• Traffic congestion in small urban and rural America is increasing by 11 percent each year - twice the rate in urban areas. Meanwhile, approximately one-third of rural interstates and other rural arteries are in poor or mediocre condition; more than one-fifth of all rural bridges are structurally deficient.
• Indiana ranks first in the nation for number of interstates, eighth in rail miles and fourteenth in cargo moved by water.
• Seventy-seven percent of the $291.5 billion worth of commodities delivered annually from sites in Indiana is transported by trucks on the state's highways. Two percent is delivered by a combination of trucks and rail.

BIC Members Join TCC in Washington to Urge Congress to Pass Highway Bill Now

Build Indiana Council (BIC) coordinated an Indiana fly-in to Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the Transportation Construction Coalition’s (TCC) national fly-in May 25-26 to urge Congress to make federal highway reauthorization a priority. 

Twenty-five BIC members representing Indiana’s highway construction industry met personally with Indiana congressional leaders and their staffs to discuss the critical need for a long-term federal highway reauthorization bill.

Since the September 30, 2009 expiration of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act – A Legacy for Users (better known as SAFETEA-LU), Congress has enacted multiple stop-gap measures to extend the federal highway program to December 31, 2010. Funding beyond that date is uncertain. Without a long-term, six-year reauthorization of the federal highway program, states are hindered from effectively planning, budgeting and executing multi-year construction and maintenance projects. Because federal highway funds make up 40 percent of the Indiana Department of Transportation’s construction budget, reauthorization is crucial to the continuation of the state’s highway program. 
 

Along with the urgency of passing a federal highway reauthorization bill this year, BIC members conveyed to Indiana congressmen the importance of ensuring that Indiana’s highway program does not move backwards with a new bill. Key messages included:

• Preserve and expand donor state equity
• Preserve and expand highway funding to Indiana
• Do not allow penalties for public-private partnerships
• Address Highway Trust Fund insolvency
• Stop diverting highway funds to non-highway uses
• Commit fuel taxes to transportation if new climate legislation moves forward

BIC members attended a private breakfast with Senator Richard G. Lugar, and also met with congressional leaders and/or staff from the offices of Senator Evan Bayh, Representatives Peter Visclosky, Joe Donnelly, Steve Buyer, Dan Burton, Mike Pence, Andre Carson, Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill.

Click here for a full summary of BIC’s key messages discussed during the fly-in.

                    BIC members with U.S. Representative Mike Pence (IN-6)
 

BIC members attend breakfast with U.S. Senator Richard G. Lugar