized information resource aimed at improving motorist and worker safety in these sites.
The ARTBA Foundation won the FHWA contract to create such a facility in 1997. More than 20 years later, the Clearinghouse has become the world’s largest online resource on road construction safety, with helpful materials available in seven languages. Along the way, under contracts from FHWA and OSHA, the ARTBA Foundation has also provided safety training for more than 100,000 industry professionals.
The latest example of innovative leadership is found in the 2016 launch of the ARTBA Foundation’s Safety Certification for Transportation Project Professionals™ (SCTPP) program, which you will learn more about in the pages of this issue’s annual “Safety Source.”
This certification exam tests knowledge of industry established core competencies necessary to recognize and mitigate potential hazards to those in and around transportation project sites. Most notably, in early May, the SCTPP program earned the “gold standard” of professional credentialing with international accreditation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). It’s a milestone achievement that we believe will help propel the program to the next level.
Everyone in our industry owes a huge debt of gratitude to three driving forces—David Walls (Austin Industries), Ross Myers (Allan Myers) and David Zachry (Zachry Corporation)—for providing the leadership “muscle” to get the certification launched. We also salute the safety experts and C-suite executives from the following organizations who shaped the program’s scope and created the exam questions:
- Arch Insurance Group
- Ash Grove
- Astec Industries
- Barriere Construction
- Cargo Transporters
- CRH Americas
- Granite Construction
- HNTB
- Kiewit Infrastructure Group
- Laborers’ Health & Safety Fund of North America
- Laborers’ Training & Education Fund
- Lane Construction
- Liberty Mutual Insurance
- National Asphalt Pavement Association
- National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health
- Plastic Safety Systems
- Superior Construction
- Texas Department of Transportation
- The Center for Construction Research & Training
- The Vecellio Group
- Virginia Tech
- Wagman Heavy Civil
- WSP USA
We strongly encourage you to engage your firm’s key employees in the certification program. Bolstering the number of “safety certified eyes and ears” on transportation project sites is the industry’s collective responsibility. As Charles Upham reminds us, “this is one subject which cannot be over emphasized.”
Matt Cummings is executive vice president at AECOM. Paul Yarossi is executive vice president at HNTB.
###
October 19, 2018 | Articles
By T. Peter Ruane
The “death” of the Trump infrastructure package has been widely pronounced by the chattering class. The obituary writers have, however, missed the important reality that the underlying goals of the initiative are in fact moving forward.
A significant component of the administration’s infrastructure plan is to remove regulatory burdens and hurdles hindering the delivery of transportation and other infrastructure projects. This part of the president’s agenda is surging full steam ahead.
President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) last August calling for a two-year permitting deadline. The EO establishes a goal of identifying one federal agency to be the point of contact for each project’s regulatory approval instead of the dysfunctional agency hopping project sponsors currently suffer with the status quo.
The president also directed all federal agencies to establish task forces to identify regulations in need of modification or outright repeal.
These developments may not earn national headlines, but they are certainly meaningful to the transportation construction industry.
While the president has acknowledged his $1.5 trillion infrastructure investment plan—that relies primarily on non-federal resources and financing—is not likely to advance during 2018, Republicans and Democrats continue to demonstrate they support increasing infrastructure investment.
The FY 2018 appropriations process—finalized in March—delivered a total of $6.5 billion in federal transportation investment above already authorized amounts. The biggest winner of this boost was the federal highway program, which received $2.5 billion on top of the $900 million increase directed by the 2015 FAST Act. Airport infrastructure, public transportation and intermodal grants also received significant increases.
The House and Senate are currently working on FY 2019 transportation funding bills that continue this trend. The House is proposing an additional $4.25 billion in highway investment, and the Senate is pushing for $3.3 billion on top of the FAST Act’s $1 billion bump. Both proposals again would provide additional resources for transit, airport and other transportation improvements totaling almost $7 billion.
The boosts stem from a two-year budget agreement reached between bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate and President Trump in February that, among other things, calls for a minimum of $10 billion a year additionally in FY 2018 and 2019 for infrastructure investments.
Congress is also expected to approve a multi-year reauthorization of the federal aviation programs by the end of this year. Both the House and Senate proposals would authorize increased airport infrastructure investments.
The good news is that this is real growth in federal transportation investment, which has been largely absent since the 2009 stimulus law. The bad news is that without some additional action by Congress and the Trump administration, transportation funding levels will fall back to authorized levels in FY 2020.
Furthermore, 2020 is the last year the FAST Act’s general fund transfers will be supplementing existing Highway Trust Fund revenues. That means we are looking at one of three outcomes: highway and transit spending cuts of an estimated 40 percent; more budget gimmicks; or a real trust fund revenue fix.
The opportunity to secure additional transportation infrastructure investment this year, along with the pressing need to permanently resolve the Highway Trust Fund’s revenue deficit argues for continued pressure. Anyone who tells you nothing is going to happen in 2018 needs to know the real story and consequences of sitting out the coming months.
Pete Ruane is president of ARTBA.
