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Our op-ed in The Hill today: Helping the feds help the locals to help the economy

The Hill newspaper ran a special section on transportation today and were kind enough to include an opinion piece from us, along with former U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood, House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).

We began the piece by noting that transportation is facing its own version of the “fiscal cliff” this fall, as the transportation trust fund begins to bleed red ink. (More on that, based on the latest Congressional Budget Office estimates, in the next post.) As we have said before, we think Congress needs to bite the bullet and supply the needed funds, but with a caveat:

If we are going to raise the necessary revenue — and we argue emphatically that we should — we have to be able to articulate a clear and compelling case that the investment will lead to improved long-term economic prosperity. At the same time we need to direct more of the funding and latitude to local communities, rewarding the most innovative projects at the level where voters can best be assured of accountability.

Secretary LaHood sounded a similar theme, connecting progress at the local and regional level to the nation’s economic health, and emphasizing the federal role.

Former U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood

What will it take to modernize America’s transportation infrastructure and keep us economically competitive? I believe that it’s going to take courage and vision: vision to devise a long-term strategic plan that is based on measurable economic results, and courage to make the hard choices necessary when it comes to paying the bill.

Governors and mayors have been watching the gridlock in Congress with growing alarm. … As a result, many of them have made the hard choice to raise revenue themselves, either through fuel taxes or sales taxes. The public has also endorsed many of these efforts — 91 percent of all ballot initiatives in this past November’s election passed. But don’t misunderstand — these local and statewide efforts should not replace the federal government’s responsibility here. …The only way to maintain and upgrade a well-functioning American infrastructure and transportation system is for federal leaders to show courage and have a vision for national priorities.

In his op-ed, Chairman Shuster emphasizes the role Congress and the federal transportation program, due to be reauthorized later this year, can play in preparing the country for the big shifts in technology and travel patterns that are under way:

Chairman Bill Shuster, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

One of the committee’s highest priorities in 2014 is a new surface transportation reauthorization that will help strengthen our national system of highways, bridges and transit. As we continue to develop this legislation, we are exploring the role technology can play in moving freight and people more efficiently, improving safety and maximizing our resources.

How we build and navigate the surface transportation system today is quickly evolving, thanks to technology. It affects everything from the way roads are constructed to how traffic is monitored and managed to how car-sharing services and smartphone apps complement the methods by which we get around.

Working together, we must continue to embrace technology and innovation while we look ahead to the future of our transportation and infrastructure. But we cannot forget that we have to begin planning for that future today.

For the last nine months or so we have been traveling the country talking to local leaders who are eager to make sure Congress don’t forget that need to plan, and to keep the needs of our centers of population and commerce in mind.

As we said in concluding our op-ed: “The mayors, chamber executives, civic leaders and major employers we have been talking to are ready to make the pitch to their own constituencies and provide backing for members of Congress willing to act on behalf of our current and future prosperity. Because the national economy is only as strong as the local economies that make it up, these leaders understand these needs better than anyone and articulate them clearly. The only question is whether Congress will follow their lead.”

SOTU followup: Does transportation offer a glimmer of bipartisan hope?

As we noted in our statement after the State of the Union address Tuesday night, it was good to hear the President again cite the need to steer new revenue toward “rebuilding our roads, upgrading our ports, unclogging our commutes”. He didn’t say much beyond that, of course, but given other developments in the background, we have reason to be somewhat encouraged.

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Though his transportation remarks were limited, what he did propose was a bit more concrete than past references to diverting billions saved from winding down various wars. This time, he called for making changes to corporate taxes – moves with at least some support in both parties – that could yield a temporary infusion for infrastructure investment.

It would be a welcome near-term boost, but as his transportation secretary has repeatedly pointed out, we need a long-term fix for the ongoing shortfall in our beleaguered transportation trust fund. The U.S. DOT will run out of money to reimburse states before the end of the fiscal year, with deep cuts likely in following years. Simply put, rising construction costs and falling gas tax revenues from an increasingly efficient vehicle fleet have us on course for a “transportation fiscal cliff”.

As the President surely knows, this bodes ill for much of the strategy he outlined for easing the burden for work-a-day Americans. It won’t do much good, for example, to train a low-wage worker for a job in the suburbs if he or she can’t get to it. Efforts to revive manufacturing will falter if producers can’t move their goods through bottlenecks on overburdened and deteriorating urban highways.

As the expiration of MAP-21 nears this fall, we are hoping the Administration will put forward a transportation bill that lines up with Obama’s economic strategy. But when it comes to raising the revenue to boost the trust fund to levels sufficient to repair and modernize our infrastructure, the President cannot go it alone.

The good news is he may not have to. In recent days, the chairs of two key infrastructure committees, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) – representing both chambers and both parties – have sounded the call to save our transportation fund from insolvency and make smart investments for America’s future.

Chairman Barbara Boxer, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

Chairman Bill Shuster, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

“This problem must be addressed in this Congress,” said Senator Boxer, who chairs the Environment and Public Works committee. “A strong transportation system is vital to ensuring our nation’s economic competitiveness, and this requires maintaining federal investments in our infrastructure.”

Rep. Shuster, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, also has been bold and articulate on the need for a “strong federal role” in creating the infrastructure to sustain our economy and quality of life, and the need for local leaders to speak up for it. In opening a hearing this month on “Building the Foundation for Surface Transportation Reauthorization”, he said: “We can’t afford to be stuck in the past or we’ll be left behind. We should encourage our federal partners to think outside the box on how to address our transportation challenges [and] promote innovation.”

We couldn’t agree more, and we can’t imagine that his Democratic counterparts would disagree. We recognize that finding agreement on the revenue source will be a steep climb. We have suggested several possible sources. Perhaps tax reform offers another vehicle to find new revenue for transportation needs.

Meanwhile, “We need your help in educating members of Congress,” Chairman Shuster told the U.S. Conference of Mayors this month. Those members need to hear from elected, business and civic leaders from around the country that there is support – and a demand – for congressional action to provide the infrastructure funding our economy relies on. That’s our mission at T4America: to rally those voices across the country and bring them to their members of Congress. If you can help – either by speaking yourself or by reaching out to a community leader – please let us know!

Cities are “laboratories of innovation.” Should they have more control of transportation funding?

Flickr photo by Cameron Adams http://www.flickr.com/photos/cameronadams/8091195427/sizes/l/

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed takes a ride on a section of the Beltline trail — one of the transportation innovations that Atlanta is most proud of. Flickr photo by Cameron Adams

That was the implied assertion made by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in a widely-circulated op-ed last week on Huffington Post.

I believe the future of solving much of our nation’s transportation problems lies within the vision and leadership we find in our cities. Providing the resources and decision-making authority increasingly to cities and their regions will yield enormous benefits not only to the nation’s mobility but to the returning health of our nation’s economy.

