AASHTO Journal, 9 January 2015
Nearly a dozen top executives of state transportation departments will fill out three “roundtable” policy discussions Jan. 13 at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
The event that draws thousands of transportation specialists from state and federal agencies, industry associations and companies will be Jan. 11-15 at the downtown Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and comes when many key officials in Congress are talking openly about crafting a major highway and transit bill.
The final makeup of the panels was shifting some in the week before the TRB meetings, but here are their topics.
The first will be 10:15 to noon on Tuesday, Jan. 13, when Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer leads a state CEO roundtable on “Funding Transportation Investments in an Uncertain Federal Fiscal Environment.”
From 1:30 to 3:15 that day, Michigan Transportation Director Kirk Steudle presides over a second CEO roundtable, this one on “Connected and Automated Vehicles — Challenges and Opportunities for State Departments of Transportation.” A different group of state CEOs will be on that panel.
Also on Tuesday, Wyoming Transportation Director John Cox — who is also AASHTO president for the coming year — hosts a third CEO roundtable from 3:45 to 5:30. It focuses on “Moving the Goods — Accommodating Major Changes in Freight Flows.”