Transportation planners and industry executives briefed House lawmakers last week on progress made so far with implementing freight provisions of the FAST Act.
The FAST Act transportation blueprint enacted in January included initiatives that focused on improving freight transportation, but state transportation officials and industry executives told House lawmakers Thursday that more infrastructure funding and policy reforms are needed to really make a difference in goods movement.
Among its accomplishments, the surface transportation reauthorization bill established a formula-based National Highway Freight Program and a competitive grant program for nationally significant freight and highway projects, commonly referred to as the FASTLane program.
The National Highway Freight Program is funded at $6.2 billion over the five-year term of the FAST Act, with $1.1 billion authorized for fiscal year 2017. States may use the funds for a variety of projects related to freight movement, including truck-only lanes, electronic screening and credentialing systems for vehicles and additional capacity to address freight bottlenecks. Up to 10 percent of the funds each year may be used for intermodal projects.
The FASTLane project will provide $4.5 billion through 2020. In July, the Department of Transportation announced 18 projects that were awarded grants totaling almost $760 million for fiscal year 2016. FASTLane is designed to support large-scale, multi-jurisdictional projects that can’t be funded with highway funding apportioned to states.
During an informal roundtable to gather feedback on how the legislation is working so far, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said FAST recognized the importance of freight mobility, “but it’s inadequately funded.” He expressed his hope that if the Highway Trust Fund has a surplus at the end a fiscal year, some of the money would get directed to the freight programs.
There is “not enough money to fund freight infrastructure in a way that would move goods more efficiently,” Rep. Janice Hahn, D-Calif., agreed.
Hahn, whose district includes the Port of Los Angeles and who co-founded the PORTS Caucus on Capitol Hill, complained that the DOT froze out Southern California from any FASTLane awards even though the region is home to the largest U.S. port complex and the gateway through which nearly 40 percent of containerized goods enter the country.
City, county and regional authorities in the Los Angeles metropolitan region submitted dozens of applications, but their projects were overlooked she said.
“When you look at projects that are of national significance, certainly our region has to go to the head of the class. I hope the next round will be a little more scientific in how the grant money is awarded,” the congresswoman said, because bottlenecks in Southern California affect how quickly businesses in other parts of the country get goods they need for retail sales or manufacturing.
Hahn previously expressed her disappointment about the selection process in a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.
Kathleen Broadwater, deputy executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, noted that the state was also not successful in securing a grant to create a double-stack clearance for intermodal trains at the Howard St. tunnel in downtown Baltimore, which is a constraint for freight rail transport along the East Coast and between the CSX rail network and the Port of Baltimore.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Leslie Phillips said the FASTLane application process was very labor intensive and difficult to do in the short time frame available, and that DOT offered little feedback on where the state’s application needed improvement for the future.
“While we appreciated the opportunity to submit applications, we would think about possibly giving more money through the formula. It’s easier for us” than the competitive grants, she said.
Industry panelists said they appreciated the FAST Act, but hoped more could be done.
Amazon, which is developing its own in-house middle-mile trucking network and has invested in 5,000 trailers since starting the venture in March 2015, wants national legislation to allow trailer lengths in twin-trailer configurations to be expanded to 33-feet from the current 28-foot limit, John Payne, principal for worldwide transportation linehaul, said. It’s a position long endorsed by package carriers such as FedEx.
The longer trailers are needed because e-commerce shipments mean trailers fill up before they reach weight limits. Allowing the trucking industry to move more packages per trailer would reduce 6.6 million truck trips per year and 4.4 billion pounds of carbon emissions, while improving highway safety and efficiency without requiring any additional infrastructure investment, Payne, a former executive at FedEx Ground, said.
The shortage of truck parking spaces, hours-of-service and requiring speed-limiting devices on trucks were topics that were also discussed.
The panel included Kevin Burch, president of Jet Express in Dayton, Ohio, and Brad Bowman, international vice president of logistics at Smithfield Foods.