A Consensus on Infrastructure?

Today’s newspapers seem to indicate that a bipartisan consensus may be emerging on the topic of infrastructure.

The Washington Times reports that Democrats on the congressional debt panel (a.k.a. The Super Committee) want to include job creation as part of the plan that they develop and infrastructure is key.

Democrats say improving the nation’s aging infrastructure network — such as highways, bridges, and water- and sewage-treatment systems — would go a long way toward “mutually reinforcing” the workforce and the economy.

Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) wrote President Obama ahead of his Thursday speech to a joint session of Congress.  In their letter, they stated:

“We are not opposed to initiatives to repair and improve infrastructure,” they wrote, saying they favor repeal of a current requirement for 10 percent of highway funds to be spent on items such as museums or bike trails.

If Congress can get moving on this, our construction workers can then get moving and eventually we will all be moving more freely on an improved highway system capable of handling America’s 21^st century needs.

 

INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM RANKS HIGH ON FORTUNE MAGAZINE’S “100 GREAT THINGS ABOUT AMERICA”

Fortune magazine’s July 1 issue celebrating Independence Day included a wide-ranging list of “100 Great Things About America.” Coming in at second place, right behind “Opportunity,” was “The Interstate Highway System.”  Showing what an integral part of American life it has become over the past half a century, the magazine only needed to publish the following words for this choice to resonate with its readers:

“Road trip! Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, Chevy Chase — and you.”

 

HOUSE T&I REPUBLICANS UNVEIL “A NEW DIRECTION” HIGHWAY BILL OUTLINE

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and his Republican colleagues on the committee unveiled the outline of their six-year multi-modal surface transportation reauthorization bill on July 7. The bill authorizes $230 billion in spending from the Highway Trust Fund between 2012 and 2017 – equal to the revenue estimated to be deposited into the HTF for that six-year period. Text of the actual legislation is not yet available and timing for its consideration by the House remains uncertain. An overview, entitled “A New Direction,” is available here.

Chairman Mica performed what he termed “back of the envelope” calculations to arrive at what he said is the actual value of the bill. Although direct federal highway funding would decline to $35 billion annually — reflecting the over 30 percent cut in transportation funding included in the House-passed budget — Mica stated that once TIFIA loans, better leveraging of financing, streamlining and programmatic reforms are factored in, the bill would provide $75 billion in annual value.

Mica indicated more than once during the two-hour event that, under House rules, he can only authorize up to the amount of revenues going into the Highway Trust Fund. Additional funding sources would have to be developed by the House Ways and Means Committee. He and Highways Subcommittee Chairman John Jimmy Duncan (R-Tenn.), however, have signed a letter addressed to that committee seeking additional revenues that could boost the bill’s final total.

The bill reforms the surface transportation programs by consolidating or eliminating approximately 70 programs that are duplicative or do not serve a federal purpose. In addition, it streamlines the project delivery process by cutting bureaucratic red-tape, delegating more decision making authority to states, and setting hard deadlines for federal agencies to approve projects with the aim to cut delivery time in half.

Nearly all of the federal highway funding in the legislation will be distributed to state DOTs through formula programs designed to preserve existing highways, build new highway capacity, and address congestion, freight mobility and highway safety. The focus of the federal highway program will be on the Interstate Highway System and the National Highway System – the highways that facilitate interstate travel and commerce.

States would have greater flexibility under the proposed legislation to spend funding on projects they choose, but will be held accountable for those decisions through performance measures. They would no longer be required to spend highway funding on non-highway activities, but they will be permitted to fund those activities if they choose. States will be allowed to toll non-Interstate highways and any new lanes they build on the Interstate, but existing lanes will remain toll-free. Finally, the bill encourages states to create and capitalize State Infrastructure Banks to provide loans for transportation projects at the state level.

