Transport & Infrastructure News and Discussions

[raklian]

Damn. They were lucky.

[caltrek]

While the introductory paragraphs (see below) don’t directly discuss infrastructure development, they do introduce the topic of projects to affect the flow of the Mississippi River. Not surprisingly, there are plusses and minuses to some of the projects being contemplated. That is something discussed later in the linked article.

As the Louisiana Coast Disappears, the Mississippi River’s Newest Channel is Building Much-needed Land
by Lina Tran
June 17, 2022

Introduction:

(Grist) About 55 miles southeast of New Orleans, just before the leg of the Mississippi River splits into its three-toed foot of a delta, a crack in the river’s east bank has swollen into a massive channel. Over the past several years, it’s continued to expand, diverting more and more water from its parent river into the body of water on the other side, Quarantine Bay. Like any river, the Mississippi seeks efficiency: shorter, steeper paths to sea. That’s exactly what its new branch, known as Neptune Pass, offers.

Now, some 118,000 cubic feet of water spill through the mile-long channel every second — five times the discharge of New York’s Hudson River. It’s enough to throw off ships trying to navigate downstream, so the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the country’s waterways, is planning to close the errant channel next month. But that, in turn, raises another problem: Sediment carried along in the river water appears to be building tiny lumps of land just off the state’s rapidly disappearing coast along the Gulf of Mexico, leading state officials to view the breach as an opportunity to harness the river’s ability to restore lost wetlands. And they are lobbying to keep the sediment flowing.

Starved of sediment, Louisiana has been slipping away, hastened by sinking land and rising seas. Wetlands are crucial for shielding the coast. They absorb the flood waters brought by powerful, climate change-fueled storms and are home to a diverse array of fish and creatures like alligators and herons. “The more wetlands we have between our communities and the Gulf of Mexico, between our communities and a hurricane that’s approaching our coast, the better off we are,” said Bren Haase, executive director of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

Read more here: https://grist.org/science/louisiana-co ... ing-land/

Edit: Slight change to introductory remarks to make for an easier read.

[caltrek]

It would appear that the love affair with the car at the expense of public transit is not confined to just California (see below).

More Trouble for Metro Rail in Indian Cities
by Vidyadhar Date
June 19, 2022

Introduction:

(Janata Weekly) The Metro rail network is failing miserably in different cities. In Bangalore steps to check the falling ridership of Namma Metro are not helping. Its daily pass scheme too has drawn poor response. In a city of millions, only four people bought a three day pass costing Rs 400 on April 5. With the pass you can travel any number of times on the Metro.

In Mumbai in the new Metro line the response is so poor, one can count on one’s fingers the number of commuters in the compartment or in the station. I noticed that myself.

The Metro authorities everywhere have been claiming that Metro will bring down car use. But car use is increasing rapidly and this is very depressing, says D.T. Devare, a transport activist from Bangalore and corporate executive, who prefers to use public transport to his car. Sadly, even bus use is falling in Bangalore.

So Bangalore, despite the Metro, is becoming more congested. Part of the reason is the craze for cars. In the IT information technology industry high pay right from the beginning of the career is pushing up car sales. Then people start buying new cars after three to four years, they go for bigger size cars causing more congestion. They are spoiling the countryside and hill stations. Mr Devare said because of heavy car traffic roads are being widened in hill station areas and trees are being cut adding to the environment crisis.

Sadly, corporate companies give incentives to employees to buy cars. The Central government’s urban affairs ministry has in a circular asked state governments to promote non-motorized transport and reduce car use but this is more in the nature of lip service.

Read more here: https://janataweekly.org/more-trouble- ... n-cities/

[Yuli Ban]

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

Hmmm.

[caltrek]

Joyful, Comfortable, Connected: Why Your Community Could Benefit from a Bike Highway
July 7, 2022

Introduction:

(Alta) Bike highways could be the future of bike transportation. Two new projects in the (San Francisco) Bay Area demonstrate their benefits and the practical ways communities can incorporate them into existing active transportation networks.

