The Nation

SHREVEPORT, La. – The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) has announced major repairs to a heavily-traveled section of Interstate 20 in Bossier City, as well as additional repairs along the I-20 corridor in Shreveport. The project went to bid on Nov. 10 with an apparent low bid of $82,564,848.20, according to a news release. “The long-awaited project includes a full reconstruction of all lanes of I-20 from just west of LA 3 (Benton Road) near Hamilton Road to LA 782-2 (Industrial Drive),” the news release stated. “The pavement will be removed down to the roadway sub-base and replaced along this 3.5 mile section of interstate, which services between 62,000 – 86,000 vehicles per day.” The reconstruction will be performed in phases; it also includes all on and off-ramps of the five interchanges between Benton Road and Industrial Drive in Bossier City. “An incredible amount of work as part of the project development process has gone into preparing this project for this month’s letting,” said Shawn D. Wilson, DOTD secretary. “We fully understand how highly anticipated these major repairs are and we’re anxious to begin construction.” Additionally, concrete patching repairs will be conducted on I-20 stretching from Pines Road in Shreveport to Interstate 220 in Bossier City outside of the complete reconstruction area. This work will address other sections of the busy interstate corridor that serves both residents and the thousands of motorists passing through the region on a daily basis. “An innovative queue detection system will be implemented for this project, which will provide advanced warning to motorists that they are approaching a line of congestion and may choose to detour,” according to the news release. “This type of system is effective in improving safety during construction projects – particularly on an interstate – and for helping to mitigate traffic congestion approaching the work zone.” The project also includes the replacement of the street lighting system components along the stretch of I-20 that is being reconstructed in Bossier City. Actual construction work will begin in early 2022, following the contractor’s allotted assembly period.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Individuals between the ages of 18 and 20 will finally be able to obtain their Class A commercial drivers licenses (CDL) in New York. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the legislation on Nov. 16, making her state the final one in the union to authorize such a measure. After a “rigorous program,” drivers will be able to travel only within the borders of New York, according to a news release from the Trucking Association of New York (TANY). “The legislation was a priority issue for TANY during the 2021 legislative session and a critical piece of our workforce development initiative,” the news release stated. “As we continue to focus on encouraging high school students to consider careers in the trucking industry, it was imperative that they have the opportunity to obtain their Class A CDL prior to the age of 21.” To address safety concerns regarding younger drivers operating large commercial vehicles, the legislation provides for training that closely mirrors the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s entry-level driver training requirements and sets a minimum of three-hundred (300) hours of behind-the-wheel training under the immediate supervision and control of an experienced driver.

WASHINGTON — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) has announced it has suspended implementation and enforcement of the COVID vaccine mandate after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on Nov. 12. In a statement, OSHA officials said that while the agency “remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the (vaccine mandate) pending future developments in the litigation.” Challenges to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers will now be consolidated in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, a panel dominated by judges appointed by Republicans. The Cincinnati-based court was selected Tuesday in a random drawing using ping-pong balls, a process employed when challenges to certain federal agency actions are filed in multiple courts. The selection could be good news for those challenging the administration’s vaccine requirement, which includes officials in 27 Republican-led states, employers and several conservative and business organizations. They argue that OSHA does not have the authority to impose the mandate. The challenges, along with some from unions that said the vaccine mandate didn’t go far enough, were made this month in 12 circuit courts. Under an arcane system, it was up to the clerk of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict litigation to select a ping-pong ball from a bin to choose where the cases would be heard. It was a favorable outcome for Republicans. Eleven of the 16 full-time judges in the 6th Circuit were appointed by Republican presidents. Accounting for one of the Republican-appointed judges, Helene White, who often sides with judges appointed by Democrats and adding senior judges who are semi-retired but still hear cases, the split is 19-9 in favor of Republicans. Six of the full-time judges were appointed by former President Donald Trump. Another court where a majority of judges