WASHINGTON — It seems it’s always time for traffic problems in Fort Lee these days.

It’s because the George Washington Bridge is under construction.

The stretch of Interstate 95 at the intersection of Route 4 in Fort Lee is the most congested section of highway in America, according to a report issued Tuesday by the American Transportation Research Institute, the trucking industry’s research arm.

The average speed during peak traffic times was 23 miles per hour, down from 25 mpg a year ago. The overall speed was 31.7 mph, down from 35.3 mph.

The intersection reclaimed the No. 1 position it last held in 2014, according to the study, based on GPS data from almost 1 million trucks at 300 locations.

Institute President Rebecca Brewster said that ongoing construction work on the George Washington Bridge contributed to the low rating. One lane is being closed during off-hours to allow the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to replace 592 suspension cables.

“The bad news is it drives your ranking up,” Brewster said. “The good news is, in most cases, when you see construction completed, they go back down the list.”

Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the work was being done at midday and overnight to minimize its impact on traffic. “It’s really not causing significant delays for people,” he said.

Still, since the data measures truck speeds on a 24-hour basis, any reduction in speed as lanes are closed, even at low-traffic times, has an impact.

I-95 switched places with the Atlanta junction of I-85 and the northern side of I-285. which had been the most congested intersection for three years in a row. Another Atlanta intersection, I-75 and the northern side of I-285, was third.

Two other New Jersey locations were on the list:

* I-287 in Piscataway (No. 78)

* The intersection of Interstates 76 and 676 in Camden (No. 90).

A year ago, I-287 wasn’t on the list while the I-76-676 intersection was ranked 97th.

Texas had the most bottlenecks, 13, followed by California with seven and Connecticut, Georgia and Washington with six apiece.

The cost of congestion to truckers climbed to almost $75 billion. That’s 1.2 billion hours sitting in traffic, the equivalent of 425,533 drivers sitting idle for a year.

The report came out a week after President Donald Trump issued a call for a bipartisan infrastructure bill in his State of the Union address, and the head of the American Trucking Associations said it added more urgency to the need to spend more money on the nation’s roads and bridges.

"This report should be a wake-up call for elected leaders at all levels of government that we must act quickly to address our increasingly congested highway system,” said Chris Spear, president and chief executive of the American Trucking Associations.

“Without meaningful investment in our nation’s infrastructure, carriers will continue to endure billions of dollars in congestion-related costs – which results in a self-inflicted drag on our economy.”

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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