A safe and modern transportation system is one of the most fundamental, but also one of the greatest, public services that any government can provide.
We in West Virginia, in particular, have long recognized the importance of our transportation system to our well-being. Without good roads, our mountain communities have found it impossible, or nearly so, to attract new businesses, to sufficiently grow jobs and to keep young West Virginians building careers and rearing their own families here at home. For that reason, I have worked diligently to provide federal support for construction of roads and other transportation infrastructure throughout southern West Virginia.
Proof that sound transportation infrastructure does make a difference is evident in the bustling new business complexes and construction sites springing up along modern highways and around transportation sites throughout the region.
For example, in Cabell County, restaurants, retail stores, financial institutions and motels have flocked to Pullman Square. With the construction of the intermodal facility, for which I secured over $26 million in federal funding, and the transit and other services it provides, Pullman Square has become the core of the Huntington downtown renaissance -- a vibrant center of activity.
The Merritt's Creek Connector at U.S. Route 60 and West Virginia Route 2, for which I secured $10 million, has also drawn a whirlwind of economic activity to the area and contributed energy to another booming retail and commercial center for Cabell County.
Also, through my efforts at Marshall University, we now have the Rahall Transportation Institute (RTI). As a vehicle for expanded university-based research, RTI is an investment with multiple benefits.
In fact, RTI is poised to help catalyze the Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (MIIR), a program envisioned as a dynamic center that can attract new and greater levels of research dollars to the Huntington area. Beyond serving as a new source for research that can benefit the state and the nation, the Institute can attract bright professionals and promising students with spinoff benefits -- like new private-sector businesses and jobs -- to the local economy.
RTI already enjoys a sound reputation for research into transportation and transportation-related fields. Its continued success can only attract more federal research dollars and matching monies that would benefit the university, the MIIR and the surrounding area. Certainly, as a leader in transportation -- a sector that literally touches a majority of the sciences, from engineering to ecology, from energy to economics -- RTI will prove to be a boon to efforts to broaden research efforts at the university.
I look forward to the coming months when Congress will begin work on the 2009 federal highway reauthorization. As the co-chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I will be deeply involved in crafting that legislation and will be keeping the needs of West Virginia in the forefront of my mind.
For example, projects like the widening of Route 10, construction of the King Coal Highway, as well as the Coalfields Expressway, and the pedestrian bridge to Harris Riverfront Park from Pullman Square are all initiatives for which I have fought tooth and nail and projects that offer a wonderful return on investment. These and other initiatives are intrinsically tied to the movement of commerce and workers.
Meanwhile, the state of West Virginia has compiled a list of next-generation transportation projects it plans to support financially. Unfortunately and importantly, that list leaves many projects in southern West Virginia sitting by the side of the road. It has fallen upon those of us who call this region home to convince the state of the merits of these projects.
The state must become, sooner rather than later, a full partner in southern West Virginia's transportation needs. To do anything less is to deprive our region of its fair share and to hinder the state's ability to truly flourish economically. After all, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and a state that invests in some places but deprives others cannot, as a whole, prosper for the long term.
As we in Congress prepare to craft a new highway bill, I look forward to working with federal, state and local governments, as well as with members of the public and private entities, to ensure that crucial investments are put into place in West Virginia that will keep America competitive for generations to come.
U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) serves the Third Congressional District.
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