JULY 2005
Move Along Now (cover)
EADS Finalists Weigh In
Brookley and Alabama Looking Up
Other Modes, Other Roads
Mississippi Coast Approaches Take-off
Melbourne Tops Florida's List
Tennessee Truckin'
South Carolina
On the Go
Road Rules in North Carolina
Motion Detected in Atlanta and Beyond
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Move Along Now
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ime was, things just moved slower in the South. Today, Southern time is a speed zone.
States and cities throughout the U.S. are awaiting passage of the six-year federal transportation bill. But the southeast states aren't waiting around. Communities in the seven-state region composed of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee are taking the on-ramp to highway, rail, intermodal and airport improvements.
It was no accident that a May tour by U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to celebrate National Transportation Week took place in the Southeast. And after a stop at the Port of Jacksonville, he addressed the importance of the pending bill to the literal movement of the nation's economy.
"What good is it to have state-of-the-art equipment on the docks if container trucks slow to a crawl outside the main gates?" he asked following a tour of Jaxport's Blount Island Terminal. "The connections between our ports and the highways that serve them must be as efficient as the ports themselves."
President Bush's US$284-billion proposal — known as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA), would provide funding for port-related road projects to reduce congestion. Mineta called for quick action by Congress, and like his corporate counterparts, gave further credence to the rising prominence of logistics in overall strategy:"Freight and logistics issues have finally taken their rightful place on the surface reauthorization agenda."
In another May 2005 speech by another D.C. official, delivered in his home state of Michigan, National Association of Manufacturers' President and former Michigan Gov. John Engler said the federal bill's impact is nearly as great as its cost: "a nearly $250-billion boost in GDP over the next five years." And he made note of how the calendar works to some regions' advantage.
"Northern states like Michigan can't build roads in the winter," he said. "Since it is already mid-May, the contracts for this summer should have been let months ago."Meanwhile, Southern lawmakers are already positioning the region for the next highway bill, including proposals for two new Interstate highways: I-3 from Knoxville, Tenn., to Savannah, Ga.; and I-14 from Augusta, Ga., west through Mississippi.
"If we could join forces on any regional projects in the South, it makes for good economic, political sense," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told the Associated Press this spring. "There's strength in numbers."
States and cities throughout the U.S. are awaiting passage of the six-year federal transportation bill. But the southeast states aren't waiting around. Communities in the seven-state region composed of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee are taking the on-ramp to highway, rail, intermodal and airport improvements.
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The victorious Brookley Field complex, administered by the Mobile Airport Authority, was one of four finalists in the Southeast for a proposed assembly plant from European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS). EADS just opened a $1-million support facility in Mobile in April 2005 to support U.S. Coast Guard aircraft.
Photo: Mobile Airport Authority |
It was no accident that a May tour by U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to celebrate National Transportation Week took place in the Southeast. And after a stop at the Port of Jacksonville, he addressed the importance of the pending bill to the literal movement of the nation's economy.
"What good is it to have state-of-the-art equipment on the docks if container trucks slow to a crawl outside the main gates?" he asked following a tour of Jaxport's Blount Island Terminal. "The connections between our ports and the highways that serve them must be as efficient as the ports themselves."
President Bush's US$284-billion proposal — known as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA), would provide funding for port-related road projects to reduce congestion. Mineta called for quick action by Congress, and like his corporate counterparts, gave further credence to the rising prominence of logistics in overall strategy:"Freight and logistics issues have finally taken their rightful place on the surface reauthorization agenda."
In another May 2005 speech by another D.C. official, delivered in his home state of Michigan, National Association of Manufacturers' President and former Michigan Gov. John Engler said the federal bill's impact is nearly as great as its cost: "a nearly $250-billion boost in GDP over the next five years." And he made note of how the calendar works to some regions' advantage.
"Northern states like Michigan can't build roads in the winter," he said. "Since it is already mid-May, the contracts for this summer should have been let months ago."Meanwhile, Southern lawmakers are already positioning the region for the next highway bill, including proposals for two new Interstate highways: I-3 from Knoxville, Tenn., to Savannah, Ga.; and I-14 from Augusta, Ga., west through Mississippi.
"If we could join forces on any regional projects in the South, it makes for good economic, political sense," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told the Associated Press this spring. "There's strength in numbers."