Pioneer Press: Smaller St. Croix bridge supports say new report supports cost figures :

“A group called the Sensible Stillwater Bridge Partnership said a new engineering report shows that their bridge would cost about $394 million. The St. Croix River Crossing proposed by the Minnesota Department of Transportation and supported by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, DFL-Minn., is expected to cost $574 million to $690 million.”

Pioneer Press: U hopes tech will smarten traffic :

“SMART Signal Technologies Inc. signed an agreement last week to license the technology from the University of Minnesota, said John Merritt, a spokesman for the U, which announced the new company on Tuesday.
The company’s product takes data from existing traffic equipment and calculates optimal queue length at intersections controlled by traffic lights.
That information could allow municipalities to better mediate the flow of traffic at peak times, said Henry Liu, a co-inventor of the technology and a civil engineering professor at the U’s College of Science and Engineering.”

AP: Federal transportation network: An area ripe for Democratic and Republican political consensus :

“WASHINGTON — A Senate panel cleared legislation Wednesday overhauling federal highway programs, prompting lawmakers to talk of a looming bipartisan consensus that would end years of stalemate on repairing and expanding an aging transportation network.”