Policymakers should get hip to this timely tip: Investing in Route 66 could create jobs and tourism from Chicago to L.A.
One of the great job creation ideas included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was to make a significant investment in infrastructure – whether it was in roads, bridges, waterways or alternative energy. However, most of the funded projects involve repairing existing structures or building elaborate new ones.
But there’s a low-cost alternative that could create jobs, help relieve several overburdened highways and increase tourism: Revive Route 66.
Originally about 2,450 miles long, the Mother Road ran from Chicago through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, ending in Los Angeles County. It was the path to prosperity not only for those fleeing the Dust Bowl in the 1930s but also for the businesses that sprang up beside it. Established in 1926 as one of the original national highways, Route 66 was removed from the national highway system in 1985.
Parts of the old Route 66 run almost parallel to the highways that replaced it – interstates that are among the nation’s busiest for freight transport and that are filled with potential logjams such as the Cajon Pass on Interstate 15 and the connection between I-44 and I-55 in St. Louis. With construction in urban areas ranging from $20 million to $200 million for a mile of new elevated highway, the reinforcement and repaving of existing surface roads is a relative bargain.
In addition, restoring the national designation of U.S. Highway 66 would give states and cities along the route an opportunity to create a series of marketable destinations. In the case of Southern California, it would provide a destination with historic appeal, something that is often lacking in the region’s tourism efforts. Already immortalized in tourist merchandise, roads signs and songs, Route 66 gives California localities a chance to promote their role in one of the greatest migrations in California history. The benefits for historic towns between Los Angeles and Las Vegas would be significant.
The idea isn’t without precedent. Across the country are several effective pairings of an older U.S. highway with a newer interstate: Interstate 91 and U.S. Route 5 in New England; I-65 and U.S. 31 in much of Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee; and from Washington D.C. to St. Louis, I-70 and U.S. 40 work in tandem along the route of the old National Road.
The window for utilizing stimulus funding is closing, with all money to be spent by the end of 2011. Although a new highway bill is due to be passed this year, the public may not have the stomach to swallow grand new infrastructure projects, and the inadequate money in the highway trust fund does not seem like a pressing concern to a public still battered by a massive recession.
By focusing on smaller steps like Route 66, an opportunity exists to create jobs, improve our infrastructure and build a highway to historic tourism at the same time.