The Cummins 2010 ISX will meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements without using selective catalytic reduction.
Cummins said its heavy-duty diesel engines that comply with the EPA’s 2010 standards will not require NOx aftertreatment, although its medium-duty engines will use SCR technology. SCR reacts with the NOx in a catalytic converter to produce nitrogen and water.
The decision to meet 2010 standards without SCR in heavy-duty engines contrasts with announcements from Detroit Diesel and Volvo/Mack that their 2010 engine solutions will employ SCR.
At a Sept. 23 news conference in Nashville, Steve Charlton, Cummins executive director of heavy-duty engineering, announced that the new engines would use a combination of a new XPI high-pressure common rail (HPCR) injection system, an improved combustion chamber, improved cooled exhaust gas recirculation, advanced electronic controls, variable geometry turbochargers, and the Cummins diesel particulate filter.
Cummins also said the 2010 products in North America will include an 11.9-liter engine to replace the present ISM, and 16-liter diesel engines to complement its 15-liter product for the present higher ISX power ratings. All will share a common architecture that includes the XPI HPCR, said Ed Pence, vice president and general manager of Cummins’ heavy-duty engine business.
The Cummins Particulate Filter, built by Cummins and introduced in 2007, will be the only after-treatment required for the 2010 model except for a small, close-coupled catalyst that enhances active DPF regeneration to minimize fuel use.
Reducing NOx by simply adding more EGR would mean a much larger, heavier engine, but the more consistent high pressure produced by the XPI system, and the better combustion chamber, will reduce the amount of air flowing in. This also increases the potency of recirculated exhaust in killing NOx by reducing its oxygen content, minimizing the increase in EGR, Charlton said. These changes minimize the impact on engine size and stresses. Cummins chose this path with an eye to uptime, operational efficiency and cost of ownership.
There was a different set of priorities for midrange engines, including diverse application and the need for a wide power range that made SCR attractive, said Jeff Weikert, executive director of midrange engineering.
SCR is operationally more attractive there than in long-haul heavy-duty applications because the rate of urea consumption is lower and because midrange equipment typically returns to base daily for fueling and maintenance.
– Avery Vise and John Baxter
Hours rule change on hold until Dec. 27
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided Sept. 28 to hold the current hours-of-service regulations in place until Dec. 27 to give the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration time to consider changes in the rule in light of the court’s July 24 decision.
In its July opinion, the court voided the 11 hours of driving and the 34-hour restart on the grounds that the public didn’t have adequate notice of FMCSA’s methodology for analyzing crash risk.
The three-month stay – the legal term for a delay in implementing a ruling – was a partial victory for the American Trucking Associations, which previously asked the court for an eight-month stay. Without a stay request, the court’s decision could have voided the current hours rule Sept. 7.
In supporting ATA’s request, FMCSA had asked for a 12-month stay, saying it was needed to “prevent substantial disruption of trucking operations.”
Other parties requesting a stay included UPS, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the National Industrial Transportation League, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the National Small Shipments Traffic Conference, the Health and Personal Care Logistics Conference and the Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association.
The court also rejected the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association’s request for a rehearing on its challenge to the current regulations, including the restrictions on split rest in sleeper berths.
– Avery Vise and Jill Dunn
Volvo: Fuel, not technology, limits advances in ‘CO2-free’ trucks
The adoption of climate-friendly trucks is limited only by biofuels, which are in short supply and uneven in quality, Volvo’s CEO said Sept. 19.
“The technology exists, but we need the fuels,” Leif Johansson, chief executive officer of the Volvo Group, told journalists and public policy experts in Brussels, Belgium.
To prove Johansson’s point, Volvo rolled out seven heavy-duty Volvo trucks, each powered by a different renewable substitute for petroleum-based diesel fuel. The seven Volvo FM trucks are equipped with modified Volvo 9-liter diesel engines.
While the engines could be available immediately, the supply of biofuels is quite small, especially in Europe, Johansson said.
Johansson identified three chief reasons to shift from petroleum-based diesel: climate change, an approaching peak in oil production and political uncertainty.
“The diesel engine is an extremely efficient energy converter that is perfectly suited to many different renewable fuels, liquid or gaseous,” said Jan-Eric Sundgren, a senior vice president of public and environmental affairs for the Volvo Group.
