Scott Transportation Adviser Calls for Interstate Investment

Robert Poole Jr., one of Gov. Rick Scott's transition team transportation advisers, has an article out on the Weekly Standard's website that urges Republicans to invest in a 21st century interstate system as an alternative to President Barack Obama's high-speed rail plans.

Poole, the director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank based in California, also co-authored a report which stated that cost overruns for the proposed high-speed rail line stretching from Tampa to Orlando could reach $3 billion, which Gov. Scott relied on in his decision to reject $2.4 billion in federal funds for the project.

Poole lays out the case for a shift in conservative thinking on transportation, detailing the history of the interstate highway system:

"There are three principal reasons for the disconnect between reality and much conservative thinking about interstate highways. First, highways wear out. Major highways, such as urban freeways and our long-distance interstates, are designed for a useful life of about 50 years, even with reasonably good maintenance. After that, they need to be rebuilt, from the sub-pavement base on up. And when such a road is reconstructed, it makes sense to upgrade its design to current standards, instead of the accepted practices of 50 years before. For example, many of the early freeways were designed with left-side exits at major interchanges, a practice now seen as creating safety hazards. The interstate highway program began in 1956, with the initial segments opening in the late 50s and early 60s. That means large portions of the system will reach their 50th anniversary this decade and next. And that will mean major reconstruction projects, carried out at todays high construction costs.

"Second, the map of what became the interstate system was drawn up in the 1940s, for a country whose economy was predominantly industrial rather than services-based, and whose population was far more concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest than todays. There is no interstate route, for instance, between Las Vegas and Phoenix, two major and (for the past 40 years) rapidly growing metro areas. Patterns of shipping and travel have changed enormously over the decades, and accordingly there are many missing links in the interstate system. Many of those links could be created by upgrading existing highways to interstate standards. But the idea that the interstate system is complete is fallacious.

"Third, many of our interstates -- ?both urban and rural -- ?are seriously congested and need more capacity. In some cases, this means widening them in the near term, well before age requires complete reconstruction. In other cases, adding lanes is appropriate when the facility is rebuilt, as when the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge was replaced several years ago on the Capital Beltway between Maryland and Virginia, and when the obsolete Marquette Interchange was rebuilt in Milwaukee."

Later he makes his pitch for interstate investment:

"But the interstate system is wearing out, much of its design is obsolete, and it is woefully short of the capacity needed to support projected population and economic growth in coming decades. Hence, it makes sense to refocus the federal program on a second-generation interstate system for the 21st century: Interstate 2.0. Much of the cost of this program will go for reconstruction and widening, as well as replacing obsolete interchanges conducive to bottlenecks. But the map also needs to be redrawn, reflecting where economic activity takes place today and tomorrow, not where it was in the 1940s. That will involve upgrading a number of highways in what is now called the National Highway System to full interstate standards.

"Theres an old adage in politics that 'you cant fight something with nothing.' Fiscal conservatives rightly oppose the administrations high-speed rail and livability programs as boondoggles. But instead of just being the party of 'no,' fiscal conservatives need something bold and meaningful to be for. Interstate 2.0 should be that alternative. And by restoring the Highway Trust Fund to the original concept, conservatives can also rebuild the trust of the voting public."