The Interstate Highway System in Missouri: Saving Lives, Time and Money A report on the condition, impact, use and future needs of Missouri’s Interstate highway system June 2006 TRIP 1726 M Street, NW, Suite 401 Washington, DC 20036 Phone: (202) 466-6706 Fax: (202) 785-4722 www.tripnet.org Founded in 1971, TRIP of Washington, DC is a nonprofit organization that researches, evaluates and distributes economic and technical data on highway transportation issues. TRIP is supported by insurance companies, equipment manufacturers, distributors and suppliers; businesses involved in highway engineering, construction and finance; labor unions; and organizations concerned with an efficient and safe highway transportation network. Executive Summary Fifty years ago the nation embarked on its greatest public works project, the construction of the Interstate Highway System. President Dwight D. Eisenhower provided strong support for the building of an Interstate Highway System that would improve traffic safety, reduce travel times and improve the nation’s economic productivity. Serving as the most critical transportation link in the state’s economy, Missouri’s Interstate highways have significantly improved the lives of its residents and visitors. In Missouri, and throughout the nation, the Interstate system allows for high levels of mobility by greatly reducing travel times and proving a significantly higher level of traffic safety than other routes. But 50 years after President Eisenhower articulated a vision for the nation’s 20th Century transportation system, Missouri and the nation again face a challenge in modernizing the system of aging, increasingly congested Interstate highways. If Missouri residents are to continue to enjoy their current level of mobility on Interstate highways and bridges, the state will need to make a commitment to providing the public with a 21st Century highway system. In this report, TRIP looks at the benefits, history and impact of Missouri’s Interstate Highway System, its current use and condition and the future needs of the state’s most critical transportation system. Sources of data for this study include the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the U.S. Census Bureau and the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). The major findings of the report are: The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, which has been called the most ambitious public works project built since the Roman Empire, is the most critical link in the nation’s and Missouri’s transportation system. • Missouri’s Interstate system, which includes two percent of all roadway lane miles in the state, carries 26 percent of all vehicle travel in the state. • Since Interstate construction began in 1956, total vehicle miles of travel in Missouri have increased by 340 percent. Since that time, the number of vehicles in the state has more than tripled, increasing by 211 percent. Missouri’s population increased by 38 percent during the same period. The state’s Interstate Highway System saves the average Missouri resident $2,499 per year in safety benefits, saved time, reduced motor fuel consumption and reduced apparel, food, housing and transportation costs. The total annual statewide savings is approximately $14.4 billion. • Improved traffic safety provided by the Interstate system saves the state approximately $1 billion annually and the average state resident $174 annually in reduced healthcare costs and costs associated with lost productivity due to traffic crashes. • Because it reduces travel times by providing more efficient and direct routes, the Interstate system saves each Missouri resident 69 hours of travel time annually - 400 million hours statewide. • The Interstate system saves Missouri residents $6.4 billion annually in the value of saved time and fuel - $1,114 per person ($1,031 in time and $83 in fuel). • Missouri’s Interstate system annually reduces statewide motor fuel consumption by 191 million gallons. • Consumer costs have been significantly lowered by the Interstate Highway System. The cost of transporting goods has been reduced because the time it takes to make trips has been decreased. And increased access between locations has enabled access to cheaper land. • TRIP estimates that consumer costs in Missouri for apparel, food, housing and transportation are reduced by approximately $7 billion annually, or $1,211 per state resident, as a result of the Interstate Highway System. • TRIP’s estimates of reduced consumer costs are based on consumer expenditure estimates by the U.S. Department of Labor and estimates of the Interstate’s impact on consumer costs collected in a survey of transportation economists. Construction of the Interstate system in Missouri started in 1956 and was completed in 2001, providing the state with portions of seven Interstate routes, consisting of 1,181 miles of Interstate highways, connecting the state’s largest urban areas and Missouri to the rest of the nation. • The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower on June 29, 1956, called for the construction of a 41,000 mile system of Interstate highways to be paid for by taxes on motorists, such as the federal motor fuel tax. The federal motor fuel tax was set at three cents-per-gallon and is now 18.4 cents-per-gallon. 