Prepared Remarks for

Julie Nelson

Deputy Maritime Administrator

Crescent Club

Dallas, TX

Thursday, April 12

7 p.m.

Good evening. It is an honor to address such a distinguished group of ‘movers and shakers’ within the vast American transportation network.

Usually, I bring greetings from the Bush Administration and Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to a much larger audience, and I never know whether or not I have the interests—or the attention—of those in the back rows.

Today, however, I bring a more intimate greeting from President Bush and Secretary Peters, a message of appreciation to convey to each of you individually. I hope that you accept it with the knowledge of your importance within the transportation network upon which America relies.

Secretary Peters recently said that “Transportation and freedom have gone hand in hand.” That freedom is about more than money and lifestyle – that it actually lays at the heart of one of our most fundamental American values.

Congestion can adversely impact freedom and America’s quality of life and economic development. Congestion is costly, too. It already costs the nation $200-billion a year in lost time, lost revenue, and wasted fuel. Congestion is choking America’s highways, railroads, airports, seaports, and is a major threat to economic prosperity.

Most Americans—myself included—often think of Texas as a place where folks put a high value on ‘freedom’, on boldly ‘staking one’s claim’ to land, opportunity, the chance to brave an unknown future knowing that, with hard work and a lot of perseverance, success can be achieved.

It’s appropriate then for a representative from America’s capital to come to the Lone Star State with a message of appreciation, and to marvel at the Texas-sized innovation, grit, imagination, determination, and national benefit coming out of this great state.

Of course, there’s a saying that’s become a cultural cliché that ‘Everything’s Bigger in Texas’ and this is unfortunately true when it comes to the transportation congestion that plagues America’s roadways, railways, and ports.

That’s why this past May, the Bush Administration rolled out a comprehensive Congestion Relief Strategy. It is a priority of the Department of Transportation to find solutions to reduce congestion on America’s transportation network.

Albert Einstein once said, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them." And, Yogi Berra once said, "If you do what you always done, you’ll get what you always got."

The Allen Group has done something dramatically different.

It has come up with an appropriately grand solution, and the Department of Transportation applauds your enormous efforts in developing the largest new logistics park in North America.

The Dallas Logistics Hub—even in Washington, we refer to it as THE HUB—will serve as an example of how private investment within the transportation network can greatly reduce today’s congestion and help America prepare for the future demands on the nation’s already congested surface transportation network.

We at the Maritime Administration have been making preparations for the anticipated doubling and tripling of international cargo transportation by applying the use of ‘agile port systems.’ Agile ports’ refers to the attention placed on the interconnectivity between the physical design, the business process, and the operational characteristics that will increase the velocity of cargo moving through ports and terminals as compared to current rates and practices.

MARAD believes that the Agile Port concept has the potential to double productivity over existing methods. What America’s infrastructure needs is more investment and more innovation coming out of the private sector like the endeavor represented by the hard work of the Allen Group and the contribution to a more rapid flow of goods offered by The Hub.

The Federal government understands this as well and the Maritime Administration already has people in Southern California working with other agencies to address congestion. The Department of Transportation’s developed a Gateway Initiative, which is a powerful planning tool—one that enables all levels of public and private partnership participants to better see the connections between traffic flows of all kinds and our economy, community, and environmental concerns.

Last week, The Maritime Administrator, Sean Connaughton, announced a sweeping reorganization and modernization of the Maritime Administration to make sure that the Federal government is as prepared for the future as the people of Texas.

Within this announcement, Administrator Connaughton unveiled MARAD’s plan to open a gateway office in Houston. My agency will now have the privilege of being able to serve and communicate not only one of America’s busiest ports, but also be close to support and share vital information and experience with the Dallas Hub.

The Hub’s unique rail and highway access helps position Southern Dallas County as the premier trade hub in the Southwestern U.S. and will serve as the gateway for the distribution of goods to the major population centers throughout the Central and Eastern regions of the Unites States—and will create approximately 31,000 direct and 32,000 indirect jobs. I call that a Texas-sized vision.

One of the ports that will be utilizing The Hub will be the Port of Houston.

As all of you here know, the Port of Houston is the largest container port on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the 8^th largest port overall in the U.S., and the 50^th largest worldwide.

The Port of Houston has entered the post-panamax revolution with 7 Mediterranean Shipping Corp’s container vessels making regular calls. These vessels are too large to use the Panama Canal; instead, the containers they carry move through Houston and take advantage of the Texas rail and Highway systems to reach destinations throughout the entire nation.

Some of this volume will be handled by The Hub and travel from there to the rest of America.

The Allen Group’s example is helping Government and industry better understand the direct correlation between proper investments and outcomes that facilitate the flow of goods and combat congestion.

I offer America’s sincerest appreciation for your investment, vision, and service to the nation through the infrastructure you have created. I’m looking forward to seeing all of you at the grand opening ceremony tomorrow as we celebrate this transportation feat.

On behalf of the Bush Administration and Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, thank you again for the privilege of speaking with you tonight.

Thank you.

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