But is it accurate to paint today’s debate over this point as the same “age-old tug of war between state transportation officials and their city-level counterparts” about doling out money, as National Journal did in a question to their panel of transportation experts? Or is the problem more that we’re entering a new age of transportation needs armed with the last era’s transportation policies?

Our James Corless weighed in on the National Journal’s experts blog:

…We have a federal transportation establishment that is still geared toward last century’s primary challenge: to build an interstate highway system to facilitate long distance travel between centers of commerce. This century’s challenge is to keep people and goods moving within those ever-burgeoning centers, even as the existing system shows its age. If these places fail, our economy fails. It really is as simple as that.

Read the full question and comment over at National Journal.

Statement in response to President Obama’s call for transportation investment in the State of the Union address

Responding to President Obama’s call to steer new revenue toward “rebuilding our roads, upgrading our ports, unclogging our commutes”, Transportation for America Director James Corless issued this statement:

“President Obama is doing the nation a great service by bringing attention to the urgent need to provide our communities with the resources to build and repair the infrastructure our prosperity depends on. As he said, ‘In today’s global economy, first-class jobs gravitate to first-class infrastructure.’

As the President will note in trips to Nashville, Pittsburgh and other communities this week, can-do communities are leading the way with innovative, cost-effective investment strategies, with projects designed to sustain economic growth while improving quality of life. It is critical that they succeed: These centers of commerce are the building blocks of our nation’s economy, and if they grind to a halt, so will the country as a whole. But they can’t solve these issues of national urgency alone.

In calling for greater investment in transportation the President joins the chairs of two key infrastructure committees, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who have shown great leadership in working across the aisle to raise awareness of the need to save our federal transportation fund from insolvency and make crucial investments for America’s future. They, in turn, are echoing what we are hearing from local elected, business and civic leaders around the country, who are all but begging for a robust federal partner to help them get workers to jobs and goods to market.

The President, the committee chairs, and local leaders are right: We absolutely must put more money into fixing and modernizing our infrastructure, or watch it crumble along with our economic prosperity. And just as importantly, we have to get those resources into the hands of the local communities that will drive our economic success.”

Our Can-Do Places series continues: Denver

Denver: Betting on the future and seeing early returns

In cities, towns and suburbs across the country, local leaders are responding to new economic challenges with innovative plans for their transportation networks, including taxing themselves to make their visions a reality. But they can’t do it alone and need strong federal and state partners to make it work.

This story from Denver, Colorado is the second in our series of these stories that illustrate how local communities across the country are casting a vision and often putting their own skin in the game first with local funding while hoping for a strong federal partner to make those plans a reality.

Denver, Colorado

Faced with potential employers suggesting that the lack of transit connections were preventing Denver from realizing their economic development goals, the region’s leaders banded together and made a bold bet on an ambitious and comprehensive plan to expand their transportation network a decade ago.

Read the full story here.

Denver Sunrise Flickr photo by Dave Harpe /photos/daveharpe/10354670205/

Graphic: Comparing the 2014 bipartisan budget to 2013

Just months after budget sequestration and a government shutdown put transportation funding at risk, Congress passed the first full budget in three years last night after the Senate vote that will provide stable or increased funding for key programs we’ve been fighting for over the last few years. The $1.1 trillion budget is with the President for his signature. Take a look at this graphic which shows the good news for transportation in this 2014 budget compared to FY2013 figures post-sequestration.

For this graphic and more, don’t miss our regular featured graphics on our Maps and Tools page.

(Note the comment on the graphic about Amtrak and Amtrak operations — those cuts are a bit deceiving. Also, Amtrak received a total of $1.39 billion in capital and operations for 2014 — as much as they’ve received in almost any recent budget.)

Cuts restored, progress possible in critical budget deal

Maine’s application for a TIGER grant to replace the aging Penobscot River bridge has a benefit-cost ratio of 8.7

Updated 1/17/2014 at bottom. Positive news from Congress today! Yes, you heard right. Just months after budget sequestration and a government shutdown put transportation funding at risk, House leaders have agreed to a budget deal that would provide stable or increased funding for key programs that you’ve helped us defend over the last few years.

House leaders deserve recognition for this positive step for transportation funding. And they need to know that they’re on the right track.

It’s not over yet, but this is an important victory for T4America and all of you who think smart investments in transportation are key to economic prosperity.

The House and Senate reached a tentative agreement back in December and this new “omnibus” comprehensive budget bill to keep government functioning was drafted along that outline by House and Senate appropriators.

Most encouraging is that it wasn’t that long ago when serious proposals were floated in Congress for across-the-board transportation cuts of one-third, significant cuts to funding for Amtrak and new transit construction, as well as zeroing out the innovative TIGER grant program.

This budget deal includes $600 million for another round of grants for the TIGER program — a level not seen since 2010 — as well as an increase in the New Starts program that communities need to meet the demand for transit service. Amtrak also received what they need to continue operating their booming services while investing for the future.

Get Involved

Tell your House representative that you welcome this deal, thank them for their work to make it happen, and urge them to pass the measure when it comes to the floor.

SEND A MESSAGE

That means that commuters throughout the nation can breathe a sigh of relief that their transit route is less likely to be cut, rail cars and buses could be upgraded, and essential new service can begin the process of being added. With cuts to highway programs reversed, they also can know that their bridges and roads are more likely to be repaired and replaced. Riders who depend on Amtrak can breathe easy knowing that most service cuts are likely history.

So what’s next? A vote in the House perhaps as early as tomorrow (Wednesday) and then a subsequent vote in the Senate by this weekend.

After this important deal is approved, we hope Congress will turn its attention toward preventing the oncoming insolvency of our key transportation trust fund. For inspiration, they can look to our alliance’s proposal to raise enough revenues not only to avoid calamity, but to provide our communities the resources and latitude they need to reach their economic potential.

Our nation’s economy is only as strong as our local economies, and those depend on a reliable, safe, well-maintained transportation network.

Updated 1/17/2014 With a 359-67 vote in the House and a 72-26 vote in the Senate, the full $1.1 trillion budget for FY 2014 was approved by Congress and sent to the President for his signature. Here’s our statement on the final vote.

In 2013, 20-plus states took up transportation funding: Here’s the final tally

Welcome to 2014! With a large number of state legislatures convening as the new year gets underway, it’s worth a look back at an important trend from 2013: States stepping forward to raise additional money for transportation. With federal funding remaining flat in 2012′s transportation bill (MAP-21) and after years of deferred action during the long recession, a large number of states, metro areas and local communities moved to supplement federal dollars with new revenues of their own.

In April, we reported that 19 states were looking at ways to increase their own funding for transportation. Some needed the funds just to make ends meet after years of flat or declining state revenues, while others also were looking for funds to match those available from MAP-21 new and updated loan and grant programs (like TIFIA or TIGER).

