AASHTO Journal, 5 October 2012
Texas needs to make major repairs and improvements to its surface transportation infrastructure, concludes a report issued Tuesday by the nonprofit transportation research organization TRIP.
“With a current unemployment rate of 7.1 percent and with the state’s population continuing to grow, Texas must improve its system of roads, highways, and bridges to foster economic growth and keep businesses in the state,” the report states. “In addition to economic growth, transportation improvements are needed to ensure safe, reliable mobility and quality of life for all Texans.”
TRIP found that 45 percent of Texas’s state and locally maintained urban roads and highways provide drivers with a rough ride. Texas’s major urban roads have grown increasingly congested, with travel delays in some regions projected to double in the next 15 years. In addition, 18 percent of the state’s bridges either show significant deterioration or do not meet current design standards.
The report estimates that roads and bridges in Texas lacking sufficient capacity to meet travel demands, certain safety features, or adequate pavement conditions cost Texas drivers about $23.2 billion statewide — nearly $2000 per year for each motorist — in terms of traffic crashes, additional vehicle operating expenses, and congestion-related delays.
Texas needs increased investment in surface transportation infrastructure improvements at the federal, state, and local levels to enhance road and bridge conditions, alleviate congestion, upgrade safety, and boost economic growth in the long term, TRIP asserts.
“Addressing Texas’s needs for a safe, efficient, and well-maintained transportation system will require a significant boost in investment,” Will Wilkins, TRIP’s executive director, said in a statement. “But not addressing the state’s need for an improved transportation system will result in even greater costs to the public.”
Texas Department of Transportation officials say they are always looking to make the system better and for ways to pay for those improvements.
The 20-page report, “Future Mobility in Texas: The Cost of Meeting the State’s Need for Safe and Efficient Mobility,” is available at bit.ly/TRIP-Texas.