Rural Interstate Corridor Communications Study

Executive Summary

Abstract

The United States Department of Transportation, working with the U.S. Department of Commerce and with State and local agencies, investigated the prospects for deploying high-speed telecommunications (HST) in three largely rural interstate highway corridors:

• Interstate Route 90 through South Dakota, northern Iowa, southern Minnesota, and central and western Wisconsin;
• Interstate Route 20 through northern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama; and
• Interstate Route 91 through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

Analysis of the corridors was accomplished using geographic information systems (GIS) technology to organize data on demographic, socioeconomic, and other characteristics. State and local stakeholders were consulted regarding telecommunications initiatives, opportunities, and policies in the corridors. Potential benefits of broadband access were assessed using available information on the impacts of high-speed telecommunications access, along with an assessment of the telecommunications needs of residents and business, educational, health industry, and governmental entities in the corridors.

Some level of high-speed telecommunications infrastructure exists in all of the corridors, but the availability of new wireless and/or fiber optic capacity in the interstate highway rights-of-way could have significant benefits for the transportation agencies responsible for operating and maintaining these rights-of-way. In addition, the presence of HST in these corridors could make broadband access more available to rural communities where broadband is either currently unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

A number of significant barriers exist to expanding HST for underserved rural areas. Regulatory and policy differences often exist between adjacent States, stemming either from statutory limitations on governmental involvement in the provision of services, or policies that limit the ability of transportation agencies to enter into public-private partnerships. Different approaches to the use of agency assets or rights-of-way also present hurdles.

Questions also exist about the level of interest on the part of private sector in ventures that would provide additional HST capacity. The consensus opinion is that sufficient backbone capacity already exists in or near portions of each corridor in the form of fiber optic cable installed in the late 1990s and the first years of this century. In addition, advances in telecommunications technology continue to expand the ability of system operators to carry more volume on existing fiber optic cables. Even if sufficient interest were present regarding the extension of the telecommunication backbone, the problem of constructing facilities to link rural communities to the backbone still exists – the so-called “middle-mile” (infrastructure from the backbone to local distribution points) and “last-mile” (service to end users) challenges.

It is possible, however, that the combined benefits of additional HST capacity to public agencies and local communities, as well as private providers, would be sufficient to justify additional investment in HST capacity – capacity that any individual private provider might not be willing to provide on their own. Therefore, the State Departments of Transportation (DOT) are cooperating with the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop a conceptual design for deployment of fiber optic or wireless systems along the designated rights-of-way. Conceptual design of these potential alignments will contribute to a better understanding of the applicability and transferability of study findings to other transportation corridors.

Executive Summary

SAFETEA-LU The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), the authorizing legislation for the Nation’s surface transportation program, included a provision under Section 5507 for a Rural Interstate Corridor Communications Study. Under this section, “The Secretary, in cooperation with the Secretary of Commerce, State departments of transportation, and other appropriate State, regional, and local officials, shall conduct a study on the feasibility of installing fiber optic cabling and wireless communication infrastructure along multistate interstate system route corridors for improved communications services to rural communities along such corridors.” The Department of Transportation was directed to identify the “impediments” to installing such an infrastructure and “to connecting such infrastructure to the rural communities along such corridors.” The Department was also directed to identify the potential benefits of such an infrastructure for economic development, deployment of intelligent transportation systems technologies and applications, homeland security precaution and response, and education and health systems in rural communities. This feasibility report also provides an analysis of legal and institutional issues, design considerations, and safety and operational issues associated with installation, as well as the degree to which the findings of such a study could be extended and applied to other rural interstate system route corridors in other States.

Introduction

The provision of high-speed telecommunications (HST), also known as broadband, can demonstrably improve the economic prospects for businesses and individuals, while also providing a variety of collateral benefits for health care, education, transportation, and public safety. There is extensive literature documenting the potential for improvements in economic development and quality of life that can be derived from increased broadband access, including both projections based on adoption of similar technologies, and econometric studies of actual impacts of broadband deployment.

