Vanishing Act

Highway funding diminishes as finance methods become inefficient

By Angelle Bergeron

Highway departments throughout the South Central region are singing the same song as the rest of the country.

While states scramble for ways to educate and mobilize the public to change outdated, inadequate finance vehicles, the pool of funding shrinks rapidly. At the same time, road use continues to increase, causing a demand for new construction to support capacity, and maintenance costs skyrocket.

“Every state has the same problem,” says Steve Twedt, Hattiesburg District construction engineer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation. “We are not able to address the capacity and maintenance issues with the available resources. We haven’t had a gas tax increase since 1987 and we had no inflationary index tied to that 18 cent-per-gallon revenue stream.”

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After Hurricane Katrina Mississippi received emergency federal funds to rebuild the two U.S. Highway 90 bridges over Biloxi and St. Louis bays. The two projects, at a combined cost of $604.8 million,  represent the first design-build and two of the largest bridge projects MDOT has ever tackled. 

“We still have some emergency repairs to do on Hwy. 90 in Harrison County, and we will be letting four contracts for reconstruction, new curbs, drainage, pavement and traffic signals this summer,” Twedt says.

Once those funds dry up, MDOT won’t be letting a lot of contracts, he says.

Warren Paving of Hattiesburg will soon complete a $17 million contract for grading and repaving on MS Hwy. 605 from Interstate 10 to MS Hwy. 67 in Harrison County. The contractor also began a $37.5 million contract on Hwy. 67 from Interstate 110 to Interstate 10 that began in November and is scheduled for completion in March 2009.

“Both of those were part of the gaming-roads program legislation that was passed a little more than 10 years ago,” Twedt says. “We got an additional appropriation from the state legislature three or four years ago to complete them.”

MDOT is also winding up a program that began in 1987 to four-lane every U.S. highway in the state that doesn’t parallel an interstate.

“We hope to build an interstate spur from I-10 to the Port of Gulfport,” Twedt says, but without the promise of new funds, new construction is further down the road than maintenance.

Nationwide, transportation interests are rallying to appeal to Congress to address the problem before the current transportation bill expires in the fall of 2009.

However, the problem has reached such crisis proportions on the state level that individuals and industry associations are advancing their own efforts to alert the voting population and precipitate some changes before it’s too late.

“At the rate we’re going, by 2009 we won’t be able to fix any state roads and we won’t be able to meet our 20% federal match to get the funds to maintain any federal roads,” says Derrell Cohoon, president of Louisiana Associated General Contractors. “The electorate has to understand how roads are funded and how important transportation is for the economy and safety. We will have to make some hard decisions to move it forward.”

Louisiana AGC has joined forces with the Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association, the Concrete and Aggregates Association of Louisiana, Louisiana Asphalt Pavement Association and the engineering community to form Driving Louisiana Forward, a campaign to educate the public about highway department needs and funding.

“The asphalt contractors who are talking to me say we need work,” Cohoon says. “We are only operating at 40% capacity and funding is the entire issue.”

Currently, Louisiana has several big-ticket projects underway, including the $68.8 million widening of I-10 between Causeway Boulevard and the 17th Street Canal in Jefferson Parish.

The project is the fourth of seven that will add capacity to the vital artery and has been in the works for at least 15 years, says Brian Buckel, chief of the DOTD’s construction division.

“It has already improved our level of service from failing to a level B,” Buckel says. The current phase, being performed by Boh Bros. Construction LLC of New Orleans, will help to ease the flow of through traffic, but not local traffic, which will be addressed by the next phase in line for letting, Buckel says.

“I was hoping the next project to be let would be let this fiscal year, but it doesn’t look like that will happen now.”

Boh Bros.’ contract includes piers for an interchange that will be built in the next phase, says Cameron Johnson, the contractor’s project manager. 

The job required an initial asphalt overlay before Boh placed barriers to begin widening the inside of existing lanes.

“We used a gantry crane to help build the bridge structures in the median because of the lack of access from below or on top,” Johnson says. “Working around traffic out there while we’re switching the phasing of projects is the biggest challenge. We have to do one piece over here, switch traffic, do another piece and another switch.” The project is scheduled for completion in fall 2008.

In September, Boh also began work on the $12.5 million Phase II contract of the estimated $705 million Huey P. Long Bridge widening in Jefferson Parish.

