Grow Southeast Alabama Supports Governor’s Infrastructure Plan

Matt Boster

Viewed: 3985

Posted by: Matt Boster
Date: Mar 05 2019 8:10 AM

OZARK, AL - Today, Grow Southeast Alabama’s President, Veronica Crock, issued the following statement, “The Grow Southeast Alabama Board of Directors, an organization formed to promote, market and collaborate on economic developments efforts in the eight county region of Barbour, Coffee, Covington, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston and Pike, fully endorses and supports Gov. Kay Ivey’s Infrastructure Plan.

Our board recognizes that investing in infrastructure and upkeep is a key ingredient to strengthen Alabama’s position for the continuance of spurring economic development growth in the region and state is paramount. Additionally, this proposed plan will assist with critical improvements to the shipping channel providing access to facilities of the Alabama State Docks.”

A 2019 report by the University of Alabama’s Alabama Transportation Institute and Alabama Transportation Policy Research Center found that cars and trucks are putting approximately 69 billion miles on Alabama’s roadways annually. This is a 17 percent increase over the past 15 years. Moreover, the demand for roadway space has grown faster than supply since 1990, reflecting an increase of 20 percent in population growth, a 46 percent increase in vehicle usage, a 57 percent increase in highway use, but only a 14 percent increase in highway space.

Economic development and job growth indicate highway accessibility as one of Cont’d March 4, 2019 Page 2 Grow Southeast Alabama GROW SOUTHEAST ALABAMA is a consortium of eight counties working together to promote and advance growth in the region. Visit growsealabama.com for more information. three factors for site selection, for every $500 million invested in transportation infrastructure supports 14,000 new jobs, and 940,353 full-time jobs in Alabama are completely dependent on the state of Alabama’s transportation network. Over the past five years, 37 states have increased revenue in some way for their transportation budget.

To keep Alabama on the forefront, investing in its public transportation infrastructure is critical and also positions the state to leverage this funding for anticipated plans at the federal level to address infrastructure investment.

<- back