Travis County Commissioners Court
August 28, 2007
Item 3
3. Receive update and presentation from north america's supercorridor coalition, inc. (nasco). We did receive a few moments ago a little black booklet, wasn't it? Yeah, with some information in it.
>> yes. There's a presentation in there on nasco, as well as information on the membership organization and info on upcoming events. I'm rachel and frak frank my colleague. We are out this summer along the road updating Texas counties about our organization. We are a trinational corridor coalition, formerly the i-35 corridor coalition. Frank here is going to give you a few statistics that are kind of the impetus behind nasco, why we exist, why we are here to begin with.
>> thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. I wanted to share a couple of numbers to indicate where we are so if he everty working as a non-profit to advance the interests of i-35. In our country the interstate highway system began in 1956. Population of the united states at the time was 169 million. And Texas was 8 million. In 1967, which was the year in which the minnesota bridge and i-35 in minneapolis was built, recently so sadly fell with the loss of life, we were at 200 million population, 1967, Texas at 10 million. Today we are at 300 million population this year. And the state of Texas is now at 23 and a half million population. In the last 17 years in part because of the stimulus of the north american free trade agreement, the traffic at the beginning point of i-35 at laredo, Texas, border and gateway to mexico has seen a 17 year increase of 16 -- 621% trucks, cross border trucks and a 363% increase in cross border loaded rail cars. Traffic in north america as a whole has increased 37% just in the past decade yet only one percent in new capacity has been added to the interstate system. We have an aged infrastructure and interstate system, we have one that has a large amount of backlog of repairs needed for both the roadway and for the bridges which as we now know about 21% of bridges nationwide are obsolete, including a few recented listed in central Texas, 36 in central Texas, including Williamson, hays, Travis County. What I wanted to indicate is that we have been as a coalition advocating on behalf of an increased attention by city, county, state, federal authorities for the maintenance and improvement of existing infrastructure. There are a lot of other corridors, about 40 in the country similar to ours that are advocating for more money. One of the things that we are doing is to -- for new roads for expansion, we advocate for maintenance of existing infrastructure, which exists. Especially the i-35 corridor which the nation is now understanding in part because of our work plays a particularly important role in the nation's -- supporting the nation's question. More than half of the trade with mexicos in over i-35 and laredo. And -- and I wanted to indicate since '93, the year January 1
>> [indiscernible] trade u.s. Mexico trade had gone from 79 billion to $332 billion and it continues to increase somewhere between 5 and 10% a year. So -- so that is in part the reason for our existence as an organization. We are trying to keep focused in the mind of the country as a whole and especially of our legislative bodies. The importance on maintaining the existing infrastructure that we have to support what we already have as an economic growth, which has been very great, but also for what's coming ahead. And I'll stop with this one piece of information. Without any other additional stimulus, our u.s. D.o.t., department of transportation chief economist forecast that freight movement in the country is going to increase 67% by 2020. In other words, we already have a domestic population growth challenge with an aging infrastructure and our increasing trade with the world is going to continue to challenge our existing infrastructure. So we are here to -- to talk about that message and to seek your understanding and your support for what we -- what we plan to do in the future.
>> let me ask you a question. How are you all dealing with the shortfalls as far as a lot of highway construction money that's necessary to do and take care of a lot of infrastructure deficiencies, not only here in the state of Texas, but also across the nation? As you know the funding is not as it used to be. Yet the needs are still just as real and just as --
>> appreciate that question.
>> how are we going to deal with that? Could you maybe give me an answer to that question if you possible can.
>> one of the things that we have done, that we are proud of having done is bring to the attention of the congress that certain portions of the interstate highway system, 46,000 miles, are particularly of priority to the nation. The i-35 corridor in particular is of extreme national priority to the country. As a matter of fact congress in 1985 on the basis of our argument included the entire 15 hub miles of interstate from laredo to minnesota as high priority corridor number 23. In other words the first thing we must do is prioritize nationally those corridors, those roadways take do the highest and greatest service to the nation's economy. The other thing you don't just spread your investment across the country in an equal way as if ever part of the infrastructure or the interstate highway has the same importance or status, it does not. Texas is this country's leading trading state, more exporting than california even. Also the gateway to this nation's number 3 trading partner in mexico. Like I said $332 billion a year business that we have, growing in between five and 10% a year. With much to come still.
