Limited Highway Expansion

The speed and reliability of the American road system are expected to deteriorate as vehicle traffic grows and congestion increases. In fact, between 1980 and 2000, vehicle miles went up 80%, but the number of public road lane miles grew by only 2%. That trend is expected to continue.

Adding lanes to highways or building new ones is extremely expensive, on average $32 million per lane mile. Moreover, political and environmental issues make new roads even more difficult and slow to build. The six-year highway reauthorization signed into law in August 2005 cost more than $286 billion, yet most of this money is designated for highway maintenance, not expansion.

In contrast, the full capital cost of SeaBridge's coastal services is less than half of the lowest cost proposal to expand north/south I-81 in western Virginia alone. The entire SeaBridge route plan can be put into operation in only a few years.