FHWA Announces $635 Million In Grants To Continue Expanding EV Charging and Refueling Infrastructure

FHWA today announced the award of $635 million in grants “to continue building out electric vehicle (EV) charging and alternative fueling infrastructure.” The funding, made possible by USDOT’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program and a 10 percent set-aside from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program grants, will fund “49 projects that will deploy more than 11,500 EV charging ports and hydrogen and natural gas fueling infrastructure along corridors and in communities across 27 States, four Federally Recognized Tribes, and the District of Columbia.” (TRN inserted a link in quoted text.)

The announcement recaps progress made in expanding public EV charging capacity since the 2021 enactment of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). It notes the Biden administration “set a goal of building out 500,000 publicly available EV chargers by 2030 – and we are on track to achieve that goal early. As of today, there are more than 206,000 publicly available EV charging ports with 38,000 new public chargers turned on in 2024 thanks to private sector investment, and a combination of direct federal funding, federal tax incentives, and state and local funding.”

Strike Averted: Longshoremen And East Coast And Gulf Port Operators Reach A Deal

The terms remain undisclosed at this time, but the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the US Maritime Alliance (USMX) have reached a tentative deal for a new six-year contract, CBS News reports. The extension of their current agreement, which was set to expire on January 15, was agreed to after a three-day October walkout.

The workers’ concerns about being displaced by automation has been a sticking point in negotiations, but the two parties said in a joint statement that their new agreement allows for both modernizing ports and creating jobs. The article also provides high-level detail on wages and the types of technology the most advanced US ports currently utilize.

Southern California Wildfires Disrupt Office Operations For Metro ExpressLanes

As more dire consequences of the wildfires ravaging Southern California continue to emerge, LA Metro, operator of tolled express lanes in Los Angeles County, issued an alert that its mail operations are disrupted. The agency states there will be a delay in both receiving and processing mailed payments but they’ll be posted to customers’ accounts as soon as practical.

Ohio DOT Promotes Tech Tools For Real-Time Winter Traffic Updates

The department is promoting its website, ohgo.com, where drivers can find real-time traffic updates, hazard alerts, and estimated travel times to specific destinations, WTOV reports. A spokesperson from ODOT’s District 11 also notes that the navigation app Waze, known for disseminating crowdsourced information, is now pulling data from ODOT plow trucks to keep other drivers informed of where and when plowing is occurring.

Already this winter, 13 plow trucks have been struck by vehicles sharing the road — compared to 22 in all of last winter.

WCMH provides more detail about ODOT’s partnership with Waze. “In a short video, the agency explained that most of ODOT’s fleet has been equipped with technology that updates plow locations every five minutes on Waze and waze.com.”