Daily News Briefs, October 6, 2023

US Senate Bill Proposes One-Time EV Fee To Boost Highway Trust Fund

Transport Topics reports, US Senator Deb Fishcher (R-NE) has sponsored a bill to make electric vehicle (EV) owners partially responsible for bankrolling the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). Currently, EV owners don’t contribute to the fund, whose primary revenue source is federal gas and diesel taxes that haven’t increased in 30 years. Co-sponsored by Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), S.2882 (the “Stop EV Freeloading Act”) would impose a $1,000 fee on EV owners at the point of sale. The bill’s underlying concept is one of practicality and fairness — that EV owners whose cars contribute to wear and tear on the nation’s roads and bridges should chip in for their maintenance. Quotes in the article also frame it as a political counterpoint to the Biden administration’s infrastructure policy promoting EV adoption. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), the National League of Cities and the American Society of Civil Engineers have expressed support for the measure.

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Infrastructure To Curtail Vehicle-Wildlife Collisions In US West Is Focus Of New Study

Deseret News reports on a recent study of “ideal locations” for highway infrastructure investment to alleviate the problem of wildlife-vehicle collisions in the western US. One of the co-authors, a “road ecologist” at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, a Montana-based non-profit, says the research team’s findings are based on an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to identifying places “where building a wildlife crossing structure might address conservation needs and cost-savings, in addition to the standard focus on human safety. Additionally, [the study authors] looked across the West and at states individually to help provide a regional context.” According to the newspaper, vehicle collisions with wildlife in 11 states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming) cost $1.6 billion each year. The incidents result in hundreds of human deaths, tens of thousands of human injuries and the destruction of more than one  million large mammals. Utah’s experience with collisions and collision avoidance efforts is one focus of the article.

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Volpe Center Schedules Webinar Series On Innovative Procurement, Partnerships and Financing

Registration is open for another in the USDOT Volpe Center’s thought leadership series on best practices for delivery of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act projects. Next Thursday afternoon, October 12, the center will present the first part of a webinar entitled Accelerating Project Delivery through Innovative Procurement, Partnerships, and Financing Methods. Speakers will be Adie Tomer, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who leads a team focused on the relationship between infrastructure policy and the overall economy; Maria Lehman, an experienced leader in the public and private sectors of the transportation industry who is current president of the American Society of Civil Engineers; and Dr. Morteza Farajian, chief of USDOT’s Build America Bureau and former head of Virginia DOT’s P3 Office.

Scheduled presenters for the webinar’s second part, on Thursday afternoon, October 26, are Susan Shaw, Virginia DOT’s Megaprojects Director; Michigan DOT Director Brad Wieferich; and Mike Johnson, Senior Vice President–Infrastructure Market & Strategy at Kiewit Corporation.

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These are just some of the toll industry developments TRN is following.

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