Mica simultaneously defended his six-year bill that provides lower federal funding levels while taking shots at the two-year Senate plan being developed that would maintain level funding with increases for inflation. That bill is expected to be released the week of July 11. He stated that continuing to spend at the current rate, as called for in a two-year bill, would bankrupt the HTF in 2013, and even if funding levels are only extended for FY 2012 at current levels, funding would have to be cut by 50 percent in 2013 to keep the trust fund solvent. By contrast, Mica touted state DOT’s and public transit agencies support for the predictability that a six-year transportation bill offers for them to be able to undertake major projects.

Committee Democrats, led by Ranking Member Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), criticized Mica’s proposal, calling it the “Republican Road to Ruin.” They cited the decreased federal funding levels and stated that the $75 billion figure put forward by Mica was unrealistic.

NSSGA has continually called on the House and Senate for a multi-year reauthorization bill that – at a minimum – maintains level funding. While the policy reforms in the Mica bill are likely to be ones we can support, the drastic funding reduction is unacceptable. NSSGA must see actual text of legislation before taking a definite position on any reauthorization proposal.

 

“Rally For Roads”

NSSGA and its allied trade associations sponsored the “Rally for Roads” on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on May 25, to bring attention to the critical need for Congress to develop and pass a well-funded, multi-year highway reauthorization bill.

The Rally featured several members of Congress as well as employees from all facets of the road construction industry including materials providers, road pavers and equipment manufacturers and dealers. Video from the event can be seen below.

The Rally was held in conjunction with the Transportation Construction Coalition Fly-In on May 24 and 25 bringing together industry allies to meet with members of the 112th Congress in pressing the importance of transportation infrastructure investment.

 

OBAMA TRANSPORTATION PLAN PROPOSES STUDY, IMPLEMENTATION OF VMT TO REPLACE GAS TAX

The newspaper The Hill reports that the draft surface transportation reauthorization plan being floated on Capitol Hill by the Obama administration includes the creation within the Federal Highway Administration of a Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office.  This office would be responsible for creating a “study framework that defines the functionality of a mileage-based user fee system and other systems” and be funded by a total of $200 million through FY 2017 for the project.  In other words, a Vehicle Miles Traveled or VMT user fee.

Initial reactions to this article range from concerns about privacy to taxes.  However, the system being considered would simply track the number of miles traveled, not where someone has traveled (unlike cell phones), and payment of the VMT fee would be made at the gas pump each time someone fills up their vehicle.  That is just as it is done now, except we are currently charged the user fee by the gallon instead of the mile.  Both the existing gasoline and proposed VMT funding methods are the closest things to pure user fees and serve to keep the trust in the Highway Trust Fund.

Instituting a VMT user fee to replace the current per gallon-based user fee would be analogous to implementing a flat rate income tax, but in this case, everyone would be paying the same amount per mile.  Vehicles that place the same amount of wear and tear on our roads should pay the same amount.  Right now, hybrid and alternative fuel (electric / compressed natural gas / E85) vehicles are not pulling their weight because they do not use the same amount of gasoline (if any) that traditional vehicles use.  As more people migrate to such vehicles, revenues to the Highway Trust Fund continue to decrease, increasing the burden to pay for our roads upon everyone else.

The current highway user fee is 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline.  Replacing it with, for example, a VMT user fee of 1 cent per mile would evenly distribute the cost of maintaining and improving our federal highway system among all highway users with negligible impact to most drivers.  For someone whose vehicle gets 20 MPG, traveling 400 miles, their VMT user fee would be $4.00.  Based upon using 20 gallons to travel those same 400 miles, their current user fee is $3.68 or $0.0092 per mile.

The current funding mechanism for the Highway Trust Fund is unsustainable given technological advances.  We hope that the Administration and Congress can devise a workable funding source that adequately funds our nation’s surface transportation needs and addresses people’s concerns about privacy and taxes.  We cannot wait any longer for this process to begin without it having a detrimental impact upon our nation’s highway system and untold consequences to our future economic growth.

 

TRIP Lists Top 50 Transportation Projects to Support Economic Growth in Virginia

The Road Information Program has released a very detailed report on Virginia’s transportation system and ranked the Top 50 transportation projects needed in order to sustain economic growth in the Commonwealth.  With the Virginia State Senate and House of Delegates already having passed their own versions of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s $4 billion transportation plan, this report provides an excellent “road map” (forgive the pun) as to how to best spend it (and given the Commonwealth’s transportation needs, it will be spent very quickly.)

