Nationwide Effort to Build Support for Transportation Bill

Transportation industry's campaign for a reauthorization bill will include billboard, radio and newspaper advertisements in Rapid City as well as in Sioux Falls and Aberdeen. The groups said they will invest more than $100,000 in the effort nationwide over the next four weeks.

A new national effort by the construction industry and other private-sector businesses to push for congressional passage of the long-delayed federal surface transportation reauthorization bill kicked off with the unveiling of billboard, radio, and print advertisements in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The effort, which will cover dozens of states during the coming weeks, is designed to educate the public about why passing a federal transportation bill is essential to improving road conditions in states such as South Dakota. Also, improving road conditions could have a residential effect with streetscape improvements make landscapes of roadways necessary.

“The reality is our communities can't thrive and our businesses can't grow if they are saddled with potholes and unsafe bridges,” said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for Americans for Transportation Mobility, and the Transportation Construction Coalition. "The best route to a better transportation system for our country lies in getting Congress to do its job and pass the months-late highway and transit bill.”

The last surface transportation authorization expired Sept. 30, 2009. Since then Congress has passed a series of short–term measures to ensure states continue to receive federal transportation funds. The latest extension expires at the end of this year. Turmail noted that these short-term patches fail to address shortfalls in federal highway funding caused by declining gas-tax receipts since Americans increasingly are driving more-fuel-efficient cars.

– Courtesy of AASHTO