DALLAS — Annual spending on roads and bridges by all levels of government is up to $50 billion short of what is needed to maintain and improve them, the federal Department of Transportation said in its latest report on United States surface transportation infrastructure.
DOT's conditions and performance report said the nation needs to spend between $124 billion and $146 billion per year on roads and bridge maintenance and additions, but actual spending barely tops $100 billion.
The biannual report to Congress, which was issued Feb. 28, is based on spending by federal, state, and local governments through fiscal 2010, the latest year for which comprehensive information is available.
The conditions report does not reflect spending under the current two-year Moving Ahead For Progress in the 21st Century transportation funding bill, which is to expire on Sept. 30, but it includes expenditures funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Spending for highways was boosted temporarily in fiscal 2010 by almost $12 billion from the stimulus act, DOT said.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the assessment report predicts a dire future for U.S. transportation with crumbling infrastructure and overcrowded highways unless spending is increased.
"We have an infrastructure deficit in this country, and we need to create more jobs," Foxx said. "Improving our roads, bridges, and transit systems will provide help on both fronts."
The federal report is in line with an estimate by the American Society of Civil Engineers of an additional $93 billion a year in needed infrastructure spending, said Casey Dinges, deputy managing director as ASCE.
"That level of spending would protect 9,000 jobs and $900 billion of gross domestic product by 2020," Dinges said.
Congress has to avoid "going over a cliff" by fixing the Highway Trust Fund, which could go broke before the highway funding bill expires at the end of fiscal 2014 on Sept. 30, Dinges said.
"It's encouraging to see both President Obama and Chairman Camp of the House Ways and Means Committee putting out proposals last week to restore the fund," he said. "If they're really serious, something can get done to keep projects funded."
The transit sector's preventive maintenance backlog hit a high of $86 billion in fiscal 2010 and continues to grow by $2.5 billion a year, DOT said. An additional $8.2 billion in spending a year for 20 years would be needed by national, state, and local agencies to work off the accumulated maintenance backlog for transit systems.
Some transit systems are operating rail cars that are over 30 years old, said Deputy Federal Transit Administrator Therese McMillan, but those agencies also need to invest in new stations, trestles, and power substations.
"The United States cannot grow and compete in the 21st century without a modern public transportation infrastructure that connects citizens, their communities, and their employers with opportunities to succeed and prosper," McMillan said.
Reducing the maintenance backlog is "critical to not falling farther behind in our commitment to modernize the transportation infrastructure," she said.
Transit systems need spend up to $24.5 billion a year for maintenance of existing assets and service to new areas, DOT said in the 477-page report [with appendixes], but total spending in fiscal 2010 totaled $16.5 billion.
Total highway-related expenditures in fiscal 2010 of $205 billion included $100 billion of capital improvements, $48.8 billion for routine maintenance, $12.3 billion for bond principal retirements, and $10 billion of interest.
Highway-related revenues included $93.8 billion in gasoline taxes, tolls, and other user fees. Other sources included $58.6 billion of general fund appropriations and $33 billion of bond proceeds.