In 2005, Congress directed the Secretary of Transportation to investigate, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the potential for using interstate highway corridor rights-of-way in mostly rural areas to expand the availability of HST in those areas. The use of interstate highway rights-of-way not only offers a continuous, controlled environment for the construction of telecommunications infrastructure, it also provides a potential benefit to the States that control the rights-of-way to obtain communications capabilities to support existing or planned advanced transportation management technologies in these corridors.

In support of this investigation, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), in cooperation with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), is working with State and local agencies to explore the potential for the installation of fiber optic and wireless facilities in three designated corridors passing through or adjacent to 10 States. These corridors are:

• Interstate Route 90 through South Dakota, northern Iowa, southern Minnesota, and central and western Wisconsin;
• Interstate Route 20 through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama; and
• Interstate Route 91 through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

This report presents the findings of the investigation and a discussion of the potential benefits and costs associated with the introduction of a high-speed telecommunications backbone facility in each corridor. The report is not a detailed policy, legal, engineering, or cost-benefit analysis. Instead, its intent is to provide a general assessment of the feasibility and desirability of HST deployment along interstate highway corridors, considering factors such as Federal and State policies and regulations, HST needs, demand characteristics, potential public benefits, technology and engineering considerations, and institutional models for deployment.

The fundamental concept under examination is the use of the interstate highway rights-of–way to construct a high-capacity backbone system, which would carry large amounts of data over long distances. At the same time, a sufficient number of access points would be designed into the system both to serve the needs of the transportation agency operating and maintaining the highway rights-of-way, and to potentially provide broadband service to rural communities adjacent to the rights-of-way. While private sector backbone infrastructure exists near many portions of the study corridors, and some individual States have undertaken HST deployment initiatives, this study is unique in that it examines the potential of multistate coalitions to deploy HST backbone along major transportation corridors, creating additional benefits that might not be realized solely through the initiatives of individual States and private sector providers.

This study is “technology neutral,” considering fiber optic, wireless, or conceivably a hybrid system that incorporates elements of each technology. The preferred technology in each corridor will be selected on the basis of both engineering considerations and market factors and may vary by corridor. Regardless of the mode recommended for the backbone system, other technologies could be selected to provide the connections from the backbone access points to the local providers and to the ultimate users of broadband service. Determining recommended methods of providing connections from the backbone to end users, however, is beyond the scope of this study.

In addition, the study is also “competitively neutral” in that States encourage fair and effective competition in the delivery of goods and services associated with high-speed telecommunications and private sector participation in the traditionally public sector project environment.

In the course of the investigation, the study team has identified an appropriate study area for each corridor; collected information about current and forecast social, economic, and demographic patterns in the study areas; and investigated regional initiatives that could benefit from the increased availability of high-speed telecommunications.

To determine the feasibility of deploying such telecommunications facilities, the study team worked closely with the States to examine the physical characteristics, existing facilities, and policies and regulations affecting each corridor. This analysis was undertaken to identify possible barriers to implementation, including physical, environmental, and institutional barriers.

• I-90 Corridor – Interstate Highway 90 (I-90) is the northernmost east-to-west, coast-to-coast interstate highway in the United States, extending from Seattle, Washington to Boston, Massachusetts. This study focuses on the 843-mile portion of I-90 that passes through South Dakota, southern Minnesota, and central and western Wisconsin. The study corridor, which encompasses a 25-mile buffer on each side of the interstate highway, also includes portions of northern Iowa. The total population of the I-90 Corridor is almost two million, of which 33 percent is found in urbanized areas. The non-urban population of the corridor includes 259,000 people in South Dakota, 369,000 in Minnesota, 79,000 in Iowa, and 627,000 in Wisconsin.
  
  
  
  
• I-20 Corridor – Interstate Highway 20 (I-20) extends 1,535 miles across the southeastern United States, from western Texas to Interstate 95 in South Carolina. This study is concerned with the 542 miles of I-20 that passes through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The total population of the corridor is 2,909,000, of which 46 percent is found in urbanized areas. The non-urban population includes 665,000 people in Alabama, 471,000 people in Mississippi, and 418,000 people in Louisiana.
  