were nominated by Republicans, the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, issued a ruling that put the mandate on hold. It’s not clear whether the court that will hear the case will act as the 5th Circuit did and side quickly with the Republican challengers. But legal experts have become increasingly concerned in recent years about the politicization of both federal and state courts, raising questions about whether justice is fairly administered or dispensed through a partisan lens. Allison Orr Larsen, a professor at William & Mary Law School, coauthored a study published this year that found growing partisanship in federal judicial decisions. For decades, the study found that rulings on cases in which all judges in a circuit weighed in generally were not decided along party lines based on the presidents who appointed the judges. “We did see a concerning spike starting in 2018 that led us to wring our hands,” Larsen said in an interview. The increasing partisanship in a branch of government that is supposed to be blind to partisan politics was seen in judges appointed by presidents of both parties, but Larsen said it’s not clear why that was or whether it will last. Some of the federal courts moved to the right when Donald Trump was president and Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate, which confirms judicial nominees. Trump appointed 54 judges to the circuit courts, which are one step below the U.S. Supreme Court, including filling one seat twice. That represents nearly 30% of the seats on the circuit courts, where cases are most often considered by three-judge panels. Trump’s appointees flipped the 11th Circuit in the South to Republican control and expanded the GOP-appointed majorities in the 5th, 6th and 8th Circuits in the Midwest and South. Biden’s three appointees switched the New York-based 2nd Circuit to Democratic control. Republican state attorneys general and conservative groups mostly filed their challenges in circuit courts dominated by conservative judges, while the unions went to circuits with more judges nominated by Democratic presidents. In all, 34 objections have been filed in all 11 regional circuits plus the one for the District of Columbia. That’s where the ping-pong balls came in to play. Under federal law, cases challenging federal agency actions get consolidated upon the agency’s request if they are filed in multiple circuit courts. Each circuit where a challenge is filed within the first 10 days of the agency taking action has an equal chance of being selected. It was up to the judicial panel’s clerk, John W. Nichols, to select a ping-pong ball from a bin, according to a Tuesday court filing by the panel. The office denied a request by The Associated Press to allow media access to the drawing. Previously this year, the lottery had been used to assign just two cases. One involved fallout from a National Labor Relations Board ruling on an anti-union Twitter message by Tesla founder Elon Musk where objectors filed in two circuits. The other was over orders from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in which objectors filed in three. The employer vaccine mandate is higher profile and further reaching. It calls for businesses with more than 100 workers to require employees to be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or wear masks and be tested weekly for COVID-19. Exemptions are provided for religious reasons and for those who work at home or only outdoors. Because it’s an unusual rule from the workplace safety agency, there is no consensus among lawyers on how the challenges will go. OSHA has issued just 10 emergency rules in the half century since it was formed. Of the six challenged in court, only one survived intact. The Biden administration has insisted it’s on strong legal footing. It also has the backing of the American Medical Association, which filed papers in support of the mandate. “The AMA’s extensive review of the medical literature demonstrates that COVID-19 vaccines authorized or approved by FDA are safe and effective, and the widespread use of those vaccines is the best way to keep COVID-19 from spreading within workplaces,” the group said in its filing. Among those challenging the rule is a consortium of construction contractors. They say they want their workers vaccinated, but that a requirement only on larger companies is just pushing vaccine-hesitant workers to take jobs with companies that have fewer than 100 employees. “Crafting an unworkable rule that will do little to get construction workers vaccinated is an approach that is not only wrong, but likely counterproductive,” said Scott Casabona, president of Signatory Wall and Ceiling Contractors Alliance. Officials with the workplace safety agency say they’re considering extending the mandate to smaller employers. A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit extended the stay of the OSHA rule in an opinion released on Nov. 12, expressing skepticism that the agency had authority to implement the vaccine requirement. The 6th Circuit could modify, revoke or extend the stay. It had not yet been determined which judges from the 6th Circuit will be on a three-judge panel to hear the case or whether it will be considered by all the judges. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the selection of the court. The Trucker Staff contributed to this report.    

