States take detours to fund road repairs

(AP) – Frozen credit markets, sky-high gas prices and a rising federal budget deficit are hurting cash-strapped states as they confront increasing congestion on the nation’s deteriorating roads and bridges.

From Texas to Pennsylvania and New Jersey to California, states are more desperate than ever to tap every possible source of funding — tolls on leased roads, sharp hikes in motor fuel taxes and partnering with the private sector — to finance the building and repairing of roads and bridges.


… The infrastructure funding shortage is so severe that some states have been forced to or are contemplating closing roads temporarily while they repair because they don’t have or can’t borrow the funds to keep them in operation while they’re being fixed.

In New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs chairman, has proposed increasing highway tolls 50 percent every four years until 2022 to slash the state’s $32 billion debt in half and raise money for transportation work.

In Harrisburg, plans by Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private company means there would be money coming in to fix roads, repair bridges and subsidize mass transit.

However, there’s a big downside: the company that would lease the turnpike likely would implement ‘aggressive toll increases,’ for drivers, according to a recent House Democratic study.

Meanwhile, escalating prices of raw materials, such as steel and concrete, are exacerbating the problem. The average cost of materials used for highway construction, including asphalt, concrete, steel, lumber and diesel has risen 46 percent from January 2004 to January 2008, according to TRIP, a Washington-based group comprised of insurance companies, equipment manufacturers, construction firms and labor unions that depend on highway construction for jobs.

AP