  
  
  
• I-91 Corridor – Interstate Highway 91 (I-91) extends from New Haven, Connecticut at Interstate 95 to Derby Line in Vermont at the Canadian border. I-91 runs north and south through the States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The focus of this study is on the 242-mile portion of the corridor that spans the length of Massachusetts and Vermont. Portions of western New Hampshire also are included in the 25-mile buffer defining the corridor study area. The total population of the I-91 Corridor in 2000 was 1,082,000, of which 59 percent were found in urbanized areas. The non-urban population includes 255,000 people in Massachusetts, 175,000 in New Hampshire, and 210,000 in Vermont.
  
  

To determine the feasibility and desirability of the deployment of HST infrastructure in these corridors, the team examined the range of potential benefits, the likely costs involved in construction of the facilities, and the potential to defray the cost of implementation through the involvement of public and private sector partners. The study team is considering various HST implementation models, including public agency initiatives as well as public-private partnerships, for deploying HST infrastructure along each corridor and creating a broader network serving the needs of public agencies, communities, and other end users. Creation of such a network would depend on separate funding decisions involving each State and their respective private sector partners.

The role of the private sector is a significant issue for a number of reasons. First, the deployment of a high-speed telecommunications system could be accomplished by a State Departments of Transportation to serve its own needs. Alternatively, a State government could deploy such a system to serve the needs of a number of agencies across departmental lines. However, the involvement of a private sector partner could potentially defray the cost of constructing and maintaining the system. In addition, the involvement of private sector providers is essential to reaching residential and commercial users in the communities adjacent to the interstate highway rights-of-way.

The successful creation of a public-private partnership involves delivering a benefit to each member of the partnership. In this instance, the public sector benefits through the creation of a multistate network that serves the telecommunications needs of the State DOT (and possibly other State agencies) at a lower cost, while the private sector benefits from access to a continuous, controlled right-of-way that spans multiple State and local jurisdictions, on consistent terms.

This Executive Summary is part of a Report to Congress that presents the study’s preliminary findings. The findings provide the Secretary of Transportation’s current perspective on the feasibility of deploying high-speed telecommunications in the three study corridors. Subsequent to publication of this report, the Department of Transportation will prepare a Report to States which provides more detailed information on the conceptual alignments in each corridor, as well as the results of an investigation into the legal and regulatory considerations involved in the ultimate deployment of such a telecommunications capability. The intent of the Report to States is to provide enough information to those States not already engaged in deployment planning, to determine the benefits and risks of such a project, and to provide additional resources to those already involved in such projects. The Report to States will concurrently be sent to Congress.

Preliminary alignments for deployment are currently under development in cooperation with the State DOTs. In some instances, the States already have begun their own explorations of the potential for deployment of wireless or wireline facilities in the corridors. In these instances, the study team is looking for ways to provide value to the current engineering efforts. In locations where little work has been done to identify options for HST deployment in the corridors, the study team will cooperatively develop concepts for deployment and preliminary documentation of a possible alignment of a communications backbone.

Defining the Corridors

The three rural interstate highway corridors were initially assessed using a regional focus, with stakeholders from the multiple States in each corridor included in the corridor definition process. Corridor boundaries were established using a 25-mile buffer zone on each side of the interstate highway routes, with the boundaries of the analysis area based on census block group boundaries. This buffer zone represents the approximate area that would most stand to benefit from access to HST backbone along the interstate highway alignments.

Information was collected from a variety of sources to create profiles of each corridor. The corridor profiles provide background information, including descriptive information, tables, and maps, on conditions along each of the corridors that may affect telecommunications needs and benefits. The profiles discuss factors, including demographics of the corridor population, economic base of the corridor communities, education resources, health resources, and existing transportation and telecommunications infrastructure. The data on these factors were incorporated into a geographic information systems database to facilitate spatial analysis and mapping.

Once the corridor profiles were created, the potential demand for bandwidth in each corridor was assessed, based on consideration of the telecommunications needs of different types of users. This assessment of bandwidth needs considered the needs of State Departments of Transportation and other key public sector users as well as businesses, residents, health care providers, and educational institutions. The needs assessment considered forecasts of population growth through 2030 but did not assume fundamental changes in the way that HST technology is used compared to current and near-future applications.

