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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced March 19 it has shut down two motor carriers for disregarding federal safety regulations and putting their companies’ drivers, passengers and the public at risk.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has extended the state’s height and permit waiver for transporting round hay bales, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles said.

The New Jersey Department of Transportation announced three grants worth a total of $700,000 that would help municipalities in three counties advance safety and pavement reconstruction projects.

After decades and millions of dollars spent in the planning stages, the effort to build a new bridge over the Columbia River between Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., has come to a halt due to a lack of funding.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman will leave the independent federal agency she has led for five years to become president of the National Safety Council, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has improved the statistical foundation of its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program but still has a significant amount of work to do to complete the process, according to an inspector general’s report.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published its long-awaited proposal that will require all interstate truck drivers to use electronic logging devices two years after the rule becomes final.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill March 13 to exempt propane truckers from hours-of-service regulations through May, sending the bill to President Obama for his consideration.

This Opinion piece appears in the March 17 print edition of Transport Topics.