2015 will be a year of decision for our nation’s transportation system, and I’ll be better prepared to help lead the debate thanks to so many state and local officials, business people, members of the public and others who packed our Regional Transportation Forums last month in Cambridge, Duluth and Baxter.
As the only member of the Minnesota congressional delegation now serving on the House Transportation Committee, I wanted to hear from people across our region before Congress takes up reauthorization of federal highway programs, as well as the president’s budget request to invest $478 billion into roads, bridges, airports, harbors, mass transit and high speed rail. And I got an earful of good advice.
At all three forums, people agreed on five important points:
1. Our nation needs a long-term, multi-model plan that encompasses highways and bridges, air and water transportation, mass transit, railroads and pipelines – a plan that provides long-term funding so state and local governments can plan far ahead for new projects and improvements.
2. Our economy and our ability to create good paying new jobs absolutely depends on a strong transportation infrastructure that allows us to move taconite, timber and forest products and agricultural commodities safely and efficiently.
Moreover, the lifeblood of our tourism industry in northern Minnesota depends on folks being able to exit the Twin Cities on Friday and return on Sunday. That’s getting to be tougher and tougher as Highways 169 and I-35 overflow with more and more traffic.
3. Our roads are deteriorating faster than we can fix them. Regardless of where you travel in our region, we know that to be the case. Our bridges are deteriorating as well. We’ve got 12,961 bridges in Minnesota and 1,139 of them are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Of the 2,226 bridges in the 8th District, 223 are in those deficient or obsolete categories.
4. Congestion is getting worse. The Twin Cities currently ranks 16th on the list of America’s Worst Traffic Cities. Highway 494, which feeds an enormous amount of traffic into the 8th District, ranks as the 13th Worst Congested Roadway in America. In fact, the average commuter traveling south on I-35 into the Twin Cities spends 24.5 hours a year stopped on the highway in gridlock traffic.
5. And finally, we must work across the aisle to find permanent new revenue sources to fund our nation’s rapidly expanding transportation requirements.
Fixing our transportation system here in Minnesota and across the nation should not be about politics. We all travel. The good news is that there is substantial bipartisan agreement in Congress on the need to move forward without delay to reinvest in, rebuild and in some cases reinvent transportation in America.
Representative Rick Nolan
U.S. House of Representatives,
8th District
Leave a Reply