Highways official named transport secretary

The White House on Tuesday turned to another highways expert to replace Norman Mineta as transportation secretary with the nomination of Mary Peters to fill the post vacated in July.

President George W. Bush picked Ms Peters, a former federal highways administrator who supports private investment in roads, said her priority would be modernisation of the country’s ageing transportation infrastructure.

Ms Peters, an Arizona Republican who headed the Federal Highways Administration from 2001 until last year, emerged from a pack of contenders including acting secretary Maria Cino, Elaine Chao, the labour secretary, and Marion Blakey, the current head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The aviation sector is likely to form the intitial focus of Ms Peters’ priorities, and the president called for a speedy confirmation process as Congress returned from its summer recess. European Union officials are expected in Washington next week to review the administration’s progress in long-running efforts to liberalise the transatlantic aviation market, efforts which could be stalled by opposition in Congress and from US unions.

Ms Peters will also have to moderate the fierce debate over the future funding of aviation infrastructure, which has pitted commercial airlines against general and corporate users, as well as the long-running dispute over pay between the FAA and air traffic controllers.

The transportion secretary also oversees energy pipelines, with the safety and security of the network under scrutiny following problems in the system run by BP in Alaska.

Mr Minetta, a former highways’ chief in Arkansas, served a six-year term as transportation secretary and worked with Ms Peters on a new road funding bill.

“We are experiencing increasing congestion on our nation’s highways, railways, airports and seaports and we’re robbing our nation of productivity,” she said, standing beside Mr Bush at the White House.

“In some cases, this is the result of systems and structures that are more suited to a bygone era than to the 21st century.”

US business leaders have become increasingly vocal over recent months about the threat posed to US competitiveness by transportation bottlenecks.

Satish Jindel, president of SJ Consulting, a transportation consultancy, said the US needed to increase investment in transportation to a level not seen since construction of the Interstate Highway system in the 1950s.

He said US ports, roads and railways were ill-equipped to cope with the changing trade patterns caused by globalisation. “Goods are arriving at the periphery of our transportation system, through sea ports, and being moved inland,” he said. “The system was not designed to handle so many imports.”

As head of the FHA, Ms Peters was a keen advocate of public-private roadbuilding partnerships, including toll roads. A growing number of US states and cities are turning to toll roads as a way to tackle worsening congestion.

"You just can’t depend on the federal government to bring the money in that was around when the Interstate system was first built,” said Ms Peters, in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

Before taking control of the federal highways, Ms Peters was head of the Arizona Department of Transportation. She was considered a potential Republican candidate for Governor of Arizona until she withdrew from the running last year.