Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez will speak at the Transportation and Infrastructure Summit in Irving, delivering the keynote luncheon address on Friday, Aug. 17. Mendez has been head of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in Washington, D.C., since 2009.
Mendez will be among transportation leaders from the United States and abroad who will gather Aug. 14 to 17 for a policy summit on the future of transportation and infrastructure, sponsored by the City of Irving. Discussions will cover highways, toll roads, driver safety, airports, bridges, ports, railroads, buses and transit systems, high-speed passenger trains, the impact of the Panama Canal expansion and other pressing issues.
How to pay for these public concerns in a time of scarce tax dollars will be a focus of many sessions at the 15th Annual Transportation and Infrastructure Summit, hosted by the City of Irving at its new convention center in Las Colinas, near DFW Airport. More than 1,000 transportation leaders are expected to attend the four-day Summit to hear speakers from over 20 states and 10 countries. Many are policy makers and experts within the national and international transportation community.
Other keynote speakers include former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, BNSF Railway CEO Matt Rose and Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo. Other speakers include Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Phil Wilson, Dallas Area Rapid Transit President and APTA Chair Gary Thomas and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.
Mendez was previously director of the Arizona Department of Transportation and president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). He has a civil engineering degree from the University of Texas at El Paso.
The 5th global forum on high-speed rail, held in conjunction with the summit, will begin the event on Tuesday, Aug. 14, with a program on how to use public-private partnerships to bring high-speed passenger trains to corridors across the United States. An additional program will discuss the ways that cities can gain economic benefit from high-speed rail stations and surrounding development.
A discussion of the deteriorating condition of America’s infrastructure presented by The American Society of Civil Engineers and a panel of experts will begin the general sessions on Wednesday, Aug. 15, and explain how this failing national report card impacts every city and state.
After this, Jan Withers, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), will describe the growing problem of drivers distracted while behind the wheel because of drinking and driving, viewing billboards or texting, talking on cell phones, as well as using other technology. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said “distracted driving is a national epidemic,” as he launched a pilot program to discourage distracted driving in California and Deleware.
With federal and state transportation budgets limited by the sluggish economy, state transportation leaders and elected officials from several states will present ways to do more with fewer tax dollars. The summit program will also center on airport safety and development, toll roads and managed lanes on highways, water shortages and reuse, bicycles and pedestrians on city streets, fuel prices and the Panama Canal expansion impact on U.S. ports, and how this can put thousands of containers on already busy highways and on railroads to inland destinations, traveling through congested cities. Several sessions will feature Congressional leaders discussing the challenges of today’s legislative climate for creating the new national transportation bill.
State Representative Larry Phillips has called a meeting of the Texas House Transportation Subcommittee on transit to open the Summit activities on Tuesday, Aug. 14. Phillips recently focused attention on the impact of the Panama Canal expansion to accommodate larger ships, such as those carrying cargo from China, with a hearing held by his full committee.
Texas State Representative Linda Harper-Brown, a member of the transportation committee who represents Irving, will chair the Transportation Subcommittee meeting on transit at the summit, addressing an interim charge from the Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus. The meeting will be open to the public, and begins at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
