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Infrastructure advocates present a cracked and badly deteriorating concrete birthday cake on the 60th anniversary of the nation’s interstate system

June 27, 2016

On the 60th anniversary of the creation of the nation’s Interstate System, the General Contractors Association of New York (GCA) the Long Island Contractors’ Association (LICA), the Construction Industry Council (CIC), AAA New York State, and the Trucking Association of New York are warning the region’s congressional delegation that some seventy-two percent of the goods shipped annually from sites in New York are carried by trucks driving on deteriorating Interstate shopantibioticsonline.com roads; but without an increase in the federal excise tax on gasoline, the city’s very ability to function will be placed at economic risk.

“New York may depend on mass transit to get people to work; but what they eat, the office supplies they need, the milk their children drink, the clothes they wear and much more all arrive on the Interstate road system. And that road network is in slow motion disintegration because Congress refuses to consider raising the excise tax on a gallon of gas,” stated Denise Richardson, GCA’s executive director.

Richardson said the region’s Interstate system is becoming a victim of time, advancing automotive technology, neglect and the lack of political will. “The gasoline tax is the single largest source of transportation infrastructure funding.  For over two decades, the federal gas tax has remained at a flat rate of 18.4 cents per gallon, meaning that the typical driver today is paying approximately the same $3 per tank of gas to support our road network that they did during 1993.  Those dollars don’t even begin to cover the cost of repair and upkeep and the imbalance is only getting worse.”
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