Economy advantage

A2 Roads

Roads Improving

Our roads are improving- statistics prove

STRAHNET roads are improving – they’re in better condition than other roads

Exhibit 18-3 shows the condition of STRAHNET. In 2002, 96.1 percent of all mileage in STRAHNET had a measured pavement roughness (using the International Roughness Index [IRI]) less than or equal to 170 inches per mile. As discussed in Chapters 3 and 17, National Highway System (NHS) pavement with an IRI less than or equal to 170 is classified as "acceptable" in the annual FHWA Performance Plans.¶ ¶ Percent STRAHNET Miles with¶ IRI ≤ 170¶ Interstate 96.2¶ Non-Interstate 95.6¶ Total 96.1¶ Source: Highway Performance Monitoring System.¶ The percent of STRAHNET miles with acceptable ride quality has shown a general increase since 1995. This trend is shown by Exhibit 18-4.¶ ¶ When compared with the NHS, the overall STRAHNET system has consistently been maintained at a higher level of ride acceptability. In 2002, 96.1 percent of the STRAHNET miles were rated at an IRI value of 170 or less, compared with 93.7 percent of the NHS miles rated at an IRI of 170 or less. Exhibit 18-5 compares the percent of miles with IRI in the acceptable range on STRAHNET with that on the NHS from 1998 through 2002.¶ ¶ Exhibit 18-6 compares the percentage of vehicle miles traveled on STRAHNET that occurs on pavements with acceptable ride quality with the percentage of total travel on pavements with acceptable ride quality for selected functional classes. For rural principal arterials, STRAHNET routes have a lower percentage of pavements with acceptable ride quality than do non-STRAHNET routes. However, for the remaining functional classes, pavements on STRAHNET appear to be in the same or better condition than those on non-STRAHNET routes.

Bridges and highways are in their best condition in decades

Kilcarr 10 (Sean, Senior Editor of Fleet Owner, “Report: Mixed grades for U.S. highways” Fleet Owner

Sep. 7, 2010 http://fleetowner.com/management/news/us-highways-mixed-grades-0907)

The Reason Foundation’s 19th Annual Highway Report provides a mixed bag of good and poor ratings for American roadways on a state-by-state basis, with reductions in congestion and fatalities offset by uneven cost-effective management. But nationally, the group did find big improvements are being made.¶ Based on 2008 data, the study determined that bridges are in their best condition as a group since 1984, with highway pavement in its best condition since 1993. Traffic congestion is at its lowest since 2000, according to the analysis, with fatalities down to levels not seen since the 1960s.¶ However, the think tank pointed out that the economic recession is partly responsible for some of those improvements as people are driving less, helping to slow pavement deterioration while reducing traffic congestion and fatalities.¶ In terms of highway “cost effectiveness,” though, the record is more uneven. According to the study, North Dakota, Montana and Kansas manage the most cost-effective state highway systems, while Rhode Island, Alaska, California, Hawaii and New York maintain the least cost-effective networks.¶ New Jersey still spends dramatically more than every other state on highways, the report found, plunking down $1.1 million per mile on state roads. The second biggest spender, Florida, spends $671,000 per mile, with California laying out $545,000 per mile. South Carolina, by contrast, recorded the lowest expenses, spending just $34,000 per mile.¶ California also ssends a massive amount of transportation money that never makes it onto roads, the Reason Foundation said, spending $93,464 on administrative costs for every mile of state road. New York ($89,194 per mile), Massachusetts ($71,982), and New Jersey ($62,748) also compare poorly to states like Texas ($6,529) and Virginia ($6,370), which spend dramatically less on administrative costs.¶ Rhode Island has the most troubled bridges in the country, with over 53% of its bridges deficient or functionally obsolete, the study found. For comparison, just 10% of top-ranked Nevada’s bridges are rated deficient. Overall, more than 141,000 (23.7%) of America’s bridges were structurally deficient or functionally obsolete in 2008 – the lowest percentage since 1984.¶ Drivers in California, Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan and Connecticut are stuck in the worst traffic, according to the Reason Foundation research, with over 65% of all urban interstates congested in each of those five states.¶ However, nationally, the percentage of urban interstates that are congested fell below 50% for the first time since 2000, when congestion standards were revised.¶ In terms of highway safety, Massachusetts is at the top of the list with just 0.67 fatalities per 100 million miles driven. By contrast, Montana and Louisiana have the highest fatality rates, with 2.12 and 2.02 fatalities per million miles driven, respectively.¶ Motorists in California and Hawaii have to look out for the most potholes on urban Interstates, the study found, with 25% of urban highway pavement in poor condition in those two states. Alaska and Rhode Island have the bumpiest rural pavement, each with about 10% in poor condition.¶ However, as noted earlier, on a national basis pavement conditions on urban interstates are the best they’ve been since 1993, with rural primary roads the smoothest they’ve been since 1993 as well, noted the report’s primary author, David Hartgen, emeritus professor of transportation studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.¶ “We’re seeing several factors combine to produce significant improvement in highway conditions,” he explained. Hartgen noted in particular that states invested a lot more money to improve pavement and bridges over the last few years, with spending increasing 8% from 2007 to 2008, and per-mile spending on state roads almost tripling since 1984.¶ “The significant reduction in vehicle miles traveled during the recession has also played a role in slowing system decay,” he added. “But as the states deal with large budget deficits and the recession continues, we’ll have to wait and see if this progress can be continued.”

