INDIANAPOLIS | The state’s transportation agency wants the Gary
construction company that built the now-closed Martin Luther King
Drive Bridge over the Borman Expressway to pay to demolish and
replace the cracked structure.

The Indiana Department of Transportation sued Superior
Construction Co. on Wednesday in Marion County alleging Superior’s
work on the bridge was substandard.

The state contends Superior did not leave temporary supports in
place long enough for the concrete bridge deck to reach its
required strength, leading to cracking in the bridge deck and
support beams which required INDOT to close the bridge on May 19,
2010.

INDOT also claims the bridge’s concrete beams were cast
improperly by a Superior supplier causing additional structural
defects.

A representative of Superior Construction Co. did not return
several telephone messages seeking comment.

The 272.5-foot long bridge opened to traffic on Aug. 23, 2004,
and had an expected lifespan of 20 years for the bridge deck and 75
years for the superstructure, according to INDOT.

The lawsuit does not seek a specific monetary award from
Superior, but based on the bridge’s original cost and the estimated
cost to demolish and rebuild it, Superior could have to pay more
than $3 million if the state prevails.

“All along INDOT has maintained that taxpayers shouldn’t have to
pay twice for a quality bridge,” INDOT Chief Operations Officer
Troy Woodruff said. “The state hoped to avoid litigation, but the
efforts to resolve the claim through mediation with Superior and
its subcontractors and suppliers were unsuccessful.”

The construction contract to rebuild the bridge is slated to be
awarded in the next two months and the new bridge is scheduled to
open in spring 2012.

That reopening can’t come soon enough for the people of Gary,
said Mayor Rudy Clay.

“Gary motorists have been inconvenienced for more than a year,”
Clay said. “I thank INDOT for their support and their commitment to
the project.”

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/5Xti4a_xO8c/article_bf068515-e744-5041-b614-a3afaa2ae0c0.html

Black and Latino drivers pulled over in Illinois traffic stops
last year were more likely to end up with a ticket and have their
vehicle searched than their white counterparts, according to a new
Transportation Department study.

Minority drivers also were involved in traffic stops at a higher
rate than their share of the state population would suggest, even
though illegal contraband was more likely to be found in vehicles
being driven by whites.

The average length of a traffic stop was the same for all races:
10 minutes.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday that the study
supports its request for a federal civil rights investigation of
the way Illinois State Police handles driver searches. It also
called on state leaders to address the issue in all police
departments.

“It is time for the political leadership in Illinois to act and
end this practice on our highways and roads across the state,” said
Harvey Grossman, legal director for the ACLU of Illinois.

State police spokeswoman Monique Bond said the agency will study
the new statistics as part of an internal review that was launched
after the ACLU filed a federal complaint last month. She said it
would be weeks before the review is finished. The state police have
previously denied any bias.

The new study is the latest annual review of traffic stops by
virtually all police departments in Illinois. The 2.4 million stops
were analyzed by the Center for Law and Justice at the University
of Illinois at Chicago.

Minority drivers accounted for 12 percent more traffic stops
than would be expected based just on their share of Illinois’
population.

The study found that 55 percent of white drivers got tickets
after being pulled over, compared to 65 percent of Hispanic drivers
and 62 percent of black drivers.

When police asked permission to search a driver’s car without
probable cause _ something that is rare for all racial categories _
it was more likely to be a minority driver. Police used “consent
searches” for 0.6 percent of white drivers, compared to 1.4 percent
of black drivers and 1.3 percent of Hispanics.

Police were more likely to find

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/_ccE_8U042U/article_abf029b1-a1c7-53e2-b425-dd850fdf7a6e.html

MiamiHerald.com/columnists

The original idea, back before we went broke, had to do with safety. Drivers were smashing through intersections as if red lights were no more than suggestions, causing mayhem, lending a sense of anarchy to South Florida roadways.

Cameras were conceived as labor-saving cures for the epidemic of red-light running. The safety angle seems to have worked out, anyway. In February, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a study conducted in 14 cities, all with populations over 200,000, concluding that red light cameras have reduced the rate of fatal crashes caused by red-light runners by 24 percent .

But maybe red light cameras worked too well. City and counties that installed red light cameras at their most dangerous intersections discovered that drivers caught on. Fewer ran red lights. Which meant fewer paid those $158 fines.

Hillsborough County, for example, set cameras at 10 busy intersections a little over 18 months ago. In the first nine months, the county took in $1.3 million from red light runner citations. In the second nine months, the total had fallen to $637,000. A police spokesman told the Tampa Tribune that the county drivers, aware of the cameras, no longer ignored the lights so blatantly. The number of collisions at those same intersections fell. Cops called this a success. Accountants may not have been so pleased.

