Whether you choose to contact your elected officials in their offices on Capitol Hill, in their state or districts, during a field site or manufacturing plant visit, or just by mail, e-mail or telephone, here are some thoughts to bring up with your elected officials when advocating for pavement preservation.
When contacting your elected officials, either in person with the legislator or his or her assistant, or by first class mail or e-mail, always start by explaining your personal connection to them.
For example, do you live or work in their state or district? If you have a facility in the state or district explain how many people work there and explain how the lack of a long term highway reauthorization bill affects them.
Then it will be time to talk about the issue!
FP2 and its allies work to retain pavement preservation provisions in surface transportation program reauthorization bills which come before Congress.
Pavement preservation was eligible for funding in the MAP-21, the FAST Act, and now the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) surface transportation legislation. It’s essential that it’s retained in future surface transportation reauthorizations. That’s because pavement preservation practice extends pavement life, avoiding high future costs of reconstruction or rehabilitation through the expenditure of less money at critical points in a pavement life.
- Pavement preservation is an important tool used to extend public agency resources to increase the useful life of roads at a significant cost savings over the life of the road. Research shows spending $1 to preserve a road in good condition precludes spending $6 to $10 to reconstruct it later, after it’s gone too far to maintain.
- By preserving and extending the life of pavement, thus deferring the need for costly rehabilitation and reconstruction projects, federal highway dollars will go farther, less roadwork disruption will be created for the motorist, and the environment will benefit by decreased emissions from traffic jams, construction equipment and other environmental impacts.
- Extending limited federal, state and local dollars available for road infrastructure via pavement preservation is particularly important when budgets are limited.
- Short-term funding bills result in uncertainty. Public agencies need a multi-year reauthorization so they can plan multi-year projects. Otherwise they lurch from extension to extension, unable to make long-term decisions. This inability to plan is costly to taxpayers, and is not at all cost-effective for maintaining infrastructure.
- Asset management plans are maintained by state and local transportation agencies, which use them to make preservation decisions within a multi-year time frame. Lack of a multi-year reauthorization forces agencies to focus on the more short-sighted “worst first” approach, in which maintenance cash is spent fixing problems rather than planning to prevent future problems.
FP2 Inc. Fights for Pavement Preservation
- On Capitol Hill, FP2 represents all facets of the pavement preservation community. Pre-eminent among its supporters are the Asphalt Emulsion Manufacturers Association, Asphalt Recycling & Reclaiming Association, International Grooving & Grinding Association, International Slurry Surfacing Association, and National Asphalt Pavement Association.
- In addition to its work “inside the Beltway” FP2 is very involved in supporting regional pavement preservation partnerships and councils, and the National Center for Pavement Preservation, all of which help promote wise use of limited dollars by preserving roads.
- FP2 also supports practical field research and development, such as the National Preservation Experiment collaborative research by the National Center for Asphalt Technology, and Minnesota DOT’s MnRoad test tracks, which are pioneering research in pavement preservation performance in different climates, while reducing duplication of state efforts.
Please Reach Out to Your Elected Officials!
Please reach out to your representative and two senators to urge them to support reauthorization of a long-term highway spending bill, and which includes adequate funding for pavement preservation and research.
Your use of these themes will make your outreach easier, and ensure a consistent message from the pavement preservation community.
For more information, please contact FP2 executive director Rick Church, 630.230.1397, [email protected].
To view the *.doc templates, please download and extract the word file below:
FP2 Toolkit for Hosting Elected Officials
Template Letter to Your Member of Congress
Template for Congressional Site Visit Invitation
The links below can be used to find your Representative and Senators. The best way to contact them is through e-mail. District meeting or site visit requests are best scheduled through the closest in-state office. If you need help accessing that information, please let Rick Church ([email protected]) or Tracy Taylor ([email protected]) know and we will be glad to help.
Find your U.S. Senators
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Find your U.S. House Representative
https://www.house.gov/htbin/findrep