MINNEAPOLIS - Highways and bridges in Minnesota and across the country need more public attention and a greater share of its money, a bipartisan panel of transportation experts said.
From rural highways used to haul grain to the heavily traveled interstate system, the country must invest more to maintain and expand its infrastructure to remain competitive in a global economy, said U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn.
Officials also said a change in public opinion is needed because people tend only to care about infrastructure issues when they are affected by a transportation problem, such as the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse.
"We're not making the investments we need, in neither the public sector nor the private sector, to keep up with the demand on our system that our economy is creating," Oberstar said during a forum on Monday sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Center for Transportation Studies.
Oberstar, who is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said without constant investment, the country will see a deterioration of its roadways, even as they become more important to the economy.
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The main task facing transportation officials is to find new revenue sources, said Bud Shuster, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and House Transportation Committee chairman. He said a variety of options must be considered, including a gasoline tax increase and toll road systems in which the proceeds are used to maintain and expand highways.
After the Aug. 1 Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Oberstar proposed temporarily increasing the federal gasoline tax by 5 cents per gallon and using the proceeds only for bridge work.
Citing a reported $65 billion backlog of needed bridge repairs across the country, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said more money should be directed to infrastructure. But Klobuchar opposes a federal gas tax increase, saying other funding options should be considered instead. Those include borrowed dollars and revenue gained by rolling back tax cuts to high-income earners.
Wente works for Forum Communications Co., which owns The Forum. He can be reached at (651) 290-0707 or swente@forumcomm.com Experts urge more focus on roads By Scott Wente 20071009
