The State of Freight II - Implementing the FAST Act and Beyond

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the American Association of Port Authorities are today releasing a national freight infrastructure report, The State of Freight II - Implementing the FAST Act and Beyond, marking the one-year anniversary of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.

“Transportation matters more today than ever before, and this report serves as a blueprint for state DOTs, Congress and the new administration in Washington D.C. to address the critical freight infrastructure needs of our nation,” says AASHTO President and MaineDOT Commissioner David Bernhardt.

“One of my top priorities as AASHTO President is to focus on intermodal freight capacity constraints and work collectively to improve the vital connections between rail, ports, intermodal facilities and the national surface transportation system necessary to meet the projected demand in population growth and freight movement over the coming decades.”

AASHTO and AAPA agree that a well-functioning freight transportation system is the essential building block for a thriving economy. The report demonstrates that while states are making progress, improvements to critical freight infrastructure have not kept pace with current and future demands.

The report includes a number of key recommendations to leverage private-sector investment and move lawmakers to provide additional and ongoing funding resources outside of the Highway Trust Fund.

“Last year, AAPA released its initial The State of Freight survey report, which identified $29 billion in baseline investment seaport landside transportation infrastructure needs over the next decade to keep pace with rising freight volumes and increasing population density in metropolitan areas,” says Kurt Nagle, AAPA’s president and CEO.

“This report is the second step in that process, presenting a comprehensive national overview of where states are collectively in developing state freight plans, one year after the FAST Act was passed.”

To help states plan sustainable investments in a national freight network, AAPA and AASHTO recommend several approaches, including:

• Having the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) continue providing Highway Trust Fund (HTF) allocations to states for highway freight projects through the National Highway Freight program;
• Having the USDOT coordinate its Build America Bureau and freight advisory committees with state freight plans to better leverage private-sector investment;
• Requesting that Congress provide additional and ongoing funding resources outside of the HTF for the overall multimodal freight network in such a way it can supplement highway formula dollars and fund discretionary grant programs; and,
• Moving the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) from discretionary to mandatory spending to enable all the revenues from HMT collections to be used for maintenance of deep draft navigation channels and providing more equity.