In a move to improve travel and safety on Interstate 10, transportation leaders in Arizona and three nearby states have created a coalition to support innovation along the corridor.

An agreement establishing the voluntary I-10 Corridor Coalition, proposed by Arizona Department of Transportation Director John Halikowski, was signed recently by Halikowski, Malcolm Dougherty, director of the California Department of Transportation; Tom Church, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Transportation; and James Bass, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation.

“The efficient flow of commerce in Arizona drives our state’s economic vitality,” Halikowski said. “This agreement with our transportation partners in California, New Mexico and Texas will work to build a reliable, friction-free I-10 corridor to support Arizona’s businesses and export industries.

“We want to see the day when a truck or a non-commercial vehicle can travel the 1,700 miles between Los Angeles ports and Houston ports safely, efficiently and without delay,” Halikowski said.

The I-10 Corridor Coalition is modeled after a 15-state coalition governing Interstate 95 from Florida to Maine. For Arizona, the partnership is designed to remove what transportation officials refer to as “friction” - such as the permit and inspection practices for commercial vehicles in each state along I-10 - that makes the transport of goods more difficult.

“Someday we want the I-10 corridor to be filled with truck platoons and connected vehicles, weigh-in-motion sensors and automated truck parking lots,” Halikowski said, outlining a vision for the safer, more efficient movement of commercial and non-commercial traffic.