Approved by the Transportation Policy Committee on April 9, 2024
Approved by the Public Policy and Practice Committee on May 15, 2024 
Adopted by the Board of Direction on July 18, 2024

Policy

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) supports a national intermodal freight mobility program that is flexible, efficient, robust, resilient, and environmentally sustainable; provides a coordinated national foundation to support the nation’s economic growth and global economic competitiveness; and moves goods in a safe, reliable, affordable, and energy-efficient manner. ASCE supports the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Freight Strategic Plan and its strategic goals of modernizing freight infrastructure, improving safety, and encouraging innovation, and the establishment of the Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy (OST-F) within the Office of the Undersecretary of Transportation for Policy. Under this framework, freight network improvements should continue to:

  • Address the efficient flow of raw materials and finished products to support the nation’s business and industry, and which addresses anticipated future growth in demand for the movement of freight.
  • Recognize the growth of e-commerce, its impact on the movement of goods and services, and the resulting need for adaptable freight systems on a national, regional, and local scale. Identify existing and anticipated future national, multimodal freight networks.
  • Identify a mechanism to prioritize and provide funding for public and private multimodal freight improvement projects.
  • Encourage state, regional, and local jurisdictions to work cooperatively with private sector partners to plan and advance projects and strategies to most effectively implement improvements needed to provide safe, secure, and environmentally friendly freight movement critical to the well-being of communities.
  • Ensure robust public investment in all modes of transportation which support freight movement.
  • Offer incentives for additional private investment in freight transportation facilities needed to maintain and improve the condition and performance of the network.
  • Provide a sustainable, dedicated funding source to support necessary repair, improvement, and expansion of freight systems that provides for their improved safety, efficiency, and overall condition.
  • More efficiently deliver freight related infrastructure projects to shorten project delivery times and decrease costs.
  • Expand multimodal flexibility and encourage resilient multimodal solutions to address performance issues.
  • Ensure resilience and provide for the efficient transfer of freight between transport modes and jurisdictions at intermodal connection points to alleviate bottlenecks for freight movement and add capacity to freight facilities.
  • Accommodate freight movement demand while providing compatibility in safety and efficiency with passenger movement on shared transportation facilities which support both passenger and freight travel modes.
  • Plan for the eventual prevalence of connected and automated freight delivery.
  • Promote freight data sharing and transparency to improve the accuracy of freight movement forecasting, enhance the efficiency of the supply chain, and support informed decision-making for freight infrastructure development and policy.

Issue

As the U.S. economy competes in and becomes more reliant on, global markets, and the needs of consumers and industry continue to grow, the movement of goods has gained increasing importance. Freight must move across vast distances, and the nation’s freight transportation network makes it possible to move freight reliably and flexibly across the nation under different transport modes. Additionally, to meet the growing demands of the national and global economy, the freight transportation system needs improved connectivity and level of service at to the major intermodal terminals including seaports, airports, rail terminals, ports of entry, and inland intermodal terminals.

The nation’s economy and population continue to grow, and overall freight demand is expected to increase by approximately 1.6 percent annually over the next 25 years. A snapshot of the existing and anticipated future movement of freight by various modes provides a glimpse of the scale of existing and future system demand which will need to be accommodated:

  • Highways: Trucks carried 13.1 billion tons of freight in 2023 or 65 percent of all freight tonnage that was moved across the nation. This demand is anticipated to grow to nearly 19.3 billion tons by 2050.
  • Rail: The volume of freight being moved on the nation’s railways is projected to grow from 1.5 billion tons in 2023 to nearly 1.9 billion tons by 2050.
  • Ports and Inland Waterways: In 2023, 914 million tons of freight moved by water. The total movement of freight by water is projected to increase to over 1.2 billion tons by 2050.
  • Pipelines: Over 3.8 billion tons of petroleum, chemicals, and other products were transported by pipeline in 2023. This is anticipated to grow to 5.1 billion tons by 2050.
  • Air: Air freight movement totaled 7 million tons in 2023. The volume of air freight will rise to 13 million tons by 2050.
  • International Freight Movement: Total freight imported and exported by all modes to and from U.S. origins and destinations totaled 2.5 billion tons in 2023 and will grow to 4 billion tons in 2050.

Improving the efficient and safe flow of freight across all modes of transportation is critical to the health of the U. S. economy and to protect the future of the nation's global competitiveness.

Rationale

An efficient and economical freight transportation system is critical for transporting raw materials and finished products that support business and industry. An efficient national freight transportation network allows businesses to provide cost-effective transportation of goods, which thereby helps control production costs and enhances productivity and profits. It allows U.S. businesses to be competitive in the global marketplace and for the nation's economy to prosper and grow. The U.S. needs to increase its policy focus and priority in funding for strategic investments in freight mobility that can reduce congestion and grow the economy more sustainably.

ASCE Policy Statement 546
First Approved in 2015