via YPTransportation.org

This position is located in the Innovative Program Delivery office (HIN), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Washington, D.C. The Financial Analyst will serve as a member of the TIFIA Joint Program Office (JPO), one of five teams within HIN. The ideal candidate for this position will bring specialized experience in budget and accounting to apply the principles of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (FCRA), as interpreted through guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to manage the TIFIA program funds appropriated by Congress. Working with the budget and accounting staff from the FHWA and the Office of the Secretary, as well as outside technical advisors, you will prepare TIFIA’s annual budget submission, calculate the subsidy cost of each TIFIA transaction, prepare apportionments, collect payments from applicants and borrowers, and ensure that all financial events are recorded properly in the program accounts. This position is being filled at the GS-11, 12 or 13 level and is located in Washington, DC. Salary range is $62,467.00 to $115,742.00 per year, based upon qualifications.

This Financial Analyst vacancy announcement can be viewed at: FHWA.HIN-2013-0002: DEU-Open to all US Citizenshttps://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/331226200 and

FHWA.HIN-2013-0004: Government Employees only https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/331227500.

In order to be considered, please follow specific application procedures on the announcements.

Application Cut-off: Given our continuing need for professionals in this field, we will routinely review applications and refer the top candidates for potential interviews multiple times during the open period of the announcement. The first cutoff for applications is close of business November 26, 2012, 2nd cut-off is December 26, 2012 and final review occurring after January 24, 2013 (closing date).

Update via ITS America

House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., will introduce the committee’s multi-year surface transportation reauthorization proposal tomorrow — Thursday, July 7, at 11 a.m. Eastern time. According to Chairman Mica, the bill will not only reauthorize and reform the nation’s federal highway, transit and highway safety programs, but will also make significant improvements to passenger and freight rail programs and maritime transportation policy. “This fiscally responsible, multi-modal initiative would streamline federal programs, cut red tape, better leverage our federal resources, make wise investments in our infrastructure and create needed jobs for Americans,” according to the Chairman. The rollout event is scheduled to last approximately 90 minutes.  Live video of the event will also be available at www.transportation.house.gov by clicking the “Live Webcasts” link.

Streetsblog Capitol Hill reports that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, wants transportation reauthorization bill passed soon in order to avoid the loss of 600,000 jobs in the construction and transit industries. She issued a call to action this morning, pushing for a new bill before the current extension of SAFETEA-LU expires on September 30.   Though she had initially pushed for a six-year bill, Boxer made it official that the EPW proposal is for a two-year bill that will only cover current funding levels plus inflation—about $109 billion over the two years.

At today’s press conference, Boxer focused mostly on the urgency of saving 500,000 construction sector jobs and 100,000 transit jobs, citing new Federal Highway Administration stats about the ramifications if Congress passes Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget, with its 30 percent cuts to transportation. Boxer’s aides pulled out charts detailing just how many jobs would be lost in each state (See Chart here), and Boxer pointed to the over 43,000 that her home state of California would shed. Click here to read the rest on Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Note: And I found this interesting nugget on infrastructure spending on the EPW Press Release. It shows we have a long way to go to match the Chinese: According to a report by the Department of the Treasury and the Council of Economic Advisors, the United States currently spends 2 percent of GDP on infrastructure, a 50 percent decline from 1960. Meanwhile, China is spending close to 9 percent of their GDP on infrastructure.

Update Courtesy: ITS America

As the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee continues to work on finalizing its six-year surface transportation reauthorization bill in anticipation of an early July introduction, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has announced plans to introduce the Senate version of the bill during the week of July 11, hold hearings the week of July 18, and is expected to proceed with a Committee mark-up on July 27.  The Senate bill, which is rumored to be a two-year bill instead of six, is expected to face a $12 billion funding shortfall which would require the Senate Finance Committee to come up with additional revenues before the legislation could be passed.  Committee staff continues to craft the bill in a bipartisan fashion with their most recent work focusing on a freight section.  ITS America is working closely with Senate staff to include provisions that would promote greater deployment of ITS.

On the House side, T&I Committee majority staff continues to work on their bill but have provided limited details as to what specific policies and programs will be included.  Speculation continues about the time frame for moving a surface transportation bill through the House, with Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA/7) taking heat for not including the reauthorization bill in a June 10 memo to House Republicans outlining key pieces of legislation that will be debated on the House floor this summer.  The American Road & Transportation Builders Association obtained the memo and has posted the document on its website here.

