U.S. Highway, Public Transit Improvements Funded Through 2009

AURORA, Illinois, August 10, 2005 (ENS) - Emphasizing that the legislation will create thousands of jobs, President George W. Bush signed a $286 billion six year transportation bill into law today at the Caterpillar-Aurora Facility, where highway construction equipment is manufactured. Economists estimate that for every billion dollars spent on road construction, nearly 48,000 jobs will be created.

Emphasizing that the legislation will create jobs, President Bush told the host of lawmakers of both parties gathered for the signing ceremony, "This bill is going to help modernize the highway system and improve quality of life for a lot of people. And these projects will require workers. Highways just don't happen; people have got to show up and do the work to refit a highway or build a bridge. And they need new equipment to do so. So the bill I'm signing is going to help give hundreds of thousands of Americans good paying jobs."

The bill, H.R. 3 is known as the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or informally as TEA LU. The legislation reauthorizes the federal highway, public transportation, highway safety, and motor carrier safety programs for six years, from fiscal years 2004 through 2009.

TEA LU provides a total of $283.9 billion in guaranteed funding – a 42 percent increase over the previous transportation legislation, TEA 21, which covered the years from 1998 through 2003. Gasoline taxes were not raised to help cover the funding costs.

"This bill upgrades our transportation infrastructure, and it will help save lives," President Bush said. "The bill establishes a safety belt incentive grant program, which will provide incentives for states to adopt laws that increase seat belt usage. Under this bill, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will set stability standards to help prevent vehicle rollovers. In other words, this is more than just a highway bill; it's a safety bill."

More than 42,000 Americans are killed and 2.9 million are seriously injured each year on the nation’s highways. The bill is intended to reduce substandard road conditions that are a contributing factor in nearly one-third of all fatal crashes each year.

Joining the President on stage in front row, from left, are Congressman Ray LaHood, R-Ill.; Congresswoman Melissa Bean, D-Ill.; Congressman Jim Oberstar, D-Minn.; Congressman Tom Petri, R-Wis.; Senator Kit Bond, R-Mo.; Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta; House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.; Congressman Bill Thomas, R-Calif.; and Congressman Bobby Rush, D-Ill. (Photo courtesy The White House)

Speaking at the ceremony, Hastert said, "There is perhaps no more appropriate location for the signing of this historic bill than here at Caterpillar. As you can see from the products that surround us, this facility is where CAT manufactures the equipment that is used to build our roads, highways, and bridges."

"Sixty-seven percent of our nation's freight moves through Chicago and onto our nation's highways," Hastert said, emphasizing the role of transportation hub his district fills. "Economists believe that our ability to move our products is directly tied to the strength of our economy. In the era of just-in-time delivery, it's unacceptable that traffic congestion currently affects 33 percent of all travel and leads to 3.6 billion hours of delay each year."

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee says that annually, congestion costs American drivers $67 billion in lost productivity and 5.7 billion gallons of wasted motor fuel.

Congestion costs the average traveler who drives during peak periods $1,160 a year, the committee says.

Illinois is the location of the world’s busiest airport, Chicago-O'Hare, a railroad network that accommodates one of every four rail cars, and seven major interstate highways. The movement of freight by road receives a major chunk of funding in the new legislation.

TEA LU funds five programs that are specifically designed to improve the movement of freight. The two largest are $6 billion for a new program to fund transportation projects of regional and national significance beyond the immediate local area of the project. A $3 billion program spread over five years will fund a National Corridor Infrastructure Improvement program for regional and multi-state corridor projects that will improve mobility and economic growth in areas underserved by existing highway infrastructure.

In 2002, 8.9 billion tons of freight – at a value of more than $5 trillion - was transported by highway. From 1990 to 2000, U.S. truck travel increased by 38 percent, and in the next 20 years, truck travel is expected to increase 90 percent due to an expanding economy and the increased reliance on just-in-time delivery, according to figures provided by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Cars cruise along Interstate 40 West in New Mexico. (Photo by Stefano Paltera courtesy NREL)

"If we want people working in America, we've got to make sure our highways and roads are modern," President Bush said today. "We've got to bring up this transportation system into the 21st century."