Bike highways are low-stress routes that provide an efficient option for long-distance bike travel. In some areas, bike highways follow off-street paths and trails. In others, they utilize separated on-street bikeways with design features that promote a feeling of openness, safety, flow, and physical comfort. They’re unique from other biking facilities and routes because they generally serve as a fully separated backbone to larger regional bicycle networks. In addition to providing separation from vehicle traffic and a space designed exclusively for people biking, they feature superior surface quality, consistent lighting, wayfinding and signage, accessibility elements, low grades, and wide pathways.

So what makes bike highways different from other bikeways?

• They are direct. Bike highways have a regional focus to help people travel farther by bike, no matter the day or time.

• They are accessible. They ensure connections from communities to key destinations like work, school, or the grocery store.

• They are dedicated and efficient. Bike highways use high-quality design features to create a route that is mostly separated from cars and includes features to minimize delay for people riding bikes.

• They are attractive. They provide a positive and safe user experience.

Read more here: [ur] https://blog.altaplanning.com/joyful-co ... 1e43a13927 [/url]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Detroit’s new personalized flight information board is straight out of a sci-fi novel

Harriet Baskas
Yesterday

Delta Air Lines passengers at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) can now access innovative technology that seems straight out of a sci-fi novel.

The technology — which is appropriately named Parallel Reality — makes it possible for one giant digital screen in the terminal to display personalized travel itinerary details for up to 100 people at a time.

No one sees a big jumble of information, though. Instead, each person looking up at or walking by the screen sees a message addressing them by name, with their mileage program status, flight information and the estimated time it will take them to get to their gate.

“The technology does sound like science fiction,” said Albert Ng, CEO of Misapplied Sciences, the company that created the Parallel Reality product. However, after more than five years in what he described as “stealth mode,” the company worked out a propriety method of getting the pixels of a display board to send different content to each viewer.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/personal- ... splay-dtw/

[weatheriscool]

Delta buys 100 Boeing Max planes, its first major order with the manufacturer in more than a decade
Source: CNBC

By Leslie Josephs

Delta Air Lines is buying 100 Boeing 737 Max 10 planes, its first major order for new aircraft from the U.S. manufacturer in more than a decade.

The deal has options for 30 more of the planes. Deliveries are slated to begin in 2025.

The new order is good news for Boeing as Airbus recently won high-profile sales, including to several of China’s state-owned airlines. Boeing lamented trade tensions when that order was announced.

Delta said Monday that the order will modernize its narrow-body fleet as the carrier seeks to capitalize on a rebound in travel following the record slump caused by the Covid pandemic. It said the Max planes will be 20%-30% more fuel-efficient than the jetliners they will replace.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/18/delta-b ... ecade.html

[weatheriscool]

More than 900 US flights canceled, and 6,300 US flights delayed on Sunday
Source: CNN

By Chuck Johnston

(CNN)Another wave of airline cancellations and delays is being felt across the United States on Sunday.

According to the flight tracking website, FlightAware, there have been 912 flights canceled so far on Sunday.

A total of 6,378 flights have been delayed across the United States.

Chicago O'Hare saw the most cancellations and delays on Sunday, with approximately 12% of flights canceled, and over 40% of flights delayed.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/07/business ... index.html

[weatheriscool]

U.S. opens probe into 1.7 million Ford vehicles over brake hose recall
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators said Friday they are investigating whether a 2020 Ford Motor Co (F.N) recall for vehicles with front brake hoses rupturing prematurely is adequate.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is opening a recall query into 1.7 million U.S. Ford 2013-2018 model year Fusion and Lincoln MKZ cars after receiving 50 complaints alleging front brake hose failures. Ford recalled 488,000 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX vehicles in 2020 in the United States for brake hose failures.

Ford said it would cooperate with NHTSA's probe. NHTSA said many complaints reported brake hoses are rupturing, leaking brake fluid and occurring with little or no warning. The safety agency said it is aware of one alleged crash as a result of a failed brake hose.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- ... 022-08-12/

[weatheriscool]

The world's first hydrogen-powered passenger trains are here
Source: CNN

CNN 24th August 2022

The future of environmentally friendly travel might just be here -- and it's Germany that's leading the charge, with the first ever rail line to be entirely run on hydrogen-powered trains, starting from Wednesday.

