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Congestion on the nation’s highways will cost Americans $276 billion annually by 2020, according to a new report from the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor and environmental groups.

If recent upward trends in freight flow continue, they could exacerbate the traffic congestion in communities that lie along heavily traveled freight routes, a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office said.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has asked Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to create a multimodal freight initiative within the Department of Transportation.

Trucks account for only 7% of the miles traveled in the nation’s urban areas but they shoulder 29% of the costs that urban traffic congestion produces annually in wasted time and fuel, according to the annual Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute of Texas A&M University.

The cost of U.S. traffic congestion has jumped to $115 billion in 2009 from $24 billion in 1982, and trucks are shouldering a disproportionate share of the cost, according to a report released this week.

The continuing delay in passing a new long-term highway bill has trucking executives and transportation officials worried about the effects on the U.S. freight network, according to David Abney, chief operating officer of UPS Inc.