RAMPING UP
TO REBUILD
AMERICA
“It does not make sense to say
that we need more time. What is
it that you need more time for?”
JANET KAVINOKY, DIRECTOR OF
TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE
FOR U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
ON THE HIGHWAY BILL
Congress delays reauthorization of highway program
As Congress returned from its August recess, it faced a looming deadline: deciding the future of the nation’s surface transportation
system before the current law expired
on Sept. 30.
Due to a shortened month, an extension of the current program was
likely, the National Stone, Sand &
Gravel Association (NSSGA) reported
in its Sept. 9 newsletter. In addition,
with healthcare the dominant topic
on Capitol Hill, lawmakers reportedly
were short on time and political capital
to act on a new highway bill.
Congress was expected to extend
the existing surface transportation program through the end of the year, the
Associated Press reported on Sept. 22.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James
Oberstar, D-Minn., worked for months
on a multi-year reauthorization bill,
while the Senate and White House have
supported an 18-month extension of
the current act. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
had passed an 18-month extension of
SAFETEA-LU in July.
NSSGA has supported Oberstar’s
efforts to pass a multi-year reauthoriza-
tion bill and has been pushing a multi-
year reauthorization in meetings on
Capitol Hill and in home districts over
the August recess.
In an effort to keep pressure on
Congress to act on reauthorization, the
Freight Stakeholders Coalition held
a news conference on Sept. 14 saying
that Congress should extend the surface transportation law only as long as
needed to get a six-year reauthorization
finished.
Congress has had to shore up the
highway trust fund in each of the last
two years, and has resisted increasing
federal fuel taxes, which help fund
highway work across the country.
Federal Highway Administrator Victor
Mendez joined state, local and
other federal officials on Sept. 3 to
break ground on Minnesota’s largest
American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act (ARRA) project, commemorating
the second 100 days of the Recovery
Act.
The state of Minnesota will use
$27 million in Recovery Act funds
to jump-start the extension of
Trunk Highway 610 in suburban
Minneapolis, a critical transportation
link in the region.
“The president’s recovery plan
is exceeding expectations, putting
people back to work and upgrading
our nation’s highways,” Mendez said.
“Since its passage in February, the
Recovery Act has sustained or created tens of thousands of highway
jobs and improved more than 3,500
miles of highway, neither of which
would have been possible without
this funding.”
Mendez added that more than
3,400 projects are under way or have
been completed across the nation.
Minnesota estimates that 200 jobs
will be created by the TH 610 extension project alone.
Recovery dollars will pay for more
than half of the total cost of the TH
610 project, estimated at $48 million, for three miles of a brand new
four-lane roadway in Maple Grove
from Highway 169 to County Road
81, two interchanges, three over-
passes, a pedestrian bridge and
noise walls.
“The project we are celebrating
today wouldn’t even be possible until
2014 without the infusion of Recovery
Act funds,” Mendez added. “Instead,
it is under way and scheduled to be
completed in 2011 – three years
before construction was planned to
start.”
Of the $26.6 billion in Recovery Act
funds available for highway projects
nationwide, $18 billion has been obligated for more than 7,000 projects.
Minnesota has more than $502.3
million available, and to date already
the state has obligated 70 percent of
those funds – $353 million – toward
132 projects.