Fourteen hydrogen trains powered by fuel cell propulsion will exclusively run on the route in Bremervörde, Lower Saxony. The 93 million euro ($92.3 million) deal has been struck by state subsidiary Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LVNG), the owners of the railway, and Alstom, builders of the Coradia iLint trains. The Elbe-Weser Railways and Transport Company (EVB), which will operate the trains, and gas and engineering company Linde, are also part of the project.

The trains, five of which which debut Wednesday, will gradually replace the 15 diesel trains that currently run on the route, with all 14 running exclusively by the end of the year. Just 1 kilo of hydrogen fuel can do the same as around 4.5 kilos of diesel.

The trains are emissions-free and low-noise, with only steam and condensed water issuing from the exhaust. They have a range of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles), meaning they can run for an entire day on the network on a single tank of hydrogen. A hydrogen filling station has already been established on the route. The trains can go at a maximum of 140 kph, or 87mph, though regular speeds on the line are much less, between 80-120 kph...more

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cora ... index.html

[caltrek]

Federal Agency Recommends Removal of Four Lower Klamath River Dams
by Alanna Madden
August 26, 2022

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a final Environmental Impact Statement on Friday recommending the removal of the four lower Klamath River Dams along the border of Oregon and California. The dam removal project will be the largest such project in U.S. history second to the 2012 removal of the Elwha Dam on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

“Restoring the impounded reaches to a free-flowing river would have significant beneficial effect on restoring salmon runs, access to traditional foods, Tribal cultural practices, and a characteristic fluvial landscape,” read the environmental impact statement.

Additionally, dam removal is expected to improve water quality and fisheries along with terrestrial and aquatic resources used by nearby Tribes. “These benefits would aid in the continuation and restoration of Tribal practices and traditions that have been adversely affected.”

“It has been more than a century since our people have seen c’iyaals (salmon) in our rivers and streams,” said Klamath Tribes’ Chairman Clayton Dumont in statement. “So FERC’s quick pace completing the comprehensive review of dam removals will be sweet news for our community(.)”

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/federal ... ver-dams/

[caltrek]

GOP Repeatedly Opposed Infrastructure Upgrades. Now This Mississippi City Has No Safe Water
by Kenny Stancil
August 30, 2022

Introduction:

( Common Dreams) As many as 180,000 people in Jackson, Mississippi will not have access to safe running water for the foreseeable future, state officials said Monday night—the latest manifestation of a longstanding crisis in which the city's residents have been made to suffer the consequences of chronically underfunded infrastructure, compounded by a worsening climate emergency.

"Do not drink the water," Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said at a press conference. "In too many cases, it is raw water from the reservoir being pushed through the pipes. Be smart, protect yourself, protect your family, preserve water, look out for your fellow man, and look out for your neighbors."

Reeves, a Republican who has refused to prioritize upgrading Jackson's failing infrastructure throughout his two years in office, declared a state of emergency and announced, "We need to provide water for up to 180,000 people for an unknown period of time."

"This is a very different situation from a boil-water notice," Reeves continued. "Until it is fixed, we do not have reliable running water at scale. The city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency will take the state's lead on distributing drinking water and non-drinking water to residents of the City of Jackson."

Jackson—a majority-Black city where roughly a quarter of residents live below the poverty line—had already been "without clean, drinkable water" for weeks, Mississippi Free Press reported Monday, referring to the rolling precautionary boil-water notice issued by the state health department amid the ongoing winterization of the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... s-no-safe

[caltrek]

Intense Heat and Flooding are Wreaking Havoc on Power and Water Systems as Climate Change Batters America’s Aging Infrastructure
by Paul Chinowsky
September 7 , 2022

Introduction:

(The Conversation) The 1960s and 1970s were a golden age of infrastructure development in the U.S., with the expansion of the interstate system and widespread construction of new water treatment, wastewater and flood control systems reflecting national priorities in public health and national defense. But infrastructure requires maintenance, and, eventually, it has to be replaced.

That hasn’t been happening in many parts of the country. Increasingly, extreme heat and storms are putting roads, bridges, water systems and other infrastructure under stress.

Two recent examples – an intense heat wave that pushed California’s power grid to its limits in September 2022, and the failure of the water system in Jackson, Mississippi, amid flooding in August – show how a growing maintenance backlog and increasing climate change are turning the 2020s and 2030s into a golden age of infrastructure failure.