Highway quality is improving

Solomon 10 (Mark B. Solomon Senior Editor for DC Velocity, former reporter for Journal of Commerce Traffic World, former head of Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C. “DOT report: Condition of U.S. highways, bridges has improved in last decade” May 6, 2010 DC Velocity)

A recent report by the Department of Transportation (DOT) has concluded that the condition of the nation's interstate highways and bridges has improved during the past decade, a finding that runs counter to the conventional wisdom that the U.S. infrastructure is systemically falling apart.¶ The report, which was devoted to laying out a roadmap for the DOT's strategic initiatives through fiscal 2015, found that the percentage of vehicle miles traveled on interstate roads having what DOT called "good ride quality" increased to 57 percent in 2009 from 46 percent in 2000.¶ In addition, DOT, citing data from the Government Accountability Office, concluded that the percentage of bridges classified as "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete" declined to 29.4 percent in 2009 from 30.9 percent in 2002. DOT found that most of the progress was made in fixing "structurally deficient" bridges that are in need of significant maintenance, rehabilitation, or replacement. The findings also covered bridges not part of the interstate system; most of the nation's bridges are considered "short span" and do not connect the interstate network.

Interstate road quality is increasing

US DOT 08 (U.S. Department¶ Of Transportation¶ Federal Highway¶ Administration¶ Federal Transit¶ Administration¶ “2008 Status of the Nation’s Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Conditions and Performance Report to Congress” PublicationNo.FHWA-PL-09-0000 2008 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/2008cpr/pdfs/cp2008.pdf)

The increase in system rehabilitation investment since 1997 has had a positive effect on the physical ¶ condition of key subsets of the Nation’s highway and bridge infrastructure. The National Highway System ¶ (NHS) includes those roads that are most important to interstate travel, economic expansion, and national ¶ defense. While the NHS makes up only 4.0 percent of total mileage, it carries 44.6 percent of total travel ¶ in the United States. The percentage of NHS VMT on pavements with “good” ride quality rose from ¶ 39 percent in 1997 to 57 percent in 2006. The share of NHS VMT on roads with “acceptable” ride ¶ quality (a lower standard that includes roads classified as “good”) has also increased over this period, from ¶ 89 percent to 93 percent. The percentage of deck area on NHS bridges classified as deficient declined from ¶ 33.0 percent in 1997 to 29.2 percent in 2006. About three-quarters of deficiencies on NHS bridges relate to ¶ functional obsolescence rather than to structural issues; some NHS bridges are narrower than current design ¶ standards would call for given the traffic volumes they currently carry.