According to TRIP:

The most needed surface transportation improvements in Virginia include 36 projects to build, expand or modernize highways, six projects to improve public transit and eight projects to improve the state’s rail system. These improvements would enhance economic development opportunities throughout the state by increasing mobility and freight movement, easing congestion and making Virginia an attractive place to live, visit and do business.

Here are the top 10 projects:

1. Widening I-95 between Washington D.C. and Richmond. This $2.4 billion project would add two to four lanes in multiple sections of the I-95 Corridor between Washington, D.C and Richmond. The project would add four lanes on the Capital Beltway from the I-495 Ramp to Route 241 in Fairfax, two lanes (in conjunction with Metrorail extension to be studied from Franconia-Springfield to the Potomac Mills Mall) from the Route 123 in Prince William County to the Stafford County Line, two lanes from the Prince William / Stafford County Line to Route 1 in Spotsylvania County, and two lanes from Route 1 in Spotsylvania County to the Henrico County Line. This is the most heavily traveled corridor in the state, sustaining the economic engine of Northern Virginia. Continued economic success in the state is dependent on maintaining a reliable and high functioning I-95.

2. Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Expansion. This $2.4 billion project would construct an additional four lanes, including bridge tunnel expansion from I-664 in Hampton to I-564 in Norfolk as part of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Expansion. The project addresses a perennial regional bottleneck, providing mobility for commuters between the Peninsula and Southside It also is a critical route for tourist traffic from the I-95 Corridor to Virginia Beach.

3. Widening I-64 from New Kent to Hampton to six lanes. This $1.9 billion project would widen 53 miles of I-64 from New Kent to Hampton, providing improved access to and from the ports and Hampton Roads military installations and improving access to Virginia Beach, one of, the state’s largest tourist destinations. This project provides improved capacity and safety on Virginia’s primary access to the Hampton Roads area, which is also a critical hurricane evacuation route.

4. Construction of HOT lanes on I-95/I-395 in Northern Virginia and transit improvements. This $1.4 billion project would construct HOT lanes on I-95 and I-395 in 3 Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Fredericksburg and Prince William County and provide transit improvements. Adding HOT lanes will increase capacity and improve safety on Virginia’s highest volume roadway. Northern Virginia’s continued economic success is dependent on a reliable and well-functioning I-95 and I-395.

5. Hampton Roads Third Crossing/ Patriot’s Crossing. This $5 billion project involves constructing Phase I of the Third Crossing from existing I-664 across Hampton Roads Harbor past Craney Island to the I-564 Intermodal Connector via a four-lane limited access bridge or tunnel. The project provides a potential alternate crossing to the I-64 Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, which is chronically congested. It would also provide critical direct access to port terminals in Norfolk, Portsmouth and future Craney Island expansion. An alternative river crossing will allow for greater mobility between the Peninsula and Southside of Hampton Roads, and will allow for improved truck freight movement from the ports to points west.

6. Widening I-64 in City of Chesapeake and replacing the High Rise Bridge. This $11 billion project would widen I-64 from two lanes in each direction to three general purpose lanes in each direction and would replace the High Rise Bridge. Completion of the project would eliminate congestion and daily delays at the High Rise Bridge and improve travel times and reliability to major employment centers, port facilities, defense installations and tourist destinations while expanding the evacuation route.

7. Widening I-66 in Prince William County, Fairfax and Vienna. This $761 million project would add two lanes to I-66 in multiple locations, largely in conjunction with Metrorail improvements. It would address growing congestion on I-66 and alleviate congestion at the major chokepoint where I-495 and I-66 meet. The project would reduce delays and maintain Northern Virginia’s economic competitiveness and ability to attract businesses and employers. See Appendix for specific widening locations.

