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SSTI news for May 14, 2019

Repair Priorities 2019, a report released today by Transportation for America and Taxpayers for Common Sense, shows that despite more spending, the percentage of roads nationwide in “poor condition” increased from 14 percent to 20 percent from 2009 to 2017.

DOT officials from Mississippi and Massachusetts will join a webinar by the report authors tomorrow, May 15, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern to share the findings and discuss the recommendations.

Repair Priorities provides a national snapshot and state-by-state evaluation of current roadway pavement conditions, spending trends, and unmet needs. The report indicates that while some states have prioritized repairing existing roads with available funds, collectively states are still spending almost as much expanding roads as they are repairing them. Thirty-seven states saw the percentage of their roads in poor condition increase, and each new lane increases the cost to maintain the system.

The result: we are facing a growing spending gap nationally. As of 2017, Transportation for America and Taxpayers for Common Sense estimate that we would need to spend $231.4 billion per year as a nation just to keep our existing roads in acceptable repair and bring the backlog of poor roads into good repair over a six-year period (the length of a standard federal transportation reauthorization bill). For comparison, all highway capital expenditures across all government units totaled $105.4 billion in 2015, only a portion of which went to repair.

See how states are performing by downloading the report and then register for tomorrow's webinar.