Picking up speed: As expected, the Metro Council on Wednesday evening approved a measure to refinance bonds associated with the city-parish’s comprehensive Green Light Plan roadway improvement project. Mayor Kip Holden says work on five Green Light Plan projects will speed up by a number of years through an infusion of an additional $40 million by the refinancing. Get more details on the projects benefiting from the additional funds.
The ice fight: The Shreveport district of Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development has used at least half its road salt reserves this winter, officials tell The Shreveport Times. That means of the 2 million pounds of salt the agency normally keeps in stock for the seven parishes it covers, roughly 1 million pounds are left. Officials say, however, that there should be some salt leftover following the snowstorm that blanketed the city with about four inches of snow on Wednesday. Read the full story.
All the roadrunning: New data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration shows Americans drove nearly 3 trillion miles in 2013, the highest level in six years. According to FHWA’s “Highway Statistics,” an annual compilation of data from state transportation departments, drivers traveled 2.99 trillion miles in 2013, the highest annual total since 2007 and the fourth-highest since such recordkeeping began in 1936. The new data also shows the number of U.S. vehicles increased to 255.9 million from 253.6 million the previous year, the biggest single-year increase since 2011. Get more details.
