AASHTO Journal, 4 November 2011
The seasonally adjusted annual transportation construction spending rate this September was $104.3 billion, a decline from the September 2010 rate of $115.4 billion, according to AGC. Those numbers take monthly construction expenditures and project how much spending would occur at that rate over an entire year.
Transit spending has suffered especially hard, tumbling 19.2% in September compared to the previous year. Highway and street construction was down 6.3% in the same period.
Instead of cutting infrastructure investments, AGC leaders said, federal officials should work to shore up, or create new, trust funds that finance federal construction programs. They noted that Congress is more than two years late in passing long-term surface transportation reauthorization legislation.
“We don’t have to choose between balancing the budget and allowing infrastructure to fall into disrepair,” AGC CEO Stephen Sandherr said in a statement. “The good news is there is a fiscally responsible way to repair infrastructure and rebuild our economy.”
The Senate considered a bill this week that would boost transportation infrastructure funding $50 billion and start a national infrastructure bank with $10 billion in money to loan. Senators voted 51-49 Thursday to proceed to a full debate on the measure, falling nine votes shy of the 60 required. (see related story)