Posted on 01/04/2021 1:23:18 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The surface transportation construction industry has long had to rely on Washington for its prosperity. We spend most years holding our breath and hoping we will receive more Federal funding to fix our crumbling roads, bridges and highway systems. Currently in the United States, 7 percent of bridges are structurally deficient, and 19 percent of major highway pavements have deteriorated. Yet, our existing financing structure has few tools to address the looming reconstruction challenges facing existing infrastructure.
In 2020, Congress passed a one-year extension of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. While the one-year extension of the FAST Act provides stability for state transportation programs during a time of uncertainty, it does not provide any increase in revenue. The extension bill maintains surface transportation programs at current levels of $47.1 billion for highways and $12.3 billion for transit programs.
It is still imperative that a multi-year highway bill be enacted to maintain and improve highway infrastructure, avoid project delays and provide proper investment for Highway Trust Fund solvency, which needs a sustainable revenue source. The 116th Congress still has work to do for the construction industry to know what the publicly funded highway market will look like in 2021.
When the extension expires in September of 2021, the 117th Congress will need to decide what should be done to fund our infrastructure for the longterm. The industry hopes the new Congress will address the inadequacy of existing legacy programs and answer the question of how to support economic growth while also conserving existing infrastructure.
(Excerpt) Read more at forconstructionpros.com ...
Step one: eliminate federal gas taxes and highway subsidies. I swear the local cities can’t fill a pothole without filing for a federal grant and waiting a year for it to be approved. By then it costs ten times as much to do the repair. Just let the states and cities charge that tax and pay for road work quickly.
.
PING!
The taxes on transportation industry should be self funding. There’s more than enough if the politicians would keep their paws off
“Just let the states and cities charge that tax and pay for road work quickly.”
A fine idea but FedGov isn’t going to let the power that federal funds gives them. Seems every couple of years there’s a story about FedGov threatening to withhold fed funds if some state doesn’t do something totally unrelated to the funds threatened.
More Trains, obviously.
Government doesn’t seem to calculate the maintenance costs when they build roads.
I think I see the problem right there.
Paging Willie Green!
It’s not a transportation problem but a problem with politicians redirecting tolls and gas taxes into other areas. AAA has sued and won cases against agencies who broke their own laws when they redirected toll money to non-road projects.
Only in America can something that costs $50,000 per foot to build be called a “freeway”.
No more bike lanes and hiking paths.
No more silly lone stars on the overpasses in Texas.
just my opinion.
Do the roads crumble because they are poorly engineered and constructed?
I have read that our hastily constructed interstates weren’t on as good a foundation base as the German autobahns that inspired Pres. Eisenhower.
However a lot of them are located in the freeze / thaw belt of America (I-70, etc) which is a civil engineering challenge.
Put Peter Buddha-judge in charge of the Department of Transportation.
He has a lot of experience related to filling holes...
Here in Seattle, voters approved a light rail system that was supposed to take five years to build at $1.7 billion.
Eleven years later, the price tag is over $10 billion, and completion is still two years away.
Oh, and the Seattle Big Dig that got a lot of publicity when the excavator got stuck underground for 18 months?
That was NOT even part of Light Rail.
The Big Dig was part of the solution to an earthquake threatened 50 year old elevated roadway.
Yes, the State Route 99 tolled tunnel. Bertha (the digging machine) got stuck when debris got into its works, and it also hit some seemingly impervious obstruction.
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