2 • Missouri was the first state to award a construction contract under the provisions of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. On August 2, 1956, Missouri awarded its first Interstate construction contract for work on U.S. Route 66 in Laclede County. That highway is now a portion of Interstate 44. • The first section of Interstate completed in Missouri was a one-fifth mile segment of Interstate 70 built in St. Charles County, which was completed on November 9, 1956. • The most recent section of Missouri’s Interstate system opened to traffic was a 2-mile segment of Interstate 72 in Marion County in the Northeast portion of the state, which opened in 2001. • Twenty years after construction began, most of the state’s Interstate system had been completed. By 1976, 90 percent of the state’s Interstate route miles and 79 percent of total lane miles were open to traffic; 10 years later, 98 percent of the state’s Interstate route miles were open to traffic and 95 percent of total lane miles were open to traffic. Traffic congestion on Missouri’s Interstate highways is increasing as travel growth significantly outpaces the addition of new lanes. • Nearly one-half – 44 percent – of Missouri’s 375 miles of urban Interstates are considered congested because they carry traffic levels that result in significant delays during peak travel hours. • From 1990 to 2004, vehicle travel on Missouri’s Interstates increased by 29 percent, from 14.1 billion miles driven annually to 18.2 billion miles driven annually. But actual lane miles on the system only increased by two percent during that same period, from 5,269 total lane miles to 5,368 total lane miles. • From 1990 to 2004, the average annual amount of travel per Interstate- lane-mile in Missouri increased by 31 percent. • The ten most congested sections of Interstate highways in Missouri include segments in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas. The most congested section is a westbound section of Interstate 70 from Noland Road to Interstate 35 in the Kansas City area. The second-most congested Interstate section in the state is an eastbound portion of Interstate 70 from Interstate 270 to Missouri Route 180 in the St. Louis area. A full list of the congested sections can be found in the text of the report. 3 Missouri faces a $10 billion shortfall over the next 10 years in funding needed expansion of the Interstate system to relieve traffic congestion and sustain economic growth in the state. • TRIP estimates that travel on Missouri’s Interstate highways is expected to increase by 40 percent by the year 2026. • Increasing urban traffic congestion may erode some of the logistics advantages that Missouri producers and distributors have over competitors as the cost and reliability of shipping goods is negatively affected. • The Missouri Department of Transportation reports that by the year 2016, 39 percent of the state’s Interstate system (463 of 1,181 miles) will be in need of significant rehabilitation or reconstruction. • Twenty percent of Missouri’s Interstate bridges will need to have significant repairs or reconstruction by the year 2016. • Missouri needs to expand Interstate 70 from Kansas City to St. Louis from four lanes to six lanes by 2016 to relieve congestion and support economic development in the state. • Missouri also needs to extend Interstate 64 outside of St. Louis another 12 miles to the west along the current U.S. 40 corridor to improve access to and from the region’s western suburbs. • The cost of needed preservation and repairs on Missouri’s sections of I-70 and I-44 over the next 10 years (2006 to 2016) is $7.1 billion, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation. An additional $2.9 billion is needed to fund projects on other sections of Missouri’s Interstate system. However, Missouri currently does not have funding available for the $10 billion in needed Interstate expansion over the next 10 years. Missouri’s Interstates provide a network of highways with a variety of safety designs that greatly reduce the likelihood of serious accidents. Travel on Missouri’s Interstate highways is approximately twice as safe as travel on all other roadways in the state. • Missouri’s Interstate highways have saved approximately 7,900 lives in Missouri since 1956. • The number of lives saved by the Interstate was calculated by estimating the additional fatalities that would have occurred had Interstate traffic been carried by other major roadways in the state, which have higher traffic fatality rates.