Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85927
Lattatudes ■ EDITORIAL Editorial Director, Marcia Gruver Doyle, mgruver@rrpub.com Editor-in-Chief, John Latta, jlatta@rrpub.com Executive Editor, Tina Grady Barbaccia, tbarbaccia@rrpub.com Editor Emeritus, Kirk Landers, kirk.landers@att.net Truck Editor, Jack Roberts, jroberts@rrpub.com Construction Editor, Tom Jackson, tjackson@rrpub.com Contributing Editor, Tom Kuennen, expwys@expresswaysonline.com Contributing Editor, Dan Brown, danbrown4@msn.com ■ DESIGN Art Director, Sandy Turner, Jr., sturner@rrpub.com Graphic Designer, Kristen Chapman, kristenchapman@rrpub.com ■ PRODUCTION Senior Production Director, Leah Boyd, lboyd@rrpub.com Advertising Production Manager, Linda Hapner, lhapner@rrpub.com ■ PROJECTS Project Director, Jennifer Brady, jennifer.brady@rrpub.com ■ PUBLISHING/ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Senior Vice President, Construction Media Group, Dan Tidwell Vice President, Construction Media Group, Joe Donald Director, Marketing and Promotions, Construction Media Group, Mike Porcaro Director of Sales, Gregg Terry Controller, Paige Thompson Fair Audience Development Specialist, Circulation, Stacy A. Stiglic Research Director, Ginger Love ■ ADVERTISING SALES Listing on page 47 ■ HONORS 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award Winner Three-time Jesse H. Neal Awards Finalist Boger Award Honorable Mention Richard E. Lowell President's Award Multiple ASBPE Awards Making It Work O kay, no seventh-inning stretch; let's get right back into action. You have read (or at least I hope you have) my constant urgings throughout the past three years to get out and press politicians to pass a new highway bill. Now there is a broad acknowledgment that pressure from the provinces made a difference in creating our new legislation. It's not much of a bill, but it is what we have to work with. And as you have probably become aware of, the battle now is to make the 2014 bill that follows this one something special. Because this one isn't. We have to make the new legislation work. If it works, the public, and the politicians, may just make the 2014 bill good enough to help bring the industry back all the way. MAP-21, the new surface transportation bill that runs until the end of September 2014, brings to an end the limbo lives of agencies and contractors who lived through nine do-nothing extensions of sad ol' SAFETEA-LU. It doesn't deliver enough funds, and $40 billion a year is hopelessly short of enough. But the bill brings us work, jobs and reforms. We must make the most of them. We must show the public they benefi t from them. A few examples: MAP-21 reduces the number of highway programs by two-thirds, removing some soul-destroying bureaucratic black holes. It contains signifi cant reforms in the environmental review and planning process, measures that will cut delivery times and costs. It creates incentives for states to use innovative contracting practices and new technologies. It integrates performance measures (to be developed with the U.S. DOT) to assess the condition of facilities and the operation of roads and bridges, and to establish performance targets. It greatly increases private-equity funding possibilities. It gives states more allocating and spending fl exibility in both routine and emergency situations. Even if these reforms are not enough, it is essential they work. First, they lead to more work for your company or agency which benefi ts the people of your region. Second, you can create success stories that help educate a public woefully uninformed on our highway funding and transportation infrastructure needs. And third, it gets the industry rolling in the new, post-recession age. The legislation is our new reality; we won't be going back. Make these reforms effective and you take a giant step 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 800-633-5953 Mike Reilly, Chairman, CEO Brent Reilly, President David Wright, Chief Administrative Officer Shane Elmore, Chief Process Officer Linda Longton, Vice President, Editorial Stacy McCants, Vice President, Audience Development In Memoriam: H. Pettus Randall II (1911 - 1971) - Founder H. Pettus Randall III (1945 - 2002) - Chairman www.rrpub.com towards convincing the public that transportation is the prime issue that both parties can agree on while still, for the most part, hating each other's guts. In the modern idiom, we have to leverage what we have been given into something more. If you need links to fi nd the details of MAP-21, email me. by John Latta, Editor-in-Chief jlatta@rrpub.com Better Roads August 2012 3