8. Adding two lanes to multiple sections of I-81. This $1.6 billion multi-part project would add two lanes to several sections of I-81, which is the “Main Street” of the Shenandoah Valley and a critical freight route. The improvements will address some of the high crash locations along the corridor and provide greater mobility for local commuter traffic in Winchester, Harrisonburg and Roanoke. See Appendix for specific widening locations.

9. Extending Metrorail from Fairfax County to Dulles Airport and beyond to Ashburn. This $3.2 billion project would extend Metrorail from Wiehle Avenue to Ashburn to increase mobility and manage congestion between Dulles Airport and Washington, D.C. Completion of the project will provide significant regional mobility and economic development benefits.

10. Widening portions of Route 29 and adding two lanes to the Eastern Bypass in Warrenton. This multi-part, $849 million project would widen several sections of Route 29 in Fairfax, Prince William, Fauquier, Greene and Albemarle Counties and would add 4 two lanes to the Eastern Bypass around the congested Warrenton area where Routes 15, 17 and 29 converge. Route 29 is a major north-south corridor in the Piedmont region of Virginia, serving a significant amount of freight in addition to passenger traffic. These improvements will also create the potential for economic development by improving access in the area. See Appendix for specific widening locations.

A full breakout of all 50 projects can be found here.

 

 

TTI REPORT A CLARION CALL FOR FEDERAL HIGHWAY PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION NOW

The Texas Transportation Institute’s 2010 Urban Mobility Report released Jan. 20 is the clearest evidence yet that urban congestion is increasing alarmingly and costs to the economy skyrocketing and Congress should act now to bring relief to American commuters.

NSSGA Chairman of the Board Bill Schneider, president and CEO, Knife River Corporation, Bismarck, N.D., said,

“Everybody in America ‘uses’ our highways and basic infrastructure systems. The TTI report reinforces that without proper attention to repairing and modernizing our transportation systems, congestion is getting worse and costing the economy more. Drivers have paid user fees into the federal highway trust fund to assure responsible maintenance of our vast national highway system, which is about 10 percent of the four million road miles in America. But user fees of 1993 can’t keep up with the maintenance or improvement demands of 2011. Efficient mobility is safe mobility and makes us competitive. Providing for interstate commerce is not only rooted in our Constitution, it also creates good-paying private sector American jobs. Delay means higher costs to repair later; more wasted fuel and time and continued crumbling of our basic national transportation systems.”

NSSGA President and CEO Joy Wilson added:

“We’ve been grossly under-investing in America’s infrastructure for years. Its capacity has simply not kept up with an ever increasing population and traffic. This can’t avoid massive congestion despite attempts to deal with specific bottlenecks.

We’re paying the price in congestion now, but also in less visible ways. For example, there are 150,000 bridges throughout this country that are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Yet everything from trucks carrying groceries to school buses carrying children continue to drive across them. It’s time for the American public to pay attention and tell Congress this is one federal responsibility, mandated in the Constitution, on which we should spend to repair, maintain and improve the national highway system.”

The report, published annually by the Texas Transportation Institute of Texas A&M University, posts the most accurate portrait of traffic congestion in 439 U.S. urban areas. Key findings of the report are as follows:

• Congestion costs continue to rise at astronomical rates.
• Congestion costs have gone from $24 billion in 1982 to $115 billion in 2009. This equates to a cost to the average commuter of $808 a year.
• Congestion wastes a massive amount of time, fuel and money. In 2009, 3.9 billion gallons of fuel were wasted and 4.8 billion hours of extra time spent.
• Congestion affects people who make trips during the peak period. Yearly peak period delay for the average commuter was 34 hours in 2009, up from 14 hours in 1982.
• Congestion is also a problem at other hours.

 

Presumptive House Transportation Chairman Names Long-Term Highway Reauthorization As A Top Priority

Well, that didn’t take long.

The day after Republicans reclaimed a majority in the House of Representatives, the man likely to be the next chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Congressman John Mica of Florida, listed his top legislative priorities.  The first item on his list is passage of a long-term federal highway reauthorization bill.  SAFETEA-LU expired at the end of Sept. 2009 and the program has been operating on a series of short-term extensions ever since.