Roads Destroy Ecosystems

Roads directly cause species decline and crush our ecosystems

Switalski and Davis 09 (Adam Switalski Science Program Director Faculty Affiliate of the University of Montana’s Environmental Studies Program and sits on the Board of the Montana Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology and Liane Davis “Mitigating the Impacts of Roads as a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy Road” RIPorter Issue: Summer Solstice 2009, Volume 14 # 2 June 25, 2009 http://www.wildlandscpr.org/road-riporter/mitigating-impacts-roads-climate-change-adaptation-strategy)

Climate change is exacerbating the many human-caused impacts that are already leading to species decline.  One of the most common and far-reaching anthropogenic features on the landscape is roads.  Roads can affect aquatic systems by increasing stream peak flows by impeding water infiltration and expanding the drainage network (Wemple et al. 1996), increasing surface runoff carrying sediment to streams (Sugdon and Woods 2007), and triggering landslides from culvert or road failures that transport large amounts of sediment and debris to streams (Swanston 1991). Roads can also block or disrupt natural transport of materials such as large wood into streams (Furniss et al. 1991), which is critical to salmonid survival because it increases in-stream habitat complexity and provides off-channel areas of refugia during high flow events (Bilby and Bisson 1998). Several studies have also documented deleterious impacts of roads on terrestrial wildlife. One simple, but major impact of roads on wildlife is that they facilitate human access. For example, roads allow access to remote grizzly bear habitat resulting in avoidance of roads by bears (Mace et al. 1999).  In the context of climate change, roads can also adversely affect wildlife habitat by fragmenting landscapes, altering wildlife movement, and acting as a vector for invasive species and plant pathogens (Trombulak and Frissell 2000). Cumulatively, the presence of roads often leads to avoidance and a reduction in available habitat.

Roads and infrastructure threaten ecosystems

Meyer et. al. 09, (Michael Frederick R. Dickerson Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, PhD Michael Flood Senior Planner at Parsons Brinckerhoff ¶ Chris Dorney Transportation/Land Use Planner at Parsons Brinckerhoff ¶ Ken Leonard Principal of Cambridge Systematics, ¶ Robert Hyman Associate at Cambride Systematics ¶ Joel Smith expert on climate change policy, lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2001 and 2007 assessment report; the latter shared the Noble Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. Vice-President of Stratus Consulting, Boulder, CO. “Climate Change and the Highway System: Impacts and Adaptation Approaches”. National Cooperative Highway Research Program. 5/6/2009 http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP20-83%2805%29_Task2-3SynthesisReport.pdf)
Coastal Ecosystems: As sea levels rise, coastal ecosystems will migrate inland. Coastal ¶ highways can serve as a barrier to this migration, especially where the road is armored ¶ against rising sea levels. As a result, coastal ecosystems will be squeezed between retreating ¶ shores and immobile highway right-of-ways, in some cases eventually disappearing. (Some ¶ states, such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island, prohibit shoreline armoring along the ¶ shores of some estuaries so that ecosystems can migrate inland, and several states limit ¶ armoring along ocean shores). ¶ x Runoff: Changes in precipitation patterns will affect the magnitude and ecological impact of ¶ storm water runoff. More intense precipitation events in areas of high impervious cover ¶ could result in runoff spikes that can cause increased erosion in streambeds and, in warm ¶ weather, thermal shock to water bodies from the sudden infusion of pavement-heated ¶ runoff. It may also result in pollutant loading spikes, particularly if rainfall events become ¶ less frequent. On the other hand, decreased use of snow and ice chemicals in wintertime will ¶ reduce the harmful effects of these chemicals on water bodies. ¶ x Wildlife Movement: Roads can act as barriers to wildlife movement and migration, either by ¶ preventing movement (e.g., walls and fences) or by increasing the risk of injury and ¶ mortality while crossing roadways.

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