McCain voted against highway bill

Lest we forget, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive republican nominee for president, was one of only four senators who voted against SAFETEA-LU, the federal transportation-funding bill. At the time of its passage, he said on the floor of Congress: "This monstrosity of a conference report – which costs an astounding $286.4 billion – is both terrifying in its fiscal consequences and disappointing for the lack of fiscal discipline it represents." A major issue with him was more than $24 billion in special projects, which he labeled "pork." These special projects -- while some were out of line to be sure -- included many of the local pet projects that allow legislators to demonstrate to constituents that increased federal funding for infrastructure projects benefit them in their back yards. Read McCain's fiery denunciation of SAFETEA-LU here.Your comment?

Construction market weakens

The economic environment for construction worsened significantly over the last month and is almost certain to deteriorate further in the next few months, says an assessment by Reed Construction Data. Recession fears are the reason for the weaker business conditions. The economic environment has turned from positive to neutral in the largely public institutional and heavy construction markets.

Current trends are mixed in the heavy construction market. Starts and job-site spending have weakened slightly for transportation and communications facilities and power generation and distribution. However, these markets are still expanding rapidly as they always do just past the end of a long business expansion. Highway construction has unique problems stemming from the impending collapse of the Highway Trust Fund financing system. Receipts from a fixed-tax-per-gallon cannot keep up with rapidly rising project costs. It now appears that neither President Bush nor Congress will support supplemental funding for highways in an election year. Your comment?

NSSGA honors companies

NSSGA announced the winners of its National Stars of Excellence program for 2007. Member operations from Lafarge and Vulcan Materials Company received top honors. The seven winners, along with the Excellence in Community Relations Gold Award recipients, will be recognized on March 12 during an awards breakfast at NSSGA's annual convention in conjunction with CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas. Your comment?

Critical Highway Trust Fund meeting

According to NSSGA, the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) held a meeting Feb. 13 to discuss priorities for the year. It was agreed that the top priority must be to achieve passage of a fix to the projected shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund, which varies from between just over $1 billion to as much as $4 billion. The TCC will meet with congressional leaders and finance committee leaders to determine the course ahead. Also, the coalition will meet shortly to develop principles for reauthorization of the nation's surface transportation reauthorization. NSSGA will actively participate in the TCC meetings to ensure that aggregate-industry interests are included. Your comment?

USGS under the knife?

Not to be lost in President Bush's federal budget fiasco Is a proposal to cut the geology division of the USGS drastically. The Mineral Resource Program, which includes the Minerals Information Team that produces quarterly aggregates-production reports, is slated to be halved, seeing its funding reduced $25.4 million for a total request of $26.3 million. The budget proposal notes that the "USGS will continue selected minerals surveys and studies that are relevant to ongoing departmental land-management requirements." This blog goes on record as stating that any attempt to eliminate, or even downsize, the critical work performed on behalf of the industry by USGS, is shortsighted and wrong. Your comment?

Bush shortchanges infrastructure

President Bush -- who ran for office on a platform that included smaller government -- secured a dubious place in history as the first president to submit to Congress a $3 trillion budget. Bush again proposed increasing funds for defense and homeland security, while the rest of the budget for FY '09 keeps all other departments to less than a one percent growth, with many receiving a budget reduction. The Department of Transportation took a multi-billion hit as the budget was reduced 3.1 percent, a $2.13 billion cut, to $68.2 billion. The budget provides the Federal Highway Administration $39.4 billion, almost $2 billion less than the funding level of $41.2 billion prescribed for 2009 by SAFETEA-LU. According to NSSGA, the reason given for the cut is that last year Congress overspent the amount agreed to in SAFETEA-LU when it allocated $1 billion for bridge repairs in the final spending bill of FY '08. The administration also proposes a $3.15 billion rescission of state highway contract authority and additional funds from earmarks in prior transportation authorization bills. Reasoning that if those projects have not secured at least 10 percent of the total needed for completion over the past 10 years, the money would be better spent elsewhere. Of that total, $175 million is reallocated to the administration's new congestion relief initiative. Another $8.593 billion rescission in contract authority is mandated on Sept. 30, 2009, by SAFETEA-LU (this was done to keep the total amount to the $256 billion agreed to by Congress) unless the highway bill is reauthorized first. Your comment?

Fatality #2

On January 25, 2008, a 36-year-old mechanic with 1½ years experience was fatally injured at a lime operation. According to MSHA, he victim was shoveling spillage at the bottom of a bucket elevator while coworkers performed maintenance at the top of the bucket elevator. A 38-in. pry bar fell from the platform around the top of the bucket elevator and struck him. Your comment?

Fatality #1

According to MSHA, On January 21, a 58-year-old contractor truck driver with 3½ years experience was fatally injured at a cement operation. He was found on the ground behind the rear tires of a bulk cement truck that was located at a truck access rack. Truck drivers used this facility to access the hatches on the top of the trucks. Although there were no eyewitnesses, the victim's injuries were consistent with a fall from an elevated location. Your comment?