IH-30 Accident

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, my fellow colleagues, I want to bring to your attention a most unfortunate incident that has taken place in my home district across one of the most vital and important transportation corridors not only to Texas but to the Nation. Interstate Highway 30 begins in Aledo, Texas, west of Fort Worth and ends in North Little Rock, Arkansas. While not the nation's longest highway, Interstate 30 has some of the heaviest truck and trade traffic in the nation and is essential to national security. Because of our nation's growing population--especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex--transportation systems, planned over fifty years ago, are being strained and are over capacity. Because of this, our transportation facilities cannot always accommodate the needs of our constituents. This affects not only transportation commerce and mobility but also hinders the first responders and law enforcement from arriving at the scene of the accident in a timely manner.

Early this morning, on Friday January 10, 2014 a major multi-truck accident took place including as many as fifteen vehicles, including semi-trucks on a section of IH-30 that spans Lake Ray Hubbard. The accident has closed all eight lanes of the bridge, headed east and west. After seven hours, the facility remains closed and as there are no frontage roads across the Lake, commuters and drivers are facing multi-hour delays and the national supply chain is being adversely affected.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those that were injured in this unfortunate accident. And to all those hundreds of thousands who were inconvenienced.
This is a prime example as to why Interstate 30, and our national transportation system, needs renewed attention at the local, state, and federal level. This is not the first time this has happened and this will certainly not be the last. In 2006, I was pleased to be of assistance in causing IH-30 to be designated a Congressional High Priority Corridor on the National Highway System so that this vital corridor would be eligible to receive the attention it needs.

I now call on the U.S. Department of Transportation to work with the Texas Department of Transportation and Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department to immediately address these issues of safety and mobility along Interstate 30. I call for an expedited review of IH-30 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Texarkana all the way to North Little Rock that will involve not only the DOTs but city and county stakeholders, including the TEX-21 IH-30 Corridor Task Force. I call for recommendations to come forth within 90 days to provide long and short term solutions. When a facility like this is shut down, the economy is affected because as we all know, our transportation system is the backbone of the economy.

It is of utmost importance that those of us from the Texas side work with those from the Arkansas side to implement the proper maintenance and expansion that is needed to handle the demands placed upon the facility by the population increase. We are calling for six lane divided with continuous frontage roads along the corridor so when an accident such as this one occurs we have the necessary infrastructure to keep people and goods moving.

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