In The News

"Freight Seeks a 'Vote'"
Traffic World - January 15, 2001

Intermodal connectors in woeful condition, inadequate to handle volume crush by 2020

Forget tow-headed stepchildren. Freight is the nation's genuine orphan. A new government report tells Congress that the nation must invest more in the National Highway System's connections to its intermodal freight facilities or risk further gridlock in the wake of a projected freight boom by 2020.

"These vital links in the nation's freight transportation system sometimes receive low priority in the transportation plan-fling process," Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater said in one of his final public statements before the incoming Bush administration takes over at the Department of Transportation.

Noting the linkage between efficient freight movements and the nation's quality of life and economic growth, Slater said, "Improving highway connectors would help accomplish this goal"

Clearly this latest report compiled by the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Freight Management & Operations is a preemptive strike to raise freight's profile before the next highway authorization in 2003. The retirement announcement from Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, only raises the stakes for freight. Shuster was a lifelong friend of trucking and his absence for the next reauthorization means another huge question mark for freight interests.

The FHWA report actually is dated July 2000 but was released only this month. That's because of what one FHWA official called "a laborious clearance process" in the final days of the Clinton administration. But clearly the intent of the comprehensive report, which paints a dreary picture of deteriorating infrastructure conditions to the nation's ports, rail and intermodal facilities, is to give freight interests ammunition for the next reauthorization fight.

"Freight doesn't vote," said Harry Caldwell, chief of the freight policy team at FHWA. "Unless there's a squeaky wheel, it doesn't hit the radar screen. They (freight interests) are orphans, by and large?"

This study, mandated by Congress as part of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, is expected to provide fodder for freight interests in the wake of a scheduled "national freight summit" scheduled for Washington in December.

Freight is forecast to grow at a cumulative rate of 87 percent by 2020, or approximately a 2.9 percent compound annual growth rate.

The Rocky Mountain region will see the greatest regional growth rate in gross domestic product at a 4.4 percent compounded annual growth rate through 2010.

The West will double its interregional and intraregional freight tonnage by 2020 with the Southeast and Midwest next at 89 percent growth.

Pavement deterioration is greatest at connectors to ocean and river ports (15 percent), compared to just 8 percent of pavement in poor or very poor condition on the entire National Highway System.

There are 517 freight-only terminals on the National Highway System. They include 253 port, 203 truck-rail and 61 pipeline-truck terminals as well as 99 major freight airports, which can handle both passenger and cargo. That's a total of 616 freight inter-modal terminals.

The highway links leading to those terminals usually are short, averaging only a mile and a half. That accounts for just 1,222 miles of the total of 161,000 miles on the National Highway System, which accounts for nearly 75 percent of all freight movements. Those 1,222 connector miles are the lifeblood of the NHS when it comes to freight, however.

"Despite the fact that connectors are less than 1 percent of total NHS mileage, they are the 'front door' to the freight community for a broad array of intermodal transport services and options," the government report says. Those connectors must meet "changing expectations," the report said, citing major evolutions in manufacturing, trade, finance, telecommunications and other sectors.

"Intermodalism is a service-intensive form of transport" the report said. "The coordination of freight arrival, staging and hand-off, combined with the constrained footprints of many freight terminals in these dense urban areas, places a premium on consistent and reliable service."

Those connectors, or "front doors," are barely on their hinges, according to the FHWA report.

Connectors to ports were found to contain twice the percent of mileage with pavement deficiencies compared with non-Interstate NHS routes. Connectors to rail terminals had 50 percent more miles counted in the "deficient" category. Connectors to airports were determined to be in better condition than non-interstate NHS routes. Officials said that was likely because airports serve passengers who vote and that public outcry translated into funding dollars.

"States and (metropolitan planning organizations) often see freight as a low priority when compared to the pressing needs of passenger travel," the report said. "NHS connectors are 'orphans' in the traditional state and MPO planning process?"

That's because states and MPOs often (erroneously) see inter-modal connectors as benefiting only a narrow sector and can't see the larger economic and service benefits dispersed throughout other jurisdictions, the report said. Although several states and some MPOs have freight advisory committees to champion freight concerns, the translation of freight planning into a program of freight projects is "problematic," the report concluded.

Lack of quantitative tools that allow local and state governments to properly evaluate the economic benefits of freight investment was cited as one reason freight is an orphan in the process.

"The lack of constituency to champion connector and other freight-oriented initiatives, combined with the lack of public understanding in the role these connectors play in the economic health of local communities and regions, make successful intermodal freight development a challenging task" the report concluded.

Officials cited another "disconnect" - while the private sector increasingly is thinking globally, local governments are often parochial in their thinking and never step back to look at the bigger picture.

"The private sector is thinking globally but governments are stuck at thinking at the local level' said Gary E. Marring, director of the FHWA's Office of Freight Management & Operations. "It's one of the institutional disconnects we struggle with."

By John D. Schulz