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, who was at the signing ceremony, said, "This bill funds vital new transportation projects, holds the line on gas taxes and avoids adding to the deficit. More importantly for America’s drivers, this bill contains significant new safety provisions, including the creation of a $5 billion core highway safety program and powerful incentives for states to increase safety belt usage."

"State and local officials now have the resources, flexibility and support they need to make driving safer, fight congestion and ensure that the nation’s transportation system keeps pace with the rapidly expanding economy," Mineta said.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, thanked President Bush for signing into law a bill that will increase by $309 million a year the amount of money Illinois receives from Washington for highways.

Illinois will also see an increase of almost $100 million per year for public transportation. Over the life of SAFETEA-LU, Illinois will average $420 million per year, almost $98 million per year more than under the previous funding legislation.

"The $2.1 billion for public transportation does not include special transit earmarks that are expected to be more than $450 million," the governor said.

"Illinois is among the top five states nationwide receiving earmarked funds for transportation, and top 10 in overall transportation funding,” Governor Blagojevich said.

The single largest piece of funding for Illinois is $239 million that will go into the New Mississippi River Bridge Project that will connect Missouri and Illinois.

The Illinois Department of Transportation and the Missouri Department of Transportation are making plans to improve the flow of traffic through the urban core of St. Louis and southwestern Illinois. The plan calls for major upgrades to the highway network, centered around a new cable-stayed bridge across the Mississippi River just north of downtown St. Louis.

Public transit also receives an increase in funding under the new legislation. From 1996 to 2002, public transit ridership grew 21 percent, and now carries 9.6 billion passenger trips a year. But in many U.S. cities, public transportation infrastructure is not keeping up with demand.

Conversion of biomass to fuel enables the Greater Peoria Mass Transit District to operate these ethanol buses in Peoria, Illinois. (Photo by Warren Gretz courtesy NREL)

To increase public transit facilities, TEA LU provides $52.35 billion for transit programs, all guaranteed. This is a 51 percent increase in guaranteed funding over the previous law. Transit funding for rural localities and for people with disabilities is increased.

According to figures issued by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, 32 percent of major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and 29 percent of bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

TEA LU authorizes a new $6 billion program for projects of national and regional significance to help states pay for high cost highway projects that have national or regional benefits.

The city of Chicago benefits from the new transportation legislation which provides funding for dozens of Chicago projects, including $25 million toward the $280 million reconstruction of the north-south portion of Wacker Drive.

On the public transit site, more than $350 million is authorized for reconstruction on two Chicago Transit Authority lines.

Authorization is provided for $140 million for a western access route to O’Hare Airport, which is part of the O’Hare Modernization Program, and to make rail travel more efficient, the legislation provides $100 million for CREATE, a joint project with the State of Illinois and the railroads to eliminate costly rail bottlenecks in the city.

"When a city maintains and improves its infrastructure, it simply looks better and works better," said Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. "And, I guarantee you, the rest of the world takes notice. Finally, these projects will create thousands of construction jobs for the hard-working people of our city. And their spending will ripple through the local economy."

Earthquake damage on road in Denali National Park, Alaska (Photo courtesy NPS)

With the President's signature, the Park Service will get $1.05 billion to address park roads, but that amount is nearly 75 percent short of the increase the U.S. Senate and the Bush administration said was needed in May. According to estimates, roughly half of the National Park Service's multi-billion dollar maintenance backlog is for road repairs.

"The enormity of the backlog means that even the funding the president and the Senate recommended for park roads would have fallen short of meeting the entire need," said NPCA Vice President for Government Affairs Craig Obey. "But those proposals would have made a genuine impact in reducing the backlog - this funding barely enables the Park Service to keep pace with inflation."

More than half of the President's pledge to eliminate the National Park Service's $4.9 billion backlog and to "restore and renew" the national parks hinged upon this transportation bill. "Now that the opportunity has been lost, it is even more important that Congress seize the opportunity to pass the National Park Centennial Act," said Obey.