Nation's infrastructure in need of improvement

ONE OF the major public-policy issues of this decade will be coming up in 2003 as Congress decides how to allocate more than

For industrial companies, the stakes are enormous, because what's done - or not done - will have a direct impact on their ability to receive supplies and transport their products to market. The spotlight focuses on the nation's transportation infrastructure, which some laud as one of the world's best but others decry as outmoded in many respects, strained to the limits of its capacity and unable to keep abreast of increasing freight and cargo demands.

The Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy is authoring a current series of reports on transportation reform. In its March 2003 report, TEA-21 Authorization: Getting Transportation Right for Metropolitan America, Brookings says that the infrastructure network is aging, with a quarter of the roads in urban and metropolitan areas rated in poor or mediocre condition mid a third of urban bridges rated structurally or functionally deficient. Yet in many places, transportation decision-making still favors new construction, typically on the suburban and exurban fringe.

Huge Improvement Costs

The costs just for maintenance, never mind improvements, are gigantic. Writing in the January 2003 issue of Transportation & Distribution, Ken Miller, executive director of the North American Superhighway Coalition (NASCO), quotes the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in reference to the fact that a minimum annual investment of $92 billion at all levels of U.S. government is needed to maintain the physical condition and performance characteristics of highways and bridges over the next 20 years. AASHTO also reports that an annual investment of $125.6 billion is needed to improve the nation's highways and bridges.

At the heart of the issue is the question of how to update two surface-transportation laws that combined to usher in a new era of transportation policy in this country. They are the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991, and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) from 1998. These laws gave states and metropolitan areas the certainty in funding and the flexibility in program design necessary to attempt new transportation solutions, according to Brookings. However, the broad reforms initiated at the federal level have not been uniformly implemented. For that reason, in order to be reauthorized this year, Congress will have to cement and advance the gains achieved in the past decade and respond more forcefully to the pressing transportation needs of metropolitan America.

Calls for Two Stops

Brookings calls for a two-step approach to reauthorization: First, preserve the innovative framework of ISTEA and TEA-21 and ensure that states attend to the needs of their metropolitan areas; Second, give metropolitan areas more powers and greater tools in exchange for enhanced accountability, in order to get transportation policy right for their regions. "Reauthorization of the laws governing highway, transit, air, and rail systems could not come at a more critical time," the report concludes.

NASCO's Miller adds, "U.S. Congressional action over the next 12 months will not only shape the future of North America's transportation capabilities, but also greatly impact the continent's ability to maintain and grow healthy local and national economies." NASCO's focus is the North American trade corridor From Canada across the United States and into Mexico.

In addition to infrastructure, Brookings joins other sources in singling out congestion as a major headache for the entire surface-transportation system. Congestion is growing in metropolitan areas of every size as regional economies continue to spread out in low-density ways. The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), in its 2002 Urban Mobility Study, points out that congestion is growing on all levels, citing 75 urban areas in its report which range from New York City down to cities with a population of 100,000.

Congestion in these areas cost the United States $67.5 billion in 2002. Included were 3.6 billion hours of delay and 5.7 billion gallons of excess fuel consumed. Moreover, the TTI says that the level of congestion is "undesirable" in 58 percent of today's urban areas, up from 7 percent in 1982 and 29 percent in 1990.

The Federal Highway Administration in its 2002 Conditions and Performance report notes that state and local governments, spurred in part by higher levels of federal investment, have poured billions of dollars into highway infrastructure. Despite record levels of funding, congestion has increased throughout the country.

Sub-Par Performance

Under the heading "sub-par performance," IndustryWeek.com (May 1, 2003) says that current and projected data about the U.S. surface, air, and water systems speak volumes about the needs for major upgrades and new development. In addition to congestion, the publication cites U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Bureau of Transportation statistics reports that on-time air arrival was "an abysmal" 77.4 percent in 2002, down from 82.1 percent in 2001 even as traffic dropped by nearly 13 percent.

Meanwhile, air cargo, the fastest-growing method of shipping freight, averages a growth rate of 6.2 percent and is constrained by the limited availability of new slots at major commercial airports, and opposition to airport noise and longer operating hours.

And that's not all. Railroads and waterways, saddled with what Industry-Week.com terms an Industrial Revolution-era image and a tax and funding system that favors airlines and trucks, are watching infrastructure fall farther behind modem-day requirements. A study of just one segment of the rail network, the 1-95 Corridor between Richmond, Va., and New York City, identified $6 billion of needed improvements over the next 20 years in order to reduce bottlenecks.

On the waterways, more than 53 percent of the nation's locks and dams that enable inland waterway shipments are now older than their design life. As a result, the locks are too short for modern needs, backing up flow and costing time and money, Industry-Week.com maintains.

In its TEA-21 Authorization report, Brookings cites crumbling metropolitan infrastructure and functional obsolescence as one of the "big-ticket" transportation challenges for 2003. The institution points to potholes, rough surfaces, and rusting bridges and calls these the realities of a deteriorating system. Recent analysis, moreover, estimates that the nation's aging infrastructure is costing American drivers $5.8 billion in repairs each year. Such costs subvert regional competitiveness and productivity by impeding the flow of people, goods, and services between America's cities and suburbs.

What's more, the very structure of this aging infrastructure is growing obsolete. Most cities and older communities now make do with a road and transit network that fits commuting patterns of the 1950s, when cities functioned as regional hubs. This fact - and the general obsolescence of much transportation infrastructure undermines urban and metropolitan economies, the report says.

So the question can be logically asked, "Where do we go from here?" Not the least of the infrastructure's problems are its strong political overtones as various federal, state, and local agencies joust with Congress over who gets what in the way of funding. Private-sector developers and contractors also have a large stake in the outcome.

The transportation network has not increased at a rate commensurate with growth estimates. On the highways, the mode that grabs the most government funding, vehicle miles traveled increased by 80 percent, while lane miles of public roads increased by only 2 percent between 1980 and 2000, according to USDOT documents. Other surface transportation networks are experiencing a similar overburdening of their systems.

Big Tonnage Increase

Meanwhile, USDOT estimates that the nation's transportation system will handle cargo valued at almost $30 trillion by 2020; according to IndustryWeek.com, compared with $9 trillion today. Volumes in tons will increase by nearly 70 percent over the current level of 15 billion tons. In addition, international freight volumes are growing faster than domestic, and they will almost double by 2020, putting greater pressure on gateways, ports, airports, and border crossings.

Technology is expected to play a large role in curing the nation's infrastructure ills, according to Industry-Week.com. One way this may be done is by increasing supply-chain efficiencies, which would upgrade distribution systems, cut costs, and add value along the way. Another major avenue is increased investment in intermodal. The publication cites a number of public- and private-sector sources who say that what's needed is an integrated intermodal system that fully uses the strength of each mode to solve the U.S. transportation gridlock.