Building America's Future - Falling Apart and Falling Behind - Transportation Infrastructure Report 2011

2011·5.8 MB·English

by  Building America's Future Educational Fund

Transportation Infrastructure Report 2011
Building
America’s
Future
Falling Apart
and Falling
Behind
About Building America’s Future Educational Fund
Building America’s Future Educational Fund (BAF Ed Fund) is a bipartisan coalition of
elected officials dedicated to bringing about a new era of U.S. investment in infrastructure
that enhances our nation’s prosperity and quality of life. Founded by former Governor
Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California,
and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, BAF Ed Fund boasts a politically diverse
membership of state and local elected officials from across the nation. BAF Ed Fund
seeks to advance a new national vision for infrastructure investment that strengthens our
cities and rural communities, and focuses on economic growth, global competitiveness,
job creation, and environmental sustainability. In addition, we embrace a wide definition
of infrastructure—from roads and bridges to water and sewer systems, energy systems,
buses, trains, ports, airports, levees, dams, schools, and housing.
Michael R. Bloomberg
Edward G. Rendell
Arnold Schwarzenegger
www.bafuture.org
Building America’s Future: Falling Apart & Falling Behind
Building
America’s
Future
Falling Apart and Falling Behind
Transportation Infrastructure Report 2011
Executive Summary 4
1 Introduction 6
A History of Leadership and Innovation 9
The New Economic Realities 11
2 A Mounting Crisis 14
Lack of National Vision 16
Limited Size and Scale 17
Insufficient Accountability 18
The Consequences of Failure 19
3 Losing Ground to Our Global Competitors 22
They Adopt Strategic Visions 24
They Invest at Scale 25
They Pioneer New Financing Mechanisms 28
They Are Getting Results 31
4 Recommendations for Reform 36
Adopt a Smart National Strategy 38
Re-Orient Washington’s Priorities 39
Re-Think Funding Options 40
Promote Acccountability and Innovation 41
Conclusion 42
Building America’s Future Educational Fund
thanks The Rockefeller Foundation for its
generous financial and intellectual support
that made this project possible.
In addition, Building America’s Future
Educational Fund wishes to thank the
author, Brina Milikowsky, for her dedicated
research and analysis, as well as the many
people who reviewed and helped to develop
the content and proposals in this report.
Executive Summary 1 2
Introduction A Mounting Crisis
Rebuilding America’s economic foundation This report frames the state of our infra-
is one of the most important missions we structure in terms of the new economic
face in the 21st century. Our parents and realities of the 21st-century economy and
grandparents built America into the world’s presents the challenges we currently face.
leading economic superpower. We have The surge in global trade has realigned
a responsibility to our own children and America’s business transport needs,
grandchildren to strengthen—not squander complicating supply chains and increasing
—that inheritance, and to pass on to them the need for sophisticated intermodal
a country whose best days are still ahead. transportation. Our economically vital
gateways and corridors now operate over
Our citizens live in a turbulent, complicated,
capacity, imposing costs of $200 billion a
and competitive world. The worst recession
year. Our passenger transport system,
in eighty years cost us trillions in wealth
especially in our major metropolitan regions,
and drove millions of Americans out of their
is also burdened with costly congestion as
jobs and homes. Even more, it called into
passenger travel increases. Largely run on
question their belief in our system and faith
gasoline, our transportation system is
in the way forward.
environmentally, politically, and economi-
Our infrastructure—and the good policy cally unsustainable. We have the world’s
making that built it—is a key reason worst air traffic congestion, in part because
America became an economic superpower. we are still using the radar-based air traffic
But many of the great decisions which put control system developed in the 1950s.
us on that trajectory are now a half-century
The first section of the report, A Mounting
old. In the last decade, our global economic
Crisis, makes the case why U.S. infrastruc-
competitors have led the way in planning
ture has fallen from first place in the World
and building the transportation networks of
Economic Forum’s 2005 economic competi-
the 21st century. Countries around the
tiveness ranking to number 15 today. We
world have not only started spending more
have let more than a half-century go by
than the United States does today, but they
without devising a strategic plan on a
made those financial commitments—of
national scale to update our freight and
both public and private dollars—on the
passenger transport systems. The size of
basis of 21st-century strategies that will
our federal investment in transportation
equip them to make commanding strides in
infrastructure as a share of GDP has been
economic growth over the next 20-25 years.
