By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter This story appears in the March 10 print edition of Transport Topics.
The United States needs to spend $65 billion to $86 billion annually over the next 20 years to maintain its current highway infrastructure, the Department of Transportation said.
The estimate, contained in DOT’s biennial report to Congress made public Feb. 28, said the new spending projection was a decline from $101 billion projected in the previous report, released in 2012.
However, to improve the conditions of highways and bridges by implementing “all cost-beneficial investments,” it would require an estimated $123.7 billion to $145.9 billion per year, the report said.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, who has been on the speaking circuit in recent weeks touting President Obama’s $302 billion transportation spending plan for the next four years, said the report confirms the need for more investment.
“We have an infrastructure deficit in this country, and we need to create more jobs — improving our roads, bridges and transit systems will provide help on both fronts,” Foxx said in a Feb. 28 statement announcing the new report.
The report also said an increasing number of freight shipments will make it more difficult for carriers to continue to operate efficiently — particularly if capacity expansions and operational improvements are not implemented on major freight corridors.
“The resulting decrease in operational efficiency would increase transportation costs,” the report said.
The investment estimates, which include spending by federal, state and local governments, declined in part due to Recovery Act investments between 2008 and 2010, the report said.
Overall, highway safety and road and bridge conditions improved from 2008 to 2010.
For example, the report said travel on pavements with “good ride quality” rose to 50.6% in 2010 from 46.4% in 2008.
“This 4.2% increase represents the highest two-year jump ever since the metric was first used in 1995,” DOT said. “While the report shows overall pavement and bridge conditions have improved in many areas, the improvements have not been uniform across the system.”
The report also indicates that as much as $24.5 billion is needed per year to improve the condition of transit rail and bus systems.
In 2010, total spending to maintain and expand transit systems was $16.5 billion — a level also boosted by Recovery Act dollars, the report said.
The report “once again confirms the deepening revenue hole facing the federal-aid highway program,” said Darrin Roth, director of highway operations for American Trucking Associations. “The longer Congress and the White House put off dealing with the funding shortfall, the more difficult it will be to come up with the money necessary to address highway maintenance and congestion challenges in the future.”
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association said some of DOT’s report can offer the “appropriate level of funding for the next surface transportation authorization bill.”
“The data, however, are not very useful in the form presented in the report and require adjustment to ensure meaningful application to the 2014 reauthorization,” ARTBA said.
ARTBA also said that the Recovery Act investments have caused trend growth figures to “significantly understate future highway investment needs and should be ignored.”