Here’s how they fared:

Key Successes

We covered Maryland’s ambitious plan on this blog, as well as Massachusetts.

Both of those states’ plans indexed the state gas tax to keep pace with inflation — something the federal gas tax, unchanged since 1993 — does not do. In Maryland, the state also added a sales tax on gasoline, while in Massachusetts, the package included an increase in cigarette taxes and certain business taxes. The good news was that in making the changes, both states recognized the importance of all modes of transportation and the revenues will fund important transit and road projects around the states.

In Virginia, Governor McDonnell began the debate with a proposal to abolish the per-gallon gasoline tax entirely and replace it with sales and wholesale taxes on fuel. That brought together legislators from both parties, who developed an innovative package of revenue increases to put transportation funding on a long-term, stable footing.

New legislation raised vehicle fees, along with local taxes in two of the states’ most heavily populated areas, Northern Virginia (near Washington, DC) and Hampton Roads (near Norfolk/Virginia Beach on the coast). Recognizing that businesses, residents, and visitors to Virginia depend on many types of transportation to move around the state, the new law directs funding to all modes of surface transportation, including transit, passenger rail, roads, and bridges. The package is projected to have more than $9.5 billion in economic impact in the state. As the Gov. McDonnell said in signing the bill: “This legislation will ensure that Virginia’s economy can grow in the years ahead, and that businesses will have the infrastructure they need to create the good-paying jobs Virginians deserve.”

Most recently, legislators in Pennsylvania reached agreement on a package of tax and fee changes that will raise $2.3 billion annually for the state’s transportation infrastructure – $1.65 billion for roads and bridges and $475 million for transit. The debate went down to the wire with agreement finally reached in a special legislative session just before Thanksgiving, allowing the governor to sign the bill on a cold day in late November.

AP photo by Nabil Mark – Gov. Tom Corbett, center, signs into law a bill that will provide $2.3 billion a year for improvements to Pennsylvania’s highways, bridges and mass-transit systems.

The PA legislation eliminates the retail tax on gasoline and a state cap on gas tax paid at the wholesale level and raises various vehicles and driver fees over the next five years. The new funding will help to advance projects like the rehabilitation of the structurally deficient Liberty Bridge in Pittsburgh and of outdated equipment used by SEPTA.

Not all states that raised money recognized the value of investing across the board in all types of transportation to keep their economies moving. Ohio, Wyoming, and Vermont enacted tax increases intended for highway projects only. In Wisconsin, new bonding authority was enacted, with bond funds directed almost entirely to highways.

One positive outcome in Wisconsin: While the governor had proposed kicking transit out of the state transportation fund (similar to what the House of Representatives proposed in 2012), the legislature rejected that proposal and instead transferred general fund money into the fund (much as the federal government has done for its highway trust fund) to keep funding public transportation.

Try again next year!

Some states explicitly punted the issue to next year by creating commissions to report back to the legislature on transportation revenue options.

In Indiana, where a bill had been moving forward to allow the central Indiana region (which includes Indianapolis) to raise their own regional taxes to pay for transit, legislators instead commissioned a study on how to fund transit in the region. In November, the transit study commission voted in favor of allowing counties in the Indianapolis region to impose an income tax or business tax increase, if approved by a voter referendum, to fund regional transit. Reports like these help reinforce the notion — which we agree with — that regions should always have the ability, especially with the blessing of voters, to raise their own revenues to invest in regional transportation needs. We will definitely be keeping Indiana on our “watch list” for 2014.

Another state to watch in 2014 is Washington, where legislators negotiated on transportation funding through mid-December before calling it quits for the year. They promise to resume when the next legislative session begins in January. The current discussion is about increasing the state gas tax, with legislators debating items such as stormwater treatment, how to use the sales taxes collected from transportation projects, and funding for public transportation.

The need is urgent in Washington. Without any increase in state revenue, for example, the bus systems in the Seattle region are facing severe cuts in service that employers and employees depend on, along with fare increases.

A state we also hope will try again is Missouri, where a plan to raise $7.9 billion over 10 years through a penny sales tax passed both the Missouri House and Senate, but was then filibustered at the 11th hour when the Senate took up the package for a final vote. The fact that it was a sales tax was notable because in Missouri, as in many other states, while gas taxes are limited to only funding highway projects, a sales tax can be used for any mode of transportation, giving the state much more flexibility to invest.

Looking back

This movement we saw in 2013 is just the beginning. More and more states are increasingly looking for ways to bring more of their own dollars to the table, as well as making plans to invest in a range of transportation options. For a complete list see our state funding tracker.

The folks on the ground in these towns, cities, and metro areas know how important transportation is to their economic success. And keeping those local economies humming is key to our national economic prosperity.

Other states – and the federal government – need to take a page from their playbook and find a way to invest more money in transportation – it’s vital for our economy. One good place to start the discussion would be with our proposal to raise more revenue for transportation for the price of a weekly coffee and doughnut per commuter.

T4 brings mayors to Washington to tell Secretary Foxx about the importance of passenger rail

T4America brought together a group of mayors to visit with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx — a former mayor himself — and deliver a message about the importance of passenger rail to the economies of those local communities they represent.

Mayor Marks of Tallahassee, Florida greets Sec. Foxx before a meeting at USDOT on 12/17/2013

There are few who better understand the importance of passenger rail as a transportation option and economic development tool than do mayors. That’s why we brought a bipartisan group of mayors from cities across the country to Washington, D.C. for a meeting with Sec. Foxx today.

Passenger rail service has been booming in this country, setting monthly and yearly records as surely as the pages of the calendar continue to turn. Not including the many commuter rail systems operating in the U.S., about 85,000 passengers ride on more than 300 Amtrak trains each day, with more than 31 million passengers taking a trip last year — an all-time ridership record for the nation’s passenger railroad.

The bill (PRIIA) that sets policy and authorizes funding for Amtrak expired on Sept. 30, 2013. Congress is overdue to write its replacement, and there’s a lot of discussion about what sort of reforms need to be made and how much funding to invest in our country’s passenger rail system.

From left, Mayor McFarlane of Raleigh, North Carolina; former Mayor John Robert Smith with T4America; Mayor Danny Jones of Charleston, West Virginia; and Mayor John Marks of Tallahassee, Florida in the meeting with Secretary Foxx on Dec. 17, 2013.

Mayors like these know firsthand that passenger rail supports economic development in their cities and provides vital connections to other cities near and far, and that’s a message that needs to be heard at USDOT and in Congress right now.

Mayors in North Carolina’s Triangle region are raring to go with more improvements and added service for their existing passenger rail connections, and in fact, they’re already seeing the economic impacts.