The background research for this report also included a review of the potential benefits of improved access to HST for rural communities in general, and to the corridor study areas in particular. Existing literature on the benefits of rural Internet and HST access was reviewed. Interviews were conducted with people knowledgeable about each corridor, including planners, economic development officials, health care and educational service providers, and people involved with local HST deployment initiatives, to provide a perspective on HST needs in each corridor. This information was used to develop an assessment of the potential benefits of HST infrastructure deployment to the communities and institutions that could be served.

Benefits of Broadband to Rural Communities

This study is undertaken in the context of a revolution in telecommunications technology and in the impact of this technology on both individuals and businesses in the United States and across the world. For the past decade, since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, telecommunications companies have been extending the reach of information and communications technology in ways that have transformed the way Americans live, work, and play. The availability of ubiquitous, inexpensive telephone service, both wireline and wireless, has affected millions of lives and opened up new business opportunities. Access to the Internet from the office, home, and on the move has had an enormous impact on society, as the ready availability of information and the capacity to send and receive e-mail and instant messages have proliferated. “Always on” broadband telecommunications has enabled the transmission of huge amounts of data almost instantaneously, with profound impacts on sectors from finance to entertainment. Expanded deployment of HST in rural areas has the potential to provide significant benefits in a number of areas, including economic development, health care, education, transportation, and safety and security.

The benefits to rural communities of expanded HST access and use are potentially quite significant. A national study of the economic impact of broadband Internet access in communities “supports the view that broadband access does enhance economic growth and performance, and that the assumed economic impacts of broadband are real and measurable.” These benefits include an increase of 1 to 1.4 percent in growth rate between 1998 and 2002, in comparison to a control group; a relative increase in the number of business establishments of 0.5 to 1.2 percent over the same period; substantially higher housing rents (a proxy for property values); and a small but statistically significant increase in the share of establishments in information technology-intensive sectors. (Gillett, S.E., W.H. Lehr, C.A. Osorio, M.A. Sirbu. Measuring Broadband’s Economic Impact. Final Report, National Technical Assistance, Training, Research, and Evaluation Project #99-07-13829, Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. (February 2006).)

A national study of the economic impact of broadband Internet access in communities “supports the view that broadband access does enhance economic growth and performance, and that the assumed economic impacts of broadband are real and measurable.”

Despite its potential benefits, widespread availability of high-speed telecommunications service is a relatively new phenomenon, particularly in rural communities. Although some commercial services were introduced in the late 1990s, market penetration overall, and particularly penetration into rural communities, has only recently started to accelerate. While the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reports that “more than 99 percent of the Nation’s population lives in the 99 percent of ZIP codes where a provider reports having at least one high-speed service provider,” (“High-Speed Services for Internet Access: Status as of June 30, 2006.” Industry Analysis and Technology Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, Federal Communication Commission (January 2007).) in many ZIP codes, the actual proportion of people with access to high-speed service is quite low. The penetration of high-speed telecommunications has been uneven, and there is evidence that a “digital divide” exists not only across socioeconomic, but geographic and demographic boundaries as well. A 2006 survey by the General Accountability Office (GAO) found that nationwide only 17 percent of households in rural areas were broadband subscribers, compared to 29 percent of households in urban areas. (United States Government Accountability Office. “Broadband Deployment Is Extensive Throughout the United States, but it is Difficult to Assess the Extent of Deployment Gaps in Rural Areas.” Report to Congressional Committees, GAO-06-426 (May 2006).)

The Federal Government has played an active role in supporting the deployment of HST, including to rural areas. In enacting the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress sought to increase competitiveness in the provision of telecommunications service. Congress also reinforced its commitment to providing universal telecommunications service to the public, including underserved rural and lower-income communities. The goals of Universal Service, as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, are:

• To promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates;
• To increase access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the Nation; and
• To advance the availability of such services to all consumers, including those in low-income, rural, insular, and high-cost areas at rates that are reasonably comparable to those charged in urban areas.

