January - 2019

Archive

Georgia’s ports shake off trade worries and post record year

Georgia’s sea ports shook off fears of global trade tensions and the early days of the partial government shutdown to post another record year of freight traffic in calendar year 2018, a sign the economy remains sound despite recent turmoil. Georgia’s inland and coastal ports are vital cogs in the state’s economy, and in some ways canaries in the global economic coal mine. The volume of cargo that flows in and out of the Savannah and Brunswick harbors are bellwethers of U.S.

Funding public transportation projects would reduce road casualties

In the list of things that sound American, owning a car would possibly be at the top. This is not just a stereotype anymore; the U.S. ranks second in the world in the list of motor vehicles owned, with 910 vehicles per 1,000 people – only below San Marino, a microstate less than one-tenth the size of New York City. With so many vehicles, it is crucial to look at ways to reduce accidents on the road, because traffic deaths in the U.S. are nearly three times as high as in compa

Augustine, Mineta Stress Need For More Highway Funding

The interstate highway system will become increasingly unreliable and congested – plus costlier to operate, maintain, and repair – if new funding sources are not located and the commitment between the states and federal government is not “re-strengthened.” [Above photo by Missouri DOT.] Those were the main takeaways from speeches by Norman Augustine and Norman Mineta given during the Chair’s Luncheon during the 2019 Transportation Research Board annual meeting last week in Wa

San Marcos boom: thousands of jobs could soon be coming to city

In addition to Texas State University, and the outlet malls, and Gary Job Corps, San Marcos is set to get another notch in its economic belt. The city announced it will annex 934 acres of land just east of the city, along the Hays and Caldwell County line. The plans for the massive acreage are to turn it into an industrial park - The San Marcos Air Rail and Truck Terminal (SMART). “It will be a rail-served industrial park which as we understand is the only one between San Ant

Port of Long Beach’s Cordero - $4 billion investment “paying off”

Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, says the Port’s $4 billion capital improvement investment is “paying off.” Investment Pays Off In an exclusive interview with AJOT, Cordero said the investment will allow the Port to handle mega container ships: “right now, we are routinely handling ships of 13,000 and 14,000 teus and we will soon have the capacity to handle 19,000 teu (twenty-foot container unit) ships.” The growth of the North Asia to Europe trade

BOEING’S FLYING TAXI PROTOTYPE TAKES TO THE AIR (BRIEFLY)

TAKE THE BODY of a small plane with stubby wings. Replace the wheels with heavy-duty helicopter skids, add four buzzing dronelike electric fans to each one, and you’ll have something like Boeing’s prototype flying taxi. It's a slightly ungainly-looking setup for a flying machine, which are usually sleek and streamlined, but it has just completed a short first test flight, and it has the lofty goal of being the sort of machine you could hail to get a traffic-skipping ride acro

THE PRIME CHALLENGES FOR AMAZON'S NEW DELIVERY ROBOT

NO MATTER WHO you ask, the near-future of delivery seems to involve fleets of robots shuffling packages from stores, down sidewalks, and onto doorsteps. Robots will lug grocery bags from market to kitchen; they’ll begin to replace humans delivering take-out and dropping off parcels. And soon, your Amazon Prime packages may show up courtesy of Scout, Amazon's new six-wheeled autonomous delivery robot built to withstand the sidewalk. Amazon announced on Wednesday that it will b

Port of New Orleans set container volume record in 2018

The port handled 591,253 TEUs last year. Photo – Port of NOLA The Port of New Orleans moved more containers in 2018 than at any time in its history, port officials announced yesterday. The port handled 591,253 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last year, a 12.3 percent increase over the TEUs moved in 2017. The record marked the fifth consecutive year that the port surpassed the half-million TEU-mark at its Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal, which is operated by New Orleans T

METRO Celebrates Milestone

StartFragmentMETRO Board Chair, Board Members and President & CEO mark anniversary with proclamation. METRO's Board of Directors launched its first meeting of 2019 with a celebration. This year marks 40 years of service for METRO which began operations in January 1979. At the time, METRO had an aging fleet of only 400 vehicles. It has grown to a network of over 1,200 buses, three light rail lines, paratransit services, HOV/ HOT Lanes and 27 Park & Ride facilities. Those are a

Va. port’s big cranes symbolize maritime industry ‘arms war’

Some of the largest cranes to operate at an East Coast commercial port have arrived in Virginia, marking the latest effort to accommodate the increasingly mammoth container ships that underpin international trade. Standing 170 feet tall, the Chinese-made gantry cranes towered over the ship that carried them through the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay this month. “Having these cranes sail into our harbor says, very clearly, to the ocean carriers and the industry that we are prepar

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