Improve access for the travel, recreation, and tourism industries

Tourism is one of the strongest economic engines in the country yet many “hotspots” face major congestion and seasonal bottlenecks.

• In three states, the tourism and recreation industries rank as the most important, as measured by employment. Overall, tourism, travel and recreation are the top ten industries in all but two states.

• Many of the nation’s most popular tourist destinations experience significant travel delays. Many of these destinations are not close to the Interstate of National Highway System routes.


Day-trippers Adding to Delays on I-70 Mountain Corridor

Colorado’s I-70 Mountain Corridor is a frustrating drive of bumper-to-bumper traffic on summer and winter weekends, during holidays and often in-between. The primary route west of Denver, traffic on I-70 is so heavy that it adds an hour to a normal trip down from the mountains on a Sunday afternoon. By 2035, it is expected to take an extra three hours, impacting not just the communities that rely on I-70, but freight haulers and anyone else traveling across the state.

The Morrisville Route 100 Bypass in Vermont

Unclogging traffic through Morrisville, Vermont, by providing a bypass has been an agency priority for 30 years. Morrisville is located in northern Vermont, just eight miles northeast of Stowe, Vermont’s signature ski destination. During Vermont’s fall foliage season, Route 100 is one of the state’s busiest thoroughfares. Narrow and winding, the road was laid out more than a century ago and was never intended to carry the kind of auto traffic it experiences today.

Mid-Currituck Sound Bridge Would Help Unclog the Roads to North Carolina’s Beaches

North Carolina’s Outer Banks attract visitors from all across the Eastern seaboard; unfortunately the accompanying traffic congestion is maddening for tourists and residents alike. The queue of traffic begins at Kitty Hawk and extends several miles back into Currituck County. To help alleviate congestion in the northern end of the Outer Banks and to improve emergency evacuations from this hurricane-prone area, planning is underway for the Mid-Currituck Sound Bridge. This should significantly reduce congestion at the northern end of the Outer banks.

For more information and for detailed examples by state of needed capacity on both the National Highway System and the Interstates, go to http://ExpandingCapacity.transportation.org.

More information on AASHTO’s authorization programs can be found at http://AreWeThereYet. transportation.org.