I am a civil engineer whose work focuses on the impacts of climate change on infrastructure. Often, low-income communities and communities of color like Jackson see the least investment in infrastructure replacements and repairs.

Crumbling bridge and water systems

The United States is consistently falling short on funding infrastructure maintenance. A report by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker’s Volcker Alliance in 2019 estimated the U.S. has a US$1 trillion backlog of needed repairs.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/intense-he ... re-189761

[caltrek]

This article is slightly dated, but from a news source that I don’t think most of us regularly monitor.

Valley Cities Beat Back the Heat
by Alastair Bland
August 24, 2022

Introduction:

(Knee Deep Times) Asphalt roadways buckled last summer in Washington state under the searing sun. This summer, tiles melted off a museum rooftop in Chongqing, China, and near Concord, a BART train derailed when the tracks warped in blowtorch conditions. The world is warming, but cities, especially, are feeling the heat. In these urban concentrations of infrastructure, hot weather is made hotter by vast expanses of asphalt, close-set buildings, and countless humming motors and combustion engines.

This “urban heat island effect” concerns urban planners and health officials around California. Now, they’re studying potential solutions to help city-dwellers beat the heat. Shelley Jiang, an analyst with the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, says measures like rooftop gardens and heat-reflecting roads, both of which can help reduce a city’s temperatures, will be critical in the future.

“Twenty years down the line we may have a climate that’s more like Tucson or even Phoenix, so for people who think they know what extreme heat is like in Sacramento, well, it’s going to be a lot worse,” Jiang says.

By mid-century, Sacramento County will experience triple-digit temperatures between two and three times as frequently as it did in the first decade of this century, according to modeling by the Public Health Institute. Average daily maximum temperatures could increase by 10 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, and similar projections have been made for other parts of California.

Read more here: https://www.kneedeeptimes.org/valley-c ... the-heat/

[wjfox]

Air New Zealand connects Auckland and New York for the first time ever

Lilit Marcus, CNN • Updated 19th September 2022

After 16 hours in the sky, Air New Zealand's first ever direct flight to New York City arrived at JFK airport on September 17.

The flight, NZ2, was first announced back in March and has been a major cornerstone of the airline's post-pandemic rebound. Its companion flight, NZ1, flies the opposite route from JFK to Auckland in about 17.5 hours.

"As one of the world's greatest cities, Air New Zealand is proud to add the Big Apple to its list of 29 international destinations," Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran said in a statement, adding that the filght connects his two favorite cities in the world.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/ ... index.html

[caltrek]

Picturesque Japan Railway Line Fully Reopens After 11 Years
October 1, 2022

Introduction:

(Fukishima Japan) A local railway line straddling Fukushima and Niigata prefectures, renowned for its breathtaking natural views, fully reopened Saturday, more than 11 years after a 27.6-kilometer section of the track was rendered unusable by torrential rain.

Many gathered to ride or witness the packed trains on the picturesque JR Tadami Line, which has been using replacement bus services between Aizu-Kawaguchi and Tadami stations since three metal bridges that cross the Tadami River were washed away in the July 2011 downpour.

The 135.2-kilometer line running from Aizu-Wakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture and Koide Station in Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture, snakes through mountains and over rivers in rural Japan, offering breathtaking countryside views.

The restoration was achieved in part due to local requests, with JR East initially calling for the continued use of buses.

The roughly 9 billion yen ($62 million) in restoration expenses was partly subsidized by the national government, with JR East and the prefectural and local governments also shouldering costs. While it is hoped that the line's full return will encourage tourism, it comes as concerns mount over how to sustain loss-making local trains.

Read more here: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/202 ... ears.html

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

^^^Overall, very impressive.

I would rethink access and departure a little bit. They can't seem to make up their mind about whether they will be traveling all the time or will be stationary. Docking while the vessel is on the move will be a very different from docking while in a relatively stationary position. Think of the turbulence while moving. Also, the legs are taken up in large part by swimming pools. Wouldn't you want some on loading and off loading capabilities there instead?

Also, the airstrips seem well suited to VTOL aircraft, but I am not so sure about trying to use those runways for anything other than VTOLs.