Report confirms infrastructure needs

NSSGA has commended the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission on today's release of its comprehensive report—confirming the burgeoning needs of the nation's surface transportation infrastructure and the essential of increased investment to meet those needs—beginning the debate on the future of the nation's surface transportation infrastructure and how it will be funded.  While not in total agreement on the methods of raising additional revenues or how to spend increased funds, the commission agreed on the imperative of increased funding.

Commenting on the report, Michael Stanczak, regional president for Hanson Material Service and chairman of the NSSGA Reauthorization Task Force said, "The commission report reflects many of the recommendations of NSSGA's Reauthorization Task Force.  This includes the need for a new vision of transportation in the 21st Century, a multi-modal system that employs technological advances to increase efficiency of the system and the need for more research to continue advances to ease the congestion clogging our urban areas and imposing increasing costs in time and wasted fuels.  Simply put, our surface transportation infrastructure is old and at capacity.  Unless we take this opportunity, we are setting ourselves up to do no better than the status quo.  That is not good enough."

Of particular importance to the aggregates industry are conclusions in the report focusing on improving coordination between states and metropolitan areas on how transportation and land use will be coordinated to meet congestion and other goals.  This would include ensuring that needed aggregate resources are not made unavailable for road and highway improvements.  

The debate now begins in earnest, following not only the commission report, but the U.S. Government Accountability Office December report on freight transportation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's transportation policy imperative.  NSSGA believes no financing options should be off the table from increasing the fuel user fee to increased tolling, public private partnerships where they make sense and new ideas like a carbon tax directed to transportation infrastructure. Your comment?