dwindling for decades, and most federal
Unless we make significant changes in our funds are dispersed to projects without
course and direction, the foreign competi- imposing accountability and performance
tion will pass us by, and a real opportunity measures. This lack of vision, lack of
to restore America’s economic strength will funding, and lack of accountability has left
be lost. The American people deserve every mode of transportation in the United
better. States—highways and railroads, airports
and sea ports—stuck in the last century
Falling Apart and Falling Behind lays out
and ill-equipped for the demands of a
the economic challenges posed by our ailing
churning global economy.
infrastructure, provides a comparative look
at the smart investments being made by our
international competitors, and suggests a
series of recommendations for crafting new
innovative transportation policies in the U.S.
4 Building America’s Future: Falling Apart & Falling Behind
3 4
Losing Ground to Recommendations
Our Global Competitors for Reform
The second section of the report, Losing The third section of the report, Recommen- Be both innovative and realistic about how
Ground to Our Global Competitors, takes dations for Reform, contains a clear set of to pay. America needs a National Infrastruc-
an international look at transportation recommendations for moving our econo- ture Bank that can leverage private dollars
infrastructure and highlights certain themes my—and the case for strategic investment and invest in the best big projects, including
that unify our competitors’ plans while in infrastructure—forward. To stay competi- those that span state boundaries or
setting our transportation policies apart. tive in a 21st-century economy, the federal encompass multiple modes of transporta-
Governments around the world—from the government must: tion. Once the U.S. economy improves, we
EU to China, Canada to Australia—are should consider raising the nearly 20-year
Develop a national infrastructure strategy
making unprecedented national investments old federal gas tax and indexing it to
for the next decade that makes choices
in transportation infrastructure on the basis inflation. Washington also needs to look at
based on economics, not politics. The U.S.
of new plans to promote economic growth all long-term revenue generating options
should adopt a 10-year national plan for
through infrastructure. such as congestion pricing, carbon auctions,
making strategic investments in our nation’s
fees based on miles traveled, or reserves
Guided by principles of improving economic infrastructure. The plan should focus on
built into capital budgets.
efficiency and sustainability, other countries transportation, but include other infrastruc-
are devoting most of their attention and ture challenges such as water and the Promote accountability and innovation.
resources to building the high-tech and electric grid. To keep America economically Under current transportation policy, Wash-
low-carbon networks for the 21st century. In competitive, this plan must be as significant ington impedes local innovation while failing
particular, they are investing in intermodal in scale as the plans adopted by our to impose accountability for money distrib-
freight facilities and strategic corridors, and competitor nations. To do so, we believe, it uted across the country. Washington should
they are building high-speed rail. A compara- must spur an investment of a least $200 set clear criteria for all funding, encourage
tive look at high-speed rail networks around billion per year.1 This national infrastructure state and local innovation through competi-
the world offers lessons about how to strategy will create nearly 5 million jobs for tive grants, streamline the project delivery
successfully build high-speed rail in strate- the next decade. Experts agree that $1 process to ensure projects are started
gic corridors—namely between Boston and billion in infrastructure investment creates quickly, and carefully audit the results to
Washington, between LA and San Francisco, more than 25,000 jobs at construction sites ensure projects are completed on time, on
and in a hub-and-spoke around Chicago— and factories producing needed raw budget, and yielding promised results.
that will ease air travel congestion around materials. This investment would create
The U.S. must embark on a new American
the country and unlock potential economic nearly half of the 12.5 million jobs that we
adventure—one that requires leadership
growth in those regions. need to revive the American economy and
and vision from our elected leaders. To
keep them in place for the next decade.
