This past weekend President-elect Obama outlined his economic recovery plan in a radio address. One of the key pieces of his plan is to “make the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since President Eisenhower established the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s – creating millions of jobs and compelling states to act quickly and make smart investments.“ Unfortunately, making smart investments quickly is not something government is known for.
Last Friday, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) announced that more than 5,000 transportation projects across the country, worth $64 billion and with the potential to create an estimated 1.8 million jobs, are “ready-to-go”-i.e. they could be under contract within 180 days if the funding were made available. The press release lists the number of ready-to-go projects by state and their dollar value. The phrase “ready-to-go” is AASHTO’s shrewd way of telling Obama and Congress to show them the money quickly.
No doubt, many of these projects are repair and maintenance related, which are long overdue. But my concern is that in the rush to create jobs, the federal government and the states will fail to take a strategic and holistic view of our country’s transportation infrastructure requirements. A few years from now, we could have new bridges, roads, rail lines, and ports, but if each project is treated independently (and each state acts independently), we may have solved nothing from a long-term perspective.
And it’s from this perspective that I found yesterday’s announcement from the Volvo Group so interesting. The company announced that it is “initiating cooperation within the Swedish government’s logistics forum and with the authorities to realize the EU Commission’s concept regarding environmentally sound goods transport in “green corridors.”“ These “green corridors” are essentially integrated highways, railways and short-sea shipping routes that maximize the speed and efficiency of moving goods across Sweden and the EU. Volvo Group has partnered with DB Schenker and they’re jointly collaborating with VINNOVA (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems) and the Swedish Road Administration to initiate a “green corridor” project in January. Some of the planned tests include using a so-called Duo-trailer (a larger vehicle configuration with greater load capacity) and the use of new in-vehicle technologies to improve fuel efficiencies and driver communication. You can get more information about this “green corridor” project at Volvo’s website.
In short, these ideas are not new or revolutionary; similar concepts, along with legislative changes, are also being discussed here in the US. And creating a “green economy” is another of Obama’s objectives, so theoretically there’s a lot of synergy between his goals for the environment and our transportation infrastructure. However, let’s just hope that despite the immense public and political pressure to get the economy back on track, the Obama administration and Congress do not sacrifice smartness for quickness when it comes to investing in our nation’s transportation infrastructure.
