The Importance of Highways to U.S. Agriculture December 2020 United States Department of Agriculture NOTICE This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Agriculture in the interest of information exchange. The United States Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the objective of this report. Cover Credit: unitysphere via 123rf.com ii The Importance of Highways to U.S. Agriculture COVID-19 NOTE The development of this report coincided with the advent of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has had multiple impacts that could affect agricultural highway freight, including disruptions to supply chains, shifts in food production and consumption patterns, workforce impacts, and fluctuations in fuel taxes and other revenues. In addition, there have been wide-reaching changes in overall macroeconomic conditions in the United States and overseas, including changes in economic output and exchange rates. The trajectory and long-term consequences of these impacts are difficult to forecast, making it unclear whether and when “normal” conditions may resume. This introduces additional uncertainty into the analysis. It is also important to note that, at the time this report was prepared, the available data sources, estimates, and future projections were largely developed prior to the pandemic and do not reflect these impacts. The Importance of Highways to U.S. Agriculture iii Form Approved REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE OMB No. 0704-0188 The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing the burden, to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 16-12-2020 Technical Report November 2019 - December 2020 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER The Importance of Highways to U.S. Agriculture 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER Kevin McCoy, Sean Peirce, Gary Baker, Ryan Endorf, Christina Foreman, 51OS96A119 Rachel Galton, Michelle Gilmore, Danielle Kittredge, Kendall Mahavier, 5e. TASK NUMBER Daniel DJ Mason, David Pace, Sari Radin, Emma Vinella-Brusher TH995, TH996, UK067, UK068 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER V-320 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center REPORT NUMBER U.S. Department of Transportation DOT-VNTSC-USDA-21-01 55 Broadway Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR'S ACRONYM(S) Agricultural Marketing Service USDA AMS TM TSD U.S. Department of Agriculture Stop 0266 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR'S REPORT USDA AMS TM TSD NUMBER(S) 1400 Independence Ave SW 4523-S TS295.12-20 12. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT No restrictions. 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT This report provides information to inform the transportation planning and project selection processes that build and maintain the highway infrastructure upon which the agriculture industry relies upon for safe and efficient transportation of goods. It demonstrates the interconnected nature of agricultural freight and highlights the need for cooperation across jurisdictions via 1) A summary of the economic significance of highway infrastructure to the agriculture industry; 2) Identification of High-Volume Domestic Agriculture Highways based on 2018 commodity flows; 3) Modeled projections of future infrastructure conditions and performance; 4) Identification of efforts to improve agricultural freight movements. 15. SUBJECT TERMS agriculture, freight, highway, freight data, freight analysis, economic analysis 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF 18. NUMBER 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON ABSTRACT OF a. REPORT b. ABSTRACT c. THIS PAGE Adam Sparger PAGES 19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER (Include area code) U U U UU 147 202-205-8701 Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8/98) Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39.18 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The project team would like to thank the f ollowing organizations for graciously providing their valuable perspectives and insights during the development of this report. U.S. Department of Transportation Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy Bureau of Transportation Statistics Federal Highway Administration Office of Freight Management and Operations Agriculture Industry Groups Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) Agriculture Transportation Working Group (ATWG) Membership Organization National Association of Counties (NACo) Regional Freight Organization Bi-State Development Corporation St. Louis Regional Freightway State Departments of Transportation Texas Department of Transportation California Department of Transportation Iowa Department of Transportation Missouri Department of Transportation North Carolina Department of Transportation Washington State Department of Transportation The Importance of Highways to U.S. Agriculture v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................... xi Acronyms ............................................................................................................................................ xiii Section 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Section 2: Economic Significance of Highway Infrastructure to the Agriculture Industry ..... 12 Section 3: Stakeholder Engagement ............................................................................................. 20 Section 4: Agricultural Freight Flows and Performance ............................................................. 27 Section 5: Future Conditions and Investment Scenarios ............................................................ 79 Section 6: Notable Practices Case Studies ................................................................................... 92 Section 7: Challenges, Opportunities, and Potential Strategies ................................................ 113 Section 8: Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 131 Bibliography and Data Sources ....................................................................................................... 134 Appendix A: Economic Significance of Surface Transportation to U.S. Agriculture Appendix B: Analysis Corridor Condition, Performance, and Commodity Flow Data Visualizations Appendix C: Methodology Appendix D: Detailed Commodity Production and Flow Data by State vi The Importance of Highways to U.S. Agriculture LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Modeled Agricultural and Total Freight Flows on U.S. Highways, 2015 ..............................................................5 Figure 2: Value of U.S. Shipments by Transportation Mode in 2018 ..................................................................................6 Figure 3: Ton-Miles of U.S. Shipments by Transportation Mode and Distance in 2018 .....................................................7 Figure 4: Modal Transportation Characteristics of Agricultural Commodities by Tonnage, 2018 .....................................13 Figure 5: Transportation Cost in Million 2009 Dollars ..........................................................................................................15 Figure 6: U.S. and Brazil Soybean Total Transportation Costs to Shanghai, China .............................................................16 Figure 7: U.S. Agricultural Supply Chain .................................................................................................................................17 Figure 8: Percent of Roadways in Poor Condition (International Roughness Index (IRI)>170) by Functional System ......19 Figure 9: High-Volume Domestic Agriculture Highways (HDAH) ............................................................................................28 Figure 10: Conceptual Map of Agricultural Trade Flows ........................................................................................................29 Figure 11: United States Multimodal Freight Flows ...............................................................................................................29 Figure 12: Map of County-Level Production of Selected Commodities and Top 10 Agriculture Producing States in 2017 .......................................................................................................................................................................32