P.M. Executive Briefing - June 29
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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Bush, Gore Duke it Out Over Fuel
Campaigning in Ohio on Wednesday, Vice President Gore proposed a schedule of tax credits for purchases of energy-saving trucks and other vehicles. The $48 billion list of subsidies includes a $15,000 tax credit for buying tractor-trailers and other trucks that are "highly energy-efficient."As both Gore and George W. Bush invoked high fuel prices during campaign stops in the Midwest, Bush sometimes came off like a populist Democrat while Gore, with his emphasis on corporate subsidies, resembled a conservative supply-sider.
A Gore spokesman said the plan to extend the moratorium was "an incentive to increase domestic energy production, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and cut energy." Washington Post (06/29/00) P. A4; Neal, Terry M.; Edsall, Thomas B.
Mexico, U.S. Elections Leave the Future of Nafta's Transportation Chapter Uncertain
With elections going on in both Mexico and the United States, this year's events in both countries are bound to affect the Nafta Transportation Chapter. While the effect in the U.S. will depend on whether Al Gore or George W. Bush wins the presidential election Gore is expected to continue resisting implementation of the chapter, while Bush will implement it the Mexican side of things is less clear. Since implementation of the chapter was first put off by the Clinton administration in late 1995, the transportation-industry leadership in Mexico has changed.The current president of Canacar Mexico's National Cargo Transport Chamber is Miguel Quintanilla Rebollar, and he, like the heads of the country's biggest carriers, is a fervent opponent of the chapter. He says Mexican companies are afraid of being overwhelmed by the number of U.S. trucks, which are also much newer than those used by Mexican carriers.
While many U.S. and Mexican carriers have put together deals to haul freight for one another, U.S. companies' impression of Mexican trucks is made even worse by the poor condition of the tractors used by "burreros," the Mexican carriers who haul freight over the border.
Quintanilla says the Transportation Chapter needs no revisions, but it needs to be put into effect according to the timing of the original schedule. Transportation & Distribution Online (06/00); Mireles, Ricardo Castillo
Lane Closures in Store for D.C.-Area’s I-95 Wilson Bridge
That huge, costly and crucial project to repair and expand the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on Interstate 95 near Washington, D.C. will include a new deck for its draw span, and perhaps by late August that could start with up to 10 nights of periodic lane closures, the project group announced.The bridge connects Virginia with Maryland over the Potomac River just southeast of D.C.’s Reagan National Airport. It opens for boat traffic and is a major artery for truck and highway traffic along the East Coast. It was designed to carry 75,000 vehicles daily but already carries nearly 200,000, and the bottleneck it creates backs up northbound I-95 traffic for miles, stretching past the American Trucking Associations’ headquarters in Alexandria, Va.
Nick Nicholson of the Virginia Department of Transportation said the draw span’s steel deck "is worn out from so much daily wear and tear." VDOT will award a contract soon to replace the steel grid deck and make other repairs to the draw span. Measuring the deck will require 5-10 weekday nights of lane closures from late August to November, and these will take place between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. eastern time. Transport Topics staff
Information on Interstate 25, 40 Project Finds Its Way to Truckers
News of the two-year reconstruction plan for the Interstate 25 and Interstate 40 interchange in New Mexico, called the "Big I" project, is slowly being relayed to truck drivers.A notice about the Big I project hangs on the bulletin board at ABF Freight System, so drivers can plan their routes, said Randy Archer, a manager at ABF in Albuquerque. Archer said he does not expect shipments to be delayed too much unless the construction delays get to be over an hour.
Information about the $270 million project can be found in the local media and Web sites, while the state AAA is passing along information to the national office. The Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau is giving out information at its three information centers in the area, and tour companies who operate in Albuquerque have been given information as well.
Traffic reports, variable-message highway signs, and a Web site at www.theBigI.com are all being used to notify out-of-state drivers about the project. Albuquerque Journal Online (06/29/00); Jojola, Lloyd
Compiled by Transport Topics staff and INFORMATION, INC. © 2000
