The Wall Street Journal - 23.08.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Friday, August 23, 2019 |A

U.S. NEWS

have visited El Paso and the

company has talked with em-

ployees and community lead-

ers about the future of the

store, which employs about

400 people. Many employees

expressed an interest in re-

turning to work in the same

location, Walmart spokesman

Randy Hargrove said.

“Our associates have a very

strong connection to their

store,” Mr. Hargrove said.

“Theyhavenotwaveredin

their collective opinion that

reopening the store—and re-

opening it there—is important

to them.”

The company is still finaliz-

ing the details of the renova-

tion, and hasn’t disclosed its

cost.

Walmart plans to build a

permanent memorial to re-

member the victims and to

recognize the relationship be-

tween El Paso and Ciudad

Juárez, just across the border.

The suspect in the shooting

told investigators that he tar-

geted Mexicans. The memorial

will be designed with input

from employees and the com-

munity, Mr. Hargrove said.

Walmart says it will con-

tinue providing counseling

services to employees in El

Paso. About 93% of the store

employees have found work at

other Walmart locations. Oth-

ers have said they need more

time to process the events be-

fore returning to their jobs.

In the aftermath of the

shooting, Walmart has also

faced new pressure from some

employees and gun activists to

stop selling firearms. Chief Ex-

ecutive Doug McMillon reiter-

ated last week that the com-

pany will “strive to use these

experiences to identify addi-

tional actions we can take to

strengthen our processes, im-

prove our technology and cre-

ate an even safer environment

in our stores.”

WalmartInc. plans to re-

open the El Paso store where a

gunman killed 22 people, but

it will first entirely renovate

the interior and add an on-site

memorial.

The retailer says it will gut

the store, adding new flooring,

fixtures and merchandise, a

process that is expected to

take three or four months. The

location could reopen in No-

vember or December ahead of

the holidays.

Since a lone gunman

opened fire in the store on

Aug. 3, Walmart executives

BYCHIPCUTTER

Walmart to Reopen Store in El Paso

Workers repaired fire damage in Paradise, Calif., in November.

ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/REUTERS

twice as much as in 1982, after

adjusting for inflation.

Congestion is a particularly

urban phenomenon, the report

shows. Those in the country’s

largest metropolitan areas dis-

proportionately see traffic-

clogged commutes. But mid-

size cities are experiencing the

fastest growth in the amount

of time commuters have to

idle in traffic.

the number of hours commut-

ers are delayed by traffic. That

is equivalent to roughly an ex-

tra hour every year. To esti-

mate delays, the researchers

compared average speeds on

roads during times of little

traffic and during rush hours.

Increasingly, commuters

aren’t sharing the road only

with other commuters, but

also with trucks moving goods

to satisfy the increased con-

sumer demand, said Bill

Eisele, senior research engi-

neer at the institute. “If we eat

anything or buy anything,

that’sgoingtotakeatruckto

get it to you,” he said.

Congestion nationwide robs

Americans of about 8.8 billion

hours a year. Sitting in traffic

also wastes roughly 3.3 billion

gallons of fuel annually.

The researchers estimated

that those costs combined add

up to $166 billion in lost pro-

ductivity and lost fuel each

year. That is about $1,010 for

every auto commuter, almost

This is especially true in

California, home to three of

the top five cities with the

worst traffic in the country,

according to the report. The

state’s economy has been par-

ticularly dynamic in recent

years, growing at a faster pace

than the national economy

since 2012, according to the

Commerce Department.

Drivers in Los Angeles, the

country’s most traffic-clogged

city, devoted 119 hours a year

to traffic in 2017, almost half

an hour every workday, on av-

erage. San Francisco came in

second, at approximately 24

minutes a day. Then came

Washington, D.C., at roughly

the same time, New York at

about 21 minutes a day and

San Jose, Calif., at 19 minutes.

Despite the congestion,

there are few signs so far of

Americans leaving their cars

at home. About three-quarters

of Americans drove to work

alone in 2017, on par with pre-

vious years.

Average commute times

have inched up to almost 27

minutes one way from about

24 minutes in 2001, according

to the census. For those who

drive to work, the average

commute was almost 26 min-

utes in 2017, up from about 23

in 2001.

In a way, urban traffic con-

gestion is a sign of a city’s

success in offering jobs and

amenities that attract new

residents. “All things equal,

you would rather be a mayor

coping with a congestion

problem than you would one

with empty streets,” said

Brian Taylor, director of the

Institute of Transportation

Studies at the University of

California, Los Angeles.

In most major cities, it isn’t

possible to build new roads to

handle increased traffic.

“When demand exceeds

supply, we have to meter the

road use in some way, and so

what we do now is we do it by

queuing and waiting.”

