Public

BBC News Releases Documentary On Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

Posted on

Today, BBC News announced the release of a documentary that “reveals new details” about the March collapse of the Maryland Transportation Authority’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Currently, the program itself is viewable exclusively on BBC iPlayer, which is not available to users outside the UK. However, the news article includes an overview of the documentary’s findings.

Among other things, BBC reports:

  • A loose cable and a lack of fuel pressure to generators may have disrupted the power supply of MV Dali and caused the blackouts that prevented the vessel from avoiding its collision with the bridge.
  • “Previously unseen bodycam footage taken after the collapse shows first responders and officials struggling to come to grips with the enormity of what they faced in the confusing hours after the crash.”
  • Newly obtained video footage reveals the scale of infrastructure damage and the complex and dangerous nature of the debris cleanup mission.

UCLA Project Will Expand Transit Fleet Inductive And Wireless Charging

Posted on

“Government Technology” reports, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is engaged in two projects to facilitate electric bus charging. It is installing sub-surface inductive charging equipment over about a mile of campus roads and building a new transit hub where buses can charge up without the need for electric cables and wires. The new facilities are scheduled to be operational by 2028, when Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympic Games.

“The project is ultimately viewed as serving more than just buses from the UCLA transit fleet. More than a half-dozen transit operators from Southern California interact with the UCLA campus, opening up an opportunity for these vehicles to top off their charge while visiting the campus. ‘We are hoping that it won’t just be our buses that are able to use these inductive chargers in the future,’” said Clinton Bench, a university fleet and transit manager.

UCLA received $19.85 million in project grant funding from the California State Transportation Agency’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. The grant was obtained in collaboration with CALSTART — a clean transportation nonprofit — and technology provider Electreon. Electron also is working with Michigan DOT to develop an inductive charging pilot on a one-mile stretch of road in Detroit.

A subsequent project phase would extend inductive charging infrastructure beyond the campus.

Op-Ed: Pennsylvania Turnpike’s New ORT System Will Enhance Access, Mobility And Safety

Posted on

The benefits of the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s network-wide transition to barrier-free, open-road tolling (ORT) are manifested in a proposed interchange project, writes turnpike chief executive Mark Compton in a TribLIVE op ed column. The SR 130 interchange in suburban Pittsburgh will be built after the collection system transition makes “costly, concrete-laden toll plazas and tollbooth choke points” obsolete. With toll-reading equipment mounted on roadway-spanning gantries, new connections like SR 130 are feasible,” Compton notes. Increased direct access to the turnpike often stimulates economic activity, as well as improving local mobility.

Compton observes that  the “new configuration [also] brings added safety benefits, on and off our system. Data collected at three locations that previously implemented ORT” — the Delaware River Bridge, the Warrendale interchange, and the Gateway in Lawrence County — “show significant crash rate reductions.”

The turnpike commission recently showcased preliminary designs for the SR 130 interchange at a public meeting.

A new ORT system will go live on January 5 on the turnpike’s eastern segment and Northeast Extension. Western interchanges will convert to ORT by 2027. Demolition and removal of obsolete toll plazas begins next year.

Port Authority’s George Washington Bridge Restoration Work Advances

Posted on

NorthJersey.com reports, “Efforts to replace all 592 steel suspender ropes that support the roadway on the George Washington Bridge are now 95% finished, and just 24 of the ropes are left to be replaced,” according to a Monday update issued by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). “The rope replacement, which should be completed by the end of 2026, is part of an 11-project, $2 billion effort called Restoring the George that began in 2016.” (TRN inserted a link in quoted text.)

The article includes updates on the status of other restoration work, including demolition of the obsolete toll plaza (scheduled for completion in 2025) and ongoing replacement of the bridge’s pedestrian and bicycle paths.

Pennsylvania’s Weekend I-90 Closure Seriously Disrupted New York Thruway Traffic

Posted on

In the midst of heavy lake-effect snowfall in northern Pennsylvania and western New York over the weekend, Pennsylvania highway officials closed I-90 between Erie and the New York border without alerting New York, WBKW reports. Consequently, the New York State Thruway Authority abruptly closed the westbound lanes of its westernmost portion of I-90 and diverted all traffic to an exit at Ripley. Complications from that maneuver compounded when a tractor-trailer jackknifed at the exit, ultimately leading the Thruway to push its westbound closure further east, first to Dunkirk and then to Hamburg. With so much traffic diverted to State Routes 5 and 20 after the Dunkirk closure, local roads inundated with as much snow as the Thruway became heavily congested.

In a separate article, WBKW interviews a tow-truck driver who said the near-constant service calls from stranded vehicles depleted his company’s resources. “‘[By Sunday night] our guys, including myself, were so tired and exhausted that we basically called AAA and let everybody know that we were out of service at 10:00 p.m. Sunday night until 8:00 a.m. Monday morning,’” said Jim Ellman, the owner of Ellman’s Garage in Dunkirk.