Mayor Nancy McFarlane of Raleigh, North Carolina shared how a TIGER grant that helped her city start work on a station to connect Amtrak and local transit service under one roof has already reaped rewards. “400 jobs are there already, just from announcing the plans for the station,” she said. And next door in Durham, Mayor Bill Bell is on the same page, telling Sec. Foxx that “it’s no question that the demand is there — we just need the capacity.”

Charleston, West Virginia Mayor Danny Jones remembered how the trains were one of the few things moving after 9/11 for those days that air travel was shut down.

“The price we pay for Amtrak each year — that’s a small price for having a good substitute transportation system for this country. It’s there for us, and we need it,” he reminded everyone.

At the end of the historic Crescent Line in New Orleans, Louisiana, Deputy Mayor Grant provided a poignant reminder that during Hurricane Katrina, rail service was actually the only way out of the city at times.

Not too far east, Tallahassee, Florida was one of the handful of cities that lost their passenger rail service because of Katrina and has yet to see it return.

“I want to focus the conversation on economic development,” Mayor John Marks began. With 75,000 university students and staff between Florida State, Florida A&M and a sizable community college (as well as baby boomer retirees flocking to Tallahassee) all within a few miles of the train station that’s right off the main street, he said that moving people more efficiently has significant economic implications. Reconnecting that service through Tallahassee “is a significant tool for our economic development,” he said.

Saco, Maine is a small town where the city invested $2.5 million into the old train station downtown, which is in turn spurring the development of nearby abandoned mills into mixed use buildings. “We’re invested,” said Mayor Donald Pilon. “And the investment is paying off. The train station is the draw for the developers.”

“This train drives southern Maine’s economy,” Mayor Pilon declared, while mentioning all the destinations connected to Saco by the five daily trains.

Our co-chair and former Mayor John Robert Smith is fond of telling the story of how he got involved firsthand years ago in Meridian, Mississippi when the passenger line that runs right through his town from Atlanta to New Orleans was on the chopping block. It wasn’t just the fact that a lot of his constituents depended on that passenger rail service as the only way they could visit relatives, see a doctor in a bigger city, or take a vacation. The downtown train station was also an important transportation hub and in the process of being transformed into a new center of economic activity for Meridian. And once that service was preserved, the restoration of the station helped usher in millions of dollars in economic impacts through new and renovated buildings in the downtown core.

From Mayor John Marks in Tallahassee, Florida all the way up to Mayor Donald Pilon in Saco, Maine, mayors know the importance of investing in reliable, on-time passenger rail connections.

Secretary Foxx, not far removed from his time as Mayor of Charlotte, N.C., told all the mayors that their work delivering this message here and back at the state level can carry greater weight for members of Congress than a message from him at USDOT. It’s got to come from the local level, he said.

He closed the meeting by letting the mayors know that USDOT wants to be in the business of helping them realize their visions.

Hopefully Congress will hear the message from these mayors and dozens of others loud and clear — and act on it as they begin work on passenger rail policy and funding for the next few years to come.

Secretary Foxx

Budget deal avoids automatic cuts; focus shifts to appropriations committees

Barring a successful rebellion within one party or the other, it looks like Congress may have the first bipartisan budget agreement since 2010. That is good news for the economy, and it is especially welcome where transportation infrastructure is concerned.

Through a combination of fee increases, spending cuts, and other changes, the deal allocates nearly $63 billion to offset “sequestration” cuts – by half this year and about a quarter in fiscal 2015 – and to reduce the deficit by $23 billion. Most importantly for transportation, it provides the appropriations committees with the authority to adjust the funding levels within the new overall cap.

This flexibility opens the possibility of restoring cuts to transit construction projects under New Starts, to the oversubscribed program of competitive grants under TIGER and to Amtrak. Those programs faced cuts of at least 7 percent this year, on top of previous cuts.

The deal also includes a “reserve account” for infrastructure that gives Congress and authorizing committees permission to spend more on transportation and other infrastructure, provided they can pay for it either through cuts elsewhere or increased revenue – by, say, raising the gas tax. This is good news, because, while it by no means guarantees positive action, the agreement at least indicates bipartisan acknowledgment that more investment in transportation may be warranted.

As we have explained in this space before, relying only on existing revenue from the federal gas tax would lead to massive cuts to highway and transit projects starting next fall.

That’s why we at Transportation for America are rallying local elected, business and civic leaders from around the country to a realistic proposal to raise and invest additional revenue. While one simple route would be to raise the federal gas tax to match inflation since the last increase in 1993, there are other, readily doable avenues available, as our proposal shows.

Raising an additional $30 billion per year – at roughly the cost per commuter of a doughnut and a coffee a week – would allow us to stabilize funding for the MAP-21 program Congress adopted last year and protect all modes of transportation – including New Starts, TIGER and Amtrak – from draconian budget cuts. At the same time, we could spur the innovation our economy needs to meet population growth and rising demand by funding competitive grants to local communities that come up with smart solutions.

The budget deal offers a glimmer of hope that members of both parties will understand what is at stake if transportation funding continues to be radically unstable. We hope that Congress can continue to work in a cooperative, bi-partisan fashion to address key needs like the impending insolvency of our federal transportation program.

Business, civic and elected leaders from across the country call on Congress to boost and refocus transportation funding

D.C. event launches new alliance to press for an investment program equal to our economic opportunities and challenges

CONTACT: David Goldberg, 202-412-793, david.goldberg@t4america.org

Washington, D.C. – Kicking off a new push to rejuvenate the nation’s investment in transportation, business and civic leaders from cities, towns and suburbs across the country came together Tuesday to urge Congress to help them innovate and build the infrastructure needed for today’s economy.

At the same time, event host Transportation for America released a proposal to raise an additional $30 billion a year for transportation, to plug the funding hole in the 2012 MAP-21 program while funding competitive grants to support innovative projects with strong economic impact. T4America announced the launch of a new campaign around the proposal.

“Under deadline to renew the federal transportation program and save the highway trust fund from insolvency in 2014, congressional leaders have said they want to hear from ordinary communities, and local civic and business leaders,” said James Corless, director of Transportation for America. “Today, they got that chance, and our alliance will make sure they hear from even more communities going forward.”

The Capitol Hill event, dubbed “Local Economies, National Prosperity: Community leaders make the economic case for federal investment in transportation,” featured speakers from communities as diverse as Nashville, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Minneapolis and Tampa Bay. Business leaders and mayors explained why it is critical for their economies that Congress not only rescue the sinking trust fund, but raise enough revenue so local communities can fix bottlenecks and broken bridges while building new connections to support future prosperity.

“Local business leaders recognize that the right transportation infrastructure is a matter of economic life or death,” said Will Schroeer, Director of Infrastructure for Economic Development for the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce and the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce. Underscoring the economic importance of transportation, he is the first joint appointment of the two chambers. “But we know we can’t go it alone, so it’s important to join with leaders from other communities to ensure that we have a strong federal partner.”

