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Today, over 70 percent of general ocean cargo is shipped in containers, and about 11,000,000 containers, representing $1.5 billion in goods, enter the United States each year. As the wave of incoming containers turns tidal, the question becomes whether the nation's transportation system can handle the flood.
What congestion on highways, at ports and on the rails costs our economy is hard to measure. But it is certainly expensive, and by all accounts, it is only going to get worse.
The loss of consensus epitomized by the thousands of earmarks in last year's highway bill may be one of the greatest obstacles to addressing the nation's infrastructure challenge.
The nation's shippers and carriers are fast losing patience with the rapid clogging of the nation's transportation arteries. Their fear: delays, congestion and uncertainty will threaten the nation's prosperity unless we act soon.