As we continue with our conversations on freight planning in cities around the country, we are delighted to have new funding opportunities to talk about with the new Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE) grants. 

 As authorized by the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program, the grants are funded at $4.5 billion for Fiscal Years 2016-2020, including up to $800 million for FY2016. With these grants and the formula funds in the National Highway Freight Program, we have – for the first time in USDOT's 50-year history – dedicated, multiyear funding for freight infrastructure.
 

Tucson, Charlotte and New Orleans join countless cities nationwide to benefit from the program. Our challenge as a nation is to make sure we have the infrastructure to handle more goods movement to continue to promote economic growth and opportunity and be equipped to compete internationally. 

That’s why our conversations are centered on the Draft National Freight Strategic Plan and we continue to ask business, transportation, and state and local government leaders attending our roundtables to provide us with their feedback on where to make targeted investments in freight transportation and on how we can strengthen our freight transportation system. 

We heard firsthand how key routes in and around these cities support freight movement.   

Arizona’s key commerce routes are I-11, I-17, I-40, and I-10.  One of the state’s priorities is the CANAMEX Corridor, which has both regional and national implications. It is envisioned as a trade route connecting Mexico, the United States and Canada. Improvements to SR 189 – the key for the Port of Entry at Nogales, Texas – are also on the state’s radar.   

In Tucson, the business community and local agencies are collaborating on freight issues. Tucson’s Chamber of Commerce is working with the Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance, the Pima Association of Governments (PAG) and other groups to identify ways to align the region’s transportation planning efforts with economic development opportunities.  

The I-85 corridor around Charlotte is rich with manufacturing and critical to trade through the region, including Richmond, Virginia, to Birmingham, Alabama. This corridor will likely continue to attract business based on proximity of the corridor to ports.             

In Charlotte and New Orleans, we learned about inter-modalism – truck, rail, airport and seaport – truly at work. The Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the nation’s sixth busiest airport. It is attracting companies because of the access it provides through an intermodal center right in the middle of the supply chain for many industries, making the state more competitive. The Charlotte region is expected to see multimodal freight activity grow by 40 percent between 2012 and 2040. 

In New Orleans, Interstates 10, 12, 55 and 59 are intermodal connectors at the center of the region’s freight-trucking activity. The Port of New Orleans is the only U.S. maritime port with connections to six Class I railroads and, as international trade continues to grow, the city is bracing for the additional dredging needed to accommodate bigger ships.   

Moving forward, the need for better data-sharing and technology solutions – including real-time tracking – top the list to help Tucson, Charlotte and New Orleans and other cities plan for the growth in freight activity.  

As we continue these roundtables, we look forward to hearing more about solutions and best practices that can help improve the efficiency of freight movement.