Participants in the day’s activities included Mayor Ben McAdams of Salt Lake County, UT; Mayor Mark Mallory of Cincinnati, OH; Mayor Ken Moore of Franklin, TN; Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans, LA; and Dave Williams, Vice President of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, among many others.

“Transportation investments make common sense,“ Morial said. “Helping people of all wage levels get to work and get to jobs, helping employers get access to the widest community of employees. It’s something that all of us, people from all parts of the political spectrum should be able to agree on.”

In addition to inaugurating a new membership network of mayors and county executives, major employers, key institutions, civic groups and many others, such as those that participated in today’s event, T4America is also today launching a new and improved website, complete with new features and ways to get involved.

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Transportation for America is an alliance of elected, business and civic leaders from communities across the country, united to ensure that states and the federal government step to invest in smart, homegrown, locally driven transportation solutions. These are the investments that hold the key to our future prosperity. Learn more at www.t4america.org

Watch live today as we launch a new alliance of #CanDoLeaders

Today is the start of a brand new focus for Transportation for America.

Since 2008, we’ve been a leading advocate in Washington for a national investment plan for transportation that matches today’s challenges and opportunities. We’re proud to have your support on these important issues.

Today, we’re launching the next phase: A new alliance of business, elected, and civic leaders from cities, towns and suburbs across the nation. They know how valuable a robust transportation network is for local economies, and that stronger local economies build a stronger America. They will be there to stand up for local communities as Congress in 2014 addresses the growing hole in the transportation fund and the expiration of last year’s MAP-21 law.

The new alliance kicks off today: ~~Tune in this morning to the live webcast below, which goes live at 8:30 a.m. eastern time.~~ (Stream is now complete, thanks for watching! Keep your eyes peeled on our blog for recaps and videos from the day. – Ed.

LOCAL ECONOMIES, NATIONAL PROSPERITY: Community leaders make the economic case for federal investment in transportation

Tuesday, November 19, 2013
8:30 AM—1:00 PM EST

We’re at Washington, DC’s Union Station this morning — a transportation hub just steps from the U.S. Capitol—to talk with some of the nation’s economic development and transportation leaders. Tune in this morning from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM EST to watch a live webcast of the keynote speakers and panelists, and be sure to join the conversation on Twitter at the hashtag #CanDoLeaders.

We’ll be keeping up with all of you on twitter while at the event this morning, so reach out to us with the hashtag and @t4america

If you’re a regular visitor, you may have noticed a brand new and improved T4America.org. We’ll have more on the new site later today, but poke around and explore. And don’t miss a new video showcasing our vision, shared by communities around the country, for investment to serve the needs of today’s economy, for people of all wage levels and businesses of all sizes.

AGENDA

Welcome and Introductions

James Corless, Director, Transportation for America
Michael Myers, Senior Policy Officer and Director of Centennial Programming, Rockefeller Foundation

8:45-9:45 AM
What it takes for local economies to thrive – the role of smart transportation investments

Moderator: Ronnie Duncan, Chairman, Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority
The Hon. Ben McAdams, Mayor, Salt Lake County, Utah
Sumi Parekh, Director of Legislative Affairs, Los Angeles Business Council
Will Schroeer, Director, Infrastructure for Economic Development, Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce
Gary Sasso, Chair, Transportation, Tampa Bay Partnership

10:00-11:00 AM
Barriers to success – making the federal transportation program work for local communities

Moderator: The Hon. Marc Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League; Former Mayor, New Orleans, Louisiana
The Hon. Ken Moore, Mayor, Franklin, Tennessee
The Hon. Mark Mallory, Mayor, Cincinnati, Ohio
Mike McKeever, Chief Executive Officer, Sacramento Area Council of Governments

11:00 AM-12:00 PM
Building bridges – the importance of diverse alliances and new partners

Moderator: Wade Henderson, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Dave Williams, Senior Vice President, Public Policy, Metro Atlanta Chamber
María Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO
Anita Hairston, Associate Director, PolicyLink

LUNCH

12:10-12:30 PM
Keynote Speaker

Moving Forward: Federal priorities connecting state and local opportunities

The Honorable Polly Trottenberg, Under Secretary for Policy, U.S. Department of Transportation

12:30-1:00 PM
Transportation for America’s Call to Action

The Honorable John Robert Smith, Former Mayor, Meridian, MS

We’re starting something new! Join us next week for a kickoff event

For the past five years, Transportation for America has worked with advocates, allies and supporters like you to urge Congress to make smarter investments in America’s transportation system. This week, we’re starting something new.

T4America is building a powerful new alliance of business, elected, and civic leaders from cities, towns and suburbs across the nation. These community leaders know how critical it is to invest in a robust transportation network that can support local economies. And we know stronger local economies build a stronger America.

At our kick-off event today on November 19, these leaders are explaining why Congress must not only save the sinking transportation trust fund but also raise enough revenue so communities can fix bottlenecks and broken bridges while building new connections to future prosperity.

We want you to join us for the kick-off event. No matter where you live, watch the live webcast of the event and join the conversation on Twitter with us @t4america.

Local Economies, National Prosperity:

Community leaders make the economic case for federal investment in transportation

Tuesday, November 19, 2013
8:30 AM—1:00 PM EST

Watch it live:

We have traveled the country over the past year talking to mayors and county executives, major employers, key institutions, civic groups and many others. And we found that they get the need for an updated national program—so much so that many are eager to be part of the new membership network T4America is building. Our ad hoc coalition did much to defend and win improvements in the last transportation bill, but we can be even stronger with a more formal membership with staying power

As part of this re-launch , we’re also unveiling this new and improved Transportation for America website complete with new features and ways to get involved. (Stay tuned for more on what’s new around here!)

The coming year will be a critical one for transportation in the United States as Congress must act to address the deep deficit in the transportation fund and the expiration of the two-year MAP-21 law.

Today’s event is just the beginning. You stood with us the last go-round, and we hope you’ll be with us in our new configuration!

Government shutdown or not, more cuts are in store for transportation

Whether or not Congress can reach an agreement in time to prevent a government shut-down before tomorrow, one thing is clear: shut-down or not, this next fiscal year (FY14) will be a year of more cuts — including cuts to transportation.

(This post is by Sarah Kline, T4 America’s research director. -Ed.) We’re less than 24 hours away from yet another possible government shut-down as Congress continues debating a plan for government spending covering the first few months of the 2014 fiscal year, which begins tomorrow on October 1.

The bill they’re considering is called a “Continuing Resolution” (or CR), a simple spending bill that continues the funding levels from the previous year as Congress continues to approve a full budget for the year. Whether or not Congress can agree on a CR in time to prevent a shut-down, however, one thing is clear: this next fiscal year (FY14) will be a year of more cuts.