In view of the changed political environment in Washington, Cong. Mica will need all our support to achieve passage of a multi-year, robust highway bill that creates jobs, stimulates economic growth, and preserves the freedom of mobility we treasure.

If you haven’t spoken to your elected Representative about the need to take action on this national imperative, do it today!

 

Not the Time to “Lower Our Sights”

Jack Schenendorf, a member of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission and a former staff director of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has hit the nail on the head. His recent submission to the National Journal blog is worth reading. Jack gets it right. Now is not the time to “lower our sights.” A robust, multi-year surface transportation authorization is in the best interest of both national political parties, conservatives and liberals. Our national surface transportation network is the platform of our economy, our national competitiveness and allows Americans the freedom of mobility which is an essential element of the way of life American’s enjoy.

 

FLURRY OF REPORTS ON TRANSPORTATION RAISES ISSUE PROFILE AHEAD OF ELECTIONS

Three major reports on transportation have been released recently, raising the profile of this issue before the mid-term elections.  While jobs and the economy are the overarching concerns of voters heading to the polls on Nov. 2, the role that a well-functioning transportation system plays in ensuring an environment where economic growth can be fostered must not be ignored.

On Sept. 23, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce unveiled the Transportation Performance Index.  It is the first in a series of indexes that drives home the point that infrastructure performance matters to the economy and shapes the environment for action to improve it.  The index initiative is unique and for the first time it attempts to measure how well transportation, energy, broadband, and water systems are meeting the demands of the nation, including businesses large and small, and then correlating the results to measures of U.S. economic performance.  The full index can be accessed on the U.S. Chamber’s Let’s Rebuild America website; www.Let’sRebuildAmerica.com.

Also on that date, The Road Information Program (TRIP) released its annual Urban Road Report. This report, using 2008 FHWA data, examines the condition of major roads in the nation’s most populous urban areas, recent trends in urban travel, the latest developments in repairing roads and building them to last longer, and the funding levels needed to address America’s crumbling urban roads.  Among the major findings in the report:

• nearly 24 percent of the national major metropolitan roads have pavements that are in substandard condition and provide an unacceptable rough ride to motorists;
• the average urban motorist in the U.S. is paying $402 annually in additional vehicle operating costs as a result of driving on roads in need of repair; and
• the lack of a long-term surface transportation bill is impeding the ability of states to plan and implement large-scale roadway rehabilitation and reconstruction projects.

The full report can be accessed on the TRIP website at www.tripnet.org.

A recent telephone survey of more than 1,500 random adults released by the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San Jose State University finds that none of the possible tax options presented to raise revenue to fund transportation projects – including variations on the mileage tax and gas tax concepts – received a majority of support.  Survey options receiving the most support were a 0.5¢ sales tax increase (43% support), a 10¢ gas tax increase whose revenue would be used for projects to reduce the transportation system’s impact on global warming (42% support), and a 10¢ gas tax increase spread over five years (39% support).  MTI’s survey found that linking a transportation tax to environmental benefits can strongly increase support and that the very low support levels for a one-time gas tax increase can be raised by modifying how the tax is structured and the way it is described.

In the Oct. 14 edition of Roll Call, Morton Kondracke writes that despite support to increase infrastructure investment from groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, the push to do so that President Obama has been engaged in since Labor Day may be coming too late.  Kondracke contends that Obama is “a year to 18 months too late” and that this investment is now characterized (wrongly-so) as additional stimulus, which isn’t popular.  Kondracke ends his article with the lament that “Obama could have – should have – based his economic recovery strategy on making U.S. infrastructure world class.  Alas, he didn’t.”

Nevertheless, the President has moved transportation infrastructure to the front burner and it increasingly is being talked about in the media.  The new transportation reports further amplify the noise on the issue.  NSSGA and its coalition partners through their grassroots efforts continue to build the volume of the message that lawmakers need to act on a multi-year reauthorization sooner rather than later.