I’m not a Twitter person, and my teenaged daughter insists I am in no way cool enough to even say Instagram, so God forbid I ever post anything there ever.
But I do pop into those two social media platforms from time to time, mostly to keep up with news from old sportswriter colleagues and my fraternity brother who covers the White House for the Washington Post.
Lately, it’s been kind of fun — in a depressing way — to follow the U.S. Department of Transportation project #showusyourinfrawear. The department, and Secretary Anthony Foxx, asked the public to (safely) take and post pictures of local infrastructure issues to show the need for a highway funding fix.
Foxx asked for the pictures after Congress went into its August recess after passing an $8 billion stopgap measure at the end of July. Congress is coming back this month and has a few weeks before the funding ends in October, so the picture campaign has a little while longer to make its mark.
I’m not sure that you can Twitter Congress into action, but there is certainly a mess of crumbling road pictures online.
Whatever works.
That’s Shannon Newton’s belief when it comes to the ongoing challenge of fixing the country’s infrastructure.
The state of the country’s roads and bridges and the U.S. Congress’ inability to arrive at a permanent funding fix have been reported ad nauseam.
Newton’s constituents are – obviously as president of the Arkansas Trucking Association – Arkansas trucking executives, who are in favor of raising the federal fuel tax to fund highway upkeep and repair. This, too, has been reported ad nauseam.
Newton said she is for anything that raises the awareness of the issue, even if it’s Twitter pictures. You would think that anybody who has driven over a highway pothole would be somewhat aware.
During her summer visits to various Rotary Clubs and participations in town hall meetings, Newton said, she has sensed a growing appreciation for the funding problem from non-trucking industry folks. So, another step forward.
“It seems like transportation and infrastructure has worked its way into the issues,” Newton said. “That’s encouraging to me. I feel like businessmen and mayors and county judges, we are all pining for infrastructure improvements.”
Congress’ most recent achievement was another three-month funding bill — the $8 billion that will last through October — that was the 34th short-term fix in the past six years. The short-term fix, though, is better than letting the funding lapse completely.
The Arkansas Highway & Transportation Department recently announced it was reopening bids on 30 of its 87 improvement projects that had been postponed because of uncertainty regarding federal funding. AHTD officials have said the state needs $110 million in the here and now to fully fund its infrastructure needs.
AHTD Director Scott Bennett said in the same news release that the reinstated projects did not include the state’s Overlay Program, basically repairing the top layer of a road rather than a total replacement. Those 49 projects ($50 million worth) are postponed until 2016 because of a lack of state funding.
The Overlay Program is 100 percent state funded until this year, and then it was shelved because federal funds were, well, you know. Bennett has said overlaying a road is much cheaper maintenance then total repair — approximately $1.3 million a mile cheaper.
Bennett said he has asked Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson for $35 million to fund the Overlay Program in 2016.
“Otherwise, at this time, we still aren’t sure there will be an overlay program next year,” Bennett said in the release.
Hutchinson has put together a work group — of which Newton is one of 20 members — to come up with new ways to fund the state’s highways. More than a dozen states have raised their state taxes on gas and diesel in the past few years.
Newton said the group is now meeting twice a month and hopes to have a rough draft for its recommendation(s) a month before the Dec. 15 deadline. Highway funding is high on the priority list of the Arkansas Trucking Association — and the American Trucking Associations.
“It’s the No. 1 legislative issue for us,” Newton said.
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