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Stimulus Transportation Money: How Is Your State Spending It?07-09-09 | News

Stimulus Transportation Money: How Is Your State Spending It?

According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 82 percent of Calif. roads are not in good condition. Your editor can testify to this condition, given he?EUR??,,????'?????<

June 29, 2009 marked the 120-day deadline for states to commit at least half of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?EUR??,,????'?????<

A new report out by Smart Growth America (SGA) smartgrowthamerica.org details how each state plans to spend the transportation funds. A team from Charlier Associates, assisted by numerous SGA state partners, performed the heart of the report.

The ARRA funding comes at a time of recession, but also, the report notes, at a time of ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Poor Road Conditions

One-third of the nations major roads are in poor or mediocre condition and more than one-quarter of major urban roads are in poor condition. Forty-nine percent of U.S. roads are not in good condition (Source: Roads not in ?EUR??,,????'?????< roughroadstransportation.org.. According to that source, 90 percent of N.J. roads are not in good condition; 82 percent of Calif. roads are not in good condition. By contrast, Georgia had only 8 percent of its roads not in good condition, the only state in the single-digit category.

Rickety Bridges

We all remember the collapse of the I-35 Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis on August 1, 2007. Thirteen people died and 145 were injured. The new bridge opened on September 18, 2008, three months ahead of schedule. www.landscapearchitect.com/research/article/11611.

The U.S. DOT says 18,722 U.S. bridges on state and interstate roads are rated ?EUR??,,????'?????<

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North Carolina: 2,537
Missouri: 1,665
Virginia: 1,054
South Carolina: 1,025
West Virginia: 1,024
Oklahoma: 924
Illinois: 822
Calif.: 793
N.Y. 698
Louisiana: 675

Evaluating the Transportation Funds

The ARRA gives states flexibility in how they spend the transportation funds. States can earmark a variety of nonroadway and roadway-related needs, including: road and bridge repairs; public transportation; bicycle lanes; traffic signals; pedestrian routes; and new highway capacity.

The transportation funding choices each state makes will of course have major impacts on their transportation future.

How the ARRA transportation funding is used, the report specifies, must be evaluated by nine goals: