Law
Most heavy-highway contracts contain either a fixed date for contract completion or a stated number of calendar or work days within which all work must be completed. They also contain a mechanism or procedure through which the contractor may receive an extension to the allotted time for changes in...
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (U.S. DOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) yesterday issued the Private Investment Project Procedures (PIPP) Final Rule that describes new procedures aimed at helping the federal government develop more effective approaches to spurring private...
Gov. John Kasich signed an executive order Wednesday aimed at attracting more testing of autonomous-vehicle technology on Ohio's roadways.
The executive order also provides direction to both government and industry on how to regulate and stage such testing. Kasich also pitched autonomous vehicles...
Brian Mack; Anna Quinn
The traffic and transit industry continues to make significant technological strides impacting traffic safety and efficiency. New and improved traffic systems, vehicle automation, and enhanced communications all contribute to safer, more connected roadways. Each idea...
Prime contractors and their subcontractors often haggle over subcontract language, and they often simply strike through language that is undesirable thereby leaving the language (and strikethrough) readable in the executed version.
The stricken language is always regarded by courts as omitted...
Kentucky's recently passed $8.5 billion 2018 highway plan aims to prioritize spending on 1,400 projects, including work on 1,000 bridges and improvements to 5,000 miles of pavement, plus road widening and the reconstruction of existing roads, along with construction of new routes and interchanges...
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that recommends the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) strengthen its safety oversight by improving guidance the agency provided to states.
Specifically, GAO suggests the FTA create a plan for developing risk-based inspection guidance...
Lawyers for the Seneca Nation of Indians sued New York State on Thursday, charging that the state broke federal laws more than 60 years ago when it built a 2.7-mile section of the New York State Thruway through Seneca territory in southern Erie County.
The lawsuit demands that the state...
Gov. Phil Bryant on Tuesday declared a state of emergency, issuing a proclamation that orders the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) to immediately close 83 city and county bridges, a number that increased to 102 by the following day, that have been deemed deficient by federal National...
The family of Florida International University (FIU) freshman Alexa Duran, who was killed in last month's pedestrian bridge collapse, has filed a lawsuit in connection with the FIU bridge collapse.
Duran, 18, was the first of six people to be identified after the pedestrian bridge that connected...
Most highway contracts include Variation in Estimated Quantity (VEQ) clauses that establish rules governing the renegotiation of unit prices if actual quantities vary from the government’s estimated quantities by a stated percentage, typically between 15% and 25%. Many VEQ clauses distinguish...
President Trump visited a union-worker training center in Richfield, Ohio, last week to talk up his infrastructure investment ideas.
The speech was part of his administration’s effort to build momentum for his plan to invest $200 billion in new federal funds over a decade to spur more than $1.5...
Image: Uber
Uber will not renew its permit to test self-driving cars in California after one of its autonomous vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona last week.
Should Uber change its mind, the ride-hailing company would have to address findings from its investigation and analysis of the accident...
U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao asked the inspector general of her department to probe whether a federally funded pedestrian bridge that collapsed and killed six in Florida complied with all rules, her office said on Tuesday.
Chao said in a letter she has asked for an audit to determine...
House Speaker Paul Ryan this week was unequivocal regarding a potential increase to the federal gas tax to aid the funding of road and bridge development.
"Well, we’re not going to raise gas taxes so I don’t foresee that as a problem. We’re just not going to do that here," Ryan said on a phone...
When a contractor encounters differing site conditions on a project, an equitable adjustment for additional costs and/or time can more often than not be justified under the Differing Site Conditions contract provision. Frequently, however, the unanticipated conditions result in the highway...
The White House today officially released a 55-page proposal for President Trump's long-awaited infrastructure overhaul.
The plan puts forth a framework for lawmakers to craft legislation for a $1.5 trillion infrastructure package that would focus on public-private partnerships and funding from...
Any prime contractor in business for more than a few years has encountered an underperforming subcontractor, and in extreme circumstances, has been confronted with the decision whether to declare a default and seek a replacement. One popular option is to avoid the risk of nasty default termination...
President Trump said Wednesday he plans to discuss a $1.7 trillion infrastructure package during next week's annual State of the Union address, a major increase in what the administration had previously touted for infrastructure investment.
During a White House meeting with mayors from across the...
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is making a push to raise the federal gas tax by 25 cents per gallon to help pay for the nation’s infrastructure.
The proposal, which will be formally introduced later this week, is part of a series of principles the nation’s largest business lobby will offer in a bid...
