Don't miss Aviaition Day on Feb. 3

The Kansas Department of Transportation Aviation Division will be celebrating all things aviation at the Statehouse in Topeka from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3.

            

“Our mission for Aviation Day is to showcase the impact the aviation industry has in Kansas,” said Aviation Director Jesse Romo. “The event will be set up for networking, to give stakeholders and legislators the chance to meet and discuss the contributions aviation businesses make to the Kansas economy.”

            

Several industry leaders are scheduled to attend and represent companies, including Bombardier Learjet, Spirit AeroSystems, Textron Aviation, Kansas Association of Airports, Kansas State University, National Institute for Aviation Research, the Kansas Agricultural Aviation Association, Dodge City Community College, Wichita Area Technical College and LifeTeam.

 
The event is being held in the rotunda area of the Capitol, with display tables located on the first floor. If you have interest in supporting Kansas aviation and would like to attend you can find more information at www.KansasAviationDay.com.

Happy Kansas Day

We hope all of you are celebrating Kansas Day in some fashion today.  Be sure to check out our twitter account, @KDOTHQ, which will be featuring Kansas trivia throughout the day.

And tell us your favorite thing about Kansas in the comment box below.

1933 Bridge demonolished

The main span of the Fairfax bridge was demolished over the weekend. The bridge, built in 1933, had carried southbound U.S. Highway 69 traffic.  Check out the video below.

Where can I find what highway projects are going to be built?

Under the Governor’s budget proposal announced Jan. 16, money will be transferred from the State Highway Fund without impacting any of the already-announced KDOT projects. So, how does one find out what’s already been announced and where those projects are?

It’s simple. Go to the T-WORKS website (T-WORKS is the state’s 10-year transportation program), click on the “Projects” tab at the top, and select your search parameter – by county, route, region or the entire state. That will display projects that have already been announced and will be built.  

Obey the Rules of the Road

Check out this new video from the Los Angeles Police Department, which is designed to bring awareness to pedestrian safety.  While traffic deaths have declined in America, pedestrian deaths have remained unchanged in recent years.  And some cities have experienced significant increases.

Wednesday's Words

Last night, President Barack Obama mentioned transportation in his State of the Union address.  Below is the excerpt of the speech that referred to it. 

"21st century businesses need 21st century infrastructure — modern ports, stronger bridges, faster trains and the fastest internet. Democrats and Republicans used to agree on this. So let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline. Let’s pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could create more than thirty times as many jobs per year, and make this country stronger for decades to come."

Sen. Joni Ernst did not reference transportation specifically in the GOP response, but she did stress the need for bipartisan support of job creating investments.

Check out this video of a Kansas City bridge demolition

London Fairfax bridge is falling down.  The video below shows the partial demolition of the U.S. 69 bridge in Kansas City, Kan. The main span of the bridge will be demolished  later this month.

Announced road/bridge projects will be built

All T-WORKS projects already scheduled for letting will be constructed under the budgets proposed by the Governor today. 

Scheduled projects under T-WORKS, the state’s 10-year transportation program, include both expansion and preservation projects and can be viewed on the T-WORKS website, www.ksdot.org.  

Preservation projects include a variety of work ranging from light resurfacing and bridge repair to full pavement reconstruction and bridge replacement. Expansion projects add lanes or interchanges to a roadway. 

Remaining available T-WORKS dollars will fund additional preservation projects to a level that allows KDOT to maintain a positive ending balance in the State Highway Fund. 

“Anticipated year-end balances are very fluid,” said Transportation Secretary Mike King. 

“They are shaped by a number of ever-changing variables and assumptions. Based on KDOT’s most current set of information and assumptions, the T-WORKS program can support funding projects at a level that achieves the performance targets for road and bridge conditions,” Secretary King said.

Today’s budget proposal adds $55 million to transfers for FY 2015. Combined with allotments announced in December, along with legislatively-approved transfers in 2014, the total FY 2015 transfer is $421 million. 

The Governor’s budget recommendation proposes a transfer of $377 million for FY 2016 and $378 million for FY 2017. To accommodate these transfers, projected T-WORKS construction lettings will be as follows:

FY 2015                     FY 2016                     FY 2017

$608 million              $636 million              $718 million

 
These numbers reflect a delay in lettings of $297 million total for fiscal years 2015 and 2016. 

“Future savings from lower-than-anticipated bids and other agency savings, combined with additional revenue sources, will go toward funding projects delayed to the latter years of the T-WORKS program,” said Secretary King.
  
Planned anticipated lettings for FY 2017 won’t change.

Throwback Thursday

In honor of tonight's State of the State address, here is a look back at Gov. Sam Brownback's first speech in 2011. 





Tonight's State of the State address will be at 6:30 p.m.

The 2015 Transportation Safety Most Wanted List

The National Transportation Safety Board just released their list of the top 10 list of where transportation safety must improve.  Check out the video below to see what made the list.

