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Astec’s late founder, Don Brock, said well-maintained highways reduce road
noise and driver fatigue, which improves safety.
If you’re anything like me, you often get complacent and take our highway system for granted – until something bad happens that forces us to curse what’s wrong with it.
For example, while living in Seattle back in the late 1990s I never appreciated the engineering marvel of the I-90 floating bridge. Or the Mount Baker Tunnel. But I certainly took note of the time-shifting traffic congestion that was prevalent there.
Being a long-time employee of Astec, I am obviously much more observant of the quality of any given pavement, wherever my travels take me. And, like many of you, I’m also a little more informed and passionate about the benefits of having a high-quality highway system.
Working as an international marketing guy, I also get the opportunity to visit with people around the world and learn about their local infrastructure. Occasionally, I even have the opportunity to travel to some interesting places and see their roads up close.
One thing those experiences have reinforced to me is that our infrastructure facilitates our freedom.
That may sound cheesy, but think about this: Before its collapse, the Soviet Union was the largest country in the world in terms of geographic area. It only had a total road network of slightly more than 1 million miles.
By contrast, the United States has about 4 million miles of paved and unpaved roads.
The Soviets relied primarily on rail transportation to move their goods and services. It was evident, however, that more regional transport was necessary for civil, mining and construction projects.
The Soviets tried to develop their road system over the final decades of their reign. But due to inefficiencies, poor attendance and other economic malfunctions, only 8 percent of its citizens owned automobiles by 1975.
Consider Alaska, as well. Many Alaska cities are inaccessible by car. If a family from Juneau wants to get away for a weekend, they require a boat or an airplane. The boat costs more time, and the plane costs more money. Both options cost the family more of their freedom.
Companies cannot transport their goods and services to remote places like this either, except by air or sea. As a result, the cost of just about everything – from a gallon of gas to a gallon of milk – is much higher in such places.
Take many of the third-world countries that are still undeveloped as another example. Many of these countries are connected by poorly constructed dirt roads that are rarely, if ever, maintained. Trade of goods and services is infrequent or non-existent, and sub-cultures of people who may live only a few short miles apart may go their entire lives without meeting each other.
In many cases, their government hasn’t invested in their highway system yet.
A lack of roads and highways denies people the opportunity to connect, communicate and trade. Our 4 million miles of roads have served us well. We must protect them as we would anything else we hold sacred and critical to preserving our freedom.
Astec’s late founder, Don Brock, used to talk about the primary benefits of a healthy road system: He said well-maintained highways reduce road noise and driver fatigue, which improves safety.
I can relate. In South Dakota, my home state, we have experienced a number of repairs to concrete pavement to mitigate frost heaves. Unfortunately, the result is that driving down the interstate sounds very much like riding on a freight train.
Road resurfacing is critical to eliminate rutting, which leads to hydroplaning. I am reasonably sure that people who’ve had the unique experience of unexpectedly losing control of their car on the highway during a rainstorm understand this.
The growth of traffic has outpaced our road capacity. Therefore, increasing capacity would lead to less congestion, less idle time and reduced carbon emissions. In other words, we need to revolutionize the highway system to meet today’s consumer needs.
My personal feeling is that because I am an owner of an automobile, I also have an obligation to share my thoughts on the direction of the public transportation system. I want to continue to enjoy the freedom to get in my car and go wherever I want. An investment in roads is an investment in portable plants and the producers who use them, as well.
Paul Smith is international marketing manager for Astec’s Aggregate and Mining Group. He can be reached at psmith@astecindustries.com.