The following is a first-person account from Armstrong County Commissioner Anthony Shea regarding his recent bike trip from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh:

Shortly after I took office as Armstrong County Commissioner on Jan 2, 2024, I received the news of Armstrong Trails Executive Director Chris Ziegler’s plans to inaugurate a new 10-mile section of the Armstrong Trails from Schenley to Rosston on April 1st.

Despite artificial intelligence rapidly changing the world, one sector has struggled to keep pace — healthcare. A symposium hosted at the University of Pittsburgh today by the Biotechnology Board discussed extensively how the sector can catch up.

Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Anantha Shekhar said that “the pace at which [AI] transforms consumer products versus healthcare is completely different” because of multiple reasons, including higher regulatory standards and data access.

For the past few years, Clark Haynes has been strapping sensors onto bicycles to keep riders safe.

Using some of the same technology that powers driverless cars, the AI-enabled sensors, called Copilot, can detect a potential collision with a vehicle and thwart it by flashing a light or blasting a sound.

The City of Fort Wayne, in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, recently retained HNTB Corporation to assist with implementing the Midwest Connect Corridor Identification and Development grant.

A collaborative effort to connect Chicago, Fort Wayne, Columbus and Pittsburgh with passenger rail service is gaining momentum with the addition of HNTB Corporation’s expertise.

A collaborative effort to connect Chicago, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Columbus, Ohio and Pittsburgh with passenger rail service is gaining momentum with the addition of HNTB Corporation’s expertise. The City of Fort Wayne, in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), recently retained HNTB Corporation to assist with implementing the Midwest Connect Corridor Identification and Development (CID) grant.

The city of Fort Wayne, in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), has retained HNTB Corporation to assist with the implementation of the Midwest Connect Corridor ID Grant.

“This is a long process,” City Councilman and Northern Indiana Passenger Rail Association (NIPRA) board member Geoff Paddock said. “It’s kind of a complicated process and many steps along the way.

An engineering firm with offices in Columbus has been tapped to join the team trying to restore Amtrak service in the city.

HNTB Corporation will be tasked with planning and development services for the Midwest Connect route, a potential route connecting Pittsburgh to Chicago via Columbus and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The route would include stops in Marysville, Columbus and Newark.

1 Can you elaborate on engineering consultant HNTB’s specific role in the Midwest Connect Corridor ID Grant? How close does this bring us to passenger rail service?

A: The role of HNTB is to help the City of Fort Wayne as the primary applicant and its partners, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, set up and prepare the scope of work for the Service Development Plan for the Midwest Connect project.

The City has a new partner in efforts to bring a passenger rail service to Fort Wayne.  The project would get federal funds but now has the experience of the HNTB Corporation – a Kansas City-based engineering company to help in the planning work of bringing back passenger railway to Fort Wayne.

Current plans are for the rail service to run from Chicago to Pittsburgh through Columbus and Fort Wayne.

The city of Fort Wayne announced it has gained another partner to try and bring a passenger rail to the community. The city is already partnered with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC.)

The city has now retained HNTB Corporation to assist in executing the Midwest Connect Corridor ID Grant to bring the Midwest Connect Passenger Rail Project to life. The rail would provide passenger rail between Pittsburgh and Chicago, through Fort Wayne and Columbus.