Supporting America's Economic Expressway
The NSSGA proudly announced the industry’s support for the Partnership for America’s Economic Expressway this week. “Our major highway network is woefully under performing. It is outdated, overused, underfunded,” the group says on it’s website. “We are once again called not simply to rebuild what once was, but to envision and create the highway network of tomorrow.”
https://economicexpressway.org/
Michael W. Johnson, NSSGA president and CEO, said that aggregates operations are glad to support an advocacy initiative that is focused on improving America’s infrastructure. Studies show that every dollar invested in infrastructure yields $6 of economic activity.
“Investing in our roads, highways, bridges as well as ports and airports creates jobs and gives American companies efficient means to do business,” Johnson said. “We say that when the aggregates industry is doing well, America is doing well. That’s because the materials produced from our quarries build and improve on our infrastructure.”
What will the Economic Expressway look like?
Raised highways, dedicated truck lanes and solar-powered that melt ice and snow are just a few ways that our country’s infrastructure can improve. Check out the Economic Expressway’s Top 10 list of defining features of tomorrow’s infrastructure.
A BOLD BLUEPRINT: TOMORROW'S ECONOMIC EXPRESSWAY
American greatness is never written in the past tense. President Lincoln saw the nation's transcontinental railroad as a bold bid to unite a divided republic, while Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System paved the way for expanded opportunities for all Americans and decades of economic growth.
Today, America is at another crossroads. Our major highway network is woefully underperforming. It is outdated, overused, underfunded and in desperate need of modernization. We are once again called not simply to rebuild what once was, but to envision and create the highway network of tomorrow.
America's Economic Expressway is that future network: a high-tech corridor of commerce that unleashes a new age of economic prosperity.
On the Economic Expressway, every community – from Rust Belt cities to the farming towns of the American heartland – will be open for business once more. Boosted productivity, reduced shipping costs and expanded global reach will facilitate increased exports and lower business costs. America will regain its competitive edge, and in malls and markets around the world, more goods and produce will be proudly stamped "Made in the USA."
America already has the tools to build this vibrant future.
- Existing rights of way allow our country to erect new skyways above, and burrow new tunnels below, the highways we traverse today.
- Wireless communication allows us to solve a traffic jam before it starts.
- Heated roadways allow us to melt the snow that brings traffic to a standstill during unforgiving winter storms.
We have the know-how. It's up to our leaders to answer the call. Join us in building America's Economic Expressway and boldly writing the nation's next great chapter.
WHY NOW?
Years of chronic underinvestment and an overused highway system carrying far more passenger and freight traffic than originally intended are taking an ever-increasing toll. The result is staggering lost productivity and wasted hours that cost businesses, workers and the U.S. economy billions of dollars annually.
- In one year, trucks spend more than 728 million hours in traffic according to research by the American Transportation Research Institute. That is, they find, a sap of time and fuel equal to 264,781 trucks sitting idly for an entire working year.
- These delays have been estimated to cost businesses $45 billion in a single year, according to estimates by the data firm INRIX and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
To compound the problem, over the next 30 years, the U.S. population is expected to increase by 70 million people and commercial truck shipments are expected to increase 44 percent. Our highway network must be ready to handle the flow of many more people, finished goods and raw commodities. Getting ahead of this surge of people and products now will improve Americans' quality of life while creating the foundation for economic growth.
As America approaches her 250th birthday, it's time to renew her promise of a more prosperous future by boldly embracing an infrastructure network that carries the cargo and commerce of the 21st century. It's time to build the Economic Expressway.
Here is a look at freight shipped data in Kentucky...
