US congressional committee seeks US$500 billion road and rail upgrade

A US congressional committee seeks to spend US$500 billion on highway and transit infrastructure over a six-year period, according to a legislative blueprint released by its chairman James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee funding goal includes $50 billion for metropolitan congestion and transit and $25 billion national freight movement, reports American Shipper. It includes $50 billion for high-speed rail to develop 11 rail corridors between major metropolitan areas. The bill is a long way from passage, being at an early stage of legislative development.

The spending bill would increase the $286 billion already provided for highway and transit in the 2005 SAFETEA- LU authorisation, which expires on September 30, but is consistent with the amount Congressman Oberstar's aides have suggested would be his minimum spending floor for a new bill.

Mr Oberstar's group said the bill that is to re-authorise federal surface transportation operations and hopes to bundle or end 75 of the 108 existing programmes, and insists that programmes produce results to survive.

Most highway and transit funding would be consolidated. Most of that $337.4 billion is earmarked for highway construction, including $100 billion for restoration of the national highway system and bridges.

The bill also seeks to facilitate private investment in the national transportation system that furthers the public interest, plus accelerate project delivery by cutting red tape and re-establishing the Office of Intermodalism within the secretary's office at Department of Transportation, and having an as yet unborn national infrastructure bank fund big projects.

(Source: Shipping Online)