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19
Mar
DOT Pegs Highway Spending At $101B Annually
The U.S. Department of Transportation March 16 announced a new report on the state of America’s transportation infrastructure points to a sizable gap between current spending and projected levels of investment needed to maintain the nation’s highway and transit systems.
DOT’s report, “2010 Status of the Nation’s Highways, Bridges and Transit: Conditions and Performance,” projects that $101 billion, plus increases for inflation, would be needed annually over the next 20 years from all levels of government – local, state and federal – to keep the highway system in its current state. It also identifies investments to improve the current state of highways and bridges that could total up to $170 billion a year.
The report shows that in 2008, all levels of government spent a combined $91.1 billion on highway capital improvements, a 48.4 percent increase over 2000. The Obama administration’s fiscal year 2013 budget request calls for $305 billion for highway programs over six years, which reflects a 34 percent increase for roads and bridges over the previous authorization to address the outstanding need for resources.DOT’s report projects that between $20.8 billion and $24.5 billion will be needed annually over the next 20 years to attain a state of good repair for the nation’s transit systems and to accommodate expected transit ridership growth. In contrast, all levels of government combined spent only $16.1 billion on transit capital improvements in 2008. The Obama administration budget request includes $108 billion over the six years for transit options, a 105 percent increase over the previous authorization levels.
“Conditions and Performance” is a biennial report to Congress that provides information on the physical and operating characteristics of the highway, bridge and transit components of the nation’s surface transportation system.
Original article posted from truckernews.com. To view entire article, click here.