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November 2007
Oberstar Forum: Leadership, funding needed to avert crisis in aging U.S. transportation infrastructure
“The U.S. transportation network remains the envy of the world, but we are losing ground,” U.S. Rep. James L. Oberstar said during his keynote speech at the annual forum named in his honor. “If we don’t develop a new intermodal and international competitiveness vision in this country—a renewed commitment to invest in the construction needs of all modes of transportation— we will be left behind.”
Amy
Klobuchar
James
Oberstar
Bud
Shuster
Norman
Mineta
Transportation policymakers, professionals, and research leaders from Minnesota and across the country joined Oberstar on October 7 and 8 to examine the challenges posed by the nation’s aging transportation infrastructure. The event, hosted by CTS on the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus, addressed many of the infrastructure issues raised by the collapse of the nearby I-35W bridge just two months earlier.
This was the sixth meeting of the transportation policy and technology forum and the first since Oberstar became chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Oberstar and many other forum participants talked in depth about the need for greater transportation infrastructure funding and ways to garner public interest in the often dry and complex issue. In particular, discussion focused on the necessity of a federal gas-tax increase to fund badly needed transportation system maintenance and improvements.
Speakers at the public portion of the forum included U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta, and former chair of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Bud Shuster, as well as a panel of current and former state DOT leaders.
“Unfortunately, it has taken a disaster to put the issue of infrastructure and investment squarely on the national agenda,” Klobuchar said, “and it is long overdue.”
Mineta and Shuster, joining Oberstar in a panel discussion, also shared some of their previous attempts to fund infrastructure improvements, primarily through a federal gas-tax increase. “What do we have to do to establish a sense of urgency about transportation?” Mineta asked. “The United States will not remain competitive in a global economy with the level of investments we’re currently making across all transportation modes.”
Will
Kempton
Frank
Busalacchi
Steve
Lockwood
Tim Martin
Attendees also heard a panel of current and former state DOT leaders discuss infrastructure challenges in their states. “The public doesn’t understand that the interstate system needs to be rebuilt,” said Frank Busalacchi, Wisconsin Department of Transportation secretary. “Unfortunately, rebuilding this system is not small potatoes.”
Will Kempton, director of the California Department of Transportation, noted that the federal gas tax was last increased in 1993, and California’s state gas tax was last increased in 1995. “Here we are with all of these responsibilities, growing system demand, an aging infrastructure, and having to pay for that on the same ‘salary’ we made back in the mid ’90s,” he said.
Tim Martin, former secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation, also made a case for raising the gas tax. “No one is paying their fair share if the last time the federal gas tax was raised was in 1993 and inflation has doubled prices since then,” he said. “We have to do something about that.”
The public portion of the forum attracted more than 300 and drew interest from area media as well as a video team from C-SPAN. It followed a series of presentations and discussions for invited leaders, which began with an introductory report on the U.S. transportation infrastructure from Steve Lockwood of PB Consult. According to Lockwood, maintaining existing highways and bridges requires a minimum investment of $79 billion a year. By contrast, improving all highways and bridges to achieve maximum cost-effective conditions would require an annual investment of $132 billion a year. “We’re currently spending only $70 billion annually,” he pointed out.
In addition, a panel of University of Minnesota faculty members presented research about the I-35W bridge collapse and deficiencies in the nation’s transportation infrastructure. Roberto Ballarini, University of Minnesota civil engineering (CE) professor and department head, provided a primer in lay terms on the structural fatigue plaguing the nation’s transportation systems. “[The United States is] arguably the richest we’ve ever been,” he said, “but somehow we don’t see fit to put money into our infrastructure.”
David
Levinson
Roberto
Ballarini
Robert
Bruininks
University of Minnesota CE associate professor David Levinson estimated between 9,000 and 12,000 hours of travel time have been lost each day since the I-35W bridge collapse, costing the area economy about $170,000 a day. “These numbers help us understand how important bridges are to the economy,” Levinson said.
University of Minnesota president Robert Bruininks, who opened the public portion of the forum, noted that the I-35W bridge collapse had dramatically affected students and staff because of the disaster’s close proximity to campus. He also thanked Oberstar for his congressional leadership in securing federal support following the collapse.
In his closing remarks for the event, Oberstar called for a renewed commitment to providing the vision and leadership to rebuild and expand the nation’s transportation systems despite the current political and legislative environment. “We’ve downsized the understanding of the need to move people and goods, to link communities, to advance the frontier, to push America forward. We need to rebuild the public confidence in our transportation system,” he concluded. “We will not wait for the crisis to come upon us.”
More information about the sixth James L. Oberstar Forum for Transportation Policy and Technology is online at www.cts.umn.edu/oberstarforum. A detailed report summarizing the forum will be available in December.