The cities of Miami and Hollywood both prepared 2011 budgets based on wildly optimistic (if one can use the term “optimistic” in anticipation of mass stupidity) income estimates from red light cameras. Hollywood budgeted $1.8 million from red light citations. Miami figured on $8 million. Neither city counted on drivers wising up. Instead, Hollywood will take in about $500,000 from cameras. Miami, just $3 million.

The number of red light runner citations caught by cameras in Fort Lauderdale fell from 13 a day to five. So did the city’s anticipated revenue.

Suddenly, city and county officials, bereft of their traffic ticket windfalls, sound less enthused about cameras. As if their hopes for balanced budgets had been

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/97_uGZ_cdwA/getting-wise-to-red-light-cameras.html

The state’s transportation system is the latest fiscal casualty as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the legislature scramble to replace savings that were supposed to come from employee givebacks.

Originally poised to receive more than $78 million in additional aid from the General Fund this fiscal year, the Special Transportation Fund lost that fiscal boost shortly before the new budget year began on July 1.

“Would we have liked to see that money stay there? Absolutely,” said Rep. Tony Guerrera, D-Rocky Hill, co-chairman of the legislature’s Transportation Committee. “Would it have kick-started a lot more transportation projects? Absolutely. Unfortunately these are the drawbacks we face when concessions don’t get ratified.”

Since the 2005 General Assembly and then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell dramatically increased the state’s wholesale fuel tax, transportation advocates have complained that less than 41 percent of the $1.84 billion revenues raised from that levy over the last six fiscal years have been dedicated to transportation programs.

Besides covering operating costs for the Transportation and Motor Vehicles departments, the fund also covers the annual debt service on most major transportation improvement projects.

During last fall’s gubernatorial campaign, Malloy also decried the low priority transportation has received, arguing that unless Connecticut addressed its clogged highway system, particularly in its southwestern corner, its prospects for new economic growth would be severely limited.

The governor and his fellow Democrats in the legislature’s majority appeared poised to reverse the situation in first budget they adopted for the 2011-12 fiscal year, a $19.8 billion package approved in early May.

That plan included a $1.3 billion transportation fund, up 11.5 percent from the prior year. More importantly, Malloy and lawmakers increased the fund’s share of revenues from the wholesale fuel tax – the only fuel levy that splits its resources between transportation and non-transportation programs – by nearly $62 million, up to $226.9 million.

And an annual transfer of revenues from the General Fund to the transportation system – established in 2009 to keep the latter out of deficit – was increased by another $16.5 million.

Then everything changed.

That original budget depended on state employees providing concessions worth $1 billion in

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/J4UJQ9KmnXk/transportation-fund-reforms-removed-after-concession-deal-rejected

DENVER — Time is running out for the public to comment on Colorado`s latest proposal for managing roadless forests, with some groups saying former proposals were better.

The latest Colorado proposal carves out exceptions to a federal roadless rule adopted in 2001, just before then-President Bill Clinton left office, that prohibits commercial logging, mining and other development on about 58 million acres of national forest in 38 states and Puerto Rico.

Colorado started developing its own rule for managing roughly 4.2 million acres of roadless forest in the state after court challenges left the fate of the federal policy in doubt.

The exceptions in the latest Colorado proposal, developed by state and federal officials, allow for potential ski resort expansions, methane venting near three coal mines, and thinning of forests to reduce wildfire threats. It also proposes offering high protection than what`s offered under the Clinton-era rule for about 560,000 acres, or roughly 875 square miles.

A 90-day public comment period on the proposal ends Thursday. So far, the U.S. Forest Service says it has received about 34,000 comments, with many coming in as form letters.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said he would like to make a final decision on the rule this year.

The group Club 20, which lobbies on behalf of western Colorado communities, has urged federal officials to go back to a plan submitted by former Gov. Bill Ritter in 2008 that didn`t suggest higher, “upper tier” protection for as much land as the current proposal.

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/_gGU8bhvi-g/ci_18466374

The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a 3rd District Court decision that had ordered the Utah Department of Transportation to pay $774,000 to a contractor who alleged breach of contract on an Interstate 215 project in 2003.

The Supreme Court ruled that UDOT’s contract with Mountain Valley Contractors allowed it to alter the I-215 project. It also ruled that Mountain Valley had waived any right to additional compensation because of the “alleged change” because it did not comply with the contract’s notice procedures.

Mountain Valley and its subcontractor, Southwest Asphalt Paving, had contended that they bid the project intending to use less-expensive “ribbon paving,” which they said was allowed by the contract.

UDOT, however, would not permit that in areas where it would create in a greater-than-two-inch vertical grade separation between lanes during construction, and required more expensive “block paving” on a significant portion of the project.

Lee Davidson

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/Bd-NR8qlcVY/215-alleged-allowed-contract.html.csp

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Tuesday that will allow police to stop and ticket drivers they see texting on the road, even when that’s the only apparent violation.

