LaHood: No promises, but raises hope
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood didn't make any promises while in Maine yesterday, but he did raise hopes that Maine would receive some of the $8 billion in federal stimulus funds for passenger rail expansion and that the federal government could pursue composite bridge building technology being developed at the University of Maine.
During a tour of UMaine's Advanced Engineered Wood Composite Center yesterday, LaHood praised the center's ingenuity, but left without making any commitments. He said, however, that when the center's bridge technology meets federal highway standards, the Department of Transportation could consider the center's bridge arches for use around the country, the Bangor Daily News reported. LaHood said he will also report on his findings to President Obama's Green Cabinet. The university's "bridge-in-a-backpack" technology, which is light weight and portable yet harder than steel and resistant to corrosion, uses carbon-fiber tubes that are inflated, shaped into arches and infused with resin before being filled with concrete, the paper explained.
LaHood also said during his Maine visit that the state would receive some of the roughly $8 billion in transportation stimulus funds to help build a high-speed passenger railroad system between Boston and the Canadian border, MPBN reported. He also complimented Maine's persistence in recreating passenger rail. "I don't know that there are other rural parts of the country that have taken the interest in rail that perhaps Maine has," he said.
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