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Nationwide Effort to Build Support for New Federal Highway and Transit Bill Begins in Rapid City, Drivers Asked to Tell Congress to Help Fix State’s Aging Roads and Unsafe Bridges

A new national effort to push for passage of the long–delayed bill that provides federal funds to fix aging roads and unsafe bridges launched today with the unveiling of new billboard, radio and print advertisements in Rapid City. The effort, which will cover dozens of states during the coming weeks, is designed to educate the public about why passing a federal transportation bill is essential to improving road conditions in states like South Dakota.

“The reality is our communities can’t thrive and our businesses can’t grow if they are saddled with potholes and unsafe bridges,” said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the two national groups sponsoring the effort, the Americans for Transportation Mobility and the Transportation Construction Coalition. “The best route to a better transportation system for our country lies in getting Congress to do its job and pass the months–late highway and transit bill.”

Turmail said that in several states nearly half of all bridges are structurally unsound or functionally obsolete. Meanwhile poor road conditions contribute to roughly half of the nation’s highway fatalities. Aging and under–capacity roads also cost the U.S. economy over $80 billion annually and force drivers to waste over 2.8 billion gallons of fuel each year.

Anyone who wants better roads, safer bridges, less traffic or better transit services should contact their local member of Congress and ask them to pass a new six–year surface transportation bill, Turmail added. He noted that in states like South Dakota, over 85 percent of the state's annual highway budget comes from the federal government. He added that the multi–year bill is needed to allow state transportation officials to plan major projects to improve and rebuild the state's highways and bridges.

The last surface transportation bill expired on Sept. 30, 2009, and since then Congress has passed a series of short–term measures to ensure states continue to receive federal transportation funds. Turmail noted that those short–term “patches” fail to address shortfalls in federal highway funding caused by declining gas tax receipts since Americans increasingly are driving fuel efficient cars.

The effort, which is being backed by a range of business groups including the Americans for Transportation Mobility, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Transportation Construction Coalition, will include billboard, radio and newspaper advertisements in Rapid City as well as in Sioux Falls and Aberdeen. The groups will invest over $100,000 in the effort nationwide over the next four weeks, Turmail added.

For more information about the state of the nation’s highways and transit systems, or about the campaign for a new surface transportation bill, please visit . View electronic copies of the and ads the campaign will place throughout South Dakota.

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