Traffic congestion has

worsened as the economy im-

proved, adding roughly 12

minutes a day to the average

car commute, according to a

report released Thursday.

That is 54 hours a year, al-

most as long as 18 baseball

games or roughly the time it

would take to binge-watch five

seasons of a TV show.

The study from the Texas

A&M Transportation Institute

finds that deteriorating traffic

is a consequence of the strong

economy of the past few years.

In most cities, more Ameri-

cans at work means more cars

on the road at peak times.

“The economy-congestion

linkage is as dependable as

gravity,” the report said.

Nationwide, congestion rose

from the 1980s through the

middle of the last decade, be-

fore stalling briefly during the

recession. Since 2009, it has

grown by 26%, as measured by

BYDAVIDHARRISON

Commuters Spend More Time in Traffic

Averagehourscarcommuters

spendintrafficannually

60

0

20

40

hours

2000 ’05 ’10 ’

Averageminutescommuters

spendintrafficdaily

LosAngeles

SanFrancisco

WashingtonD.C.

NewYork

SanJose

Boston

Seattle

Atlanta

Houston

Chicago

27

24

24

21

19

18

18

18

17

17

Theaveragecarcommuterisspendinganincreasingamountof

timestalled,withthoseinCalifornia'smetroareasparticularly

affectedbyroadcongestion.

Source: Texas A&M Transportation Institute

unusual for PG&E to climb its

towers to inspect their condi-

tion, as well as the bolts,

hooks and other hardware.

The results of the inspec-

tions were turned over to the

California attorney general’s

office, the Butte County dis-

trict attorney’s office, and the

California Public Utilities

Commission, all of which are

investigating the cause of the

Camp Fire, according to PG&E

spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo.

Ms. Paulo said the inspec-

tions didn’t include the steel

transmission tower where a

line fell from a hook and

sparked the Camp Fire. The

closest tower inspected was

more than 50 towers away, a

distance of roughly 7 miles,

she said.

Even before these inspec-

tions, PG&E had placed Cari-

bou-Palermo on its “worst

performing” list several times

in annual reports. These re-

ports were sent to the regional

electric grid operator, the Cali-

fornia Independent System

Operator.

California fire investigators

have concluded PG&E equip-

ment sparked the Camp Fire,

and the company has said its

equipment was the likely

cause.

A grand jury in Butte

County, which includes Para-

dise, has been empaneled to

examine the evidence. The

company and its executives

could potentially face criminal

charges in connection with the

case, the state attorney gen-

eral’s office has said.

Asked if the inspection re-

cords were central to his in-

vestigation, Mike Ramsey, the

Butte County district attorney,

said: “All records are impor-

tant. Some records are more

important than others.”

The California attorney

general’s office and the Public

Utilities Commission declined

to comment.

PG&E didn’t mention the in-

spections in a lengthy federal

court filing at the end of 2018

in which it described ground-

based, aerial, infrared and li-

dar surveys of the line back to

2009. A spokeswoman de-
      clined to say why.

PG&ECorp. conducted an

unusual inspection of the

power line that sparked the

deadliest wildfire in California

history just weeks before it

failed, a step the utility has

said it normally takes only

when it suspects a potential

safety problem.

The disclosure that workers

climbed portions of the Cari-

bou-Palermo line last fall,

which PG&E noted in a recent

court filing, suggests the com-

pany had concerns about the

condition of its lines before

the Camp Fire, which killed 86

people and destroyed the town

of Paradise.

The Nov. 8 fire is now being

investigated by state and local

authorities, which could ulti-

mately lead to criminal

charges against PG&E and its

executives.

A PG&E spokeswoman said

the company performed in-

spections of about 80 towers

on the Caribou-Palermo line

before the Camp Fire as part

of a larger effort to determine

“the condition of its aging

transmission lines.” She de-

clined to reveal the results.

PG&E lawyers first publicly

mentioned the company had

done the inspections in a July

31 filing in federal court, fol-

lowing an order by U.S. Dis-

trict Judge William Alsup to

respond to a Wall Street Jour-

nal article on maintenance of

its power lines, paragraph by

paragraph.

In its disclosure, PG&E said

the inspections occurred be-

tween September and Novem-

ber last year and involved

climbing the transmission

towers. Before the Camp Fire,

which spurred the company to

conduct more exhaustive re-

views of its power grid, it was

BYRUSSELLGOLD

PG&E Inspected

Line Weeks Before

It Sparked Fire

A makeshift memorial for the victims of the Aug. 3 mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, that killed 22 people.

MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES

In unusual check,

workers climbed

towers along the

transmission line.

TOMFORD.COM