The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) president and CEO Michael Johnson says freight rail issues are severely impacting the U.S. aggregates industry.
The NSSGA recently submitted comments to the Surface Transportation Board detailing these issues and urging action.
Flagging his and the association's concerns, Johnson says: "Our members use freight rail as a method to supply aggregates and industrial sand around the country to build infrastructure and our communities. The recent Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has only increased the demand for product to update our crumbling infrastructure.
"The poor and deteriorating service faced by freight rail shippers has critically put a strain on companies to successfully supply customers and build projects around the country. This is unacceptable, not just for our members but for our entire country, as this is a crisis that creates a ripple effect that will harm the livelihoods of all Americans. Increases in shipping costs and longer service times will create price increases and delays to building new water systems, modernizing our transportation networks, ports and airports and ensuring materials are reaching communities to create new housing, schools and hospitals.
"There are several potential steps that we have proposed to alleviate these issues. For example, NSSGA supports expanded availability of reciprocal switching and the Surface Transportation Board (STB) efforts of data collection on first mile/last mile movement with transparency and metrics. We thank the STB for holding this week's hearing and urge them to take swift action so our nation's infrastructure materials can continue being delivered on time."