>> well, I think that it's important, also, to note that the dot's along the corridor are actively involved with nasco, as parts of our organization, as part of our mission is really to unite the d.o.t.'s on the core do so they are all on the same page, talking, know what's going on, look at each other's strategic plans see where one another's short falls and successes are. The minnesota department of traction, iowa dot and oklahoma dot and txdot is all a member of nasco. With an organization like us, you can't succeed if you don't have the d.o.t.'s along the corridor supporting you 100%. A little bit about our history, over the last two years nasco has grown tremendously as an organization, as, you know, we have come into the leading trade corridor coalition across the united states. We began in 1994 after the signing of nafta which elected officials in denton, tarrant and dallas counties had the foresight to band together because they realized that the private and public sectors needed to unite after this huge tsunami of trade, this increase was going to be coming along i-35. Originally the organization focused more on highway infrastructure needs and improvements, but we have grown to be truly multi-modal, focusing on rail, air cargo, inland ports and trucking. We are a non-profit organization as we mentioned. Our purpose is truly to boost economic development along the corridor. To have you as cities, counties, states along the core do come together, support intermodal infrastructure, environmental initiatives along the nasco corridor. As I mentioned one of our main goals is to stimulate the dialogue between the public and private sectors about critical corridor wide trade and transportation challenges. We have several key programs we support as an organization. We have a technology tracking project we are working on with lockheed martin, the blue sky way, uniting the universities along corridor, also have a mexico committee, a group of logistics and state and government leaders in mexico who are hoping to enhance infrastructure in mexico. Our members include cities, counties, state, d.o.t.'s, private sectors, banks, american airlines, love's, truck stops, I can give you a better idea of our membership. 80% has been with the organization for more than 10 years. I think that speaks strongly for us. The corridor represents existing trade and transportation infrastructure, roughly shadowing i-35, i-29, i-94, pretty much the heart land, center portion of the united states. And from the largest border crossing at the detroit windsor crossing they are a member of ours down to laredo and nuevo laredo down to the southern ports in mexico, our membership really shows the trinational span that we encompass. As frank mentioned there's a lot of corridor coalitions out there. There's about 40 right now that u.s. D.o.t. Has listed recently and we are really trying to set ourselves apart and to come up with a plan that's aggressive and a way to really make a difference along the corridor. We've -- our -- we are governed by a board of directors, we have about 30 that sit on our board that shaped the organization. When we are making a decision on something, it's truly a corridor wide decision. A lot are led by a city or a region or, you know, one individual but nasco is truly corridor wide. As I mentioned earlier we have north american facilitation of trade, transportation, reduce congestion and security. We joke that we let each board member pick a letter out of that. That is our project with lockheed matter 10. Technology pilot project designed to enhance logistics and efficiency of transportation. Naft trc s, to track cargo and increase visibility, accountability, security of goods and containers moving ai-35. We have received about $2 million from u.s. D.o.t. For this project. The project will use actual freight shipments moving through the corridor where voluntary industry participants are letting us track and monitor the location of their freight moving along the corridor. Lockheed martin, savvy network,
>> [indiscernible] technologies. Very complex, lockheed is working on the technology integration and implementation component. They have performed and done the same type of work for the u.s. Departments of defense and homeland security and have created what they call a global transportation network, which our command and control centers are located along the corridor that are able to know what's going on, you know, everywhere at all times. We are hoping to have command and control centers eventually with this project along our corridor, along i-35. As I mentioned, savvy is one of our partners. They are a venture between lockheed and hutchinson. Hutchinson is the largest port operator in the world with terminals at 20% of the world's ports. Including the 14 major ports in china. Savvy's role is to -- to place the readers in technology along the corridor at the inland ports that are members, like port san antonio, alliance, Texas, dallas, logistics hub at the border crossings in laredo, detroit and these readers are able basically to track and to -- to pick up any type of shock, any type of light change, temperature change that is going on with the cargo in the container. It's, you know, there's a lot of technologies out there that are able just to track a container. But not any are able to track shock temperature which is especially a good benefit in the case of hazardous materials or I use the example, you know, we have our produce, you are able to know, you know, if the produce sits out on the dock in mexico, where it went bad, where your spinach went bad once it went to h.e.b. There's a lot of really neat capabilities with this project. Currently savvy has their technology installed at the east and west coast ports in the united states all over the world, but nothing in the center of the united states, there's a gaping hole in the center of our country. And I think that it's very, very exciting that the nasco corridor and i-35 will be the first corridor to have this technology and have this capability inland. We are not