A coalition of leading transportation experts hope to marshal public pressure on Congress and the presidential contenders to address the nation’s infrastructure needs.

With long-term transportation funding measures languishing on Capitol Hill and infrastructure getting little notice in the presidential campaign, “the tradition of broad bipartisan support for investments in surface transportation has largely broken down,” the group said.

The plan to energize public support was outlined Monday in a report by transportation experts brought together by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. After a conference this past November, the group concluded that most Americans are aware of the infrastructure crisis and support spending to address it.

“Recent public-opinion surveys have found overwhelming support for the idea of infrastructure investment,” the report said. “After the ‘bridge to nowhere’ controversies of recent years, the public has become sensitized to issues of pork-barrel spending and understandably demands to see a clear connection between federal expenditures, actual transportation needs, and economic benefits.”

Despite “extreme political polarization and intense resistance to public spending of all kinds,” the group hopes to use social and mainstream media to deliver a message that infrastructure investment will create jobs and save the United States from a competitive decline in global markets. Their goal is to link the larger issue to local projects, the benefit of which are more readily apparent to voters.

“It is our belief that once citizens become aware of the significant costs and risks associated with a compromised transportation system operating at less than optimal capacity, they will feel more compelled to demand calls for action that will, in turn, prompt policymakers to act,” the report said.