Meanwhile Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY/24), Vice-Chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, joined ITS America’s Congressional Roundtable members for breakfast to discuss ITS and the transportation reauthorization bill.  As a businessman who spent nearly three decades in the construction industry before being elected to Congress, Rep. Hanna stressed the need for technology solutions that can help public agencies do ‘more with less’.  The Congressman made note of Portland, Oregon as an example of a city that is investing in ITS to help create a more efficient, user-friendly transportation network, while acknowledging the pressure many agencies face to roll out more visible ‘bricks and mortar’ projects.  He also said the “argument is building daily” for investing in transportation as a means to create jobs and bring down the nation’s high unemployment rate.  Read more about the Congressional Roundtable in the AASHTO Journal.

(Source:  Thecityfix.com)

SeeClickFix, an online forum created to engage residents with community leaders to resolve neighborhood complaints, today announced the launch of a Facebook application. The Facebook application, similar to the SeeClickFix website and smartphone application, empowers citizens by giving them a chance to report issues in their communities directly through their Facebook accounts. Once reported, local authorities receive alerts on the complaints and can respond to issues accordingly.

“When the App is installed, the user’s location is pulled either directly from his or her current Facebook profile location or entered manually if no location is given,” reports the SeeClickFix blog. “Once the location is set, the user can start reporting issues, creating watch areas, discovering problems reported by neighbors, and, most important, advocating for an issue to be fixed. Users can automatically post reported issues to their walls, allowing friends to comment on the issue or vote for a fix.”

SeeClickFix has 14,000 registered public officials and more than 50,000 reported issues have been resolved through the website and its mobile application’s open forums. A Facebook application further encourages public empowerment by linking citizens with public officials through a familiar interface.

Click here to read more.

(Source: AFP via Yahoo)

Copenhagen, one of the world’s most bicycle-friendly cities, has begun turning its extensive network of cycle paths into bike highways in an effort to push more commuters to leave their cars at home.

Considered one of Europe’s two “bicycle capitals” along with Amsterdam, Copenhagen counts more bicycles than people and cycling is so popular that its numerous bike paths can become congested.

Two-wheeler traffic jams are especially regular on the main Noerrebrogade thoroughfare used by around 36,000 cyclists a day.

• The currently jammed bike paths will be widened up to four metres (yards) on either side of the road, which will itself will be reserved for buses only.
• The goal is to hike the percentage of suburban commuters cycling to and from the city from the 37 percent it is today to over 50 percent by 2015.
• Within the city, 55 percent of all commuters already travel by bike, according to the municipality.
• Already Copenhagen stands out among other European capitals for its cycling infrastructure, counting more than 390 kilometres (242 miles) of bike paths.
• Between 2006 and 2010, it spent 250 million kroner (33.6 million euros) in bike infrastructure and an extra 75 million kroner were allotted for 2011.
• The first two city-to-suburb bicycle highways are due to open at the end of 2011 and reach a distance of 15 kilometres from central Copenhagen, while a third, going as far as 20 kilometres from the capital’s centre, will be put into service in 2012.

Click here to read the entire story.

Related articles

• Copenhagen plans bike superhighways (grist.org)
• Copenhagen to build superhighway for bikes (americablog.com)
• How Portland Is Planning to Become the First World-class Bike City in America (alternet.org)
• Transition and solutions – Nov 28 (energybulletin.net)
• 10 Cool Bike Stories (planetsave.com)
• Copenhagen to Residents: “You’re Safer On a Bike Than On a Sofa” (treehugger.com)
• The Bay Area Versus Amsterdam: Which Cycling Mecca Is Tops? (treehugger.com)
• Experiencing Copenhagen and Denmark on Two Wheels (denmark-travel.suite101.com)
• The Bay Area Versus Amsterdam: Which Cycling Mecca Is Tops? (treehugger.com)
• Should Sidewalks and Bike Paths Have a Designated Slowpoke Lane? (treehugger.com)
• Blog – Cyclists Pedal Faster On Wednesdays, Reveals Smart Bike Data (technologyreview.com)

(Source: via Transportation Research Board Weekly E-Newsletter)

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released a report that explores the components of plug-in electric vehicle infrastructure, challenges and opportunities related to the design and deployment of the infrastructure, and the potential benefits.

(Source: Reuters & The Transport Politic)

China and Argentina have agreed to invest about $10 billion over several years to renovate the Latin American country’s dilapidated railway system and build a subway for its second-largest city. Funds come from the China Development Bank and will require a 15% match from the Argentinian government.

