For the third straight year, Atlanta's "Spaghetti Junction," the intersection of Interstates 285 and 85 North, is the most congested freight bottleneck in the country.
This is according to the American Transportation Research Institute, which today released its annual list highlighting the most congested bottlenecks for trucks in America.
The 2018 Top Truck Bottleneck List assesses the level of truck-oriented congestion at 300 locations on the national highway system. The analysis, based on truck GPS data from more than 800,000 heavy-duty trucks uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. ATRI's truck GPS data is used to support the FHWA-sponsored Freight Performance Measures initiative. The locations detailed in this latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations.
"'When your trucks are moving, America is growing,' is what President Trump told the trucking industry last October," said Dennis Nash, Kenan Advantage Group CEO. "Unfortunately, as ATRI's report shows, increasingly our trucks are not moving because of congestion, choke points and bottlenecks on an aging highway system. Addressing congestion and delays at these key interchanges and highways can make our supply chain more efficient, improve the environment by reducing fuel burn and save Americans countless hours of delay and added costs."
Here are the Top 10 worst bottlenecks:
1. Atlanta: I-285 and I-85 North
2. Fort Lee, NJ: I-95 at SR 4;
3. Chicago: I-290 at I-90/I-94;
4. Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 North;
5. Los Angeles: SR 60 at SR 57;
6. Boston: I-95 at I-90;
7. Baltimore: I-695 at I-70;
8. Queens, NY: I-495;
9. Cincinnati: I-71 at I-75 and
10. Louisville, KY: I-65 at I-64/I-71
"As the issue of infrastructure investment comes to the forefront on the national stage, ATRI's report on truck bottlenecks could not come at a better time," said American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear. "The safe and efficient movement of freight should be a top priority in any infrastructure package, and this report identifies the areas where investment is most needed. Finding long-term, sustainable funding — like our proposed Build America Fund — to address these needs is critical and we urge Congress and the Administration to quickly move forward on a plan to tackle this growing crisis."
