America’s ingenuity is crumbling from years of neglect.
Many expansive highways and impressive bridge spans – once the pride of our industrial nation – have
reached the end of their safe lifespans.
And many leaders who saw the thrill in building the infrastructure now lack the courage to invest the
necessary funds to maintain the roads and bridges.
For more than 20 years, federal gas taxes – which pay for the bulk of federal roadwork – have remained
stuck at 18.4 cents per gallon.
Even as more fuel-efficient vehicles create less revenue, elected officials have refused to do the right
thing out of fear of voter and lobbyist retribution.
Many state gas and license taxes have also remained stagnant.
But the mere mention of increasing gas taxes, or establishing a user tax keeps hitting roadblocks.
"There’s hesitation by all the legislators to even mention that word," Wood County Engineer Ray
Huber said about dreaded talk of "taxes."
Meanwhile, roads and bridges continue to deteriorate.
"There’s just not enough funds set aside to sustain what we’ve got," Huber said.
For several years, the state gas tax and license tax have been "flat line." But the costs to
fix roads and bridges continue to grow.
Wood County commissioners have taken some efforts to boost the bridge coffers by shifting the casino tax
revenue into the fund. But that only goes so far.
Repairing or replacing one county bridge can cost between $250,000 and $900,000. Rebuilding one mile of a
country road can cost up to $700,000.
Huber estimated that 15 percent of the county’s 440 bridges are in poor to critical condition. That means
66 of them need repairs soon – or now. And every year that passes, the conditions worsen with more
traffic and harsh weather conditions.
"Every year, Mother Nature takes her toll," Huber said.
The same can be said for infrastructure across the nation.
Of the 607,380 bridges in a recent U.S. National Bridge Inventory, more than 65,000 were classified as
"structurally deficient" and nearly 21,000 were listed as "fracture critical."
And while officials are reluctant to take the necessary action to raise money for the bridges, they are
also hesitant to take the unpopular action of closing down unsafe structures.
An estimated 20 percent of the nation’s 900,000 miles of interstates and major roads are in need of
resurfacing or reconstruction, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders
Association.
Figures compiled by the Associated Press show the total amount of money available to states from the
Federal Highway Trust Fund has declined 3.5 percent during the five-year period ending in 2013. During
that span, the amount of inflation-adjusted federal highway money dropped in all states but Alaska and
New York.
The results of this inaction has been seen across the nation, with several deadly bridge collapses in the
last few years.
The problem cannot be fixed with cheap remedies. Just last week, Congress introduced a two-month
extension of the federal highway and mass transit program.
That type of Band-Aid won’t work for roads and bridges that have been neglected for years. Short-term
repairs ultimately cost more and create more delays for motorists. But any attempt to create a long-term
program has been met in the legislature by gridlock.
It would be such a shame for our nation’s transportation backbone to become crippled because our leaders
lack the spines to properly fund infrastructure maintenance.