Sequestration requires at least a 7 percent cut for discretionary programs to meet the FY14 budget caps. For many programs this will mean a 7 percent cut from the FY2012 funding levels for 2014, deeper than the 5 percent required for this current 2013 fiscal year. As severe as the cuts in FY14 are, they are only the leading edge of devastating cuts to come if Congress does not agree on a long-term way to provide the transportation trust fund with more, dedicated revenues. Relying only on existing revenue from the federal gas tax would lead to massive cuts to highway and transit projects starting next fall in FY15.

What does sequestration mean for transportation programs?

To understand the impact of sequestration on transportation programs, keep in mind that for budgetary purposes, transportation programs fall into two categories: those funded from the Highway Trust Fund (where federal fuel taxes are deposited), and those discretionary programs funded from the general fund (where most other federal taxes go).

Trust Fund Programs

In general, programs funded from the highway trust fund are not subject to the sequester. Federal-aid highway programs and core transit formula programs funded by the trust fund were not cut in this last year. In fact, funding for those programs increased slightly over their FY2012 levels to match the authorized levels in MAP-21.

But in FY2014, because fuel tax revenues won’t be sufficient for the funding levels authorized by MAP-21 for those programs, MAP-21 also called for a transfer of $12.6 billion from the general fund into the Highway Trust Fund. That $12.6 billion is subject to the sequester, and will face cuts of over $900 million. Unlike other programs, though, this cut does not directly lead to cuts in funding for highway and transit projects. What it will do is speed up the timeline for the Highway Trust Fund going broke, creating the potential for greater cuts or the need for similarly large transfers of general funds — a difficult proposition. In fact, some are concerned that, due to sequestration, the Trust Fund may not remain solvent through even this next fiscal year as originally expected when MAP-21 was enacted.

General Fund Programs

Transportation programs funded by the general fund are subject to the same cuts as most other federal discretionary programs under sequestration. This includes the New Starts and Small Starts programs, which fund construction of new transit service; the highly oversubscribed TIGER program of competitive grants, and Amtrak. As mentioned above, these programs were already cut by about 5 percent in FY13 compared to their FY2012 level, and will be cut by at least 7 percent and possibly more than 8 percent in a continuing resolution due to the sequestration requirements (the Office of Management and Budget will determine the exact percentage later this year). As a result, there will be less investment in new transit lines, in intercity passenger rail, and in innovative projects in cities, towns, and suburbs across the country.

What does that mean in real terms? One example:

DOT’s TIGER competitive grant program lost $25 million in FY2013 and could lose as much as $41 million in FY2014 due to sequestration. The sequester cuts come on top of cuts already made to the TIGER program over the years since 2010. If Congress had continued funding TIGER at its 2010 level every year since then, DOT could have funded 50 more innovative transportation projects (assuming an average grant size similar to the average size of the recently announced TIGER V grants). Instead, those projects are still waiting in a long line, and the problems they are intended to address – congestion, safety, efficiency, access to jobs – are only getting worse.

(Replacement of Maine’s Penobscot River bridge, built in 1896 and widened in 1946, is just one example of a project that is still awaiting TIGER funding. (Source: MaineDOT, TIGER Application for Penobscot River Bridge, June 2013)

Funding Table: Comparing 2012, MAP-21 and 2014 transportation funding

Program	FY12 Appropriations	MAP-21 Authorization	FY14 Appropriation* (includes sequestration)
Federal Aid Highways	$39.1 billion	$39.7 billion	$39.7 billion
Transit Formula Grants	$8.36 billion	$8.5 billion	$8.5 billion
Transit Capital Grants	$1.955 billion	$1.9 billion	$1.75 billion
Amtrak Capital	$952 million	N/A	$874 million
Amtrak Operating	$466 million	N/A	$428 million
TIGER	$500 million	N/A	$459 million
Projects of National & Regional Significance (PNRS created in MAP-21)	N/A	$500 million	$0

*FY2014 amounts are those that would be provided if the partial-year CR is extended for the full year, and assumes a cut of 8.2% due to sequestration for general fund programs.

Amendments offered to improve the already solid Senate yearly transportation funding bill

Already standing in sharp contrast to the House’s approach to funding transportation for the next fiscal year, leaders in the Senate are working to further improve the smart Senate transportation funding bill through a handful of amendments to the bill as it reaches the floor.

With the approval by the full Senate Appropriations committee, the Senate’s yearly transportation (and housing) funding bill is now being considered on the full Senate floor.

Which means amendments…lots of amendments.

Senator Schumer (along with Sens. Gillibrand, Menendez, and Cardin) proposed an amendment (No. 1763) that would allow rail and transit bridges to also be eligible for the $500 million in the Bridges in Critical Corridors program. Our most critical corridors aren’t always just highways, and this allows states and local communities to apply for flexible funding that can meet their greatest local need, whether that a bridge carries trains or cars.

There was another predictable attempt by Senator Rand Paul to take away the tiny slices of money that local mayors and communities often use to invest in popular trails and protected bikeways like Indianapolis’ downtown Cultural Trail or Washington, D.C.’s Capital Crescent trail that commuters depend on daily and spend those relative pennies on bridge repair. (Streetsblog covered this troubling amendment yesterday.)

We should do a better job of repairing our aging bridges. As noted before, the Senate bill contains a new $500 million grant program to do exactly that. But which bridges? Senator Rob Portman from Ohio succeeded in having an amendment included that would ensure that the money can only to to repair bridges that are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. That’s a done deal.

Lastly on bridges, Senator Cardin and Senator Gillibrand also proposed an amendment (No. 1760) requiring FHWA to report on highway and bridge conditions in each state as well as the amount of funding states are spending on highway and bridge repair — something that states once had to do before MAP-21 eliminated the dedicated bridge repair program. This would restore a requirement for states to closely track the conditions of their bridges and most importantly, how much they spend to repair these bridges compared to spending on new construction, helping taxpayers and citizens hold state leaders accountable for making progress.

There are some other amendments detailed below, which we’ll report on in the coming days.

It’s not too late to write or call your Senator and urge them to pass the Senate transportation funding bill when it comes before the full Senate. There were crucial swing votes on the committee that will be imperative to preserve when the full vote happens.

