bigpicture
Peter Bradley
Editorial Director
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Karen Bachrach
Executive Editor
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Toby Gooley
Managing Editor
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David Maloney
Senior Editor, Special Projects & eContent
dmaloney@dcvelocity.com
Mark Solomon
Senior Editor
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Susan Lacefield
Associate Managing Editor
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James Cooke
Editor at Large
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Steve Geary
Editor at Large
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George Weimer
Editor at Large
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Keisha Christopher
Director of Creative Services
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Jeff Thacker
Director of eMedia
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Columnists:
Clifford F. Lynch
Don Jacobson
Shelly Safian
Kenneth B. Ackerman
Art Van Bodegraven
Barry Brandman
who knew?
Gary Master
Publisher
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Mitch Mac Donald
Group Editorial Director
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Jim Indelicato
Group Publisher
jindelicato@dcvelocity.com
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FOR MANY YEARS NOW, SHIPPERS, CARRIERS, AND DISTRIBUtors—essentially anyone engaged in the act of moving goods through
complex supply chains—have attempted to get the attention of policy
makers on what they considered one of the great issues affecting national
competitiveness. That is the state of the nation’s infrastructure.
They have been joined in their call to fix and expand the nation’s highways, bridges, intermodal connectors, etc. by highway engineers and others
who could see that the infrastructure simply was not keeping up with economic growth. That maintenance was falling way behind. That if we didn’t
do something about it soon, given the long lead times to plan and execute
projects, the nation’s economic health would suffer. Much economic
growth in the last two decades has been enabled by the development of efficient supply chains. Access to reliable physical infrastructure has been crucial to that development.
In response to all that, policy makers have done little. Oh, they battle over who gets what when highway
and other spending bills come up. A bridge collapse in
Minnesota briefly draws the attention of Congress and
the popular media. But it’s not the kind of issue that
usually gains a lot of traction. The old saw that freight
doesn’t vote has some truth to it. And you can’t entirely blame elected representatives who face a plethora of
difficult issues—like war and recession—for paying
scant attention to roads, railroads, and ports.
But concern has now deepened to the point where
even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, most noted for its
“just say no” stand on most government programs and
spending, has joined the battle with its Let’s Rebuild America initiative. As
the chamber wrote in one document, “Our nation simply cannot reignite
and sustain economic growth with an infrastructure that is breaking down.”
Oh yes, that gets back to my opening question. Who knew? Who knew
that all it would take to bring infrastructure development into sharp focus
was an economic collapse of historic proportions?
But it has done the trick. Even before the election, then-candidate Barack
Obama talked about the importance of infrastructure investment. Since
the economy fell off a cliff, he has made infrastructure investment—and
the jobs it would create—a centerpiece of his plan for recovery.
Obama’s proposal has its foes, some for ideological reasons, others who
argue that by the time such a program gets started, it is likely an economic recovery will be well under way. But now that we have the attention of
the president and Congress, it’s a good time to tell anew the story we’ve
been telling for years: This investment matters now and will for a long time
to come.
A PUBLICATION OF
Editorial Director
