AAA predicts that more than 39 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the upcoming Independence Day holiday weekend. Whether it is a family trip to a relaxing beach, an outing to one of our inspiring national parks, or a reunion with family many states away, at some point those Independence Day travelers will likely end up on part of the Interstate Highway System.

If Dwight Eisenhower were with us today, he would no doubt be pleased to see that his vision of a nation connected by a network of super highways has become reality. At the same time, you don’t need to be a visionary to recognize that there is trouble on the road ahead. Today’s Interstate system bears the brunt of more than 3 billion annual vehicle miles traveled, stretching to its limit, and in some places, way beyond. The challenges ahead are daunting, the stakes are high, and the consequences of inaction are formidable.

The numbers don’t lie. The transportation reauthorization bill has been extended seven times. As of 2008, the Federal Highway Administration estimates that 52% of the nation’s major roads are in fair or poor condition. As of 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers Report card for America’s infrastructure gave the nation’s roads a D-minus. Even more disturbing is the fact that 33,000 Americans were killed in 2010 on our nation’s roadways which is simply not acceptable.

Over fifty years ago President Eisenhower recognized the critical role transportation play’s in the American economy. What was true then is still true today. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that every $1 billion of federal investment in transportation creates or sustains approximately 35,000 jobs. Additionally, transportation projects return $1.59 in economic output for every dollar invested. Every business sector is dependent on a safe and efficient transportation system to improve its economic vitality. From construction and manufacturing, to tourism and the shipment of goods, transportation is the backbone of our nation’s economic well being.

Echoing what others have already said here, we now need an Eisenhower-inspired commitment for the transportation system of the 21st century. Congress and the Administration need to borrow a plan from President’s Eisenhower’s playbook and make transportation a national priority again.

President Eisenhower’s vision and perseverance in supporting the Interstate Highway system resulted in enormous economic opportunity and prosperity for the United States. But while the Interstate network was completed two decades ago, we have failed to articulate a 21st century vision for our nation’s transportation system. If Ike were around today, I’d tell him we ought to preserve what he built while transitioning toward a smarter approach to managing congestion and providing Americans with more options to avoid being stuck in traffic.

While the Interstate highway system was developed to link the states and build a coast to coast network, today it’s being choked and overburdened by local traffic. Why is this happening? Because we haven’t developed the right kinds of coordinated strategies at the local and regional level, strategies that include road tolling, modern public transit, intelligent transportation systems, local street networks that provide a variety of travel routes and loosening restrictions on the development of housing, shops and jobs along transit corridors and in walkable town centers. Many of these approaches were outlined in the recent report we released with Reason Foundation and Taxpayers for Common Sense titled The Most for our Money: Taxpayer-Friendly Solutions for the Nation’s Transportation Challenges.

None of these approaches by themselves will make enough of a dent to ease gridlock on the Interstates. But packaged together, they are our only hope. In many urban and suburban areas where Interstates are effectively built out, these solutions are going to be far more cost-effective and will do more to ease traffic flow on the Interstates themselves. Recall that the recent 3 percent reduction in vehicle-miles-traveled in the U.S. resulted in a 30 percent reduction in congestion.

The boldness of Eisenhower’s vision stemmed in part from his rejection of the status quo and recognition that the federal government can play an active and constructive role in doing big things. We could sure use that kind of “can-do” spirit today.

The Interstate Highway System that President Eisenhower so strongly urged is now rightfully part of his legacy. Unfortunately, if he were alive today, he would see a system that is not only stretched to its breaking point, but also is seeing its future threatened by members of his own party.

The budget passed by the U.S. House and backed by the Republican leadership would, for the first time ever, reduce investment in our highways and bridges, even though they are desperately in need of repair and improvement. Instead of preserving the highway system’s role as a key job creator, the budget would kill jobs, to the tune of 490,000 in the first year alone.

The best way to honor Eisenhower’s legacy and vision is through investing in our transportation system, modernizing it for the 21st century, and making it an engine of job growth at a time when our economy needs a boost.

Since Eisenhower’s time, our roads and bridges have failed to keep up with our needs. Today, our cities are choked with traffic, our highways are in disrepair and the bridges that connect them are aging, overburdened and falling apart.

In America today, over 25 percent of our bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Over a third of major urban highways are stretched beyond capacity. Road congestion costs Americans 4 billion gallons of gasoline a year. The average bridge – built to last 50 years – has stood for 43 years.

We cannot let our transportation system – once the envy of the world and a physical representation of America’s greatness – become a relic of the 20th century. Other countries are poised to overtake the United States: China and India are investing over 10 percent of their GDP into transportation systems and other basic needs, while we can’t even manage to invest 3 percent.

