It’s no secret that America’s rural roads and bridges face significant challenges, with 12% of major rural roads rated in poor condition and 8% of rural bridges rated as poor/structurally deficient in 2023. Developed by American Infrastructure Partners, United Bridge Partners, and CenterPoint Properties in partnership with the City of Joliet, the recently completed Houbolt Road Extension project in Illinois stands out as an example of how private investment can address these critical infrastructure gaps, both by building better bridges and taking stress off rural roads.
Private Development and Rural Infrastructure Needs
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021, directs $40 billion to bridges over five years — the largest dedicated bridge investment in decades. But even that scale of government investment will make only a dent in an estimated $319 billion of bridge repairs needed nationwide, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
And rural areas are a big part of the funding need. The Federal Highway Administration estimates a $198 billion backlog in needed repairs and improvements to rural roads, highways, and bridges across the U.S. This encompasses $97 billion for rural road and highway rehabilitation, $53 billion for rural bridge rehabilitation, and a $48 billion backlog for rural roadway expansions and enhancements. With public funding often falling short, private capital providers like American Infrastructure Partners and United Bridge Partners have stepped up to help fund infrastructure projects that repair or take stress off rural roads and bridges.
The Houbolt Road Extension Project
The HRE addresses longstanding transportation challenges in a key logistics hub of the Chicago metropolitan area. Joliet’s strategic location at the intersection of primary highways facilitates the movement of nearly $100 billion in goods annually, but this economic activity has also brought extensive traffic congestion, environmental impacts, and safety concerns for residents.
The centerpiece of the HRE project is a new bridge, developed with substantial private funding from American Infrastructure Partners and United Bridge Partners. The bridge will feature direct access from the CenterPoint Intermodal Center to Interstate 80, taking traffic off local roads like Route 53.
Since opening, it has dramatically improved transportation efficiency in the area. Truck routes have been streamlined, reducing local traffic congestion and cutting truck idle time by approximately 20,540 hours per year. This translates to annual savings of around $122,000 in fuel, mileage, and maintenance costs for trucking operations.
The project addresses issues that had been worsening for years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the HRE, trucks from the CenterPoint Intermodal Center faced long, congested routes through residential areas, leading to increased road damage, higher accident risks, and disrupted commutes for locals. The new bridge is a safe and efficient link for truck traffic, effectively rerouting large and hazardous loads from the city center to designated highways and bypasses.
The environmental benefits of the HRE project are also substantial. The bridge has reduced annual CO2 emissions by 240.5 metric tons and nitrogen oxide emissions by 1.9 tons. The carbon reduction is equivalent to the absorption capacity of 817 acres of forests or the impact of growing 11,500 tree seedlings over a decade.
The Broader Context
The success of the Houbolt Road Extension project is particularly noteworthy when considered against the broader backdrop of rural transportation challenges in the U.S.
A 2024 report by national transportation research nonprofit Trip highlights the poor condition of many rural roads and bridges and the need to reduce the damage caused by transportation in these areas. America’s rural regions, which cover 97% of the nation’s land area, rely heavily on a transportation network that’s showing observable signs of distress.
According to the report, rural roads have a traffic fatality rate of 2.01 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, nearly double the rate of 1.12 deaths per 100 million VMT on all other roads. In 2022, crashes on rural routes resulted in 15,121 fatalities, representing 36% of the nation’s total traffic fatalities while accounting for only 23% of vehicle miles traveled.
The condition of rural roads and bridges is a considerable contributing factor to these safety issues. In addition to the 12% of major rural roads rated in poor condition, another 19% are rated in mediocre condition. The 8% of rural bridges rated as poor/structurally deficient represents 33,438 structures, accounting for 79% of all poor/structurally deficient bridges in the country.
These statistics speak to the critical need for projects like the Houbolt Road Extension across rural America. The HRE project’s focus on improving safety by rerouting truck traffic away from local roads and reducing congestion aligns with broader recommendations for enhancing rural road safety, which include implementing cost-effective roadway safety improvements, enhancing enforcement and education, and improving emergency response times.
The Trip report estimates that implementing $146 billion in needed, cost-effective roadway safety improvements on U.S. roadways would save approximately 63,700 lives and reduce serious injuries from traffic crashes by around 350,000 over 20 years. In other words, every $100 million spent on needed roadway safety improvements would reduce traffic fatalities by 44 and serious traffic injuries by 760 over two decades.
The HRE addresses another critical issue highlighted in the Trip report: the need for improved connectivity in rural areas. The report notes that 66 U.S. cities with populations of 50,000 or more don’t have direct access to the Interstate Highway System. This lack of connectivity impedes economic growth in many rural areas. The HRE project, by providing direct access from an intermodal center to Interstate 80, exemplifies the type of connectivity enhancement that could benefit many rural communities.
American Infrastructure Partners’ use of private capital to fund the HRE offers a potential model for addressing a broader rural funding gap. The Trip report notes that while the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has provided a notable boost in federal investment, including a $2 billion rural surface transportation grant program, the needs far outstrip available public funding.
A private investment approach allows for faster project delivery and can bring private sector efficiency to infrastructure development and operation. A combination of increased public funding, innovative financing mechanisms, and strategic private sector partnerships will likely be necessary to address the full scope of rural transportation needs, but public-private partnerships like the HRE could be effective in addressing a variety of rural transportation needs across the country, including the need to reroute commercial traffic away from rural roads.
In its leveraging of private capital, focus on connectivity, prioritizing of safety, and delivery of environmental benefits, the project provides a potential blueprint for infrastructure development across the country.
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