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REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE NORMAN Y. MINETA
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
QUICK ROADS
ALEXANDRIA, VA.
APRIL 15, 2004
10:30 AM
Good morning, and thank you for being here.
We are excited to show you the future of road building. This display of
components and materials that you are seeing today will revolutionize our
ability to keep drivers moving on roads and bridges that take less time to
build, require less disruptive maintenance, provide better, safer driving
experiences, and cost less money.
At first glance, some may not recognize that what we see here is that future.
But let me assure you that it is, and the benefits for everyone who drives will
be amazing.
We’ve already experienced some of this technology at work.
Just a few weeks ago, a tanker truck carrying 12,000 gallons of fuel oil crashed
in Connecticut. It ignited a ferocious fire, melted a bridge on Interstate 95,
and threatened to cripple one of the Northeast’s most important transportation
corridors.
People who drive that route remember that event clearly. Tens of thousands of
lives were impacted. Deliveries were late. Meetings were postponed. Everyone had
to be patient and find alternatives.
But thanks to new technologies and a great deal of hard work from everyone
involved, we beat the odds and had traffic rolling again in only a few days.
We did it by using the latest in “quick construction” technology – in this case,
a pre-fabricated steel bridge that was assembled and shipped to the site, and
lifted into place by crews working overtime.
The I-95 Bridge in Connecticut is the most recent in a series of success
stories. Workers using pavement that snaps together like a child’s building
blocks or concrete that dries in four hours have been able to quickly re-open
highways and bridges closed by crashes.
Now we are working to find ways to promote the development and use of these and
other technologies in construction projects nationwide.
In President Bush’s surface transportation bill known as SAFETEA , (Safe,
Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act) we encourage
states to use these technologies for more projects, not just those that can be
classified as emergencies.
In the future, we hope to be able to dedicate even more funding for the further
development of other exciting and innovative transportation technologies.
The benefits to everyday road projects are many.
We only have to look over my shoulder at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project
sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway
Administration, the state of Maryland and the commonwealth of Virginia, as well
as the District of Columbia.
I want to thank Robert Flanagan, the Secretary of the Maryland Department of
Transportation, for being with us this morning. He is playing a crucial role in
making this bridge happen.
Wilson Bridge project managers so far have saved more than 20 million dollars
and nine months worth of work using pre-cast concrete boxes to create the bridge
supports!
That’s good for taxpayers and motorists.
But it’s also good for the environment, because building these huge pieces away
from the river means less chance for contamination. Use of new technologies is
good for everyone and everything.
Today, we will see the pavement pieces that snap together, the quick-curing
concrete, the machines that make sure that the pavement is smooth before it
dries, and even the pink signs that are providing us a new heads-up to
construction zones.
But as we walk through this display and marvel at the common sense of it all, we
must not forget that this is only the beginning.
As we succeed in using these technologies -- as communities see the benefits of
roads that open faster, require less repair work later, and give us safer,
smoother rides at less cost – we know that more ideas will come.
Because this is the future of road building. And, if I may say so, we have only
begun to scratch the “surface” in this exciting area of transportation.
So now let’s get on with the tour.
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