该协会说，在担任美国道路与运输建筑商协会主席兼首席执行官近30年之后，彼得·鲁安（Peter Ruane）将于10月退休。

Following Ruane’s retirement this fall, which ARTBAannounced6月19日，该协会的长期首席运营官William D. Tohey Jr.将成为代理首席执行官。由承包商Zachry Corp.首席执行官David Zachry领导的搜索委员会已成立，以寻求Ruane的替代者。鲁恩说，委员会成员正在研究内部和外部候选人，但尚未接近决定。

The 73-year-old Ruane said in an interview with ENR that he has “no immediate plans” after leaving ARTBA. “I’m just going to chill out for a while,” he says. “The association will not miss a beat, in my opinion.”

这位直言不讳的，经常是吹牛的美国海军陆战队官员，在倡导运输立法方面发挥了重要作用，尤其是对于他在Artba的几年中制定的多年多年联邦地面运输法案。

Stephen Sandherr, Associated General Contractors of America president and CEO, said via email, "Pete has been a long-time, passionate advocate for infrastructure.We will miss his energy and passion for infrastructure and wish him the best of luck in his hard-earned retirement."

"There's no pressure on me to retire," says Ruane, ARTBA's longest-serving leader in its 116-year history" “We’re in wonderful financial condition.” He notes that during his tenure, ARTBA membership has nearly tripled, to about 8,200, and its budget has risen to about $13.5 million, from $1.5 million.

Ruane—who joined ARTBA from the National Moving and Storage Association, where he was president and CEO—says had thought about retirement at certain points over the past several years, such as when he turned 65.

He also says he almost decided to step down in late 2015, after the last major surface-transportation reauthorization—the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation, or FAST, Act—was signed into law.

That legislation provided the certainty of a five-year funding stream, but, to construction and transportation industry officials, the annual authorization increases were disappointingly small. It fell far short of the industry’s long-sought goal of a long-term, increased revenue source for the financially shaky Highway Trust Fund.

Ruane decided to hold off on retirement then. “We didn’t get the real job done with the FAST Act on solving the [highway] funding issue,” Ruane says. “And that was a great motivator for me to try to stay around and try to accomplish that.”

他补充说：“我们觉得我们仍然有动力。我们有一些人们仍在听的好主意。”

Than, In 2016, as the presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton unfolded, ARTBA saw an opportunity to push again for transportation funding. Ruane recalls, “Our attitude was [that] both these people campaigned on infrastructure investment and let’s take a shot at it. Let’s give it a couple of years to see what happens and keep pushing our ideas.”

President Trump did release an infrastructure blueprint last February, and transportation has benefited from an infusion of several billion dollars in the 2018 appropriations bill enacted in March.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) has said he is working on a wide-ranging infrastructure measure. But nothing concrete has emerged, and Shuster himself will retire from Congress at the end of the year.

Nevertheless, a new highway-transit bill is on the horizon. The FAST Act expires in 2020, and the Capitol Hill debate is expected to heat up about that legislation next year.

The central issue will be finding the money to at least keep the trust fund solvent. Ruane observes, “We’re looking at a situation where it’s another $100 billion that they’ve got to come up with just to fill the hole, just to keep the program where it is right now. And that’s a heavy, heavy lift.”`

But Ruane says he won't stay on for that legislative contest. He says, “I’m not egotistical enough to think that I’m the world’s greatest relief pitcher and we’ve got one more inning left and I’m the guy that’s going to strike out the side and win the game.”

In the meantime, he says, "We continue to push. We still have several months yet. The windows are not closed."

After his retirement, he says that for ARTBA and the transportation construction industry, “The fight goes on.” He adds, “I like to say we’re going to fight ‘til hell freezes over, and then we’re going to fight on the ice.”