A special House panel on freight has suggested that Congress develop recommendations for how to create a dedicated fund for freight infrastructure projects before the current surface transportation authorization law expires in September 2014.
The report released Oct. 29 by the panel, however, made no recommendations on how to raise revenue to support such a fund or other improvements to the nation’s aging transportation infrastructure.
The special freight panel, created earlier this year by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, presented its recommendations after six months of hearings on the problems facing the various freight transportation modes. The report is the culmination of the panel’s work.
On the highway side, the report said that more than 250 million vehicles traverse the nation’s highways each year but that approximately 12,000 miles of the highway system slows below posted speed limits and another 7,000 miles experience stop and go conditions.
“Such congestion negatively impacts the efficiency of the highway sytem as a reliable mode of transportation,” the report said.
Besides a special freight fund, the panel recommended that Congress create a grant program for large freight projects in a dedicated fund, encourage more private investment in freight infrastructure, speed project delivery and improve the condition of the country’s freight network.
The report also said lawmakers should push the Department of Transportation to create a freight policy and designate a transportation network that is important to freight movement, two provisions that were in last year’s transportation authorization law.