achieve this we will need a bipartisan
Pass a 6-year transportation bill updated alliance of American leaders who believe we
to compete in the 21st-century global can achieve anything, can build anything,
economy. Since the last transportation bill and can do anything we put our minds to—
expired in 2009, Washington has abdicated and who will in turn, convince our citizens
its responsibility, with seven extensions of that this course is not an option but a
federal funding. The new bill must move necessity to preserve our future strength
from an essentially recycled version that and success—to preserve American
thinly distributes funds based on archaic greatness—greatness that was created by
formulas and political expediency to a plan Americans over the last 235 years by their
that sets clear priorities and makes hard willingness to take on new challenges with
choices based on increasing economic the belief that our country could achieve
return and mobility while reducing conges- anything.
tion and pollution. As a result, the invest-
ment strategy will focus on projects that will
yield results—Next Gen aviation system;
high-speed rail in key corridors; freight rail;
public transit; and maintenance of our
crumbling transportation network.
Building America’s Future: Falling Apart & Falling Behind 5

1 Introduction
Rebuilding America’s economic foundation is one of
the most important missions we face in the 21st
century. Our parents and grandparents built America
into the world’s leading economic superpower. We have
a responsibility to our own children and grandchildren
to strengthen—not squander—that inheritance,
and pass on to them a country whose best days are
still ahead.
Whether we succeed in our mission rests largely on
whether we attempt to build a 21st-century economy
on 20th-century infrastructure, or act with the same
visionary boldness that led Americans to build the
Erie Canal, the Transcontinental Railroad, the world’s
largest airports, and the Interstate Highway System.
Why is infrastructure so important? When it comes to transportation policy, for
Americans see the consequences of in- instance, Washington has been on auto-
adequate infrastructure everyday: when we pilot for the last half-century. Instead of
get stuck in traffic jams on our way to work; tackling the hard choices facing the nation,
when we get stuck at the airport because federal transportation policy still largely
our flights are delayed; when mass transit adheres to an agenda set by President
options are too few or too expensive; when Eisenhower. Federal transportation dollars
When it comes to
our electric grid fails and leaves us in the are generally spread thin around the
transportation policy, dark; when our ports are too small to handle country, instead of targeting the economi-
modern cargo ships; and when our bridges cally critical points in our national network.
Washington has been
must be closed or torn down as a result of Most transportation projects are not subject
on auto-pilot for structural deficiencies. As individual cases, to the cost-benefit analysis or specific
these deficiencies can be daily annoyances. performance measures we’ve come to
the last half-century.
Together, they form a national crisis. expect in other arenas. In essence, Wash-
ington has followed an outdated decision-
The strength of every country’s economy
making process that increasingly drove us
derives from the productivity of its human
further and further off course.
capital and natural resources. We have an
abundance of both. But what these great In the last decade, our global economic
gifts produce is meaningless unless they competitors have led the way in planning
find their way to the marketplace. That is and building the transportation networks of
what infrastructure does. It increases the 21st century. Leading countries around
human mobility and facilitates efficiency. It the world have not only started spending
enables a healthy economy to channel the more than the United States does today, but
flow of goods and services around the they made those financial commitments—of
corner and around the globe. Done right, both public and private dollars—on the
infrastructure helps us open new markets to basis of 21st-century strategies that will
goods and services, drops the costs of equip them to make commanding strides in
transportation, speeds deliveries, and economic growth over the next 20–25
lowers prices for consumers. Capital and years. These decisions have put them on a
jobs flow to the most efficient markets, and cycle of investment and economic growth
the most efficient markets are dependent that will improve their standard of living and
on modern, reliable, high-tech infrastructure. improve their citizens’ quality of life.
In the last decade, Unless we make significant changes in our
The infrastructure past generations built for
course and direction, the foreign competi-
our global economic us—and the good policy making that built
tion will pass us by and a real opportunity
it—is a key reason America became an
competitors have to restore America’s economic strength
economic superpower. But many of the
led the way in planning great decisions which put us on that will be lost.
trajectory are now a half-century old. In the
and building the
last several decades, our political system
transportation networks
has failed us.
of the 21st century. Year after year, Washington kept getting
three essential pieces wrong. First, it lost
focus and strategic vision. Second, it stayed
wedded to revenue sources that no longer
meet our capital needs and to policy
approaches that year after year locked us
into increasingly archaic priorities. And third,
it failed to ensure that federal dollars were
directed to projects that would strengthen
our economic competitiveness.
