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Steenhoek: Action needed on infrastructure improvements
The executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition
says he’s grateful for the mention of transportation infrastructure in
Tuesday’s State of the Union Address, but there’s a need for action. Mike
Steenhoek tells Brownfield it is necessary to put resources into improving the
nation’s infrastructure, which he considers investing in the future.
“It’s going to yield benefits in the weeks and months and years to come, the
value of which exceeds the initial expenditure or allocation of resources,”
Steenhoek told Brownfield Ag News Wednesday.
Action doesn’t always mean a large monetary outlay, according to Steenhoek. He
advocates a regulatory change allowing an extra axel on semis to increase their
load carrying capacity by 11,000 pounds.
“You can do so in a way that’s actually safer than the prevailing five-axel,
80,000-pound semis that are commonly utilized,” said Steenhoek, “and it
actually has less of an imprint on the roads.”
Steenhoek says failure to act on infrastructure improvement has less to do with
policy and more to do with personalities standing in the way of progress.
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