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A plan to add tolls on nine bridges suffered a setback Tuesday when the Pennsylvania state House passed a bill to void the proposal, although the legislation requires one more Senate vote and faces opposition from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. The tolling plan would pay for the bridges’ repair or reconstruction, freeing up money from the new federal infrastructure bill for other projects across the state. But opponents say tolls would hurt the local economy near the bridges, and there wasn’t enough public input. “We are all elected to represent our areas and have a voice for them, but the way this transpired, we did not have a voice,” said Rep. Sheryl Delozier, R-Cumberland, whose district would be affected by proposed tolls on the Interstate 83 South Bridge to Harrisburg. State representatives voted 125 to 74 for requiring legislative approval of specific proposals to add tolls. The bill would require PennDOT to publicly advertise toll proposals, take public comment and seek approval from both the governor and the Legislature. PennDOT has not made final decisions on which bridges to toll. Rep. Mike Carroll of Luzerne County, the ranking Democrat on the Transportation Committee, noted Republicans turned aside a Democratic proposal to require approval of specific projects by the Legislature when the Public Private Transportation Partnership was authorized by the majority Republican General Assembly in 2012. “It was your caucus’ idea,” Carroll told House Republicans. “You voted for it — your caucus. You advanced it to Gov. (Tom) Corbett and he signed it.” The infrastructure bill just approved in Washington  is a “sudden influx of money” that can be used to fund bridge repairs, said Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-Chester, the Transportation Committee chairman. “Frankly the citizens of Pennsylvania will have a hard time understanding the need for tolling in light of that,” Hennessey said. But Carroll warned that “Every single county in the state will have projects that do not get done if we have to dedicate $2 billion of the $4 billion to fix nine bridges.” Tolls would be between $1 and $2, probably both ways, to help pay for about $2.2 billion in construction work. The tolls would be put in place from the start of construction in 2023 and could last for 30 years, PennDOT officials have said. The nine that could be tolled are I-78’s Lenhartsville Bridge in Berks County; I-79’s bridges over State Route 50 in Allegheny County; I-80’s bridges across Canoe Creek in Clarion County, Nescopeck Creek in Luzerne County, North Fork in Jefferson County and the Lehigh River, near Wilkes-Barre; I-81 over the Susquehanna River in northern Pennsylvania; I-83’s South Bridge across the Susquehanna River; and Girard Point Bridge in Philadelphia. The Public Private Transportation Partnership board gave PennDOT the go-ahead a year ago to pursue tolls, the first time it’s approved a plan involving user fees since it was created in 2012.

MIAMI — A new study on autonomous trucking conducted by Ryder System, Inc. and Georgia Tech is promising to be a road map for commercializing self-driving trucks at a significant cost savings. According to a news release, Ryder officials say the research is based on real-world data. “I’ve worked on a lot of different transportation problems in the past, and if you have 1% (cost) improvement, that’s magic,” said Pascal Van Hentenryck, chair and professor for innovation and entrepreneurship at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech. “Here, we’re talking about 29-40%, so it’s massive. It’s really massive.” Already familiar with ISyE through the Ryder Charitable Foundation’s support of research and scholarships at the university, Ryder officials approached Van Hentenryck, who leads the Socially Aware Mobility Lab, about the idea for such a study, the news release stated. “The challenge was for Van Hentenryck and his team of students and post-doctoral researchers to apply their multimodal approach for public transportation to autonomous freight transportation,” according to the news release. Analyzing real-world data from Ryder’s dedicated transportation network in the Southeast, Van Hentenryck and his team developed an Autonomous Transfer Hub Network (ATHN) that combines autonomous trucks on highways with conventional trucking operations for the first and final miles. The team then introduced optimization models for routing and dispatching, and evaluated the proposed autonomous network by comparing it with existing operations under various assumptions. The analyses indicated that the ATHN with optimization technology can reduce costs by 29% to 40% for a large network, depending on the price of autonomous trucks as well as the direct and indirect cost of operating them. “The team looked at our dedicated transportation network, where trucks and drivers are committed to specific customers. While that particular transportation model guarantees capacity 24/7, it also creates situations where our customers’ trucks haul empty trailers,” said Karen Jones, chief marketing officer and head of new product innovation for Ryder. The researchers’ ATHN and optimization models significantly reduced the number of miles driven with empty trailers, which accounts for a large part of the cost reduction. “In the transfer hub network, there is no need to return back empty after a delivery, and there is no need to limit working hours or to return to a domicile at the end of the day,” Van Hentenryck said. “As a result, only 35% of the automated distance is driven