8 Building America’s Future: Falling Apart & Falling Behind
A History of Leadership What started as crucial to our survival
rapidly became a key to our prosperity.
and Innovation
At transformative moments in the 19th
This idea of building and maintaining a and 20th centuries, our greatest leaders
successful economy—with infrastructure grasped just how vital it was to build strong
at the center of federal policy—has been infrastructure to protect national security
with us since the moment we first became and promote economic growth, so that our
Americans. wealth and well-being could grow. They built
Our greatest leaders a transportation network that drove our
The visionary authors of our Constitution
economic development and established our
grasped just how vital were also the architects of our prosperity.
leadership in innovative engineering,
They designed a federal system limited
it was to build manufacturing, and design.
enough to protect our liberties as individuals
strong infrastructure but expansive enough for a central govern- In 1808, President Thomas Jefferson’s
to protect national security ment that could plan, invest, and build for a administration released the Gallatin Plan,
more productive economic future that we articulating a 100-year vision for a national
and promote
could enjoy in common by acting together. transportation system and proposing a $20
economic growth. million ($324 billion in 2010 dollars)
Our tiny country emerged from the Revolu-
program to develop canals and roadways.
tionary War deeply in debt with no money
This visionary blueprint by government
besides import duties to fund its operations.
officials and industrialists laid the ground-
So, our government invested in a system of
work for the construction of the Erie Canal
beacons, buoys, and lighthouses on the
and the Transcontinental Railroad. By
eastern seaboard and a fleet of ships to
improving waterway capacity and building
intercept smugglers, to collect what we were
canals, they created an efficient trade
owed. This effort meant our nation could
network and expanded our economic reach.
keep itself afloat financially at a time when
more than half of the federal budget was Even as the country was torn apart by civil
being consumed to service our debt.1 war, Abraham Lincoln appreciated the critical
The ceremony commemorating the
driving of the golden spike to complete
the first transcontinental railroad in
North America, May 10, 1869.
Building America’s Future: Falling Apart & Falling Behind 9
Infrastructure investment,
in days of debt
and surplus,
helped our nation
build the strongest
and most successful
economy the world
has ever known. In 1956, Dwight Eisenhower
convinced Congress to build
and finance the Interstate
Highway System.
importance of unifying the east and west by greater economic opportunity. In 1956, he
a coast-to-coast railroad. With the leader- convinced Congress to finance that vision,
ship of government and financiers, America and the Interstate Highway System was
built the world’s best railroad system, born, forever changing the American
creating a coast-to-coast network that landscape and creating what would become
further unified and fortified the national an essential element of the definitive
economy. American lifestyle for the next half-century.
Half a century later, Teddy Roosevelt This combination of American ingenuity and
established the Inland Waterways Commis- forward-looking policy, which catalyzed
sion to develop a comprehensive plan private sector innovation and private sector
for improving America’s waterways for investment, put us on a rising trajectory.
commercial traffic. Infrastructure building, Infrastructure investment, in good times
orchestrated by his cousin Franklin, and bad, in war and peace, in days of debt
brought electricity to rural America, and and surplus, helped our nation build the
an ambitious list of projects including strongest and most successful economy
bridges, tunnels, and airports that employed the world has ever known.
millions of Americans at the height of the
But the legacy of even our smartest
Great Depression and continue to serve our
decisions cannot last forever, and we are
country today.
now left struggling with a transportation
Following World War II, Dwight Eisenhower network that has not adjusted to 21st-
had a vision to build the world’s best century realities and cannot meet our
highway system, easing mobility around the economic needs going forward.
country and opening up vast new regions to
10 Building America’s Future: Falling Apart & Falling Behind