In addition to policy development, the Federal Government has supported telecommunications deployment to underserved areas and other key target users through grant and loan programs. The Rural Development Telecommunications Program, a program of the United States Department of Agriculture, makes available investment capital for building rural telecommunications infrastructure by rural utilities, municipalities, commercial corporations, limited liability companies, public utility districts, and Indian tribes, as well as by cooperatives, and other nonprofit, limited-dividend, or mutual associations. Subsidies for high-cost users, schools, and libraries are provided through the Universal Service Fund, which is supported by fees collected from carriers and administered through the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). According to the latest information on connections to the Internet for primary and secondary schools and libraries in the United States, the “E-Rate” program (the Schools and Libraries program of the Universal Service Fund) and State and local initiatives for providing educational connections have been tremendously successful in providing high-speed access to educational institutions. As part of this study, the investigators have looked at the degree to which a rural interstate corridors telecommunications infrastructure could supplement existing efforts to provide access to high-speed telecommunications for the Nation’s educational institutions and libraries.

Broadband, high-speed telecommunications also can make a significant contribution to improvements in rural health care through “telemedicine.” Telemedicine encompasses a variety of techniques to bring specialized medical knowledge to remote locations through the sharing of images, health data, and real-time interaction between doctors and patients. This report identifies current and planned telemedicine initiatives in the study areas, and discusses the potential for using advanced telemedicine techniques being explored elsewhere.

State Departments of Transportation have many potential applications for high-speed telecommunications access. As the Nation’s transportation system operators deploy more advanced intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technology for traffic management and traveler information, the ability to communicate in real-time, or near real-time, becomes more important. Transportation management centers can actively manage freeway and arterial management systems to make the best use of available capacity, but they require up-to-date information from field devices, and the ability to transmit information to dynamic message signs and other media in order to advise the traveling public of potentially hazardous situations.

Closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, used for monitoring traffic conditions and incidents on the roadway, require HST to provide full motion video back to a centralized operations center where operators can dispatch appropriate resources. These cameras are placed primarily in urban areas, but increasingly are being placed in high-incident locations in rural areas. Getting HST to the highway rights-of-way has traditionally been an expensive proposition. If the interstate highway right-of-way is used for the placement of HST, that brings it one-step closer to where a Department of Transportation ultimately needs the service. HST also can be used to transport that video to other service providers such as State emergency management agencies, where it becomes crucial during a local, regional, or statewide emergency or disaster.

In addition to systems that manage traffic or communicate with travelers, transportation agencies are improving the efficiency of their operations through communications with field offices and with their vehicle fleets. Essential functions such as winter maintenance and incident response are enabled by high-speed wireless and wireline communications. Rapid response to constantly changing conditions and events is essential to 21st Century transportation systems management and operations.

Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) is another potential application of HST along rural highway corridors. VII is a recently launched program that will exchange communications between vehicles and the roadside to improve safety and mobility. A specific frequency range (5.9 GHz) has been dedicated to provide the radio communications link between vehicles and the roadside. Deployment of VII could potentially accomplish the following:

• Warning drivers of unsafe conditions or imminent collisions;
• Warning drivers if they are about to run off the road or speed around a curve too fast;
• Informing system operators of real-time congestion, weather conditions, and incidents, thereby supporting traffic operations to reduce congestion and improving response to emergency situations; and
• Providing operators with data on traffic patterns to improve the long-term planning, management, and operations of the transportation system.

HST deployment along highway corridors also would support the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Congestion Initiative. The National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America’s Transportation Network, announced by the DOT in May 2006, provides a blueprint for Federal, State, and local officials in their efforts to respond to the growing challenge of congestion. Congestion in U.S. transportation systems has a substantial adverse impact on the United States economy and on quality of life for millions of Americans. While congestion is most heavily concentrated in urban areas, it also occurs in rural areas especially as a result of traffic incidents, special events, weather, work zones, and border crossing delays. ITS technologies that rely on HST systems, such as CCTV and other traffic monitoring devices as well as traveler information and vehicle communications technologies, have the potential to yield congestion relief benefits even in the rural portions of each study corridor.

“Public safety and security officials at all levels of Government can benefit from the ready availability of sophisticated data in more usable forms.”

