Infrastructure

Emergency and public transportation vehicles in cities that deployed traffic signal priority technology saved thousands of hours in travel time in 2024. The tech safely clears the way for first responders.

The City of Lakes was recently jointly awarded a U.S. Department of Transportation grant. Officials there will work with their counterparts in Seattle to develop a program assisting package delivery services.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving a Columbus, Neb.-based electric cooperative the investment as part of its Empowering Rural America Program. It will fund wind and solar projects across three counties.

California saw some of its steepest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, which has long been the single largest source of climate-warming pollution. Meanwhile, its economy grew.

A massive car-charging plaza is being developed in California, while Colorado is moving forward with a high-speed charging network. And the electric vehicle industry is gravitating toward a single charging standard.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program has seen significant advances in 2024, and its program director expects this path will continue in 2025 under a new presidential administration.

Officials from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation offered measured hope and little guarantees during a recent discussion that the federal government would remain committed to advancing adoption of electric vehicles.

An ordinance from two city aldermen would create an approval process for “policing surveillance technology and databases” as well as policy. The police chief has said he cannot support it as written.

The funding will help the state activate its Digital Equity Plan, part of a national endeavor to clear barriers to Internet access and use. The money, a grant, is intended to confront challenges including lack of affordable devices and insufficient digital skills.

The county has pledged the contribution of funds after winning a longshot bid for a state grant toward the endeavor. The state will contribute $26.1 million through its ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure Grant Program.

The company has extended its network north of Sterling, Ill., the latest piece of its $1.4 billion investment in its network in the state during the last three years. This piece brings its full service suite to the county including unserved homes.

The recently deployed website monitors railroad crossings, to alert drivers and first responders in southern Elkhart County. Crossings blocked by stopped trains have long been a source of frustration for officials.

The endeavor, on the University of California, Los Angeles campus, is intended to make charging seamless. Its infrastructure, to be in place by the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, could be used by numerous transit operators.

The federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act came with billions to invest in broadband nationwide, for rural areas, schools and businesses. Application requirements and other mandates, however, threaten to constrain the deployment of high-speed Internet.

The U.S. Department of Energy has chosen Nevada Gold Mines to get as much as $95 million for a solar project. It intends to construct solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems at mines in Humboldt and Lander counties.

The president-elect is expected to take a predominantly deregulatory approach to technology, and to aggressively pursue foreign cyber threat actors. He returns to office in a time of international tension in cyber space.

New York City’s latest migration from 2D to 3D records helps remove frustrating delays and ambiguity in the complex property tax system.

The Columbia County town of nearly 3,000 got high-speed Internet last week with the completion of a broadband fiber-optic line. Residents and officials realized the impact a lack of high-speed Internet was having during the COVID-19 pandemic.