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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.