Previously, police could only cite a driver for the traffic violation of distracted driving if they were stopped primarily for another offense, such as speeding.

The bill signed Tuesday in Manhattan specifically bans texting on hand-held and fixed phones and other devices and includes composing, sending, reading, browsing, saving or retrieving electronic data such as email, text messages and Web pages.

Cuomo said he will use state regulations to make a conviction worth three points — instead of the current two — for using hand-held cellphones and similar devices while driving. Drivers will face up to a $150 fine for texting while driving.

— Associated Press

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/hXPETtgRJYo/Cuomo-OKs-texting-driving-bill-1463210.php

Opinion »

How Can the Asylum System Be Fixed?

Despite fraud and abuse, most asylum claims are approved. Why is this?

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/nc1byG6ReF0/police-may-stop-drivers-for-texting-under-bill-signed-by-cuomo.html

AP Photo/Mel EvansIn a survey, customers gave mediocre ratings to many of NJ Transit’s train services, giving the lowest rating to communication. Overall, the train service scored an “average” rating.

Remember the teacher’s muffled voice in those old “Charlie Brown” holiday specials?

“Womwomwomwomwom.”

That’s what the announcements sound like for Ambrish Agarwal and other commuters who ride NJ Transit trains.

“Have you ever tried to hear any of the announcements?” asked Agarwal, a financial technology professional who commutes daily from Hamilton to Newark. “I don’t even know who they are talking to. I just hear a lot of loud noise. Their announcements have always been, across the board, completely inaudible.”

The results of an NJ Transit customer satisfaction survey are back, and communication — or lack thereof — is a low point for many rail commuters.

On a scale of zero (unacceptable) to 10 (excellent), rail customers gave NJ Transit a 3.4 satisfaction rating for “Handling of Service Disruptions;” a 3.8 for “Announcements/Information during Service Disruptions” and 4.4 for “PA/General Announcements.”

It is the first time NJ Transit has published results of a customer satisfaction survey, which the agency’s executive director, Jim Weinstein, earlier admitted would show “our warts.”

Overall, rail scored a 4.5, the lowest of NJ Transit’s five general categories. The Access Link service for the disabled got a score of 7.5; light rail received a 6.5; bus got a 5.5 and the transit system as a whole scored a 5.2, with 5.0 being the threshold for “Acceptable.”

“We want to be better than simply ‘acceptable,’ and are committed to moving the needle to that end,” Weinstein said.

Perhaps not surprisingly, after a year in which NJ Transit hiked train fares 25 percent, rail customers gave a satisfaction rating of just 3.4 percent for “Fares.” Yet rail customers gave their highest score — 7.0 — to “Payment Options.”

Despite the so-so marks overall, about two-thirds of the 19,000 customers surveyed online and in the field this spring agreed they would be willing to recommend NJ Transit to a friend or relative,

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/gdZPKNj2b7I/nj_transit_scores_low_on_commu.html

MANCHESTER — New Hampshire State Turnpike Authority will receive a $56,882 payment from JPMorgan Chase Co. as part of a settlement with federal regulators.

JP Morgan reached agreements last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), IRS, Justice Department, Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y., and a group of state Attorneys General to resolve allegations of bid rigging on JP Morgan’s former municipal derivatives desk.

JP Morgan said the settlement covers conduct in or prior to 2006 and the municipal derivatives desk was discontinued in September 2008.

Under the settlements, JPMorgan Chase will pay a total of $211.2 million in disgorgement, or return of ill-gotten gains, and penalties, with $129.7 million of those funds eligible for distribution to municipalities and other tax-exempt issuers.

In its agreement with the OCC, JP Morgan agreed to pay $13 million to 48 municipalities and nonprofits around the country.

N.H. State Treasure Catherine Provencher said the $56,882 payment to New Hampshire derives from a 2002 amendment to a Debt Service Forward Supply Agreement between the Turnpike system and JPMorgan.

The Turnpike System originally entered into the Debt Service Forward Supply Agreement in 1995 with Chemical Bank, which later became JP Morgan Chase.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said last week JP Morgan employees fraudulently rigged at least 93 municipal bond reinvestment transactions in 31 states, generating millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.

Employees involved in the misconduct concealed their activities from management, JP Morgan said in a statement July 7.

“The firm’s policies— both now and during the period in question — expressly prohibit the conduct that gave rise to these proceedings,” JP Morgan said.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also imposed a civil money penalty of $22 million against JPMorgan Chase N.A., Columbus, Ohio.

JPMorgan Chase Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a global financial services firm with assets of $2.2 trillion and operations in more than 60 countries.

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On the Net:

occ.treas.gov

jpmorgan.com

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Write to dpaiste@unionleader.com

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/aTu69d5_Kxw/707129967