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Calling on Congress: It is Time to Invest in America’s Future--Highways Need Updating Now
ARA) – The next time you head out the door, don’t forget to bring along your patience. Highway traffic congestion is a major source of frustration for American travelers. There are bottlenecks in just about every state across the nation, many of which can be blamed on roads that are used beyond their capacity.
The Los Angeles interchange where Interstates 5, 10, 60 and 101 come together is perhaps one of the most problem plagued sections of road in the nation. According to the American Automobile Association, 566,000 vehicles travel through the area every day. Motorists making lane changes as they approach create a traffic bottleneck that extends for miles.
Similar problems exist on outdated roads and bridges in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York City, Washington, D.C. and hundreds of other cities across the nation.
The Associated General Contractors of America offers a solution to the problem: additional capacity at key points, meaning more roads and lanes need to be built. “There are just too many cars trying to use highways at the same time,” said Dennis Day, AGC’s spokesman. “Efforts are underway to relieve the problem; however, the traffic will only get worse if funding is not made available to fix the highways now.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Conditions and Performance Report for 2002 estimates that state and federal governments need to come up with a combined $91 billion annually to maintain the current systems.
Improvements to bridges, roadways, access roads, and access ramps would cost significantly more, $107 billion.
The federal government’s share of the bill, $50 billion dollars a year to maintain the systems, and $60 to $70 billion dollars a year to make improvements will come from the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st century (TEA-21), passed in 1997. Congress has yet to approve the funds for the fiscal year that runs from October 1, 2002 to September 31, 2003.
“One of the biggest problems we’re running into is the economic slowdown,” said Day. “It has hurt tax receipts at the state and federal level, discouraging spending.
What many people don’t realize, however, is that an appropriation to help our highway system will be an investment in the economy.”
Improving the highway system will provide jobs, and cut down on lost work time.
“Once the roads are improved, people won’t have to sit in traffic anymore at a time when they could be working or playing,” said Day.
“The roads need to be fixed, and we encourage people who use them every day to call their congressional representatives and senators to get action.”
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