Implementing U.S. Freight Policy at the State Level: Oklahoma’s Story

Abstract

Safe and efficient transportation of freight is important to the U.S. economy and economic growth. Between 1975 and 1997 domestic intercity tons of the U.S. freight grew 60%, and that growth in freight movement was placing pressure on a congested highway system. Between 1980 and 2002, truck travel grew by 90% while lane miles grew only 5%. The percentage of urban interstates carrying 10,000 or more trucks was 27% in 1998, and forecasted to grow to 69% in 2020. Freight volumes were also expected to increase by 70% by 2020. In 2015, the U.S. Congress responded to the persistent and growing voice of freight stakeholders and made freight mobility a national issue in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Each state is a key player to the implementation of freight mobility in the FAST Act. Oklahoma has a relatively large highway system mileage compared to its population, ranked 19th in state-owned system size. Located in the Crossroads of the U.S., Oklahoma is served by major highway corridors like Interstate 35, Interstate 40, and Interstate 44. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) is charged with planning, constructing, and maintaining Oklahoma’s surface transportation infrastructure, including the interstate system, the U.S. highway system, and the Oklahoma highway system. ODOT began the process of developing a FAST Act compliant state freight plan in 2016. A Freight Advisory Committee (FAC) was created to assist in the planning process by helping to prioritize goals and identify concerns around particular operational issues such as bottlenecks. The Oklahoma Freight Transportation Plan (OFTP) was approved on December 4, 2017. This paper provides a critical overview of the OFTP relative to the conditions of Oklahoma’s transportation infrastructure, particularly bridges and pavements. This plan sets forth a vision and goals, strategies and policies to achieve the goals, measures to track achievement, and investments selected because they support the goals. Importantly, ODOT has gone beyond planning for utilizing $100.2 million in National Highway Freight Program (NHFP) funds toward freight projects as required by the FAST Act. It has identified a series of investments for priority multimodal freight projects to be funded by traditional means, and all told has created an $875 million statewide freight investment program for the next five years.