empty, compared to 50%. This means that even if autonomous trucks would be as expensive as trucks with drivers, costs would still go down by 10%.” The study found additional cost savings came from reduced labor costs and idle time. Researchers also factored in increased flexibility in delivery appointments to keep autonomous trucks moving around the clock. “In addition to the significant projected cost savings, I think this study is particularly notable because it is based on real-world data and addresses real industry challenges,” Jones said. “It’s clear that, in order to realize the full benefit of autonomous trucking, shippers, receivers, and 3PLs will need to evolve today’s operating practices to meet the needs of tomorrow’s robotic trucks.” Ryder is planning several pilot projects with autonomous trucking companies Embark, Gatik, TuSimple and Waymo. “Our goal with these strategic alliances and our collaboration with ISyE is to help accelerate autonomous trucking nationwide,” Jones said. “If you think about ever-escalating consumer demands combined with capacity constraints, driver shortages, and regulatory and safety pressures, autonomous technology is on track to solve a host of industry disruptions. “I think the work of Pascal and his team shows that we’re on the right track, and to have that kind of validation from world-class researchers at the top school for industrial and systems engineering—that’s priceless.”  

LANSING, Mich. — The $1 trillion federal infrastructure spending law includes billions of dollars for Michigan, including to fix roads, replace lead water pipes and expand access to high-speed internet and electric vehicle charging stations. Members of Congress expect the historic level of funding to start reaching the state by spring. The aid must go to specific priorities, though the Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will in many cases decide which projects to fund. The state and municipalities also will be able to apply to the federal government for competitive grants. “It’s not a stretch to say that this infrastructure bill is a generational investment,” said U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Holly Democrat who likened it to construction of the national highway system. The legislation was supported by every Democrat in the delegation except Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit and by one Republican, Rep. Fred Upton of St. Joseph. What Michigan will receive: ROADS $7.2 billion in core federal highway program funding over five years, a $340 million — or 30% — annual increase. While road and bridge work is primarily funded with state fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees, aid from the federal gas tax accounts for 28% of Michigan’s transportation budget. “We’re going to split that between MDOT and the local (road) agencies,” state transportation director Paul Ajegba said, noting that Whitmer previously authorized $3.5 billion in borrowing focused mostly on improving state-owned highways. “We think with this additional money, we can start tackling some of the issues in our trunk lines in the inner cities.” BRIDGES $563 million, or an additional $113 million a year, under a new program to replace or repair bridges. TRANSIT $1 billion for public transit. That is $47 million more annually, a 30% boost. WATER $1.3 billion to address aging water infrastructure, including to replace lead service lines and address groundwater contamination from “forever chemicals” known as PFAS. It was not immediately clear how much could be spent to swap out the pipes that can lead to elevated lead levels in a community’s drinking water if the supply is not properly treated like in Flint and Benton Harbor. Michigan has an estimated 460,000 such lines that generally must be replaced over 20 years. EV STATIONS $110M to expand the charging network for electric vehicles. The auto industry has committed to producing electric vehicles for as much as half of U.S. sales by the end of the decade. “If someone’s going to be making that next generation of cars, I want it to be us. Part of dealing with that is range anxiety that the average buyer feels because they don’t know that they can drive up north and successfully charge up,” Slotkin said. INTERNET At least $100 million to bring high-speed internet to more rural areas that lack adequate broadband infrastructure. Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters has said about 400,000 residents lack access. Roughly 2.5 million low-income people will be eligible for a subsidy to make it more affordable. CLIMATE CHANGE $304 million to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change on roads and other parts of the transportation network. An unspecified portion of $500 million nationally so states can provide low-interest loans to local governments to reduce the risk of natural disasters. Peters, who secured the funding, said projects could include seawalls and storm water drains to address extreme flooding, shoreline erosion and rising water levels.