promising perfection right off the bat. But we are at least trying something, we are trying to be aggressive, go after this project and really make it, turn it into something for more economic development along i-35. The goal is to eventually have command and control centers along the corridor that would equip our entire corridor with the government agencies and emergency response teams and give everyone information on a need to know basis and at the same centers you would be able to to see weather pictures, rfid, bio metric sensors, all of that and more. You might ask well why nasco, how did we get this coming our way? We are the north south center of north america. Our members include all stakeholders in the supply chain. The department of homeland security, security meetings, every said we have a unique test bed and something that no other corridor has and they are very excited to see the outcome of this project. In the earned we are hoping that this project truly establishes nasco and the nasco i-35 corridor as the corridor to do business on, the corridor to relocate to. And to -- ultimately to enhance economic development. That's one thing. We have an inland port network for the inland ports located along the corridor to alleviate congestion at the maritime ports. 10 members from the u.s., canada and mexico as a part of that group as I mentioned des moines, winnepeg, several ports in mexico. Partnership with the e.p.a. To enhance the environment along i-35. We met with them, they said we want to kick this project off. We love your help, right up the i-35 corridor working on alternative fuels, truck stop electrification, ways to enhance new technologies with trucks to really reduce idling times and emissions. We are trying to unite the universities along the corridor. For, you know, technology transfer. If one university is working on explaining the soy bean and minnesota is working on it, oklahoma is working out, why don't we not duplicate efforts each work on a portion, come back together in the end. That's the basic of nasco, don't duplicate efforts.
>> why do you all stand with the trans Texas corridor.
>> nasco was supportive of the trans Texas corridor. As I mentioned txdot is a member of ours. There isn't another alternative out there being proposed right now. Until someone can come up with, you know, something else it is our best option.
>> how about rail? Where are you on freight rail? I see from your website you are projecting a 67% increase in freight tonnage by 2020. It seemed appropriate to move that off of our interstate highway system and on to rail.
>> correct. We completely agree and we are very eager to -- with the trans Texas corridor to see a lot of the -- the freight cargo moved on to the rail lines. That will be a part of that.
>> where are you all in advocating for that?
>> we are supportive to get financial support.
>> to get the taxpayer to pay for the relocation of the rails out of the urban areas?
>> no, in many cases to stop the problems such as we have in the fort worth area where the rails are at grade level and causing congestion problems on the roadways, not just streets, roads, highways every kind, adding tremendously to environmental emissions problems in the area that are already have problems with compliance such as court area. But we also believe that everything that we can do to move freight and cargo on to rails is like adding lane capacity to existing highways. So we don't view highways and rails as competitors. One of the things that the trucking companies need is a reconduction in need for personnel because they can't keep drivers to manage the trucking demand that's going on right now. They would actually appreciate having more of their -- of their cargo placed to trains. In fact some trucking companies have begun taking equity positions in rail lines in order to have that capacity. In tracking and security, parted of what we are doing is to create visibility so all private sector businesses can keep track of all of their cargo so they actually can hold accountable those shippers from this point once it crosses the reader' scanner, whoever messed up is held accountable. Right now there is no be thability. We are trying to create a business value at the same time creating a security value because on our need to know, right to know, governments, local, national, can be aware in a near real time way of what's going on. If we have a tornado that crosses i-35 and disrupts traffic that will become visible. Hurricane on i-10 disrupted the -- destroyed one railroad, destroyed interstate 10, you all of a sudden start having movements around it, you have information so that you can deal with it.
>> in regard to that, that intelligent transportation element that you all are advocating, are you all funding it from industry? Are you looking for governments to fund it? Because as I sit on campo, that's a big price tag.
>> initially, if I may comment for a moment, what we are doing with the congressionally allocated money through the d.o.t. Is to do a test of the system. 8 aggregations to show that it has value, approve that to the public sector as well as to the private sector they are going to be stating that it was worth their while to pay a fee for use of that.
>> where are we getting on private sector contribution toward that? Because so far all that I'm seeing is federal money coming down through the d.o.t.'s into mpo's, it's a sizable chunk when our amount of money available for maintenance construction and m and o is just dwindling like crazy. So, I mean, I can put a sensor on the highway, but I can't build the dang highway.
>> we believe we are actually in the process of creating a franchise or a concession. A non-profit in collaboration with some of the leading technology companies in the country and the world. That shows a business value and what we are hoping over time to attract initial angel and early venture capital to support that and then later to further development it from it's fee generating capacity. In other words, business will benefit from participating in it.
