Local transportation leaders rally to boost federal funding
With $26.4 billion in state transportation projects unfunded over the next 20 years — $8 billion of that in Southern Nevada — local transportation leaders rallied Thursday for the public to press lawmakers to clear federal funding logjams.
Local leaders signed a Regional Transportation Commission bus wrap supporting “Stand Up for Transportation” and suggested that people write lawmakers encouraging the passage of appropriations measures before the Moving Ahead for the Progress in the 21st Century Act, a transportation funding measure, expires on May 31.
Nationwide rallies were organized in response to an American Public Transportation Association plea. In Nevada, that meant support from the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada and the Nevada Transportation Department. About 216 organizations in 140 communities nationwide rallied Thursday under the SU4T banner.
The rally was staged in the shadow of the construction site of the Mobile Training Center, a facility that was 80 percent funded with federal dollars.
When it opens in the fall, the center will train people with disabilities and senior citizens how to safely and properly use fixed-route bus transit lines as well as those with paratransit certification.
Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown, who chairs the Regional Transportation Commission board, said local leaders already have delivered on transportation investments by supporting the three-year Fuel Revenue Indexing system that raised money through higher gasoline taxes. Now, he said, it’s time for the federal government to chip in to fund infrastructure nationwide.
“We’ve made a big infrastructure investment,” Brown gold a group of about 50 who gathered for the rally. “The Fuel Revenue Indexing program has come out of the gates roaring. To date, the report card has been straight A’s.”
The largest of the Fuel Revenue Indexing road construction projects kicked off earlier in the week with the groundbreaking of the $318 million Interstate 11 Boulder City bypass project.
“The momentum of I-11 is driving us forward,” said Henderson Councilwoman Debra March, vice chairwoman of the Transportation Commission board.
Tom Skancke, a member of the Nevada Transportation Department board and CEO of the Las Vegas Global Business Alliance, said there’s an important economic development connection with transportation.
In addition to transportation infrastructure providing thousands of jobs, he said better transportation systems, particularly mass transit options, would serve as a magnet to the growing millennial workforce. The next generation of employees, he said, aren’t buying cars as readily as the current generation and many are turning to riding buses and trains so they can connect with friends on their communications devices during commutes.
Federal funds are critical for a number of road, bicycle, pedestrian and transit projects.
The Transportation Commission said that if Congress fails to pass a multi-year transportation funding bill, projects planned in the 2016-18 fiscal years could be delayed or canceled.
Among them: the city’s contribution to the Project Neon freeway interchange project involving Interstate 15 and U.S. Highway 95, the widening of U.S. 95 between Durango Drive and Kyle Canyon Road, pedestrian safety projects, including flashing-light signals on various streets, and bus turnout projects across the valley.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find him on Twitter: @RickVelotta.