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Nearly 50,000 Washington state electrical customers still had no power Tuesday after days of heavy rain triggered mudslides and floods and forced the closure of the West Coast’s main north-south highway near the Canadian border, officials said. The rains caused by an atmospheric river — a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregon — was easing and road crews managed to reopen southbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Bellingham, Washington. But the highway’s northbound lanes were still closed in the area. At the height of the storm, about 158,000 electrical customers on Monday had no power and schools in the city of Bellingham were closed on Tuesday for the second day in a row. North of Bellingham, authorities said one person was still missing Tuesday after being seen in floodwaters clinging to a tree. And a motorist in Bellingham was injured when a tree fell on a vehicle. Evacuations were ordered in multiple areas as floodwaters swamped business districts and partially submerged cars in communities north of Seattle and winds gusted at speeds of 60 mph, including one gust of 58 mp at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Forecasters predicted drier conditions on Tuesday but the National Weather Service issued flood warnings for several rivers around western Washington. Early Tuesday the National Weather Service said there was good news in that the Skagit River at Mount Vernon would crest at near 36 feet — more than a foot below the previous estimate. Gov. Jay Inslee declared a severe weather state of emergency in 14 counties and said the state Emergency Management Division, with support from the Washington National Guard, would coordinate the response. In the town of Hamilton about 80 miles northeast of Seattle, cars and trailers were packed into the parking lot outside the Red Cross evacuation site at Hamilton Baptist Church, where dozens of residents are waiting out the storm, the Skagit Valley Herald reported. Skagit County officials compared the flood to severe flooding in 2009, when the Skagit and Samish rivers overflowed and caused damage to homes, farms and infrastructure, As the water made its way down the swollen Skagit River, people were warned to expect flooding and evacuation orders for other communities. And just south of the Canadian border in the community of Sumas, Washington, officials said city hall was flooded in a soaking that reminded people of severe floods in 1990. Deputies evacuated stranded residents and the person who was still missing had been swept away by floodwaters after being seen holding on to the tree, said police from the small city of Everson in Facebook posting. The motorist injured in Bellingham was seriously hurt early Monday while traveling on Interstate 5. Bellingham’s record rainfall on Sunday totaled 2.78 inches, crushing the prior daily record from 1998 of 0.88 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Another 1.89 inches poured down on Bellingham on Monday. West of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula, several highways were partially closed and the U.S. Coast Guard helped local authorities evacuate about 10 people near the town of Forks. In nearby Quillayute, a daily record rainfall of 4.01 inches was set on Monday.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court is asking the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office for its opinion on the California Trucking Association’s (CTA) arguments against California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5). The solicitor general of the United States is the fourth-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice. California adopted AB5 in 2019 to expand a 2018 ruling by the California Supreme Court that limits businesses from classifying certain workers as independent contractors. The bill sought to determine who was an actual employee of a company — in other words, a worker with access to the full range of benefits and rights. The bill was originally directed toward the “gig” economy, such as Uber drivers, but found a home in the trucking industry. In essence, when the bill was signed into law, it endangered the independent contractor business model for trucking companies in California. “The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to call for the view of the solicitor general validates the critical nature of reviewing AB5’s disruptive impact in the midst of a historic, global supply chain crisis,” CTA CEO Shawn Yadon said in a statement. “Since the introduction of AB5, the California Trucking Association has worked to protect the more than 70,000 owner-operators in California who choose to work independently because of the freedom, flexibility and business grown potential that this model has afforded them for decades. These small-business truckers face irreparable damage should AB5 be enforced.” In the 2018 ruling, the California Supreme Court’s established the ABC Test, which considers all workers to be employees unless a business can show that three things are established. The test states that “(A) A worker is free from the control and direction of the hirer in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact; (B) A worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and C) A worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.” When the CTA sued in 2019, the U.S. Southern District Court of California granted a preliminary injunction to stop the state from enforcing AB5 on motor carriers. The trucking group argues that AB5 violates the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, which prevents states from enforcing a law or regulation related to a price, route or service of motor carriers. On April 28, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 that California’s AB5 “is a generally applicable labor law” and called for the removal of the preliminary injunction. Two months later, the Ninth Circuit denied CTA’s petition for a rehearing. The CTA then filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. That petition allowed the injunction to continue until the case is either heard or rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.