Finally, HST and broadband connectivity can significantly enhance homeland security preparedness and response applications. (Report on Building Out Broadband, Findings and Recommendations. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (December 2002). http://www.ostp.gov/PCAST/FINAL%20Broadband%20Report%20With%20Letters.pdf., The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expects to fund advanced telecommunications backbone for first responders. In January 2007 the FCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking for the allocation of spectrum in the 700 MHz band for implementation by DHS of a nationwide, broadband, interoperable Public Safety Network. 72 Fed. Reg. 1201 (January 10, 2007).) Public safety and security officials at all levels of government can benefit from the ready availability of sophisticated data in more usable forms (e.g., geospatial data). Robust communications infrastructure can facilitate the availability of such information directly to service providers and first responders, wherever and whenever they need it. Virtually every aspect of homeland security involves information sharing among local, State, and Federal Government officials, including border security; emergency response capacity; biological, chemical, and radiological threat assessment and monitoring; and physical infrastructure management. Broadband will greatly enhance the capacity to share vast quantities of data across government agencies and all levels of government.

Preliminary Alignment Approach

Preliminary alignments are currently under consideration for each corridor. Outreach already has been conducted to corridor stakeholders through a variety of means, including corridor- and State-level workshops, a project web site, and web conferences. This outreach has identified factors such as existing HST infrastructure and telecommunications initiatives, State policies regarding utility accommodations and resource-sharing agreements, the level of interest of each State in deploying HST backbone along interstate highways, and potential engineering and design challenges.

To produce the conceptual design for each interstate highway corridor, the study teams will work with State DOTs and other stakeholders. The alignments will be conceptual in nature, not detailed plans. However, the concepts will be developed in sufficient detail to take into consideration potential barriers to implementation such as terrain, environmentally sensitive areas, and geophysical barriers such as rock outcroppings and river crossings. In addition, the alignments will be consistent with State policies for use of the rights-of-way, including utility accommodation policies and the presence of existing utilities and utility corridors. The conceptual alignments will further address considerations such as the backbone technology (i.e., buried fiber versus wireless towers) and selection of access point locations.

The development of preliminary alignments also will address resource-sharing issues, including potential roles for the public and private sectors for construction, ownership, operations, and funding. Potential resource-sharing models include: market driven (all parties pay full market value for resources); quid pro quo (parties exchange goods or services of equal value); and forcing legislation (requirements or incentives for the private sector to take action). The results of the conceptual alignment study will provide useful information to other States that also might be considering the deployment of HST in interstate highway rights-of-way.

Building a telecommunications backbone in interstate highway rights-of-way presents both advantages and disadvantages. Interstate highway routes provide connectivity across multiple States and through both densely and sparsely settled areas. The planners of the interstate highway system created corridors that link major population centers, but also provide access to smaller communities. In fact, the interstate highway routes have had considerable influence on the location of and economic prospects for rural communities.

While the interstate highways offer the benefit of a continuous, controlled right-of-way, many States have policies limiting or restricting the use of interstate highway corridors for the longitudinal placement of utilities. These policies, while not uniform among the States, are motivated by a desire to avoid any activities within the rights-of-way that have the potential to disrupt operations or open the DOT to any liability concerns. In some States, in efforts to gain control over financially risky information technology and communications projects, State governments have adopted policies that limit the ability of transportation agencies to implement communications systems serving any purpose other than the agency’s own communication needs. This is in part due to the need to comply with Federal regulations that prohibit State and local governments from providing communications services that may compete with private providers; it also may be a reaction to some previous instances where partnerships with telecommunications providers have failed to deliver promised benefits.

Even in cases where some kind of partnership with private entities is possible, significant challenges remain. One challenge relates to policies restricting the ability of agencies to recover costs other than administrative expenses for allowing access to the rights-of-way. In other instances, negotiation of access agreements may be constrained by State policies that forbid Departments of Transportation from offering exclusive access, or access to a limited number of providers. Creating a network that crosses State boundaries creates additional complications. The proposed alignment would have to conform to requirements of each jurisdiction, including the possibility of States having different policies or design guidelines.

In the process of developing a preliminary alignment, the study team will consider operational issues associated with installation and maintenance. These issues focus on maintaining the safety of the traveling public during the construction of the wireline facility (trenching for installing conduit, construction of access points and equipment sheds for repeaters and amplifiers) or wireless towers. In addition, access will be needed for routine maintenance, upgrades, and repair of damaged equipment.

