Daily News Briefs, August 9, 2023

Legal Battle For Control Of Miami-Dade Tollways Takes Another Turn

Miami Today reports, “In the latest turn in a long drive to control five Miami-Dade toll roads,” a Florida circuit court judge this week ordered the Bank of America to give control of accounts and funds maintained by the county-backed Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) to its would-be successor, the state-backed Greater Miami Expressway Agency (GMX). The judge held that MDX was dissolved as a matter of state law and replaced by GMX. MDX remains in operation today and responded to the new ruling by stating it plans to seek injunctive relief in another court. The article notes that GMX and Florida DOT have previously failed to obtain court orders to enforce a 2019 law that purports to dissolve MDX. In fact, a separate case still pending in another judicial district challenges a judgment against GMX that was based on the court’s ruling that the 2019 law was flawed.

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US Labor Department Releases Updated Davis-Bacon Regulations

The US Department of Labor on Tuesday announced its final rule updating Davis-Bacon and Related Acts (DBRA) regulations regarding prevailing wages and labor standards for federal and federally assisted construction and repair projects. The rulemaking, which coincides with a significant increase in federal government infrastructure investment, will “apply to an estimated tens of billions of dollars in federal and federally assisted construction spending each year and provide minimum wage rates for hundreds of thousands of U.S. construction workers.” Changes adopted as part of the rules revision include reinstating the definition of “prevailing wage” that was in effect until 1983, periodically updating prevailing wage rates, allowing more localized wage determinations under certain criteria, setting supplemental rates for certain job classifications, modernizing DBRA’s regulatory language, and “(s)trengthening worker protections and enforcement, including debarment and anti-retaliation provisions.” The revised regulations will take effect 60 days after the final rule is published in the Federal Register.

Maryland Matters reports on public remarks Vice President Kamala Harris made yesterday about the regulatory changes.

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Golden Gate Bridge's Incomplete Suicide Barrier May Already Be Deterring Jumps

The San Francisco Standard reports, the Golden Gate Bridge suicide prevention barrier may be having a deterrent effect even though it’s only 75 percent complete. “There have been five confirmed suicide jumps from the bridge this year through June, compared with 22 from all of last year, [according to a monitoring organization]. . . . Between 2000 and 2019, the bridge averaged between 30 and 40 suicides per year.” The barrier, a stainless steel net 20 feet below the bridge’s walkways, was originally estimated to cost $76 million but is now pegged at $217 million — two-thirds of which is federally funded, with the remaining third coming from tolls and an appropriation from the Mental Health Services Act. According to Kevin Hines, who survived a Golden Gate Bridge suicide attempt in 2000, even an incomplete barrier is effective because it symbolizes both a deterrent and a message that society cares. “All around the world, where they have put barriers — on bridges, buildings, tall structures and railways — suicides have dropped,” Hines said. He added that even overall suicide rates have dropped in metropolitan counties where suicide barriers are installed on bridges.

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

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