The seven fuels or combinations of fuels that power Volvo’s “CO2-free” trucks are biodiesel; biogas; a biogas/biodiesel mixture; dimethyl ether; ethanol/methanol; synthetic diesel; and hydrogen gas plus biogas.
“The best thing would be if there were a globalized standard alternative fuel,” Johansson said, but noted that may not be politically and economically realistic.
– Avery Vise
Wisconsin trucker wins $29 million
When Steve Peot, a Green Bay, Wis., truck driver, bought a lottery ticket in his home state Sept. 5, he had no idea the purchase would be his ticket to winning more dollars than the number of miles he has driven in almost 25 years.
Peot, 45, presented the Wisconsin Lottery with the only winning ticket from the $29.1 million Powerball drawing. He purchased the winning ticket at a Superstore in De Pere. “I don’t play that often,” he said. “Sometimes when the jackpots are really up there.”
Peot, who chose the lump sum payment option of $13.7 million, says he’s not sure what he’s going to do with the money.
Married with two teenage children and another child on the way, Peot says he intends to continue living in Green Bay.
He is the second trucker to win big this year. Ed Nabors of Rocky Face, Ga., brought home $80 million after taxes in March when he won the lottery there.
– Staff reports
U.S. DOT will fund six interstate Corridors of the Future
The U.S. Department of Transporta-tion announced six interstate routes Sept. 10 that will be the first to participate in a new federal initiative to develop multistate corridors to help reduce congestion.
The routes will receive the following funding amounts to implement their development plans:
- $21.8 million for I-95 from Florida to the Canadian border.
- $5 million for I-70 in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
- $15 million for I-15 in Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California.
- $15 million for I-5 in California, Oregon and Washington.
- $8.6 million for I-10 from California to Florida.
- $800,000 for I-69 from Texas to Michigan.
The proposals’ concepts include building new roads and adding lanes to existing roads, building truck-only lanes and bypasses, and integrating real-time traffic technology such as lane management that can match available capacity on roads to changing traffic demands.
For more information on the selected corridors and the proposals, visit www.fightgridlocknow.gov.
– Staff reports
Freightliner changing its corporate name
Freightliner LLC announced Oct. 5 that its corporate name would change to Daimler Trucks North America LLC, effective Jan. 7, but operations, structure, brand strategies and dealer and supplier relationships would not be affected.
Freightliner LLC is the company behind Freightliner trucks and chassis, Detroit Diesel engines, Sterling and Western Star trucks, Mercedes-Benz engines and transmissions and Thomas Built buses.
– Staff reports
Pennsylvania moves closer to tolling I-80
Pennsylvania turnpike and state transportation department officials last month signed a 50-year lease agreement allowing tolls on Interstate 80. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the state turnpike commission also filed a formal application with the Federal Highway Administration Oct. 13 seeking federal authorization to toll and improve I-80.
Commission spokesman Carl DeFebo said they expect to receive federal conditional approval before 2008 that would allow them to proceed with environmental and engineering studies. The commission hopes to collect the first tolls in 2011.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association says that the organizations are rushing to sign a contract the public didn’t first see. “At the very least, it’s blatantly unethical on their part,” says OOIDA’s Todd Spencer.
– Jill Dunn
Event supports cross-border pilot funding
U.S. Department of Transportation officials, along with their Mexican counterparts, staged inspections of two 2007 Freightliner tractors outside DOT headquarters in Washington, D.C., Oct. 17.
“We want to demonstrate to Congress,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, “that trucks participating in this program will have the same features, the same upkeep, and the same [level of safety] that any U.S. truck has.”
At press time, Congress was considering two versions of the transportation appropriations bill for fiscal 2008. Both contain language that would cut funding for the administration’s cross-border trucking demonstration program.
A crowd of 30 or more Teamsters-affiliated protestors waved signs near the event, saying it proved nothing about the safety of Mexican trucks.
One of the inspected vehicles was Truck 52, a Columbia in the Nuevo Leon, Mexico-based Transportes Olympic fleet. The truck was the first under the pilot program to cross the border, Sept. 8. The other inspected truck was a Century Class owned by U.S. Xpress Enterprises.
