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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx was back in town Tuesday to stump for the Obama administration’s Grow America Act, a $478 billion, six-year transportation proposal designed to provide increased and stable funding for the country’s highways, bridges, transit and rail systems.
“If we don’t have a strong transportation system, we don’t have a strong economy,” Foxx told a group gathered in the parking lot of Garden City’s Traffic Circle Shopping Center as trucks hauling containers moved in a steady stream down Ga. Highway 25.
“Transportation is the lifeblood of our country,” Foxx said, adding that the United States is in the midst of a growth spurt while the country’s transportation system is lagging behind.
“This is a most pivotal time in American transportation,” he said. “Exports are growing again, and the Port of Savannah has played a huge role in that growth. But if we don’t change something, the trade could start slowing because we don’t have roads capable of handling that growth.”
Standing on a platform in front of the site of the future Brampton Road Connector — the final segment of the Georgia
Ports Authority’s “Last Mile” projects — Foxx said the $25 million project is critical to building a freight corridor into the port that can accommodate future growth.
“I’ve got a bold idea for this country,” he said. “Let’s stop riding with the brakes on.”
Noting that the Highway Trust Fund Extension, passed in August, runs out in May, Foxx suggested the need for a comprehensive transportation bill is not a political issue.
“There are no Democratic and Republican potholes,” he said. “Improving our transportation system is something we can all get behind.”
But Foxx conceded the massive Grow America Act faces some serious opposition, especially over the administration’s proposal to fund it by supplementing current revenues from the Highway Trust Fund in combination with a 14 percent transition tax on the up to $2 trillion of untaxed foreign earnings that U.S. companies have accumulated overseas.
GPA executive director Curtis Foltz, who served as master of ceremonies for Foxx, agreed that more infrastructure is needed.
“I do want to emphasize that the Port of Savannah, with strong support from the state, is open for business, with freight moving very smoothly,” Foltz said.
“But we have to do a better job. We have to finish these Last Mile projects Secretary Foxx spoke about.”
In the works for nearly a decade, the Last Mile projects will create a freight corridor that will allow truck traffic to move directly into the three main Garden City Terminal gates from I-516, I-16 and I-95.
“The Jimmy DeLoach Parkway Connector, a Georgia Department of Transportation project, is on schedule and set to be completed in mid-2016, about the same time our new truck gate will be ready,” Foltz said, adding that the state DOT will also be widening Grange Road at that time. The Ga. 307 Overpass, completed in 2012, already has cut both road and rail transit time while boosting safety for communities around the terminal, he said.
The remaining project is the Brampton Road Connector, a DOT project that GPA has already spent more than $2 million on for preliminary design work, Foltz said.
“It’s my understanding that the Georgia DOT has funded the right-of-way acquisition for the Brampton Connector in fiscal 2016 and is currently finalizing the conceptual plan,” he said. “Once it’s completed, we will truly have a one-of-a-kind freight corridor that will allow for long-term expansion.”