WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan have agreed to move forward with a comprehensive study that will help determine ways to reduce rail congestion and let trains achieve higher speeds along the Chicago-to-Detroit high-speed rail corridor. The goal of the study, which will be funded through a $3.2 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration and $200,000 each from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Norfolk Southern, is to reduce passenger travel times between Chicago and Detroit and efficiently move freight through one of the nation’s busiest freight rail networks, the congested Chicago to Porter, Ind., segment.  

WASHINGTON, D.C. — TRB standing committees have issued calls for papers for the TRB 92nd Annual Meeting, Jan. 13-17, 2013, in Washington, D.C, and the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (TRR). While papers addressing any relevant aspect of transportation research will be considered, some committees are soliciting papers in specific subject areas to help potential authors identify topics for their papers.  

HARTFORD, CONN. — Gannet Fleming, along with Parsons Transportation Group, Haley & Aldrich, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT), was honored by the Connecticut Valley Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) with the Innovative Transportation Solutions Award for the Reconstruction of U.S. Route 7 Project. This award is bestowed upon an outstanding local project with transportation elements that have contributed to the success of the initiative that supports one or more key community values, has overcome obstacles to build its project or provide its services, and has made a difference in the lives of its users.  

LANHAM, MD. — The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) opened registration for its 2102 Midyear Meeting, being held July 16–18 at the historic Drake Hotel on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. The theme for the 2012 meeting is “Magnificent Opportunities for Asphalt: Overcoming Challenges, Delivering Solutions,” which reflects the central messages of the event’s plenary sessions.  

PICO RIVERA, CALIF. — Caltrans, BNSF Railway, and Amtrak announced the groundbreaking of a $38 million rail project that will add 3.8 additional miles of track to the Los Angeles area, increasing efficiency and rail capacity. The project is fully-funded by an American Recovery & Reinvestment Act grant from the Federal Railroad Administration and is part of a larger $163 million, 15-mile main line track expansion between the cities of Commerce and Fullerton, known as the Triple Track Project, which lays an additional third track next to two existing lines.  

CHARLESTON, W.V. — The West Virginia Division of Highways (DOH) made a decision concerning the replacement of the Thomas Buford Pugh Memorial Bridge, which connects Fayette and Raleigh Counties. During a public comment period, two options were presented. Based on those comments from the public, the DOH will proceed with Option #2 — building a new bridge downstream from the existing bridge. This will allow traffic to remain open on the current bridge during construction of the new one, avoiding the need for a 60-mile detour.  

MONTREAL, CANADA — What if there was a way to vastly improve the safety, durability, and sustainability of bridges across North America without increasing spending? This was the question Saleh Abu Dabous set out to answer when he began his Ph.D. at Concordia. In a paper published in the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, Abu Dabous and his thesis supervisorSabah Alkass, professor of in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, came up with a new decision-making approach that could revolutionize how cities manage bridge infrastructure.  

FORT WORTH, TEXAS — BNSF Railway Company plans to invest an estimated $202 million on maintenance and rail capacity improvement and expansion projects in Nebraska this year. BNSF’s 2012 capacity enhancement projects in Nebraska include adding a second main line track in the Grand Island area; beginning work to replace BNSF’s bridge over the Missouri River between Plattsmouth, Neb., and Pacific Jct., Iowa; expansion of BNSF’s Lincoln locomotive shop, improvements to BNSF’s Havelock car shop, and significant signal upgrades for federally mandated positive train control (PTC).