In the wake of the I-35W collapse, Minnesota’s Representative Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, introduced legislation that would authorize funding for repair of bridges on the National Highway System (NHS), but this legislation—even if it passes and is signed by the President—would provide at best a small fraction of the funds that engineers estimate are needed to fix the nation’s bridges and would do very little for bridges that are locally-owned. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2006 Report on Conditions and Performance of the Nation’s Highway and Transit Systems estimated that eliminating the current bridge repair and rehabilitation backlog would require spending on average $12.4 billion per year to the year 2024, nearly 20 percent more annually than was spent in 2004. The actual numbers would likely be much larger: All of these figures are stated in constant-dollar terms, while most agencies are seeing rapid increases in their construction costs. The system’s condition, to borrow a term from the NBIS, is deficient, and nowhere more so than at local levels. While federal and state officials debate gas taxes, most local governments are hamstrung when it comes to raising revenue for transportation. Federal government statistics show that the share of gas taxes and other intergovernmental transfers making their way into local government coffers provide
only about six percent of local revenue for roads. Most of the money local governments can spend comes from property taxes, general-fund appropriations, and the like. Even in those jurisdictions with a receptive electorate, many elected officials are reluctant to take on the effort required to craft and gain acceptance of bridge-oriented revenue measures— think sales taxes or special assessments. It is becoming clear to many of us in the public works business that local governments must have assistance from state or federal levels or both to ensure that locally-owned bridges remain safe and fully functional. While these bridges may not be designated part of a national system, they represent vital links in the economies of their regions, and weight postings and closures can have a significant cumulative impact on the nation’s productivity. One Minneapolis newspaper last August quoted a St. Paul resident who was on his way to the Metrodome to watch the Twins play the Kansas City Royals. He had driven along the road passing beneath the I-35W bridge, seconds before it fell. “I heard it creaking and making all sorts of noises it shouldn't make,” the man said. “And then the bridge just started to fall apart.” If we cannot find a way to take concerted action to fix our bridges nationwide, we could find ourselves looking back on the loss of local structures as well as the I-35W bridge as only the creaking before the catastrophe. Dr. Andrew Lemer can be reached at (202) 334-3972 or alemer@ nas.edu; Jeff Ramsey can be reached at (334) 501-3000 or jramsey@auburnalabama.org.
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Winner of the Municipal Association of SC Public Works Innovation Award!
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APWA Reporter
July 2008
On May 8 in Camarillo, Calif., APWA National President Larry Frevert, along with Myron Calkins, Past National President in 1970-71, presented the Top Ten Public Works Leader of the Year award to Ron Calkins, Director of Public Works, City of Ventura, Calif., and Myron’s son. From left: Larry Frevert, Myron Calkins and Ron Calkins