Our transportation system is already a relic of a time when Democrats and Republicans stood together in support of common-sense investments that paid extraordinary dividends. The legislation creating the Interstate Highway System was passed by a nearly evenly divided Congress. However, passing similar far-reaching legislation in today’s political climate is considered impossible by many.

It doesn’t have to be like this, however. There are good proposals in Congress now – like the six-year bill favored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. – that deserve support from Democrats and Republicans. Our leaders in Congress need to start demonstrating the courage and the willpower necessary to turn proposals like this into a reality. Instead of avoiding tough questions or listening to fringe elements, we need to take our problems seriously and find solutions.

If we fail to do this, we would also let another American legacy become a relic of the past – our national legacy of creating good jobs for working men and women. Building our Interstate Highway System was one of the best jobs programs in our nation’s history. By building America’s backbone, we strengthened the backbone of our economy – the middle class. If we address our current needs, we can do that again by creating 8 million jobs over six years.

It’s a no-brainer – by building our highways and bridges, we can create jobs, get our economy moving, secure America’s greatness in the 21st century, and create a new legacy for taxpayers and future generations while preserving the legacy of Eisenhower and other leaders who recognized the value of investing in their country’s needs.

If President Eisenhower were alive today I would congratulate him on triggering the completion of the 46,876-miles US Interstate Highway System (IHS), one of the greatest public works achievements of all time.

I would also pay tribute to his wisdom in persuading Congress to include in the legislation provision for winding down the federal Highway Trust Fund on completion of the IHS. That fund was established to enable road users to pay for the IHS, but has now become a vehicle for forcing road users to pay for non-road activities that are of little benefit to them.

Furthermore, the federal congress has neither the time nor the money to fund infrastructure. Instead of “reauthorizing” it, Congress can wind down the fund — and the fuel taxes that feed it — and turn back transportation funding to the states, as originally envisaged by Eisenhower.

How could officials from different states cooperate without federal guidance? Transportation users are fortunate that John Horsley and his able staff at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials can provide the necessary coordination.

“Together, the united forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear — United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower, February 12, 1955.

Facilitating the easy movement of people and goods under a single superhighway system has unified our culture and emboldened the nation to become the world’s leading economic power. With the interstate highway system fully realized, we now must leverage this vast network to serve America in a 21st century global economy.

However, in looking to the future, we must also look in the mirror. According to the Federal Highway Administration, more than half the miles driven on federal highways are on roads that are in less than good condition. Maintenance and repair of our current assets are critical, and we need to upgrade and expand the system to meet the needs of a growing economy and population, and ensure investments contribute to a more efficient system.

Right now, America is facing a jobs deficit, with millions of our construction, manufacturing, and service workers either underemployed or out of work. Investing in our nation’s roads, bridges, tunnels, transit and rail systems, and better biking and walking can create millions of jobs and help close this gap. The BlueGreen Alliance, a partnership of 10 of America’s largest labor unions and four of its most influential environmental groups, recently introduced a policy statement outlining what a job-creating transportation reauthorization bill could look like.

We spend an estimated $1 billion a day on foreign oil. We should be keeping more of that money here in America — building cleaner, safer, more efficient infrastructure to create a 21st century transportation system. To create American jobs, we should ensure domestic sourcing provisions are included in the reauthorization and other infrastructure policies as recommended in the Apollo Alliance and BlueGreen Alliance’s Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan, a joint project among labor, business and environmentalists to ensure we maximize domestic employment, energy and environmental benefits of transportation investments.

While the cars and trucks that travel our roads account for a significant portion of our foreign oil dependence, we can look to American ingenuity to deliver a new generation of much more fuel-efficient and advanced technology vehicles. The roads that carry our citizens and goods to market in the 21st century can be conduits for cleaner transportation, and serve as a backbone for vehicle electrification (i.e. charging stations for plug-in hybrids and electrics) tied into a smart grid.

Cleaner transportation, however, could mean fewer revenues replenishing the Highway Trust Fund through the federal gas tax. Unless we fix the funding mechanism for federal transportation investment, the trust fund will continue to see diminishing returns. The federal gas tax has not budged — not even for inflation — since 1993, leaving this vital source of funding for American jobs and prosperity in a major state of flux.

Congress has been in a holding pattern since the last reauthorization bill expired two summers ago. The global economy, however, is not waiting for us. To compete effectively in the 21st century, we need a 21st century transportation system. A long-term reauthorization that robustly funds the myriad of our surface transportation networks would help deliver exactly that. To fund it, we need to consider ways to fix the current gas tax, including a potential increase, or indexing it to inflation, among a portfolio of new funding approaches. Our transportation network should be funded from the economic value it creates.

