Editorial: Infrastructure Woes Invisible To Politicians

Delegates to a transportation conference in New Orleans May 25-27 received a tough but practical warning. The wave of trade coming from Asia will overwhelm the United States’ ability to handle freight if major revisions are not made quickly, said John Horsley, president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) (WJ, June 6).

Most significantly, Horsley said, "We’re facing a shock of major proportions and most politicians haven’t got it."

The conference was a joint meeting of AASHTO’s Standing Committee on Water Transportation and the Heartland Intermodal Partnership, a group of government and industry representatives from 24 mid-America states organized by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MarAd). Inland Rivers Ports & Terminals hosted the meeting. Each of these groups is dedicated to preserving and improving the nation’s economic well being through sensible maintenance and upgrading of the transportation infrastructure.

"One of the results…was the establishment of a committee to report on the ability of water transportation to ease the congestion problems and the ’red flags’ that will arise in that mode," wrote Capt. Richard Eberhardt for the WJ. Eberhardt, a tug captain, understands the subject well. Committee members plan to write a whiz-bang report that will make its point quickly and perhaps jar a few people into action. Perhaps then revisions can be made to the transportation planning, and water transport will be able to play a major role in rescuing the transportation infrastructure.

Eberhardt wrote, "With highways already heavily congested and main rail lines at or near capacity, transportation officials in government and private industry must scramble to deal with the anticipated influx of containerized freight. Container-on-barge, improved terminal facilities, dredging and short-sea shipping are the obvious options."

We and industry leaders have repeatedly called attention to heavily congested highways and the growing limitations of railroads, but the red flags (already waving) bring further clarification to the issues. Congestion in the Los Angeles/Long Beach area got so bad that truckers who move containers were reduced to one trip a day from three, thus reducing their income so severely that many have taken other jobs.

Horsley’s comment that most politicians don’t get the picture is bothersome but not surprising. We have seen the problems growing for decades, but we’ve seen no attempt to solve them. For 30 years we have seen dwindling support for water resources development, navigable waterway maintenance and upgrading of our navigational facilities. We have seen passage of a multi-billion-dollar program to restore a Florida swamp. We have seen the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers go begging for money year after year, while larger chunks of the budget have been directed to environmental restoration.

We have seen rising interest by developers who want to build condominiums and gambling operations at the river’s edge, but support for waterway improvement and maintenance falls dangerously low among short-sighted detractors. In the Minneapolis/St. Paul area there is a 20-year plan to virtually move transportation firms off riverside land to make room for the goals of visionaries. Even MarAd’s oft-repeated message that water transportation can bring huge benefits to the clean-air program and slow down growing congestion on highways has not shaken loose enough additional support for water transportation. Proposals to modernize the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers still have many critics.

The deterioration of the transportation infrastructure is not like a shingle blowing off the roof. It is like termites invading the house. There is no overnight fix. It is a long-term repair job that requires immediate attention, determination and sufficient funding to stay the course. Without adequate transportation a nation is doomed. Our transportation is in a sorry state.

The New Orleans conference once more brings into focus a problem that is worsening by the day. We hope sensible governmental leaders will see the upcoming study for what it is and act accordingly. Already, four states (Louisiana, Arkansas, Iowa, and Kansas) are seeking $2 million in federal funding for the study. We hope the task of getting that money turns out to be an easy one.

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