Rural Highway System Is Vital to Commerce, S.D. Trucking Executive Tells Senate Panel

This story appears in the Aug. 17 print edition of Transport Topics.

Future U.S. economic vitality depends on an adequately funded rural road system that can accommodate heavier trucks, a South Dakota trucking company president told a Senate committee last week.

“The highway system, which the vast majority of rural businesses and residents rely on exclusively for their transportation needs, is the key to good mobility and must take precedence when rural transportation priorities are determined,” said Larry Anderson of A & A Express, who testified on behalf of American Trucking Associations.

Anderson spoke at a field hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee in Sioux Falls, S.D., which was conducted on Aug. 10 as the committee begins work on crafting long-term federal transport spending.

A key ingredient in that legislation, Anderson said, should be a series of reforms to truck size-and-weight laws advocated by ATA that would give states more flexibility in setting truck size-and-weight standards.

That seven-point program includes allowing individual states to authorize six-axle, 97,000-pound tractor-trailers. “I think that the testimony went over pretty well,” said Anderson, who told Transport Topics the ATA message of lower costs, a reduced carbon footprint and greater uniformity for longer combination vehicles was particularly important in his state.

He explained that two key highways recently were widened with the intention of accommodating LCVs that aren’t yet allowed there under current regulations.

“Given the significant investments that will have to be made in rural highways, it is critically important to make sure that the next federal surface transportation bill does not limit or take away the flexibility of state departments of transportation to invest in rural highway maintenance and new capacity,” he said in his written testimony.

Rural roads deserve adequate funding for multiple reasons, Anderson noted.

“Almost all of the United States’ natural resources and food production are located in rural areas,” Anderson said in prepared testimony. “These products all must be transported to processing plants, warehouses and ultimately to population centers in the U.S. and abroad for consumption.”

With the increase in the number of rail abandonments over the past three decades in rural areas, farmers have fewer choices to move their crops to market, he said. That has made an efficient highway system more important, he added, noting that legislators in his home state allowed heavier trucks to operate in communities where rail tracks were removed.

He also advocated that the legislation not shift money away from basic highway programs to alternative investments.

In addition, his testimony stressed the importance of safety and maintenance.

Anderson explained that one-third of major highways in the state were in mediocre or poor condition, with more than 100,000 bridges that are obsolete or structurally deficient.

More attention is needed to safety, Anderson said, because 56% of highway fatalities occur on rural roads, far more than the 34% of total vehicle miles traveled on the same roadways.