Senator Harry Reid
“The State of America’s Highway
Infrastructure”
Monday,September 30, 2002
Good
Morning. Welcome to today’s hearing on
the state of America’s highway infrastructure.
This is the last in a series of 14 scheduled hearings and roundtables
that the EPW committee and this subcommittee have held this year as we prepare
to write the next transportation bill.
We have addressed many important policy issues, including traffic
congestion, planning, safety, operations, air quality, freight and project
delivery.
These
hearings have made one thing clear – that transportation is central to our
economic growth, global competitiveness, and quality of life. In 1956, under the leadership of President
Eisenhower, the Federal government made a commitment to create an interstate
highway system. We have since expanded
that commitment to include the National Highway System and the broader
Federal-aid highway network. This
system has been an enormous success and now includes 46,000 miles of interstate
highways and one million miles of Federal-aid highways. These roads serve as the lifeblood of our
economy, moving people and freight trillions of miles each year.
Our nation’s
road and bridge infrastructure includes 8.2 million lane miles of highway and
590,000 bridges, valued at $1.4 trillion dollars. Our task is to protect this investment and ensure that it
continues to meet the needs of our nation’s communities and businesses. Potholed roadways, deficient bridges and
congested interstates threaten safety, diminish quality of life and impede
economic efficiency.
Today we will
review two new reports on the status of America’s highway system. The Federal Highway Administration will
present the findings of its 2002 Conditions and Performance report, and the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials will unveil
its Bottom Line report. These reports
offer a mixed message. On the positive
side, the increased investments provided by TEA-21 have begun to make a
difference. Our infrastructure is in
better shape today than it was a few years ago.
Unfortunately, while the condition of
our transportation system has improved somewhat, its performance continues to
worsen. The increasing congestion our
nation’s roads are experiencing means dirty air, wasted fuel, lost time and
reduced productivity. In addition, we
continue to have a significant backlog of repairs that must be made to
deficient bridges and inadequate roadways.
Both studies
conclude that America is spending too little money to maintain the current
conditions and performance of our transportation system, much less improve
conditions and performance. The needs
have outpaced funding, and unless we change this pattern we will fail to
address the backlog of infrastructure needs and will continue to experience
deteriorating performance.
I have seen
this performance deterioration firsthand at home in Nevada. As the Las Vegas and Reno regions have
grown, so has traffic congestion.
Worsening congestion is one of the greatest threats to my state’s
continued economic growth and we will have to do things differently if we are
to reverse this trend.
As we will
hear, the solutions range from improving the conditions of our roadways, to
building new roads, expanding and improving transit service, employing new
technology, enhancing the management and operations of our transportation
systems, improving planning, creating high-speed rail connections, and managing
demand.
We have our
work cut out for us as we begin the reauthorization process. It is our responsibility to ensure that the
transportation infrastructure of this country meets the needs of America’s
citizens. I look forward to working
closely with Chairman Jeffords and other members of this Committee to develop a
forward-looking reauthorization bill that adequately addresses the many
challenges our transportation system is facing.
We are
honored to have as our first witness today the Chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, Senator Robert Byrd.
No one has
been a greater champion for increased investment in transportation than Senator
Byrd. He was a leader on TEA-21 five
years ago, and he is a leader every year as the Chairman of the Appropriations
Committee. Those of us who support
increased investment in America’s transportation infrastructure are thankful
for Senator Byrd’s continued leadership.
I look forward to working with Senator Byrd as we write the next transportation
bill and will count on his wisdom and experience as we work our way through
this very difficult process.
Senator Byrd,
please proceed.
Introduction of Panel II Witnesses
Our first
witness in the next panel is Federal Highway Administrator Mary Peters. This is her third appearance this year
before this Subcommittee. She was our
first witness at our first hearing of the year back in February and then was
gracious enough to join me in Reno, Nevada for a field hearing on Western
Transportation Issues in August. Mary,
thank you for agreeing to join us again.
I look forward to working with you very closely over the next year.
Our second
witness will be Joseph Perkins, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of
Transportation and Public Facilities.
Commissioner Perkins wins the prize for the longest trip to testify
before this subcommittee. Thank you
very much for traveling to join
us. We look forward to your testimony
about the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’
(AASHTO) Bottom Line Report.
Our third
witness on the first panel will be JayEtta Hecker from the U.S. General
Accounting Office. Ms. Hecker, thank
you for being here. We appreciate all
the good work that GAO has done, and continues to do, for this Committee in
preparation for the next transportation bill.
Introduction of Panel Three
Witnesses
Our first
witness on our third and final panel is Gordon Proctor, Director of the Ohio
Department of Transportation.
Our second
witness is Thomas Jackson, President-Elect of the American Society of Civil
Engineers.
And our final
witness is Dr. William Buechner, Vice President of the American Road and
Transportation Builders’ Association.
Welcome to
all of you. I appreciate your
appearance today and your contribution to our hearing record. Mr. Proctor, please proceed.