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Other notable amendments we’re tracking:

Flake 1764 (and Flake 1796) – Prohibits use of funds to subsidize cost of food service and first class service on Amtrak
Flake 1765 (and Flake 1772) – Requires Amtrak to submit a report on losses in food service and first class service by route and line
Flake 1766 – Eliminates the $15M in funding provided for the public transit emergency relief program
Flake 1767 (w/ McCain) – Requires Secretary of Transportation to submit a report on programs carried out under chapter 2 of title 23 – which includes the Federal lands program and Transportation Alternatives
Inhofe 1771 – Requires that at lease 20% of the funding in the “Bridges in Critical Corridors” program be used in rural areas
Vitter 1775 – Requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish and publish selection criteria for TIGER including any required documentation. It also requires notification of awards within 3 days
Vitter 1776 – Allows any project awarded funds under the “Bridges in Critical Corridors” program to proceed with a categorical exclusion from NEPA requirements
Murphy 1783 (w/ Rockefeller and Blumenthal) – Requires that in any postings for Buy America waiver USDOT ‘assess the impact on domestic employment’ of the proposed waiver
Coons 1788 – Increases funding for Amtrak from 1.452 billion to $1.565 billion
Cochran 1794 (w/ Wicker) – Creates weight exemption for trucks on portions of Route 78 designated as an interstate after the effective date of the bill (this provision is similar to Wisconsin bill truck weight bill recently approved by the House)

As the House aims to slash, tell the Senate to protect money for rail, transit & TIGER in next week’s budget vote

The two chambers of Congress at the moment are looking at very different paths for funding transportation.

The House path — though stopping short of cutting all funding by a third as proposed in the past — slashes passenger rail funding by $400 million, eliminates money for the innovative TIGER grants, and reduces the funding communities depend on for new transit projects.

Meanwhile, a Senate committee has drafted a budget that increases funding for new transit construction, keeps and expands TIGER, provides support for Amtrak and passenger rail improvements, and funds a new grant program to jumpstart progress on repairing critical bridges.

Can you take a moment to write your two Senators and tell them to support this smart budget in the Senate? It’s likely to come up for a vote next week.

The House transportation budget is unabashedly bad, and the only way to counter it is with a strong Senate alternative.

The Senate proposal embraces the reality that communities everywhere are looking for smart ways to keep people and goods moving, promote prosperity and keep their infrastructure in good shape. The House would thwart them on every front.

The Senate budget acknowledges that Amtrak ridership is breaking records and that Americans deserve a convenient rail option. It acts to do something about the fact that we take 260 million trips each day over deficient bridges that urgently need repairs.

So let’s make sure that the Senate hears this message loud and clear: Face up to reality and pass a transportation budget that funds solutions to our problems, whether it’s fixing bridges or providing more viable ways to get around.

Take action today and tell your Senators to vote for this budget.

Key Senate committee recognizes the importance of passenger rail, TIGER, transit and repairing our nation’s bridges

Less than a week after the release of The Fix We’re In For — our report on the nation’s bridges showing that one in nine US bridges are structurally deficient — a key Senate committee passed a yearly funding bill that provides new money for repairing these deficient bridges across the country.

The Senate’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill reported out of the Appropriations Committee this week specifically provides more money to invest in repairing bridges on key corridors.

The $500 million in the bill dedicated specifically to bridge repair is a step in the right direction toward prioritizing the repair of our more than 66,000 structurally deficient bridges.

Transportation for America commends Senator Patty Murray, Senator Susan Collins and the rest of the committee for recognizing the importance of investing in all of our bridges — not just a small segment of them. That’s a key difference between this $500 million and the policy created in last summer’s transportation bill (MAP-21.)

As we pointed out in last week’s report, 90 percent of the country’s structurally deficient bridges were left behind by MAP-21, which made tens of thousands of deficient bridges ineligible for receiving repair dollars from the largest highway program.

For the $500 million for bridge repair in this appropriations bill, almost all highway bridges are eligible to receive dollars for repair, not just a small slice of our country’s bridges. The committee recognizes that the connections these other bridges make in our transportation network are often just as important as our biggest, busiest interstate bridges.

In addition, this money for bridge repair will be provided via a competitive grant program to ensure that it goes to the most vital needs on corridors that are crucial to moving goods and people, in urban and rural areas alike.

Yet new money for bridge repair is far from the only highlight in yesterday’s appropriations bill. There’s also $1.75 billion for rail programs, with $1.45 billion of that intended for Amtrak operations and capital investments – coming a year after Amtrak carried over 31 million passengers and grew their ridership more than 60 percent since 1998, according to the committee release, and another $100 million for passenger rail capital grants to improve service.

The competitive TIGER grant program also got another round of full funding to the tune of $550 million — grants for innovative transportation projects that often cross state lines and combine transit, freight, safety or other diverse uses, and are often hard to fund under older, rigid federal and state programs.

There is also almost $2 billion for investing in new or expanded public transportation across the country through the New Starts transit program.

This bill will head to the full Senate next, but there will be contentious negotiations ahead with the House, which has lower overall funding levels and drastically different ideas for some of these specific programs: No extra money for bridge repair, a significant cut for Amtrak, slightly less money for public transportation and zero dollars for the popular TIGER grant program.

Highlights from the great coverage of our bridge report

It’s easy to be cynical about our often frivolous media environment these days, but it is heartening to see the seriousness with which outlets of all sizes are treating reports about the need to maintain our aging bridges and other infrastructure. In addition to dozens of newspaper and web reports, more than 500 broadcast outlets have picked up yesterday’s release of the “The Fix We’re in For“, the 2013 edition of our report on bridge conditions nationwide.

Among the highest-profile, and best, TV stories was certainly this from NBC Nightly News yesterday evening that we embedded in the previous blog post. (Click to watch.)

In the Washington Post, Ashley Halsey looked at the impact that deteriorating bridges can have short of actually falling down:

When big bridges collapse they make news, but it generally escapes notice when decrepit bridges just cause prices to go up on almost anything that gets to the store by truck. …

The group put out a report Wednesday that uses state and federal statistics to put a fresh face on an existing issue, and to raise a question rarely heard above a whisper in Washington because Capitol Hill hasn’t come up with a good answer to it: Where will the $76 billion come from that the Federal Highway Administration says is needed to repair deficient bridges that carry 260 million vehicles each day?

Larry Copeland, writing for USA Today, noted that Congress made changes last year in the federal transportation program, known as MAP-21, that could have a negative impact on the ability of states and localities to return the most threatened bridges to a state of good repair:

In the two-year federal transportation funding bill it passed last year, Congress eliminated a dedicated fund for bridge repair. “The upshot is that bridge repair now must compete with other transportation needs,” the report says. Money previously targeted for bridge repair was rolled into a new National Highway Performance Program, which can be spent only on highways that are part of the National Highway System, which includes interstates and major state highways. Nearly 90% of structurally deficient bridges are not part of the National Highway System.

The backlog of our country’s deficient bridges is indeed shrinking, but barely

We hope you had a chance to check out our new report released yesterday on the state of our nation’s bridges? 1 in 9 US bridges — about 66,500 in total — are rated structurally deficient and in urgent need of repairs, maintenance or even replacement.

