Busy Interstates to get $11M for Truck Parking

Two of the nation’s busiest interstates will receive $11 million, more than $5 million each, in federal support for innovative strategies to reduce the frustration of truckers looking for parking on congested routes, Acting Federal Highway Administrator Jim Ray announced Wednesday, July 9.

Ray added that the two interstates, I-95 and I-5, also were selected last September under the Corridors of the Future Program, part of the Department of Transportation’s national congestion initiative. DOT chose the East Coast’s I-95 and the West’s I-5 for the Truck Parking Facilities program because of innovative uses of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technology to provide truckers with real-time information on available parking.

The technology will monitor parking availability and transmit the updates to truckers; both corridors will explore ways to allow truckers to reserve parking spaces ahead of time. "Instead of hunting for parking and adding to traffic problems, truckers can know when spots are vacant to plan their stops and time the delivery of goods into major cities," Ray says. "Predictability is good for businesses selling products and consumers buying them."

Ray says the selection of I-95 and I-5 was based on a corridor-wide approach to addressing congestion along interstates heavily used to transport freight. On I-95, average daily truck traffic is more than 10,000 on certain stretches, with maximum daily truck traffic above 31,000. On I-5, average daily truck traffic is near 10,000, with a maximum above 35,000. The two corridors represent 10 percent of total interstate truck traffic.