Boh’s contract to perform modifications to railroad supports and facilitate new approaches is currently on schedule, says Talisha Dunn-Square, public outreach coordinator for Louisiana TIMED managers.  Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City, Mo., contractor for the $83.1 million, Phase I, pier-widening portion of the project, is also on schedule.

However, the letting for the $200-$225 million main bridge truss widening has been pushed back twice, with contractors complaining about everything from the complicated erection scheme, to risk, to lack of an available work force.

Phase III is scheduled to be let May 28 and the Phase IV contract for new approaches, traffic circles and signalization is to follow in October. LTM says the project will still meet its original 2012 deadline.

LTM is a private management consulting firm that was contracted by the La. DOTD to provide program management services for the Huey P. Long widening and 15 other projects being financed through the Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development (TIMED) Program.

TIMED was created by the Louisiana legislature in 1989 and finances 16 specific economic development projects that are financed by a 4-cent-per-gallon gasoline and motor fuel tax. TIMED is also financing the four-laning of U.S. Highways 165, 167 and 171, which are scheduled for completion in 2010.

Like Mississippi, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development was allotted $1.2 billion in federal funds for emergency repairs. About $800 million of that is earmarked for construction of the new I-10 twin spans over Lake Pontchartrain, which leaves about $400 million for roadway repairs in hurricane-affected parishes.

Additionally, DOTD is gearing up to let a flurry of asphalt overlay projects within the coming weeks to take advantage of an anticipated $200 to $400 million in surplus funds Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has promised to dedicate to highway maintenance.

Still, industry representatives fear a serious slump when the federal emergency and TIMED funds dry up.

Alabama’s Department of Transportation has been successful in advancing several projects with no significant infusion of new funding streams because “we’ve mined the department for all the new efficiencies we could get and done everything we could to better utilize the funding we had,” says Tony Harris, spokesman for ALDOT. 

“We have achieved three record years in lettings ($800 million in FY 2006, $732 million in FY 2005 and $680 million in FY 2004) because of the priorities set as a direct result of the governor’s leadership,” he adds.

Both the governor and transportation secretary have concentrated on “closing the gaps in our transportation network and trying to avoid starting new projects at the expense of sacrificing others,” Harris says.

By this fall, Racon Inc. of Tuscaloosa will complete a $33.8 million contract to widen a 5-mi stretch of U.S. Hwy. 80 from SR 28 east to SR 28 west in Sumter and Marengo counties.

The project is part of a long-term effort by ALDOT to four-lane the length of U.S. Hwy. 80 from Montgomery to the Mississippi state line.

“We have less than 20 mi remaining to complete that four-laning,” Harris says. Other four-lane projects that are part of a 20-year ongoing effort throughout the state are also nearing completion.

“Hwy. 157 in north Alabama is scheduled to be completed later this year,” Harris says. “We also have 16 mi of two-lane on US Hwy 431 in Russell County located between Phenix City and Dothan. That is under construction in three projects, which we expect to finish in 2009.”

Last fall, ALDOT opened bids for the resurfacing of a stretch of I-65 in Montgomery County from the Catoma Creek Bridge to the Alabama River Bridge.

“Our estimate was about $65-70 million,” Harris says. “The only bid we received was $167 million (from Wiregrass Construction of Ariton, Ala.), so we are revising that and will go back out with request for bids later this spring. We didn’t feel like it was realistic and feasible for us to do.”

The Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Long Range Transportation Plan outlines a 25-year multi-modal vision, and the department annually develops a three-year Highway Improvement Program that is project specific, says Julie Oaks, public information officer.

“TDOT will have an estimated budget of $1.7 billion for the next fiscal year,” Oaks says. Like other states, TDOT is balancing maintenance with capital improvements to meet capacity. Rogers Group of Tullahoma, Tenn., is currently working on a $38.5 million contract to widen a 3.73-mi section of I-24 in Rutherford County from four to eight lanes and construct a new interchange at SR 99, Oaks says.

“The I-24 corridor has become increasingly congested as the Murfreesboro area has experienced tremendous growth over the last several years.”

The widening of 6.29 mi of U.S. Hwy. 64 in Lincoln County by Highways Inc. of Cookeville, Tenn., is part of an economic development plan to convert the entire length of U.S. 64 from two to four lanes, Oaks says.

“It was included in the statewide 2004-05 State Transportation Improvement Plan and the 2001-2002 Work Program.” 

Both projects are scheduled for completion June 2008.