Intelligent Highways

New Technology and Strategies Set to Shape Next Generation of Interstates

by Bruce Buckley

The nation's network of interstate highways is marking a major milestone with its 50th anniversary this year. But while many projects to improve and upgrade the system are under way nationally and locally, transportation planners face critical questions about funding, new technology, and priorities for the future.

In June 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation that would help shape a nation. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 paved the way for the creation of the interstate highway system - a vision that today connects people nationwide via a 42,795-mi. network of roads.

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Eisenhower's foresight helped create the backbone of U.S. economic growth, reduced congestion on local and state routes, and improved road safety.

But even Eisenhower couldn't have imagined the demands on the highway system caused by tremendous population growth and the subsequent increase in licensed drivers - all in an era when public funding resources are drying up. As the interstate system marks its 50th anniversary, planners are looking at ways to address its needs over the next five decades.

Since 1956, the U.S. population has grown 81.5 percent to 298.2 million, and federal estimates peg the total at 437.2 million by 2056 - a 46.6 percent increase from today. Meanwhile, the number of licensed drivers has grown 163.5 percent since 1956 to 204.7 million today. In 50 years, that number could hit 382.6 million - an 86.9 percent rise from today.

Faced with that kind of growth, today's interstate is not expanding fast enough, said Charles Potts, CEO of Heritage Construction and Materials in Indianapolis.

"You've heard the saying, 'Build it and they will come,'" Potts said. "Well, we haven't built it and they've already come."

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said basic issues of highway interconnectivity have been met since Eisenhower's time. He said in looking toward the next 50 years, congestion relief and capacity-building should be the focus.

"We need to focus on the intermodal nature of traffic growth," he said. "As you look at the next 20 years, the growth in traffic from imports and exports alone will put a tremendous load on the system. We've got to be able to take traffic that's generated from the maritime trade and then put it on highway and rail and move it to the interiors."

Finding More Funding for Highways

If anything can cloud the interstate picture, it's funding, because the traditional gas tax model is falling well short of infrastructure needs. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association in Washington, D.C., estimates that the federal Highway Trust Fund could reach a zero balance as early as 2009.

"We've had 50 years of experience with Uncle Sam paying for our interstates, but people are also upset with gas prices and don't want to increase the gas tax," said said Richard Norment, executive director of the National Council for Public Private Partnerships in Washington, D.C. "If the Highway Trust Fund isn't sufficient, what is going to happen to our roads?"

Today, gas tax hikes are politically unpalatable, especially as prices at the pump have hovered at around $3 per gallon nationally. And automakers - spurred by high oil prices - are reviving a trend that tailed off in the early 1990s by developing more fuel-efficient vehicles, which may further erode gas tax revenue.

With traditional models failing, transportation officials are eyeing alternative interstate funding sources, including public-private partnerships and tolls. Last year's federal transportation funding law, known as SAFETEA-LU, has provisions encouraging public-private partnerships, including expanded access to private activity bonds and to loans available under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.

The model is fueling the 600-mi. Trans-Texas corridor, which is being funded through a development agreement between the Texas Department of Transportation and Cintra-Zachry. The project is using a $6 billion investment from Cintra-Zachry - a joint venture of Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte of Madrid and Zachry Construction of San Antonio - to design and construct a 316-mi. toll road section.

Meanwhile, existing interstates are being leased to help fund future improvements. In 2004, the Chicago Skyway was leased for $1.8 billion over 99 years to a team of Cintra and Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia. And the state of Indiana signed a $3.8 billion contract in April to lease the Indiana Toll Road to the Cintra-Macquarie team for 75 years.

There has been a spike in interest in such partnerships, Norment said. While Texas and Virginia have experimented with the model for nearly a decade, about a dozen states are now exploring it.

As much as 20 percent of interstate funding in the next five years could come from private sources, said Jim Riley, transportation services chairman at HNTB, a Kansas City-based design and engineering firm.

"There's going to be a boom in the amount of urban interstates that will be financed by private money because our gas tax isn't going anywhere in the next five years," he said.

The House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure even held a hearing in May about public-private funding options, with testimony from Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels on their states' efforts.

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Changing Road Development Models

Public-private partnerships underscore shifting roles in the development of interstates. Since the 1980s, "devolution," or giving more power to the states to address their own needs, has been a popular idea, and Mineta said it is increasingly relevant.

"Mayors and governors know more about what their problems are and how to solve them than someone at the federal level," he said. "I want bottom-up solutions rather than top-down solutions."

The federal role in the interstate system is a major point of debate within the National Cooperative Highway Research Program developed by transportation authorities around the country. The program has commissioned a panel that will study the next 50 years of the system and the federal government's role in expanding it, said Kenneth Orski, a panel member and president of Urban Mobility Corp. in Potomac, Md.

"The feds could remain in charge of maintaining the existing system with the Highway Trust Fund, but any additions to the nation's highway infrastructure would be financed by the states, perhaps in cooperation with the private sector," he said. "That's a scenario worthy of exploration."

New federal aid options may soon take shape with Mineta's appointment in May of Quintin Kendall as executive director of the Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission, which will study highway and mass transit funding.

One area in which the federal government is playing a strong guiding role is in technology to relieve congestion, such as Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Transportation departments around the country are starting to roll out basic 511 systems, which attempt to move traditional traffic information hotlines to the easy-access, three-digit format. The 511 term has also become shorthand for intelligent traffic information programs. This year, Florida became the 23rd state to activate the 511 service on its roads.

The $1.67 billion T-Rex project in Denver incorporates such advanced systems, using cameras and sensors to monitor traffic while alerting drivers of congestion via dynamic message signs.

But the 50-year vision for such intelligent systems is more far-reaching. Under its Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration initiative, the federal transportation department is working with vehicle manufacturers to create information exchanges between vehicles and traffic managers. The systems could collect data from vehicles on the road to identify congestion and could send traffic alerts directly to drivers in their cars rather than via signs.

Other Smart Solutions for the Future

To handle growing traffic congestion, planners are also choosing dedicated lanes as a solution. Urban areas continue to introduce high-occupancy vehicle lanes and the newer concept of dedicated high-occupancy toll lanes, which allow HOV traffic to travel free but charge drivers of single-occupant vehicles. Last year, Virginia's Department of Transportation signed a $900 million deal with Fluor of Aliso Viejo, Calif., to construct four HOT lanes on portions of Interstate 495.

Planners also want to see dedicated truck lanes on interstates.

"Truck traffic has become such a big part of our economy," said Kumares Sinha, a professor of civil engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. "We'll have to separate them from automobiles in the near future."

As the nation's interstates continue to age, the next generation of highways is likely to require a new slate of construction materials and techniques. Critics of the prevailing low-bid model of planning and executing such infrastructure projects say the approach often stifles innovations that the highway system needs.

In response to that quandary, the federal government has established Highways for Life, a pilot program promoting innovation in highway construction by providing grants for cutting-edge state projects.

Despite the changing environment, the drivers of Eisenhower's vision remain the same - to build a safe, free-flowing system that promotes economic growth.

"Our system is what has made us the world's leading economy," said Indianapolis contractor Potts. "We need to create a plan that moves us forward."