>> so businesses would essentially subscribe to the ability to access the information technology.
>> if you permit me, it's like how nobody believed there was a business to pay for moving mail. All of a sudden people realized certain mail fed-ex made sense to do it, you paid for it. You don't have to keep as much inventory stored away, you know you are going to have stored away. That's a dramatic reduction in costs. Also pillferage, you know where it is or someone will be held accountable for it.
>> what if anything are you asking us to consider today?
>> we would love to have Travis County on board as a county member with nasco. We have dallas, denton, tarrant and webb counties currently that are members here in the state of Texas. The d.o.t. Here is a member, we would really like to have the county's participation and involvement. I-35 isn't even in your back yard, it's in your living room. And we would love to share with you our strategic intelligence and hope that you want to join our network and know what's going on along the corridor. There are a lot of transportation groups out there. We are just here to brief you on that. Membership in the organization for a county of your size would be $20,000 annually. And that would give you a seat on our board of directors, which as I mentioned earlier makes the decisions and shapes the organization.
>> I'm sorry, what was it annually.
>> 20,000.
>> let me ask this question. I know that -- in eastern Travis County, a whole lot of parts of the state there's been a big outcry as far as opposition to the trans Texas corridor, number one, we don't know where the legitimate is exactly -- alignment going to be exactly at this time. Number 2 I know a lot of -- of my constituency in precinct 1 is in the rural areas, thing like that. Even over in the other smaller counties have echoed a lot of sentiment as far as not even supporting this. So my concern is I heard you say that you all are in support of it. Being members of this, is everything kind of broken down? I mean I hear what you are saying as far as supporting the trans Texas corridor but then how do you separate yourself from supporting the trans Texas corridor when we have a lot of opposition right here in Travis County opposing the trans Texas corridor, how do you separate the two especially when you have echoed their disapproval of such a corridor.
>> within thing real quick, a good example is the dfw metroplex. Everything initially started with ttc, we wanted to feel it out, to see what the project, the scope of the project is, we are not -- we are a con duty to voice our member's concerns and that -- that -- with dfw, you know, they were on a -- they were not originally happy with the alignment. The regional transportation council and the dfw metroplex was crying out to say we don't want it to go east, we are not happy with this. Nasco was able to help facilitate the meetings, bring people together and in the end I believe everyone with the rtc was happy with this decision that was made.
>> have the alignment been determined for this -- for the county's south of dallas county.
>> no. I don't --
>> at the moment they are in the early stages.
>> I understand.
>> environmental impact study
>> [multiple voices]
>> I guess my question is how do you as an organization separate yourself or if you are representing also not only on i-35 but all of those other road projects which are really in contention, a lot of upset folks about that. Especially not knowing exactly where the legitimate is going to be,, alignment is going to be, how do you separate yourself from it?
>> may I add a footnote on to that? You mentioned also in your presentation that you advocate for the maintenance and improvement of existing infrastructure and you really stressed that. How does that cove tail with doe tail with the support for the ttc?
>> I'm happy to explain about that. One of the reasons that the Texas department of transportation senior command and engineers actually began to develop the idea of the ttc they did the study of what they would have to do to i-35 to meet their 20 and 30 year projection. Basically at certain multiple various points along i-35 in the state of Texas, that would require such an expansion it would actually use all of the right-of-way that the state has and would require more, actually a kind of taking away from the size of i-35 which of course the interstate highway system was built to go inside cities not around them. So they literally cannot change certain portions of i-35 within the existing i-35 to meet those requirements for the next 20 or 30 years. They have no possibility of doing that. That's in part where --
>> we have your e-mail address and your phone numbers.
>> thank you very much.
>> some of us may have additional questions. If so we will contact you.
>> thank you so much.
>> thank you.
>> are you meeting with the city of Austin sometime soon.
>> too excuse me.
>> are you visiting with the city of Austin.
>> we are down here for a quick day trip today.
>> okay. We will get in touch with you by e-mail real soon.
>> thank you.
>> thank you for coming by.
>> thank you for your presentation.
>> my business card is in the folder.
>> is the -- mr. Melvin still the executive director?
>> yes. Yes. He is.
>> she is.
>> I'm sorry she couldn't be here today.
>> that's all right. Tell her you can. Thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, August 29, 2007, 18:30 AM