The USA trucking industry’s not-for-profit research organization ATRI (American Transportation Research Institute) has released its annual list highlighting the most congested bottlenecks for trucks on the country’s highway network.
The 2018 Top Truck Bottleneck List assesses the level of truck-oriented congestion at 300 locations on the national highway system. The analysis, based on GPS speed and location data from more than 800,000 heavy-duty trucks, uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with many terabytes of data from trucking operations to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location.
Since 2002, ATRI’s truck GPS data has been used to support the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Freight Performance Measures (FPM) initiative. The locations detailed in the latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations.
For the third straight year, Atlanta’s ‘Spaghetti Junction’, the intersection of Interstates 285 and 85 North, is the most congested freight bottleneck in the country. The rest of the Top 10 includes:
2. Fort Lee, New Jersey: I-95 at SR 4;
3. Chicago: I-290 at I-90/I-94;
4. Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North);
5. Los Angeles: SR 60 at SR 57;
6. Boston: I-95 at I-90;
7. Baltimore: I-695 at I-70;
8. Queens, New York: I-495;
9. Cincinnati: I-71 at I-75;
10. Louisville, Kentucky: I-65 at I-64/I-71.
“‘When your trucks are moving, America is growing’, is what President Trump told the trucking industry last October,” said Dennis Nash, CEO of the Kenan Advantage Group.
“Unfortunately, as ATRI’s report shows, increasingly our trucks are not moving because of congestion, choke points and bottlenecks, on an aging highway system. Addressing congestion and delays at these key interchanges and highways can make our supply chain more efficient, improve the environment by reducing fuel burn, and save Americans countless hours of delay and added costs.”
The American Trucking Associations’ president and CEO, Chris Spear, commented, “As the issue of infrastructure investment comes to the forefront on the national stage, ATRI’s report on truck bottlenecks could not come at a better time.
The safe and efficient movement of freight should be a top priority in any infrastructure package, and this report identifies the areas where investment is most needed. Finding long-term, sustainable funding – like our proposed Build America Fund – to address these needs is critical, and we urge Congress and the Administration to quickly move forward on a plan to tackle this growing crisis.”