As part of the cross-border program, stricter Level 1 inspections are performed at every crossing on “every truck, every time,” stressed FMCSA Administrator John Hill. The two tractors received a less-stringent Level 2 inspection by Trooper First Class Jason Lambert and Captain Bill Doffelmeyer, of the Maryland State Police, accompanied by Peters, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez.
“I think it’s insulting what they’ve done here today,” said Tommy Ratliff, former Consolidated Freightways driver and president of Washington, D.C.-based Teamsters Local 639. “Our drivers are held to standards. This proves nothing – what happens when the cameras go off?”
– Todd Dills
Updated guide to idling regs is online
An easy-to-read summary of idling law limits and exceptions for more than 30 jurisdictions nationwide has been updated.
Designed to be placed in a truck’s glove box, the cab card is available at www.atri-online.org. It’s compiled by the American Transportation Research Institute, a nonprofit funded by the American Trucking Associations.
Idling updates include:
- Rhode Island now has a 5-minute limit. It allows an exemption during regulated rest periods, but that exemption ends July 1, 2010.
- New Jersey has a 3-minute limit, but ends its current exemption for sleeper berth rest in 2010. New Jersey also exempts technologies that reduce engine idling. Truckers stopped more than three hours are allowed to idle 25 minutes when it is 25 degrees or colder.
– Jill Dunn
Dec. 1 is TruckTag deadline at ports
PierPass says trucks must have electronic TruckTags by Dec. 1 for routine admittance into the marine container terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Trucks without TruckTags will be processed through “exception handling,” which may include being denied access or processing via a “trouble ticket.” Trucking companies that already have received tags should install the tags on their trucks now and register the tag numbers in the eModal TruckerCheck program, which will activate the truck in the system.
A TruckTag on the driver’s-side rear-view mirror automatically is scanned and verified at the gate using radio frequency identification. The system also checks the driver’s CDL to verify authorization to enter the facility.
PierPass member terminals in the two ports are working to have all gates equipped with tag readers by December.
The tags are free but are available only to trucks registered in eModal’s TruckerCheck program. For more information, visit www.pierpass.org/trucktag or www.emodal.com.
– Kristie Busam
Pennsylvania plans fewer, better travel plazas for turnpike
Truckers may have more trouble finding parking along the Pennsylvania Turnpike the next few years, but relief is on the way.
The turnpike’s 18 travel plazas are being remodeled in a $170 million project, says spokesman Carl DeFebo. Each renovated plaza will offer more truck parking than it did before, DeFebo says, although he cannot say exactly how many more spaces would be created. “The challenge is to get more parking where we can,” DeFebo says.
The oldest plazas date to the opening of the first section of turnpike in 1940, the 160 miles between Carlisle and Irwin. Rather than rebuild a plaza a section at a time, a process that would take two to three years, officials elected to close three or four plazas annually between Labor Day and Memorial Day and completely rebuild them, DeFebo said. The first was Oakmont, which reopened in June.
In September, the Allentown, Sideling Hill and North Somerset plazas closed. The turnpike will close several more for remodeling each year until the entire project is finished in 2011.
Three travel plazas will be eliminated: Hempfield and South Neshaminy have closed, and North Neshaminy will close in 2010.
HMSHost and Sunoco, which historically have managed the plazas, were awarded the 30-year contract to build, manage and maintain the new plazas. The main buildings will be 5,000 square feet larger and have 24-hour convenience stores and restaurants.
Other improvements include “touch-free” restrooms, landscaped grounds with pet walking paths, and state-of-the-industry technology and security systems. Service stations will offer more modern fuel-pumping areas, more staffing and alternative fuels. The new Oakmont plaza, for example, includes an ethanol pump, but no biodiesel is sold on the turnpike yet.
The turnpike predicts gross sales at all 18 plazas will total $3.5 billion during the term of the lease. The turnpike will get a roughly 4 percent share of gross plaza receipts as rent and will receive 1 cent per gallon of diesel and gasoline sold, plus 1 percent of gross convenience store receipts.
A strong recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board several years ago resulted in the elimination of more than half the pull-off areas along the turnpike.
The board said pull-offs less than 30 feet wide should be eliminated after a bus crashed into a parked truck in a pull-off near Burnt Cabin, killing seven.