The $10B breaks down as follows:

Argentina will receive $4.35 billion to renovate three freight railroad lines, including $1.85 billion to improve conditions on the Belgrano Line, which links the country to Bolivia and is an important link for the nation’s agricultural producers.  Argentina’s once-extensive rail network was largely dismantled during the privatisations of the 1990s. But as agricultural output soars, farmers and grain elevators — who send more than 80 percent of grains by costly road transport — have been calling for investment to revive the railways.

Road transport costs about 7 U.S. cents per tonne per kilometre in South America’s No. 3 economy — about twice the cost of rail cargo and four times what it costs to transport grains by boat, according to the grains exchange in the country’s biggest agricultural port, Rosario.

More than four billion dollars for the improvement of the Buenos Aires Subway and the creation of a four-corridor Metro in Cordoba — projects.

China in recent years has been dipping into its deep pockets to fund infrastructure projects in poor and emerging economies that bolster relations and often further Beijing’s own economic goals by helping bring goods and raw materials to market faster.  I’d not be surprised if the Chinese are looking to export their rail technology to not just the developing parts of the world but also to advanced economies such as the USA.  The world better learn fast how to say Ni Hao!

Click here to read more.

Related articles by Zemanta

• China splashes billions on Argentine rail, subway (reuters.com)
• China to Invest $10B in Argentina’s Railways (abcnews.go.com)
• China to invest $10B in Argentina’s railways (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• China signs deals to $10B invest in Argentina’s railways but no progress on soy dispute (taragana.com)
• China to invest $10B in Argentina’s railways (sfgate.com)
• Argentina Is Latest Country To Outsource Its Infrastructure To China (businessinsider.com)

(Source: Infrastructurist)

NY Times Magazine Cover

In this week’s edition of New York Times’ Times Magazine there is a lot of stuff related to the theme of infrastructure. To save you the energy of skimming the table of contents and then feeling guilty for not reading anything, the Infrastructurist has summarized it the relevant article.  I further skimmmed it to foocus on articles that are relevant to transportation infrastructure, keeping with the focus of this website.

• Ray LaHood thinks of America as “one big pothole.” He thinks families will still have cars in the future, but one or two instead of two or three. And he’s not coordinated enough to skateboard.
• An excellent and rather comprehensive article about the California High Speed Railproject looks at the miserable condition of the Golden State’s passenger rail system today, the immense logistical challenges in a building a dedicated rail link (it makes fighting a war seem easy) and compares California’s efforts to the famous TGV in France, which got its start in 1971 and these days always runs on time.
• The way we build bridges in this country often yields unattractive structures that aren’t all that durable. An example of a project done right though is the rebuilt I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. It’s fetching to look at and smartly integrates a new generation of electronic monitoring technology.
• Lovely pics by Jamey Stillings of a $190 million bridge being built over the Colorado River to connect Las Vegas and Phoenix without having to drive over the Hoover Dam. (Sample above)
• A video presentation of some radical proposals to remake Paris for the 3rd millennium. One scheme would create a Parisian knockoff of Central Park. Another has “a 1000 kilometer-long farmer’s market and garden.”
• Futuristic design ideas: an airport off on its own island like Lost, a second deck on NYC roadways for eco-style golf carts, and clean green waterwheel generators installed along the city’s waterfront so you always feel like you’re on a riverboat.

Those interested in reading the entire list, please stop by The Infrastructurist.

On Friday, June 19, America 2050 will be co-hosting the next “Rebuilding and Renewing America” forum, focused on infrastructure strategies for the Southwest Megaregion, encompassing Southern California, the Las Vegas metropolitan area and Baja California.    The forum will aim to build support for a national infrastructure plan needed for America to respond to the big challenges of rapid population growth, our dependence on foreign oil, climate change, global competitiveness, and deteriorating infrastructure, and identify the major transportation, energy and water infrastructure priorities in the Southwest Megaregion that are issues of national significance. 

Likewise, we hope to find common ground among metropolitan areas in the Southwest Megaregion on programs and policies that would help regions and subregions meet their core infrastructure challenges.  The forum marks the first major convening of the west coast office of America 2050, housed at the USC Bedrosian Center. The forum aims to establish a network of business, civic, government and academic organizations through the America 2050 west coast office who will continue to work on building the Southwest Megaregion and pushing its collective agenda.    

The forum will take place at the Davidson Conference Center on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on Friday, June 19 from 8:00am to 3:30pm. There is a fee of $25.00 to attend.  Register online here.