The clock is ticking, and in less than two months, I will be attempting to climb Mt. Washington in New Hampshire on my bicycle. It’s 7.6 miles up — and the road has an average grade of 12% with extended sections of 18% and the last 50 yards is a crushing 22%!
That is why I spent the other day climbing up (and down) the same half-mile hill over and over again (in 90 degree weather) until I reached 5 miles of climbing. I was beat and the grade was only 6.7%!
I do this for my daughter Hannah and everyone living with type 1 diabetes. I do it to raise money for Breakthrough T1D, the leading non-profit organization dedicated to research and advocacy for type 1 diabetes.
The clock is ticking for me to raise my fitness level to reach Mt. Washington’s summit. And the clock is ticking for me to reach my fundraising goal. I’m only at 47% of my goal at the moment.
You can’t help me get up the mountain, but you can help me reach my fundraising goal by making a tax-deductible donation here: http://www2.breakthrought1d.org/goto/ll4t1dcure
No donation is too small; every dollar gets us closer to finding a cure for T1D and helps fund important research to improve the lives of people living with T1D today.
Thank you for listening and for your support!
Moving on, here’s the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:
- American toy companies bring Trump’s tariffs to the Supreme Court (CNN)
- The Surge in Ocean Shipping Rates Is Peaking (WSJ – sub. req’d)
- Descartes Acquires PackageRoute
- C.H. Robinson Launches an AI Agent to Help Shippers Adapt to the New National System for Classifying LTL Freight
- AI will shrink Amazon’s workforce in the coming years, CEO Jassy says (CNBC)
- The $10 Billion Proposal to Speed Up U.S.-Mexico Trade (WSJ – sub. req’d)
- TANY files amended complaint against the MTA’s Congestion Pricing Plan (The Trucker)
US-Mexico: Redefining Cross Border Intermodal
If waiting an average of 45 minutes to cross the US-Mexico border is too long for you, then Green Corridors has a solution for you. As Liz Young reports in the Wall Street Journal, “Green Corridors plans to build four cross-border terminals of about 100 acres each, two in Laredo and two in Monterrey, which would be connected via the extended corridor.” Here’s more information from the article:
Truck drivers hauling freight would come into the terminals and drop their 53-foot dry van trailers, which would then be loaded onto autonomous diesel-electric hybrid shuttles that travel along a designated path, much like a monorail. When the shuttle arrives at the other end of the guideway, truckers would pick up a trailer and carry the goods farther into the U.S. or Mexico.
[Chief Executive Mitch Carlson] said he sees the project complementing existing truck and railroad operations. Green Corridors is focused on trips under 200 miles, less than the long-haul distances railroads specialize in.
Assuming all the hurdles are overcome, such as acquiring the necessary real estate and completing a myriad of permitting processes, the company is hoping to complete construction and begin testing in 2031.
How much will this project cost? $10 billion — but based on just about every transportation-related construction project I’ve seen, it wouldn’t surprise me if it balloons to $100 billion down the road. The California Bullet Train project, for example, was approved with a budget of $33 billion, but the estimated cost is now a staggering $128 billion, with no completion date in sight. And Boston’s Big Dig project was initially estimated at $2.6 billion, but ultimately cost about $14.8 billion to complete.
Nonetheless, the fact that President Trump issued a presidential permit for this project is a tacit acknowledgement that trade between the US-Mexico will remain strong in the years to come — at least strong enough where congestion at the border will remain high enough to justify this investment.
File this under the “Let’s see what actually happens” file.
And with that, it’s time to get back on my bike and do some more hill repeats!
Have a meaningful weekend!
Song of the Week: “Moody” by Royel Otis