– Jill Dunn
UPS is expanding alt-fuel ‘green fleet’
UPS is adding 306 alternative fuel vehicles to its “green fleet,” ordering 167 compressed natural gas delivery trucks and taking delivery of 139 new propane delivery trucks in North America.
The company also plans to use 5 percent biodiesel fuel in its ground support vehicles at the UPS Worldport air hub in Louisville, Ky., beginning in early 2008.
The CNG trucks will be operational early next year in the UPS headquarters city, Atlanta, as well as Dallas and four California cities.
UPS’s global alternative-fuel fleet now stands at 1,629 vehicles and includes CNG, liquefied natural gas, propane and electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. The company also is working with the Environmental Protection Agency on a hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicle.
The propane and CNG trucks now in the UPS fleet were converted from gasoline and diesel vehicles in the 1980s to run on alternative fuels. The new trucks are originally manufactured for alternative fuel use.
The chassis for the CNG trucks are being purchased in two sizes from Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp. The trucks will feature engines from Cummins Westport that are expected to yield a 20 percent emissions reduction and 10 percent improvement in fuel economy over the cleanest diesel engines available in the market today.
The new propane-powered vehicles, made by Workhorse Custom Chassis with Baytech engines, will run on liquefied petroleum gas dispensed at eight UPS facilities in Canada.
– Staff reports
Three manufacturers display hybrid trucks at Seattle forum
Trucks from Kenworth, Mack and Peterbilt were on display Sept. 19-21 at the Hybrid Truck User Forum in Seattle. Paccar, parent company of Kenworth and Peterbilt, was a sponsor of the event.
Four Pete hybrid trucks were on display:
- The 386, a heavy-duty, long-haul electric hybrid developed with Eaton and Wal-Mart.
- The 320, a hydraulic hybrid trash truck with a 330-hp Cummins ISM engine and Eaton’s Hydraulic Launch Assist System.
- The 335, an electric hybrid with a 260-hp Paccar PX-6 engine, designed for urban delivery applications. With the hybrid system engaged, horsepower increases to 300.
- A utility version of the 335, also with a 260-hp Paccar PX-6 engine but with a Terex TC-55 Hi-Ranger body.
Kenworth displayed four medium-duty conventional hybrids: a pickup and delivery truck, a utility service truck, a municipal aerial truck and a straight chassis. Each was equipped with a 240-hp Paccar PX-6 engine rated at 560 lb.-ft. of torque.
Primary components included an automated transmission with an integral motor/generator unit; a frame-mounted, 340-volt battery pack; and a dedicated power management system.
Also on display was a Mack Granite electric hybrid dump truck with a 365-hp Mack MP7 engine. Built for the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Power Technology Office, it’s stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
“Hybrid technology looks very promising in the commercial vehicle market,” said Bob Christensen, Kenworth general manager and Paccar vice president. Estimates suggest that heavy-duty hybrids could improve fuel economy as much as 40 percent.
All hybrid diesel vehicles save fossil fuel by supplementing the diesel engine during normal operation. Electric hybrids alternate between the diesel engine and special batteries that store energy generated during such operations as braking. The batteries also can be used when parked to cut idling. Hydraulic hybrids supplement the diesel engine by recycling the truck’s kinetic energy through the circulation of pressurized fluids.
Paccar and Eaton recently agreed to develop proprietary hybrid technology for North American heavy-duty commercial vehicles. These new products will be introduced in Kenworth and Peterbilt Class 8 trucks for the North American market, targeted for initial production by the end of 2009.
– Staff reports
Time for independents to pay registration fee
If you’re operating under your own authority and engaged in interstate or international commerce, you should have received information on the United Carrier Registration Plan and Agreement. If not, you can contact your base state to make sure you are registered for UCRA.
Every state sets its own penalties, but the fee structure is the same. Fees are based on number of commercial motor vehicles, including tractors, trucks and trailers.
The fees range from $39 for one or two vehicles to $37,500 for more than 1,001.
States will begin enforcing registration Nov. 15, said Duane DeBruyne, a spokesman for the Federal Carrier Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Louisiana is an exception, having set Oct. 10 as its deadline.
Thirty-four states are UCRA participants. If a carrier does most of its business in one of these states, that state is a base state. If not, it can choose for its base state any participating state where it has an office or operating facility. Failing that, the carrier should choose the participating state nearest to its main place of business or pick any state within their FMCSA region.
