DOT Initiative Includes Greater Private-Sector Role on Roads
he Department of Transportation Tuesday announced a new national initiative to tackle highway and freight congestion that will include a greater role for privately funded roads.
The initiative encourages states to pass legislation giving the private sector “a greater opportunity to invest in transportation,” DOT said.
The 16-page plan says there is more private-sector interest in U.S. roadways, as evidenced by a $1.8 billion, 99-year lease of the Chicago Skyway and the pending $3.8 billion, 75-year lease of the Indiana Toll Road by a Spanish-Australian consortium, the latter of which is being challenged by a lawsuit. (Click here for previous coverage.)
The plan calls for more widespread deployment of new operational technologies and practices that end traffic tie ups, designates new interstate “corridors of the future,” targets port and border congestion, and expands aviation capacity.
It also calls for “urban partnership agreements” with a handful of communities willing to demonstrate new congestion-relief strategies.
Mineta called congestion one of the single largest threats to the economy, and told the National Retail Federation that “congestion kills time, wastes fuel and costs money.”
He said the United States loses an estimated $200 billion a year due to freight bottlenecks and delayed deliveries. Consumers lose 3.7 billion hours and 2.3 billion gallons of fuel sitting in traffic jams every year.
Congestion is not a fact of life. We need a new approach and we need it now,” Mineta said.
The new initiative is called the National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America’s Transportation Network.
a href="http://isddc.dot.gov/OLPFiles/OST/012988.pdf">Click here for the full plan (16-page PDF file).
