Skip to main content

Obama administration begins work on 30-year transportation plan

The Obama administration has begun to map out a 30-year framework to meet US infrastructure needs, according to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, speaking in an interview with the Washington Post. Foxx promised a comprehensive review of the demand for new or replacement systems a year ago in an address to the Transportation Research Board. He returned to the group this week to roll out conclusions expected in a report later this year. “Transportation is a system of systems,” Foxx said, rather tha
January 14, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The Obama administration has begun to map out a 30-year framework to meet US infrastructure needs, according to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, speaking in an interview with the Washington Post.

Foxx promised a comprehensive review of the demand for new or replacement systems a year ago in an address to the 856 Transportation Research Board. He returned to the group this week to roll out conclusions expected in a report later this year.

“Transportation is a system of systems,” Foxx said, rather than the aggregate of separate systems that can be addressed individually. “The idea that we’re looking at the system comprehensively is the thrust of this report.”

He said the report, which will be followed by a formal comment period, is intended as the beginning of a conversation about the future, rather than the conclusive definition of a path forward.

The report being drafted by the Transportation Department draws in part on data compiled in recent years by such groups as the Miller Center at the 2005 University of Virginia and the 5515 American Society of Civil Engineers.

An ASCE report two years ago concluded that it would take a US$3.6 trillion investment by 2020 to meet infrastructure needs, about US$1.6 trillion short of current spending. The Miller Center said maintaining infrastructure at current levels required additional spending of US$134 billion to US$194 billion each year through 2035.

Related Content

  • Secretary Foxx calls for Congress to pass transportation bill
    May 23, 2014
    US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx joined state and local officials for a tour of the Tampa Interstate Study (TIS), a US$1.8 billion series of significant highway improvements in the region. Planning for the TIS, which relies on US$941 million in federal funding, began in 1989. The current phase of construction is expected to be completed in September of 2016. "These badly needed improvements to the major routes through Tampa and Ybor City will greatly improve the area's ability to keep pace with t
  • Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    July 24, 2017
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin
  • Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    July 24, 2017
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin
  • Reauthorization 2012: the facts laid bare
    September 12, 2012
    A reauthorization bill for transportation came into law in July 2012, rubber stamping federal funding increases through the 2014 financial year, among other things. The new bill presents the good, the bad and the ugly of transportation infrastructure in the US, writes Pat Jones On June 29 this year, the US House of Representatives and Senate both approved the conference report on the ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’ or MAP-21. President Obama signed this legislation into law on July 6.