Author: Mid-America Freight Coalition

Zelle appointed MnDOT Commissioner

News

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has appointed Charlie Zelle to be the new MnDOT Commissioner, effective January 15, 2013. Zelle is president and CEO of Jefferson Lines, which provides travel services in 13 Midwestern states. His family founded the company in 1919. It serves more that 60 Minnesota cities and specializes in connecting rural areas to destinations […]

The Return on Infrastructure Investment

Funding News

Two researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco recently presented a paper at the 2012 NBER Macroeconomics Annual Conference entitled “Roads to Prosperity or Bridges to Nowhere? Theory and Evidence on the Impact of Public Infrastructure Investment.” Here’s the abstract: We examine the dynamic macroeconomic effects of public infrastructure investment both theoretically and […]

Making the Most of MAP-21

Funding News

Transportation for America has just released a handbook to help policy makers and transportation stakeholders understand and implement Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), the recently enacted federal surface transportation legislation. Making the Most of MAP-21: A Guide to the 2012 Federal Transportation Law — And How to Use it for Positive […]

Foreign Trade Zones: An Economic Development Opportunity

Regional Freight Plan

Contributed by Alex Marach, CFIRE Research Intern $534 billion of goods entered US foreign-trade zones (FTZ) in 2010 (Foreign-Trade Zones Board, 2012). MAFC FTZs accounted for $98 billion or 18.4 percent of the total US value received by FTZs in 2010. FTZs receive inputs from both domestic and foreign sources, but use US labor to […]

Rayman to Lead FHWA Freight Management and Operations

News

Caitlin Hughes Rayman–currently the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy and Freight–has been selected to be the Director of the FHWA Office of Freight Management and Operations. Rayman will replace former Director of the Office of Freight Management and Operations Tony Furst, who now serves as FHWA’s Associate Administrator for Safety. For more […]

Wisconsin Multimodal Freight Network

Highway Regional Freight Plan

As part of its Freight Mobility Action Agenda, The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has established a repository of information about the Multimodal Freight Network in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Multimodal Freight Network is composed of highways, local roads, rail lines, ports and airports. The network identifies the role of the different transportation facilities in shipping freight […]

AASHTO Comments on State Freight Plan Provisions

News

The AASHTO Freight Working Group has recently submitted comments to the US Department of Transportation on the MAP-21 Interim Guidance on State Freight Plans and State Freight Advisory Committees, and the related Memorandum on Prioritization of Projects to Improve Freight Movement Guidance. These comments, which speak to the implementation of the freight provisions in MAP-21, […]

Wood Pellets in High Demand in the EU

News

Contributed by: C. Bryant Dudley, CFIRE project assistant In 2009 the European Union (EU) ratified the Renewable Energy Directive, which outlined three objectives for member states to meet by 2020: Increase renewable energy consumption to 20 percent of total energy consumption; Reduce total energy consumption by 20 percent; Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20 […]

August 2012 North American Trade Numbers

News

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics recently released North American surface trade numbers for August 2012. Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, Canada and Mexico, was 2.6 percent higher in August 2012 than in August 2011, totaling $82.5 billion, unadjusted for inflation, according to the […]