USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood spoke to a national infrastructure forum in Pennsylvania Tuesday and declared that he was optimistic about the timing of major transportation policy legislation in Washington, D.C.

The forum, titled "America's Infrastructure at a Crossroads," was hosted by Building America's Future and included a panel of experts who examined the urgent needs facing the nation's infrastructure and focused on solutions to increase America's safety and quality of life, create jobs, stimulate economic growth, and improve transparency and accountability.

LaHood addressed the forum via satellite, and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, leader of Building America's Future, moderated the panel and discussed the importance of increased infrastructure investment and the benefits that investment would provide for the economy.

"What we're trying to do is focus attention on the need for America to continue to invest in its infrastructure," Rendell said on CNBC. "Infrastructure investment is the single best producer of good paying American jobs on construction sites and factories that can't be outsourced."

The key to improving the transportation infrastructure in this country is the long-awaited surface transportation reauthorization bill, according to LaHood. While the $48 billion provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has created many transportation construction jobs across the country, the only way to maintain that success would be to pass long-term transportation legislation.

"We need a blueprint for America's transportation infrastructure and the jobs that infrastructure work will create," LaHood wrote on his blog. "We've had a lot of discussion so far about what that bill will look like and how we're going to fund the investment we need. And that discussion must continue to look at innovative ways to pay for the necessary work ahead."

Another major topic LaHood discussed at the event was high-speed rail and his hopes that, in the near future, Congress will make a serious investment in those programs. LaHood has been very supportive of increasing high-speed rail programs throughout the country.

"We don't know where the lines will fall on a map or where the money will come from, but I promise you in less time than it took to create our interstates, [the country] will have high-speed rail," LaHood said. LaHood also predicted that 80 percent of the country would be connected via high-speed rail in 25 years.

Also speaking on the panel were: Andrew Moore, director at Google; Jon Corzine, chairman and CEO, MF Global Holdings; Dick Gephardt, president and CEO, Gephardt Government Affairs, and former majority leader of the House; Terry O'Sullivan, general president, Laborers' International Union of North America; William Stout, chairman and CEO, Gannett Fleming Engineering; and Kelly Lewis, president and CEO, TechQuest PA.

Video and photos from the event are available at http://bafuture.org/usxroads.