If a carrier is based in Canada and Mexico but operates in interstate or international commerce in the United States, it is subject to the UCRA.
Regardless of its base state, a company may register and pay its fees online through the single national online UCRA system provided by the Indiana Department of Revenue on behalf of all the UCRA states. DeBruyne said the website is the best source of UCRA information: www.ucr.in.gov.
The UCRA was enacted by Congress and is state administered. It replaces the Single State Registration System. Unlike the previous system, private carriers, freight forwarders, brokers and leasing companies must register. Money collected under UCRA must go to safety, whereas before, it was not earmarked, DeBruyne said.
– Jill Dunn
Rough seas continue for harbor plan
California fleets are opposed to any clean-trucks plan that would deny independent operators the choice to remain self-employed, the California Trucking Association told state legislators Sept. 20.
“Improving working conditions for all truckers is a goal the CTA and its members share,” CTA said in a press release after the hearing. “But we do not believe that thousands of independent operators need to sacrifice their personal choice to get there.”
The controversial Clean Air Action Plan, approved in 2006 by harbor commissioners at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, not only would require the replacement or retrofitting of 16,000 diesel trucks working the harbor, but essentially would bar owner-operators from the ports for environmental and security reasons.
The ports would require all drivers on the premises to be carrier employees, on the premise that independent contractors are less accountable and their operations harder to regulate.
Currently, 1,300 motor carriers and 16,000 owner-operators service the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, the largest in the United States. More than 40 percent of all U.S. container trade passes through the ports.
– Jill Dunn
California seeks truckers’ opinions
California is seeking comments from truckers on a proposal to require retrofits of all older diesel engines to make them comply first to 2004 emissions standards and, later, to 2007 standards.
The California Air Resources Board held a series of workshops in late August on the plan, which exempts drayage trucks; the board is developing a separate regulation for them.
In mid-2008, board members will consider requiring retrofits to make 1993 and older truck engines 2004-emissions compliant by Dec. 31, 2009.
Truck engines manufactured from 1994 through 1997 would be required to be 2004-compliant by 2010, then 1998-99 engines by 2011, 2000-02 truck engines by 2012 and 2003-06 truck engines by 2013. All deadlines are by Dec. 31 of each year.
This excludes 2007 and newer engines, which must have a diesel particulate filter.
– Jill Dunn
Bridge oversight can improve, senators told
The Federal Highway Administration can do more in the short term to improve oversight of structurally deficient bridges, says the U.S. Department of Transportation’s inspector.
Calvin Scovel, in testimony Sept. 20 before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, highlighted bridge inspections and funding for bridge rehabilitation as significant challenges for DOT. Scovel made observations on FHWA’s actions to address prior recommendations regarding improving its oversight of structurally deficient bridges, and outlined actions that can be taken.
– Staff reports
Governor targets independent contractor misclassification
Calling the misclassification of employees as independent contractors a “growing epidemic,” New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has formed a task force to address the issue. A recent study said 10 percent of New York workers are misclassified.
Spitzer issued an executive order Sept. 7 that created a Joint Enforcement Task Force to be led by the state Department of Labor.
The task force is required to submit its first report to the governor Feb. 1.
A Cornell University review of state Department of Labor audits determined that misclassification is most common in the construction industry but also a problem in health care, retail, hotels, restaurants and transportation.
In recent years, the business relationships between leased owner-operators and trucking fleets have come under increased scrutiny by agencies including the National Labor Relations Board and the Internal Revenue Service, often encouraged by the Teamsters union.
The American Trucking Associations now publishes a newsletter devoted solely to updating its membership on attempts to reclassify owner-operators as employees.
– JILL DUNN
SHORT HAULS
TRANSPORTATION DEMAND is softening nationwide, though Chicago and Cleveland report no change, the Federal Reserve Board reported in its latest Beige Book. In St. Louis, transportation equipment companies plan to expand, while in Boston, sales of transportation equipment other than automobiles grew at a robust pace.
THE TURNOVER RATE for large truckload carriers was 127 percent in the first quarter, according to the American Trucking Associations. Small truckload carriers, defined as less than $30 million in annual revenue, had turnover of 102 percent. Less-than-truckload carriers had turnover of only 14 percent.