The Fix We’re In For: The State of Our Nation’s Bridges 2013 is an updated version of the data we released two years ago, and the findings are much the same: Everyday, Americans of all different stripes drive across these deficient bridges, with more than 260 million trips taken on them each day. To put that crazy number in perspective, McDonalds’ restaurants will serve only about 64 million worldwide today. And though we’ve gotten about 0.5 percent better nationally in the last two years, from 11.5 to 11 percent deficient, that’s only a difference of about 2,400 deficient bridges.

Check out this piece from NBC Nightly News last night.

As those comments at the very end of the segment point out, we’re better off today than we were a few years ago, so that’s good, right? Well, sure, if you’re content with a rate of improvement that’s slowed to a trickle.

We once made huge progress on repairing our deficient bridges, but today, that progress has almost flatlined. Check out this chart from our report showing the reduction in the number of structurally deficient bridges per four-year period starting back in 1992.

Starting in 1993, shortly after Congress gave bridge repair a greater focus in 1991’s transportation bill (ISTEA), we repaired about 17,000 deficient bridges over the following four years. But in the four-year period from 2009-2012, our log of deficient bridges shrank by only about 5,000 in total. That’s a rate of repair that’s almost three times slower than it was 20 years ago.

If you take a closer look at that improvement over 2011 (about 2,400 fewer deficient bridges), you’ll see that the big improvements made in just two states that heavily prioritized repair, Pennsylvania (-500) and Missouri (-640), account for almost half of that total national reduction of 2,400.

Also keep in mind that the last two years included a heavy load of stimulus spending on repair, and still progress has almost flatlined. Should we be content with hovering around 11 percent of our bridges structurally deficient? Should that be good enough? Can’t we do better?

Considering the dire budgetary straits that many states are in combined with Congress eliminating the dedicated bridge repair program last summer and forcing 90 percent of our deficient bridges to compete with all other pressing local needs for funding, could we finally see a year ahead where the backlog either doesn’t shrink much at all, or even grows somewhat? Certainly.

It’s time to #FixOurBridges, folks.

Tweet about the report, share our infographic (the chart above is included), share the photos on Facebook, and help spread the word far and wide. And don’t forget about our interactive map that lets you map all the bridges near you and locate the deficient bridges.

And Let Congress know it’s time to win the confidence back of the people and be good stewards of our existing infrastructure, before we build new things that we’ll also have to pay to maintain for decades.

Release: New report highlights mounting challenge of aging bridges, ranks states

One in 9 bridges are “structurally deficient” as the average age nears 50 years. And more troubled bridges in our big cities than McDonald’s restaurants nationwide

WASHINGTON, D.C. – One in nine of the bridges and overpasses American drivers cross each day is rated in poor enough condition that some could become dangerous or be closed without near-term repair, according to an updated analysis of federal data released today by Transportation for America.

Nearly 67,000 of the nation’s 605,000 bridges are rated “structurally deficient” and are in need of substantial repair or replacement, according to bridge inspections analyzed in The Fix We’re In For: The State of the Nation’s Bridges 2013. Nearly 8,000 are both structurally deficient and “fracture critical”, meaning they are designed with no redundancy in their key structural components, so that if one fails the bridge could collapse. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that the backlog of troubled bridges would cost $76 billion to eliminate.

The report ranks states and the District of Columbia in terms of the overall condition of the their bridges, with one having the largest share of deficient bridges, 51 the lowest. Twenty-one states have a higher percentage of deficient bridges than the national average of 11 percent. The five states with the worst bridge conditions have a share over 20 percent: Pennsylvania has the largest share of deteriorating bridges (24.5%), followed by Oklahoma (22.0%), Iowa (21.7%), Rhode Island (21.6%), and South Dakota (20.3%).

At the other end of the spectrum, five states have less than 5 percent of their bridges rated structurally deficient: Nevada and Florida lead the rankings with 2.2%, followed by Texas (2.6%), Arizona (3.2%), and Utah (4.3%).

View the report, full data, interactive map and infographic here.

“With the collapse of the I-5 bridge in Washington state last month, coming just six years after an interstate collapse in Minnesota, Americans are acutely aware of the critical need to invest in our bridges as our system shows its age,” said James Corless, director of Transportation for America. “Today, though, there more deficient bridges in our 100 largest metropolitan areas than there are McDonald’s locations nationwide.” Put another way, laid end to end, all the deficient bridges would span from Washington, DC to Denver, Colorado or from Tijuana, Mexico to Seattle — more than 1500 miles.

The need is growing rapidly, the report notes: While most bridges are designed to last 50 years before major overhaul or replacement, American bridges average 43 years old. Age is a major factor in bridge conditions. Roughly half of the structurally deficient bridges are 65 or older. Today there are nearly 107,000 bridges 65 or older, and in just 10 years, one in four will be over 65.

Congress has repeatedly declared the condition and safety of our bridges to be of national significance. However, the money to fix them is getting harder to come by with declining gas tax revenues and a fiscal squeeze at all levels of government. At the same time, Congress made the prospects for bridges even more uncertain last year by eliminating a dedicated fund for them in its update of the federal transportation program. The new law also reduces access to funds for 90 percent of structurally deficient bridges, most of which are owned by cash-strapped local governments.

“Unfortunately, the changes Congress made last year left the health and safety of our bridges to compete with every other priority,” Corless said. “When it updates the law again next year, Congress should ensure that we have both adequate funding and accountability for fixing all our bridges, regardless of which level of government owns them.”

Some in Congress have recognized the issues and are moving to address them, among them U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “Congress simply cannot keep hitting the snooze button when it comes to needed investment in our Nation’s bridges or think that these aging structures can be rehabilitated with rhetoric,” Rahall said. “That is why I am introducing legislation that provides needed federal funding to start to address the startling backlog of structural deficient and functional obsolete bridges.”

The funding uncertainty comes as the rate of bridge repair has slowed dramatically in recent years.

Investments from the stimulus and ongoing transportation programs helped reduce the share of deficient bridges from 11.5 percent to 11 percent since our last report. But the overall repair rate has dropped significantly over the last 20 years. From 1992-1996 the number of deficient bridges declined by 17,000. However, from 2008-2012 the number dropped by only 4,966 – more than three times slower.

The authors suggest several recommendations to ensure that there is both funding for safe and well-maintained bridges and accountability for getting the job done, including:

Increase investment: Current spending levels are precarious and inadequate. In order to bring our rapidly aging infrastructure up to a state of good repair, Congress should raise new, dedicated revenues for surface transportation programs, including bridge repair.

Restore funding for the 180,000-plus bridges that lost eligibility under the new federal transportation program: Under MAP-21, all of the money previously set aside for bridge repair was rolled into the new National Highway Performance Program, and only 10 percent of deficient bridges – and 23 percent of all bridges – are eligible. Congress must restore funding access for all previously eligible bridges.

Prioritize Repair: Congress should require states to set aside a share of their NHPP funds for bridge repair unless the state’s bridges are certified as being in a state of good repair.

View the report, full data, interactive map and infographic here.