Findings and Conclusions

This study has examined the feasibility and potential benefits of installing high-speed telecommunications backbone along interstate highway rights-of-way. The findings of the study do not provide a “one-size-fits-all” recommendation as to whether such deployment should take place, or the specific methods of the deployment. The existing availability of HST infrastructure, including both public and private infrastructure, varies across and even within corridors. Some States already are undertaking initiatives to expand HST deployment. Others have policies discouraging or prohibiting the use of interstate highway right-of-way for utilities including telecommunications. The potential market for HST services and the resulting benefits of deployment also vary across the corridors. Furthermore, specific design and engineering issues have not yet been investigated, or potential costs determined; these will be addressed in the subsequent Report to States.

Despite these disparate findings, a number of general conclusions can be drawn from the results of the study to date:

• Expanded HST deployment in each corridor could potentially lead to significant benefits, including benefits to State transportation agencies and the traveling public, as well as general benefits to residents of rural communities in each corridor through economic development, improved health care and education opportunities, and enhanced quality of life. Rural areas are lagging in broadband adoption compared to urban areas, and as a result are failing to reap the benefits provided by HST services.
• No single technology will provide the solution to HST needs in all rural corridors. Fiber optics, wireless, or a hybrid of the two technologies may be most appropriate depending on the specific conditions and needs within each corridor.
• The Federal Government must continue to play an active role if the full benefits of HST deployment are to be realized. A precedent exists for such involvement through the development of policies at both the legislative and executive level, as well as programs such as the Rural Development Utilities Program and Universal Service Access Fund. Federal leadership is especially critical to establish a framework that will promote creative approaches to multistate deployment without imposing unnecessary new requirements. DOT could provide technical assistance and/or incentives for States to enter into multistate agreements and public-private partnerships.
• The most direct benefits will be to transportation agencies, for whom public-access HST along the highway corridors will support a set of advanced traffic management applications that will enhance mobility and safety. Additional benefits to rural communities will be realized only if the HST backbone is deployed in such a way that it spurs additional local public- and/or private-sector investment in providing HST connections to end users. This will require the creation of public-private partnerships so that private sector providers have access to the HST backbone infrastructure. Fortunately, precedent for successful public-private partnerships exists.
• Individual States execute laws and policies that may limit the deployment of a corridor-wide communications backbone. Absent Federal law or regulations this condition will in all likelihood continue to persist.
• Infrastructure deployment can be greatly facilitated by the establishment of uniform design guidelines and standards. The Department of Transportation and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) can revisit current policies and guidelines regarding HST implementation to address new issues stemming from advanced communications technology.
• A substantial national fiber backbone system already exists between major metropolitan areas due to prior private sector investments, and thus opportunities for resource-sharing agreements for new fiber capacity are limited. In areas where backbone capacity already exists, the provision of additional backbone services along interstate highways will only benefit communities if access is provided at a cost low enough to induce additional private-sector investment in “last-mile” connections. An optimal strategy will rely on public-private partnerships to make use of existing infrastructure and to promote investment in new infrastructure only where it is needed.
• States also have a strong potential interest and role in deploying HST in interstate highway corridors. Congestion and incident management is not just an urban issue. Congestion relief through ITS implementation (e.g., at border crossings) is to some extent contingent on availability of HST. However, State DOTs generally do not have resources readily available for major investments in HST. Supplemental funding will be required to build out communications infrastructure for future public applications in cooperation with the private sector. Especially where existing private-sector backbone capacity is limited, State DOTs would be well advised to recognize and take advantage of the potential value of their property to the private sector by offering consistent rules of access.
• An HST backbone along an interstate highway corridor provides benefit to all State functions and to the State as a whole, not just to transportation interests.
• The private sector is a critically important partner in any HST deployment initiative, not only for providing last-mile connections and potential financial support, but also for maintaining and operating the system. The way that State DOTs are currently constituted and operated, oriented primarily toward capital construction, presents a challenge for deploying and maintaining telecommunications capabilities. Telecommunication entities with State oversight are better able to manage telecommunications resources and to keep up with the rapidly changing technology.
• Looking toward the future, Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) could establish the need for a nationwide communications backbone that uses interstate highway corridors. The U.S. DOT is continuing to work with States and other stakeholders to determine whether such an opportunity exists and what appropriate governance models can be applied.