THE FREIGHT portion of the Transportation Services Index rose 0.4 percent in August. The freight index is down 3.7 percent from its peak in November 2005 but up 0.6 percent from its low in November 2006.
CITING HIGHER CRUDE OIL prices and projections of lower distillate inventories, the U.S. Department of Energy projects average retail diesel prices in 2008 of $2.96 per gallon, versus $2.82 per gallon expected for this year.
SCHNEIDER LOGISTICS, a Schneider National subsidiary, has bought a Chinese company, BaoYun Logistics. Finan-cial terms were not disclosed.
MENLO WORLDWIDE, the global logistics subsidiary of Con-way, is buying a Chinese company, Chic Holdings of Shanghai, for $60 million. Chic serves 78 cities in China’s east and interior. The expanded Asia-Pacific network will benefit Menlo and Con-way operations in North America, the company said.
DNJ TRANSPORTATION, based in Cicero, Ill., which specializes in international intermodal drayage, is being bought by the Hub Group through its Comtrak Logistics subsidiary for $12 million. DNJ’s 116-driver work force is 60 percent owner-operator.
TWO FLORIDA MEN, Levern Cooper and Pierre Angrand, pleaded guilty Sept. 13 to making and distributing fake commercial driver’s licenses, including CDLs with hazmat endorsements. Sentencing is Jan. 17.
THE SAFE DRIVING AWARD given annually to active members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association now is sponsored by Volvo Trucks North America.
A SUPREME COURT decision in Washington state reverses 20 years of precedent and violates the U.S. Constitution, the American Trucking Associations told the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled that overtime pay for truckers based in Washington should be based on out-of-state time as well as in-state time. ATA filed a brief in support of a trucking company’s request for appeal. The justices have not decided whether to hear the case.
A NEW WEBSITE, www.truckers4ronpaul.org, is designed to rally support among truckers for the presidential bid of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who was the Libertarian presidential candidate in 1988. The site is the work of self-described over-the-road trucker Aaron Turpen.
MELTON TRUCK LINES, a flatbed carrier based in Oklahoma, will make Iteris Lane Departure Warning technology standard equipment on its 1,000 trucks over the next three years. Whenever the system senses an unintended lane change, it emits sound to alert the driver.
HIGHWAY HAPPENINGS
CONNECTICUT. Until a runaway-truck ramp can be built and curves widened, trucks weighing more than 26,000 pounds are banned from commuter-heavy Route 44 between Route 218 in West Hartford and Route 10 in Avon. The 10 percent grade of Avon Mountain has claimed 14 lives since 1995.
INDIANA. Five southwest Indiana counties (Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin and Pike) changed from Central time to Eastern Nov. 4, when daylight-saving time ended, so people there won’t need to change their clocks. Affected cities include Jasper, Petersburg, Shoals, Vincennes and Washington; affected truck routes include U.S. 41, U.S. 50, U.S. 150 and U.S. 231.
KENTUCKY. State Vehicle Enforcement officers are cracking down on aggressive driving on I-71/75 south of Cincinnati, especially four-wheelers who speed, improperly change lanes and crowd trucks.
TENNESSEE. Police are cracking down on speeding trucks in the Nashville area in the wake of 14 tractor-trailer rollovers, 13 of them caused by speeding.
TEXAS. U.S. Customs hopes to alleviate border congestion in the El Paso area by encouraging alternate routes. On a recent day, while the median wait at the border was an hour at the Paso del Norte Bridge and 50 minutes at the Bridge of the Americas, the median wait was only five minutes at the Zaragoza Bridge, the Fabens Bridge and the Santa Teresa port of entry, the agency reported.
VIRGINIA. The state upgraded its 511 traffic-information service to include bridge and tunnel information and emergency messages, as well as easier navigation and improved voice-recognition software. Those calling from out of state can access Virginia 511 via a new toll-free number, (866) 695-1182 or (866) MY-511-VA.
WEST VIRGINIA. The latest publicized date for the completion of Corridor H is the year 2020. The proposed 145-mile highway would run from Elkins east through the Monongahela National Forest to the Virginia line at Wardensville, near the intersection of I-81 and I-66. The road was conceived in 1965, but construction has yet to begin.
