Patsy Lynch/MediaPunch/IPX Elaine Chao testifies on Capitol Hill at her confirmation hearing to become the secretary of transportation. M embers of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee asked some very good questions about the Donald Trump administration’s future transportation policy Wednesday. They wanted to know the administration’s positions on privatizing and modernizing the air traffic control system. They had questions about tunnel, highway, and commuter rail projects around the country. They asked about rural infrastructure, federal permitting, and transportation grants and loans. But mostly, the senators wanted to hear about the Trump administration’s highly anticipated national infrastructure investment plan, one of the president-elect’s most eagerly anticipated initiatives. But transportation secretary nominee Elaine Chao wasn’t giving up anything, maintaining instead the incoming administration’s disturbing penchant for keeping secrets about their...

AP Photo/Seth Perlman File A road construction project backs up traffic in Springfield, Illinois. F or policy wonks, the only bright spot of the dismal 2016 election campaign was the unprecedented attention given the pitiful state of American infrastructure. It was the only area of common ground that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were able to carve out, although quality of the discussion never rose beyond a grade-school tug-of-war over who would spend the most. In the waning days of the Trump transition, hopes are dwindling that the president-elect can deliver, even though he recognizes that the country’s transportation, water, and other infrastructure assets need an historic overhaul and that innovative, new projects could use some federal juice. There are indications that infrastructure policy expectations may have to be significantly dialed back, despite the fact that transportation is the one sector where Trump’s views align with reality. Trump’s infrastructure proposals rely...