President Eisenhower would be proud of the legacy of the interstate highway system. We should honor this and ensure our transportation systems live up to their highest potential. It’s incumbent upon us, as advocates, officials, and activists alike, to successfully convey the notion that a transportation system worth having is one worth paying for.

President Eisenhower had a bold vision of a more connected, prosperous, and secure America. The Interstate Highway System helped usher in an era of prosperity never seen before in this country. Eisenhower's vision helped shape modern America and made us the wealthiest nation in the world.

Unfortunately, that system simply isn't sustainable today. 1955 was a very different time in our country. Natural resources were more abundant and the potential downsides of an auto-dependent society simply weren't as apparent. President Eisenhower was also fighting the Cold War and the Interstate Highway System was an important part of our national security. So what can we do to strengthen the nation 55 years later? Sustainability. America needs a national transportation infrastructure that we can actually sustain and that won't leave us dependent on foreign sources of energy. We also need to consider how we can strengthen the national economy. TEN's recent report More Transit = More Jobs helps illustrate the job creation potential of transit investment. Transit investment already has significant popular support. In recently elections across the country, 73% of transit ballot measures passed. Americans clearly want improved transit options. Of course, we still need to fix the crumbling highways and roads that we already have. TEN has long supported a fix-it-first approach and we're pleased to say that the Obama administration has put repairs ahead of new construction in their recent budget proposal. But it's about more than just sustainability, prosperity, or even popularity. For millions of Americans, access to transit means access to jobs, housing, education, medical care, and places of worship. We need to build a system that's beneficial to all Americans -- not just to road builders, DOT officials, or those who can afford to drive. We need to reinvest in our nation's infrastructure but this time we need ensure that we build a transportation system that's sustainable, equitable, and that helps restart our stalled economy.

President Eisenhower envisioned a national highway system that would connect our nation and spur growth, prosperity and security. But even he could not have foreseen how significantly this system would transform our nation, or that our growth, prosperity and security would one day become dependent on the functioning of this system.

As we celebrate this week’s anniversary of the beginnings of the national highway system (and, yes, we should celebrate what has been identified as one of the top ten engineering achievements of the last century), we are also all painfully aware that demands have far outpaced capacity in many parts of the system, and much of the system suffers from poor conditions at the hands of years of underinvestment. Today, we spend 4.2 billion hours stuck in traffic at a cost of $710 per motorist and one in four of our bridges are functionally obsolete or structurally deficient.

To move this country forward, we need to make the same kind of commitment President Eisenhower made for the interstate system. To meet the demands of our global economy, Congress must commit to a multi-year surface transportation authorization bill that enhances and improves connectivity and level of service across the nation. A surface transportation authorization must be founded on a new paradigm; instead of focusing on the movement of cars and trucks from place to place as we did in the Eisenhower Administration, it must be based on moving people, goods, and services across the economy. Beyond simply building new roads or transit systems, we must address our current needs to repair out existing infrastructure. President Eisenhower’s vision met and exceeded the demands of the 20th century. Today, we need a similar vision to meet and exceed the demands of the 21st century and beyond.

As we recognize the 55th anniversary of the federal interstate program, let’s celebrate the tremendous achievement of a national system of superhighways that has transformed our nation and our economy. It is a symbol of freedom and a tribute to human ingenuity.

The national transportation system is the engine driving our national economy: delivering jobs, assuring just in time delivery of goods and a brighter economic future for our children.

We are faced with tremendous challenges, however. A third of the nation’s highways – interstates, freeways and major roads – need attention. Our primary user fee – the gas tax – is increasingly at risk as technological advances offer drivers an opportunity to move away from fossil fuels thus reducing revenue for investment. Meanwhile, demands on the system continue to increase – in the air, on the rails, and on the highways.

AASHTO’s member state departments of transportation are working on these challenges: creating strategies for operating the existing system more efficiently; supporting greater transportation choices; and, adding capacity where it makes sense and where it is most needed. But states and local communities need the help of Congress in the form of a new surface transportation authorization. And our members need the support of the Administration to streamline oversight, project approvals and burdensome regulation.

On this 55th anniversary, we as a nation must remember the vision that was shared by those who stood behind President Dwight D. Eisenhower as he signed the bill into law. Those men and women envisioned a national transportation network that would meet the needs of the traveling public and serve as a critical foundation for our national economic health. Our future vision for the transportation system in the next 50 years should not waver from that.