A former senior state transportation official said Tuesday the Obama administration must include financing proposals in any federal transportation policy to make the goals credible.

“The policy needs to be stated, and it needs to be stated how it’s going to be funded,” said Pete K. Rahn, senior vice president of the Kansas City-based engineering firm HNTB.  “They’ve annunciated a policy.  You can state anything you want to do, but if you’re not going to talk about how you’re going to pay for it, it’s not a good plan.”

Transportation industry officials expect the Department of Transportation will soon issue its overall strategy, along with principles to guide Congress in drafting a comprehensive transportation bill.

The current law guiding transportation spending, the latest stop-gap measure for a longer-term highway bill that ran out two years ago, will expire on Dec. 31.  Congress will have to extend the law before it adjourns, Rahn said, but he doubts if lawmakers will pass a new spending bill.

“Clearly this Congress is going to have to deal with the issue of either extension or passage. Unless Congress acts early, it’s going to create a lot of uncertainty in the states,” Rahn said.  He was president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in 2007 and 2008.

Rahn said state transportation departments are in dire straits. Transportation funds are being raided to support other state services.  They don’t have enough money to keep highways in adequate repair, and some can barely pull together the 20 percent in state matching funds to qualify for federal highway funds.

The lack of a transportation spending bill causes uncertainty among states, Rahn said.  Extension of the law in December will throw off the normal contract-letting cycle in which contractors win bids in November and December to prepare for the start of construction in the spring.

Rahn said that the transportation system is not keeping up with the growth in population, and the growth of traffic is stifling the existing infrastructure. He said Interstate 70, which traverses the center of Missouri has become a continuous flow of truck traffic.

The leaders of the trade associations that represent 150 million tons a year of asphalt recycling signed a cooperative agreement aimed at doubling the rate of reuse/recycling of asphalt pavements within five years.  Principal signatories to the agreement were the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) and the Asphalt Recycling and Reclaiming Association (ARRA).  Letters of support were provided by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  FHWA officials stated that the initiative is in keeping with the US Department of Transportation’s recently unveiled Official Policy on Recycling.  Under the agreement, NAPA and ARRA pledge to support each other’s efforts to deal with common challenges and build on each other’s strengths regarding asphalt recycling issues.

“Asphalt pavement is America’s most recycled material,” said Mike Acott, President of NAPA.  “There are more than 18 billion tons of asphalt pavements already in place on the roads, streets, and highways of this country.  These same roads that Americans use every day are also a resource that future generations can use.  Our goal is to increase the rate of recycling even further.”

“Reclaiming and recycling asphalt roads brings America the best possible pavements while conserving precious natural resources,” said Mike Krissoff, Executive Director of ARRA.  “The members of both ARRA and NAPA are proud of the industry’s long track record of delivering quality and value.”

The staff of the Air Resources Board (ARB) made some changes to the upcoming series of 5 statewide workshops pertaining to the Regulation for In-Use Off-Road Diesel Fueled Fleets (off-road regulation), the In-Use Heavy-Duty Diesel-Fueled Vehicles Regulation (truck and bus regulation), and the In-Use On-Road Diesel-Fueled Heavy-Duty Drayage Trucks Regulation (drayage truck regulation).

The Staff postponed the Fresno workshop until Friday, September 3, 2010.  The time and locations of the workshop, including videoconferencing with Bakersfield and Modesto, remain unchanged.  As noted in last week’s newsletter, the other workshops remain in place:

At all of the workshops,  ARB staff will provide an update on the changes to the emissions inventories underlying the off-road regulation, the truck and bus regulation and the drayage truck regulation as originally planned.  ARB staff reportedly needs additional time to evaluate and explore appropriate regulatory proposals and consider their economic impact on affected stakeholders, determine the effect of any changes on emissions over the next decade, and determine how to best protect public health in light of the health impacts of fine particle pollution.  Once this work is complete, ARB staff will schedule additional workshops regarding the modified proposals to gather stakeholder feedback and comments on the proposed amendments.