The Road to (and From) Memphis: National transportation officials to convene in mid-November

ANDY MEEK | The Daily News
October 20, 2006

When Congress passed the $286.4 billion transportation bill last year, critics griped that billions in pork-barrel projects had been needlessly tucked into the legislation.

Even Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee that drafted the bill, reportedly said of the package that he "stuffed it like a turkey."

But whether the legislation included its share of fat that should have been trimmed, it also has generated some big-league federal attention that soon will shine on Memphis, the city lauded as the distribution capital of the world.

The transportation bill's cumbersome title was the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act - A Legacy for Users. Among other things, it created a 12-member commission of transportation industry professionals, all appointed by President George W. Bush.

'Big deal' for Memphis

That commission plans to fan out across the country over the next few weeks, holding a series of public hearings with federal, state and local transportation officials and experts. In broad terms, the group - titled the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission - intends to help set the country's transportation policy for the next decade or so.

To do that, its members will attend six field hearings across the United States, one of which is scheduled for next month in Memphis. And among the out-of-town guests who may join the commissioners at that hearing could be newly confirmed Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, who's still deciding whether to attend the group's hearing in Memphis or New York.

"This is a big deal," said State Sen. Mark Norris, R-Memphis, chairman of the state senate's transportation committee. "Memphis is strategically located, so people generally know that it's important, and because we have the largest cargo airport in the world, people know about FedEx and are generally aware of the importance of the Mississippi River.

"But I don't think most people realize the strategic importance of Memphis to the Southeast U.S. and to the entire world as an inland port, from which and through which much of the world's commerce passes."

That's why the event is big news for the city, said Norris, whose law firm - Adams & Reese LLP - is sponsoring the opening reception for attendees at the commission's hearings.

"It's sort of from that global perspective that we want to present an agenda to the commission about what it will take to remain competitive in the world as we move forward," Norris said.

Let the entouraging begin

Dexter Muller, senior vice president of the Memphis Regional Chamber, circulated a memo earlier this month explaining that the actual schedule of the Nov. 15-16 hearing in Memphis still is being worked out.

As of earlier this week, organizers still were scouting the city for potential venues that meet federal parameters and are easily accessible. So far, all the possibilities are along Main Street Downtown. They include Central Station, Memphis City Hall and the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.

The Memphis Regional Chamber, which is co-hosting the commission's Memphis hearing, expects about six members of the 12-member transportation group to attend, along with their staffs.

A helicopter tour has been suggested as the best way to get a look at the intermodal aspects of the Memphis area's transportation infrastructure. Other tour possibilities include FedEx, rail facilities and port sites.

Roadway to discussions

The commission includes various transportation secretaries, commissioners and related professionals, along with four CEOs, the chairman of the American Trucking Association and the director of undergraduate studies in Cornell University's Department of Policy Analysis and Management. In Memphis, they'll likely be discussing everything from highways to rail lines, ports and airport traffic.

Hearings will be held in New York, Memphis, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago. A hearing was held in Dallas in September.

"The commission's charge is to report to the president and Congress by July 1 of 2007 their vision, based on hearings being held all over the country," Norris said. "And there aren't many of those hearings, but one of them will be here in Memphis."

Locally, the group will have a lot to hear and talk about. Martha Lott, coordinator of the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization, said that includes the difficulties of managing a large-scale MPO and the current study that's under way to consider the necessity of a third bridge spanning the Mississippi River.

"Some of the big things we're looking at right now are the third bridge study, intermodalism, multimodalism, the regional port, we have Memphis International Airport, and with us being the major distribution hub that we are, whether our roads are coming along as they should," Lott said.

Before the bank breaks

The commission has other big-ticket items to look at, either in the hearings or in addition to them. Buildings roads, bridges and other transportation needs can be among the costliest public works projects, for example, yet Norris said the federal highway fund basically will be tapped out in about two years.

Kenny Crenshaw, owner and president of the local lawn and landscape company Herbi-Systems Inc., knows something about the importance of trucking lines to a business. And he's fought a legislative battle for more than a decade against federal trucking regulations he contends have been unfairly enforced at the state level.

The law was intended for large vehicles, Crenshaw said, but enforcement eventually expanded at the state level to include major restrictions for small-business owners like him who depend on smaller trucks.

"It's important, because this whole nation depends on trucks," he said. "You can talk about rail or whatever else, but eventually something's going to get where it needs to go by truck."

Tentatively, the schedule for the Memphis hearings includes commission members arriving late on Nov. 14 and attending a VIP reception that evening. From 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. the following day, there will be panel hearings, which will continue the day after that.

The final day's schedule also includes the possibility of touring sites around the city, with commissioners leaving Memphis in the late afternoon.