October 19, 2018 | Articles
By T. Peter Ruane
ARTBA President and CEO
In May 1940, at the precipice of World War II, new British Prime Minister Winston Churchill faced one of the world’s most defining moments: exploring a negotiated treaty with Nazi Germany or standing firm to fight for the ideals and freedom of a nation.
As Hitler’s army rolled through Western Europe, the British public was unprepared for the threat of invasion as Churchill’s own party schemed to replace him. The perilous moment forced Churchill to rally his country and try to change the course of history.
In the climactic scene of the current hit movie “Darkest Hour,” Academy Award winner Gary Oldman superbly channels Churchill in one of his most famous speeches to the U.K. Parliament House of Commons, saying:
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
Churchill’s stirring oratory is no doubt one of his greatest legacies. And while this speech was obviously addressing much more dire and weighty issues, it conveys certain sentiments that can serve as inspiration and a rallying call today to the transportation design and construction industry.
2018 has the real potential to be the most consequential year in decades for our industry as the Trump administration and Congress are poised to consider a major transportation infrastructure package and a permanent revenue solution for the Highway Trust Fund. This is as “weighty” as domestic federal policy issues come, and the end result will have huge consequences for the nation’s future economic growth and competitiveness, as well as your market share.
There are at least three things you can do to help ensure our industry fights to win.
First, register to attend the May 14-16 ARTBA Federal Issues Program and Transportation Construction Coalition Fly-in, and bring others from your firm or agency with you. Having many hundreds of industry professionals fan out on Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress will be critical to helping them understand the need for action this year!
Second, take grassroots action at the appropriate times when the call comes from ARTBA. Our Phone2Action digital platform makes it easy to send an email, a tweet or Facebook post to your senators and representative. As importantly, be prepared to distribute any “Action Alerts” internally to your company’s employees and direct them to contact their elected officials.
Third, make a major financial contribution to support ARTBA’s Transportation Makes America Work (TMAW) program to help ensure our industry has the financial resources necessary to mount aggressive, legislative and regulatory affairs, litigation, advertising and other communications advocacy initiatives on the industry’s behalf. Nearly 60 firms and state chapter associations supported TMAW in 2017. Let’s push that number even higher this year.
This legislative battle will not likely be easy or quick, but that’s to be expected in the public policy arena. Surrender should never be in our industry’s DNA. When it comes to an infrastructure package and a permanent Highway Trust Fund fix, it’s our collective responsibility to keep fighting until the job is done right!
October 19, 2018 | Articles
By Dave Bauer
ARTBA Executive Vice President of Advocacy
If you think 2017 was one of the most unpredictable years in recent political history—and it was—2018 looks to be all that and more. The dynamics that made last year so contentious remain in play, and the November midterm election to decide control of Congress will add more sharp turns and speed to this national roller coaster ride.
Those dynamics also provide opportunities to pursue a permanent solution for the Highway Trust Fund’s (HTF) revenue shortfall and a robust infrastructure investment package.
Despite non-stop chaos and fever-pitch partisanship, Republicans in 2017 passed the first comprehensive reform of the U.S. tax code in 30 years. Many doubted such a lofty goal could be achieved by a divided party with narrow majorities in the House and Senate, but GOP congressional leaders had been laying the foundation for this measure for over three years.
Passing the tax law demonstrated major policy achievements are possible in the current environment. It also removed from legislative consideration two main issues the GOP promised to tackle—health care and taxes. With uncertainty about what comes next, President Donald Trump called on Congress to act on a historic infrastructure package during his recent State of the Union address.
Trump’s plan
The Trump administration wants to leverage $200 billion in direct federal investment into a total of $1.5 trillion in state, local and private sector infrastructure investments.
Half of the $200 billion will be dedicated to an initiative that is intended to incentivize new state and local investment by allowing the federal resources to count toward a maximum of 20 percent of the projects’ total cost. A quarter of the new federal funds would be dedicated to infrastructure improvements in rural areas. The proposal will also allot funds to support what the administration calls “transformative” projects, and grow a variety of federal credit assistance and financing programs.
Three key points to remember about the Trump proposal:
• the spending would be spread over 10 years;
• it is intended to support all manner of infrastructure improvements—not just transportation; and
• it is largely project specific as opposed to existing programs that provide states and local government recurring funds via a pre-determined formula.
It should also be noted the administration is promoting the removal of regulatory burdens faced by infrastructure projects as a key component of its proposal.
While the Trump administration’s infrastructure plan likely will not address the HTF’s structural revenue deficit, the two could be joined as the measure advances through the House and Senate. The combination of a mechanism that stabilizes and grows HTF revenue and the administration’s project-focused initiative could create a comprehensive package that benefits each state while providing separate resources and tools to advance all manner of infrastructure projects.
The president has changed the debate in Washington, D.C., from how to preserve the status quo to how best to address the nation’s growing infrastructure deficit. This debate is long overdue and it is incumbent on all of us to ensure Congress and the White House knows that a permanent HTF fix be the foundation of any infrastructure package.
ARTBA’s top priority in any infrastructure package has been and will continue to be a permanent revenue solution for the HTF that supports increased highway and public transportation investment.
