Infrastructure

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A closely watched transportation sales tax proposal in Georgia is finally coming to a vote.

Debris from a test flight of a Boeing 787 sparked a fire in South Carolina.

Dubai International Airport broke a record for airport traffic in becoming the busiest airport in the Middle East for the first half of 2012.

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) opened three new stations.

Georgia will be on the minds of transportation observers this week as the state votes on a proposed infrastructure sales tax that has attracted national attention.

Voters in 12 predetermined Georgia regions will vote Tuesday on a proposed one-cent state sales tax increase via a Transportation Special Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST). Supporters say the levy would provide $18 billion for road and transit projects in the state.

Transportation supporters often cite a statistic that shows more than 70 percent of transportation referenda have been approved by voters since 2001, but polls have shown the tax's position in Georgia is far from peachy.

So fragile is the transportation tax’s position heading into Election Day that one of Georgia's U.S. senators took pains in the run-up to the vote to say that he did not endorse the proposal, even as he said he was going to vote for it.

"I personally plan to vote in favor of the T-SPLOST in my hometown of Moultrie because I believe it will create jobs for southwest Georgia and make a very rural part of the state more attractive for economic development," Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said earlier this month.

But Chambliss added, “Georgians should make up their own minds and vote their conscience on the T-SPLOST referendum on July 31, based on the facts for their region."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Friday that the Obama administration will make $17 billion available for loans to construct transportation projects.

The loans are part of an expansion of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program in the recently approved $105 billion transportation bill. The transportation bill, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), included $1.7 billion for the TIFIA program over the next two years.

LaHood said Friday that the DOT was making $17 billion immediately, which he said would generate job growth in a stagnant U.S. economy.

"TIFIA offers flexible terms and gives many qualified, large-scale projects the extra boost they need to break ground and put people back to work," he said on a conference call with reporters. "This is a sign that in a time of fiscal austerity, we can still do big things."

Your morning transportation speed-read:

The NAACP and the Tea Party have joined forces to oppose the proposed transportation sales tax in Georgia.

An 11-year-boy who stowed away on a flight from England to Italy said it was easier to sneak on the plane than it was to do his homework.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is facing budget cuts.

Opponents of a controversial high-speed railway in California are dropping a push for a vote to block funding.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will make a "major announcement" on Friday about loans that were included in the $105-billion transportation bill that was approved last month by lawmakers.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Opponents of a proposed transportation sales tax in Georgia are promising to craft a better list of proposed projects if the measure is voted down.

The tax is being supported by businesses in Georgia, however.

Transit officials in London are feeling the pressure of the Olympics before the games even begin.

Hot weather and thunderstorms have slammed Northeastern airports with delays this summer.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray thinks it takes too long to fix escalators within the capital city’s Metro subway system.

In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine that touched on his recent to trip to Beijing, Gray said buildings are constructed in the length of time it takes to fix escalators on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) system.

“[In Beijing] they built a convention center equivalent to ours in nine months, and it took us nine months to get the escalators fixed in the Metro system,” he said.

The Washington-based American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) is calling on the Democratic and Republican parties to include language about transportation construction in their platforms when they convene in Charlotte and Tampa for their conventions.

In letters to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schutlz (D-Fla.), ARTBA President Peter Ruane said it made sense for both parties to support transportation in their respective platforms.

"A firm belief in the value of infrastructure is…woven into the historic fabric of the Democratic Party," he wrote to Wasserman-Schultz. "In 1806, Thomas Jefferson, America's first Democratic president, authorized funding for the National Road, running west from Cumberland, Md., and all the way, ultimately, to Vandalia, Ill." 

A prominent transportation union is sharply criticizing Mitt Romney for attacking President Obama’s statements about the government’s role in building public infrastructure, which the president argues is used by businesses to help them succeed.

The presumptive GOP nominee has seized on a statement by Obama that business "didn't build that" — which Democrats have pointed out was a reference to infrastructure — to argue that the president does not understand the way business works.

But the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department said Thursday it was Romney who would need an economic lesson.

“The point the president was making is that private business, big or small, cannot thrive without public investments including investment in all forms of transportation,” AFL-CIO TTD President Edward Wytkind said in a statement.

A key transportation union is knocking a group of Republican governors for recent rejections of federal money that would have gone to large construction projects in their states. 

The AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department used California Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) embrace of a proposed high-speed railway in his state to draw a contrast with Republican governors in Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey who have all given back transportation money to the Obama administration.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker all returned high-speed rail money after taking office in 2011, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie shut down a proposed railway tunnel between his state and New York City.

AFL-CIO TTD President Edward Wytkind said in a blog post on the union's website this week that Brown's decision was a wiser path.

"At least one governor appreciates what transportation investments can do for his state," Wytkind wrote.