White House outlines 30-year transportation plan

On Monday, the Obama administration unveiled the initial findings of a 30-year transportation framework.  A full report about the plan will be released later this year but the White House revealed some of the initial conclusions.

Some of the key points include:

• The report will outline the challenge of rapid population growth, particularly the need for infrastructure expansion in the South and West, while meeting demand for replacing roads, bridges and other critical systems in the aging Northeast and Midwest.

•  An American Society of Civil Engineers report two years ago concluded that it would take a $3.6 trillion investment by 2020 to meet infrastructure needs, about $1.6 trillion short of current spending. The Miller Center said maintaining infrastructure at current levels required additional spending of $134 billion to $194 billion each year through 2035.

•  The increasing number of people living in urban centers instead of suburbs may put a higher demand on transit, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.

•  “What people are viewing as this cute, cuddly bike and pedestrian movement could be a real game changer,” DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx said.

•  With shopping shifting from retail to online ordering, getting packages delivered on time could influence the traffic congestion issue that plagues major urban centers.

•  If the United States moves toward becoming an exporter of natural gas, a shortage of pipelines will stress rail systems. The development of remote-pay systems by smartphone or E-ZPass may change the way people pay for transportation.

•  With autonomous cars and, perhaps, trucks, on the horizon, daily travel may change profoundly in the next two decades.

Legislative Session begins today

 We want to congratulate all Kansas legislators who will be sworn in today at 11 a.m. 

Governor Sam Brownback will also give his inaugural address following the swearing-in ceremony. The 2015 Session will officially begin at 2 p.m. today.

And don't miss the Governor's State of the State address, which will be at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.

KDOT websites will be unavailble for an hour on Saturday, service may be disrupted throughout the day

Visitors to State of Kansas websites may experience brief disruptions in service this weekend.  The Office of Information Technology Services will be performing equipment upgrades that will result in services being completely unavailable between 8-9 a.m. and which may cause brief disruptions in service from 9  a.m. through 4 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 10.

The work will affect all state agency websites, including www.ksdot.org, www.kandrive.org and the 511 phone system.  The Department of Labor unemployment insurance benefit site, www.getkansasbenefits.gov, will be affected. Claimants may still file weekly claims by calling the following numbers: Kansas City, 913/287-6913; Topeka, 785/296-4337; and Wichita 316/269-0633. The KSWebFile site, which allows people to file their taxes online, also will be affected by Saturday’s outage.

All websites should be operating normally by Sunday, Jan. 11.  The upgrades should provide more reliable internet service for state employees and Kansas residents.

What does this mean to you? 

You will not be able to view the websites from 8-9 a.m. on Saturday.  For the rest of the day, if you are able to view the KDOT websites, such as Kandrive, it means they are working. If you're unable to view them, keep checking back as the disruption should not be that long.

Throwback Thursday

A little trivia for you today.  What year did K-17 highway become K-61 highway?  Give us your guess in the comment box below.

Wednesday's Words

 "America once led the world in building and maintaining a nationwide network of safe and reliable bridges and roads," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said. "Let's rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. Let's make our country safer and more efficient. Let's put millions of Americans back to work."

Sanders plans to introduce legislation to authorize $1 trillion in infrastructure spending and provide 13 million jobs.  To learn more, click here.

A new invention hopes to revolutionize transportation in 2015

It's not a hover board, but Marty McFly would have given them a try.

A French company, Rollkers, has released the world's first electronic "under shoes".  Basically, they're a personal transportation device that consists of motorized wheels that attach to your soles, allowing you to walk faster, up to seven miles per hour.

Check out the video below to learn more.

New rules for musical instruments on planes

The U.S. Department of Transportation today issued a final rule to implement section 403 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which requires that U.S. airlines accept musical instruments as carry-on or checked baggage on commercial passenger flights, provided that certain conditions are met.   

“At DOT, we know how important instruments are to musicians and are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that they are not damaged while being transported on airlines,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.  “This final rule implements the statute, and it will go a long way towards keeping instruments safe when they fly – from allowing them in the cabin if there’s space for safe stowage, to letting passengers buy a seat for certain large instruments.”

The rule requires that each U.S. carrier subject to this regulation allow a passenger to carry into the cabin and stow a small musical instrument, such as a violin or a guitar, in a suitable baggage compartment, such as the overhead bin or a closet, or under the seats, in accordance with FAA safety regulations and the carrier’s FAA-approved carry-on baggage program.

Carriers must allow passengers to stow their small musical instruments in an approved stowage area in the cabin if at the time the passenger boards the aircraft such stowage space is available.  Under the rule, musical instruments as carry-on items are treated no differently from other carry-on items and the stowage space should be made available for all carry-on items on a “first come, first served” basis.  Carriers are not required to give musical instruments priority over other carry-on baggage, therefore passengers traveling with musical instruments may want to buy the pre-boarding option offered by many carriers to ensure that space will be available for them to safely stow their instruments in the cabin.