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In a small side room at Washington’s Union Station, this year’s Infrastructure Week kicked off with a keynote address from Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. She again pointed to the private sector and state and municipal officials as being the key drivers on infrastructure funding. Before the secretary’s address, Austin, Texas, Mayor Steve Adler had offered the infrastructure intelligentsia in attendance a different message. A look at the week ahead for trucking on Capitol Hill.

Mack Defense of Upper Macungie Township, Pa., has landed one of its largest contracts, a deal that has the potential to keep the Mack Trucks’ subsidiary busy for the next seven years.

New York City and Los Angeles, worried that a Senate self-driving car bill would make them hand over control of their streets to the federal government, have found a powerful ally: Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The Federal Highway Administration has withdrawn its rule that would have required state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations to report year-over-year changes in carbon dioxide emissions on U.S. interstates and major highways.

The Canadian office of Environment and Climate Change published a final rule on greenhouse gas regulations pertaining to heavy-duty trucks and engines in Part 2 of the Gazette on May 30.

A trucking industry-related coalition is engaged in a behind-the-scenes skirmish with two dozen Republican members of Congress over whether the Environmental Protection Agency should be required to conduct a regulatory impact analysis to support the agency’s proposal to repeal an Obama administration rule limiting the manufacture of glider kits.

Connecticut is obtaining $7.5 million from the national Volkswagen settlement over emissions cheating and will use the funds to help replace aging diesel trucks and other equipment.

Tim Sylvester, CEO of Kansas City, Mo.-based Integrated Roadways, thinks his startup company’s “smart pavement” — bristling with sensors and the latest fiber-optic and wireless technology — could be a lifesaver in mishaps.

State officials figure the Volkswagen diesel emissions testing scandal added an extra 10,000 tons of noxious nitrogen oxide to California’s air. To make up for it, the state will use $423 million of Volkswagen penalty money to cut the same amount of nitrogen oxide by subsidizing the purchase of zero-emission trucks, buses and other vehicles.

More fleets are requesting downsped engines that run at about 1,100 rpm at highway speeds, significantly slower than previous generations of diesels.