Monthly Archives: September 2009
It should be of no surprise to anyone in the transportation industry to see state transportation departments short on cash at the moment. To make matters worse, previous legislation (pre-recession) was planning on cutting back funding, ultimately nullifying some attempted cash influx that was expected to come from stimulus.
The unemployment rate in this sector is still waiting to see the light at the end of this tunnel because of a lack of projects, ultimately caused by a lack of funding and state budget concerns.
What’s being done about it? It seems the good folks at AASHTO have written a nice letter to the US House and Senate, urging them to repeal the $8.7 billion rescission of funding. So, If you’re looking for a job in this sector, definitely keep tabs on this as it develops. Maybe you should write your local congressman!
For the full story, or to read the letter sent to congress, see this AASHTO press release.
Did you know that some Departments of Transportation are installing automated tweeting scripts to their traffic reports for use on Twitter.com? If you live in North Carolina, check out @NCDOT, and if you’re in the Raleigh area, get your traffic reports from @NCDOT_Triangle and some from @NCDOT_I40.
One of the great things about our information age is the ability to not only get information quickly, but from a variety of sources. Here is an article that was written when NCDOT enabled these features last month.
If you live in another state, run a search on your Department of Transportation and see if they Tweet. Find out, and share in the comments below! Oh, and please don’t tweet and drive.