The industries and farms of the Mississippi Valley region can compete in the marketplace only if their products can move reliably, safely and at reasonable cost to market. Growing congestion threatens the sustainability of this freight movement. The people of the region are dependent upon farms and industries for their livelihoods and their economic quality of life depends on the flow of goods to our markets. The Mississippi Valley Freight Coalition was created to protect and support the economic wellbeing of the industries, farms and people of the region by keeping the products of those industries, farms and people flowing to markets reliably, safely, and efficiently. The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) established a National University Transportation Center at the University of Wisconsin. This National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education will focus on Sustainable Freight Transportation Infrastructure and Systems. The Midwest Regional University Transportation Center (MRUTC) at the University of Wisconsin participated with seven other states in the upper Midwest on a two-phase study for the Upper Midwest Freight Corridor. The outcomes of this study were taken to the AASHTO¿s Mississippi Valley Board of Directors for their approval (through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding) to establish a regional organization to cooperate in the planning, operation, preservation and improvement of transportation infrastructure in the Mississippi Valley region and in efforts to engage the public and private sectors in the process to enhance system performance and operations. The Board of Directors had several requests. Those included adding three additional states in our activities (Kansas, Kentucky, and Missouri), and the formation of an executive committee, technical committee and customer committee. All ten member states¿ representatives on the Board of Directors then signed the MOU at their October 29, 2006 meeting in Portland. Then during a November 30, 2006 teleconference of the MVFC Executive Committee, the charter, pooled fund, and three priority initiatives were approved.

· Share information between agencies that will improve the understanding of freight issues and the management of freight services and facilities · Reach out to and share ideas with private sector shippers and carriers on approaches to making freight flow more smoothly through the region · Gather, analyze and share information on the movement of freight throughout the region with sister agencies and with private sector interests · Define a system of regionally significant freight highway, rail and water corridors and facilities and establish performance expectations for those facilities that will guide their management and operations · Evaluate, implement and operate technologies and other roadway appurtenances from a regional perspective and in a manner that supports the reliable, efficient and safe movement of freight · Evaluate, implement and enforce traffic and vehicle regulations that promote the reliable, efficient and safe movement of freight · Identify corridors or bottlenecks that frustrate the movement of freight and then taking actions, individually or as a group, to improve those corridors or bottlenecks · Define and support national transportation policies that will support and improve the movement of freight in the region

The Coalition seeks to work closely with the ten states of the Mississippi Valley region to maximize the operational efficiency of the freight transportation system within our region. This can be achieved through the accomplishment of the objectives above. The objectives can be accomplished through a close working relationship between and executive committee made up of CEOs of each of the ten state DOTs, a technical committee made up of freight policy and traffic operations advisors, and a customer committee made up of shippers and carriers in the region, providing the perspective of the private sector. Through effective communication between all committees, coordinated by staff of the Wisconsin Transportation Center, a Coalition Action Plan will be generated that identifies research projects, workshops and planning and outreach activities to guide the Coalition¿s efforts.

This project is currently underway. It is WisDOT's intention to close this project in September of 2013 and and start a 2nd generation project in April of 2013. The overlap is to ensure work does not halt during FHWA approval.