NATIONAL ROUND TABLE:
INSTITUTIONS FOR IMPROVING FREIGHT MOVEMENT IN MULTI-STATE CORRIDORS

URGENCY OF THE ISSUE

The first focused topic discussed by the group was urgency of the need to improve the performance of freight corridors. The group agreed that the urgency is high, and enumerated several dimensions of it—as follows.

Long distance freight movements are increasingly important to the nation and its place in the evolving global economy. Goods move from production anywhere in the world to consumption in the United States. U.S. consumption is concentrating increasingly in a dozen or so mega-regions served by relatively few ports of entry. The corridors for moving goods from port of entry to place of consumption need to operate smoothly.

Several factors—such as expanding the Panama Canal to handle larger ships and growing intensity of the energy/global-warming crisis—are likely to modify existing trade routes and require freight corridors within the U.S. to be nimble enough to adapt in a timely manner. However, our current planning and decision-making institutions are ill suited to addressing changes in freight flows that cross state boundaries. The institutional capacity necessary to be responsive, as noted earlier, could take different forms depending on the scope and modal options involved in the altered flows of goods.

Meeting participants cited the following additional critical factors that are raising the level of urgency for strengthening the nation's ability to respond to this challenge effectively:

• The overall surface transportation program is no longer sustainably funded or properly structured.
• The large and small MPOs in a corridor overlap and lack the means to mesh with an efficient national freight movement strategy.
• Key elements of highway and non-highway transportation modes are in poor condition, have capacity constraints, suffer serious bottlenecks, and lack funds to address their deficiencies.
• Credible needs assessments for setting critical investment priorities are not available—especially for projects that cannot be addressed by a single state.
• Many institutions that serve as conveners for considering problems that spill over traditional political boundaries are too weak to get results.
• The need to address multi-state transportation issues needs to be elevated by more compelling arguments.

Meeting participants affirmed that the current reauthorization debate provides a timely opportunity to present multiple options for addressing these urgent problems. The group appeared to agree that the visibility of freight issues should be elevated in this debate and this reauthorization will likely include an increased emphasis on freight.

FHWA and AASHTO representatives endorsed the need for multi-state approaches to freight issues, and no one appeared to disagree.

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