Better Roads

October 2013

Better Roads Digital Magazine

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TransportationTalk The Big WIG of Transportation: Editorial Editor-At-Large: Tina Grady Barbaccia Solving Funding Issues Through Value Editorial Director: Marcia Gruver Doyle Online Editor : Wayne Grayson Online Managing Editor : Amanda Bayhi Production Editor: Lauren Heartsill Dowdle Editor Emeritus: Kirk Landers Truck Editor: Jack Roberts Construction Editors: Tom Jackson, Tom Kuennen, Dan Brown editorial@betterroads.com Design & Production Art Director: Sandy Turner, Jr. Production Designer: Timothy Smith Advertising Production Manager: Linda Hapner production@betterroads.com Construction Media Senior VP of Market Development, Construction Media: Dan Tidwell VP of Sales, Construction Media: Joe Donald sales@constructionmedia.com Corporate Chairman/CEO: Mike Reilly President: Brent Reilly Chief Process Officer: Shane Elmore Chief Administration Officer: David Wright Senior Vice President, Sales: Scott Miller Senior Vice President, Editorial and Research: Linda Longton Vice President of Events: Alan Sims Vice President, Audience Development: Stacy McCants Vice President, Digital Services: Nick Reid Director of Marketing: Julie Arsenault 3200 Rice Mine Rd NE Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 800-633-5953 randallreilly.com For change of address and other subscription inquiries, please contact: betterroads@halldata.com Better RoadsTM magazine, (ISSN 0006-0208) founded in 1931 by Alden F. Perrin, is published monthly by Randall-Reilly Publishing Company, LLC.© 2013. Executive and Administrative offices, 3200 Rice Mine Rd. N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Qualified subscriptions solicited exclusively from governmental road agencies, contractors, consultants, research organizations, and equipment and materials suppliers. Single copy price $5.00 in U.S. and Canada. Subscription rate for individuals qualified in U.S. and Canada $24.95. Foreign $105.00. Special group rates to companies qualified in quantities over five names. We assume no responsibility for the validity of claims of manufacturers in any advertisement or editorial product information or literature offered by them. Publisher reserves the right to refuse non-qualified subscriptions. Periodical circulation postage paid at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and additional entries. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. For quality custom reprints, e-prints, and editorial copyright and licensing services please contact: Linda Hapner, (224) 723-5372 or reprints@betterroads.com. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to Better Roads, 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E.,  Tuscaloosa, AL  35406. T he million-dollar question in transportation – make that the half-trilliondollar question – is how to find the money to fix our roads. The industry and U.S. Department of Transportation have several ideas and proposed solutions, which have served as Band-Aid solutions. According to the "Four Disciplines of Excellence (4DX)" business concept developed by Sean Covey, Chris McChesney and Jim Huling, "Your chances of achieving two or three goals with excellence are high, but the more goals you try to juggle at once, the less likely you will be to reach them." They instead recommend focusing on your "Wildly Important Goal (WIG)." To many of us, the big WIGs in solving the transportation infrastructure funding problem are in Washington, D.C., but I think the big WIGs solving the problem are everyday Americans. It's the business owners, the workers and the moms who use the roads everyday to produce growth, live their lives and earn a living. Show the business owner spending more money on roads means less time on the roads. Show the worker how spending the necessary $500 billion to fix our roads means a faster commute time to work. Show the mom how better roads mean safer transportation for her family. Convince them the $500 billion is worth it. If we convince them, they'll convince Congress and the president. They'll convince them with their vote. If you drive the voters, you'll drive the politicians to make it happen. If you look at the overall U.S. budget of just less than $4 trillion, we on average need to find $100 billion per year – less than about 2.8 percent of the total budget – if we want to increase infrastructure spending by $100 billion throughout five years. (A potential five-year, $500 billion transportation bill?) The other option: Keep moaning about how bad the roads are and how next year we'll try to figure out how to spend $600 billion throughout six years because it cost us $100 billion in failing infrastructure last year trying to figure it out. Federal Highway Admin Victor Mendez said at the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) annual meeting in September we need to dream big and build big. "As previous generations did for us, it's our responsibility to pass to the next generation the transportation system they'll need to succeed and prosper," he said. "While we often fixate on the cost of transportation… I hope we can focus on its value." We're more than half way into the "Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21)" two-year transportation-funding bill. Let's reach our big WIG of getting voters to understand the value of transportation so by Tina Grady Barbaccia, we can ensure the big whigs in Washington make solving Editor-At-Large the funding issue their WIG. tinabarbaccia@gmail.com Better Roads October 2013 3 EditorsNote_BR1013.indd 3 9/30/13 3:22 PM

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